This 1938 Bamford model of a horse-drawn swathe-turner, windrower and side rake revolutionised haymaking practices on New Zealand farms in the early 1920s onwards.
Previously hundreds of workers would be required to turn green hay with pitch forks, but this machine changed all that. Not only would the hay tedder turn 4ft 6inch swathes of grass cut by the mower, it was easily adjusted to form the swathes into two rows or combine both rows into a single row.
Bamford tedders were sold in New Zealand by their agents Reid and Gray from around 1920 on, until the appearance of American side-delivery windrowers in the 1940s.
As can be seen by this excellent example donated by the Basil Marshall family of Bunnythorpe and restored by Brian Schnell, it was a very sophisticated implement with many unique features.