Over the weekend a gang of us tried out Michael Davison’s mechanical baler, powered by his 1889 Marshall – the first time this has worked on a belt since its restoration was completed this time last year.

We set up in the field adjacent to the Pockerley tram stop for the Sunday, but first a Saturday evening trail was made to check everything was in order, and which gave the opportunity for some autumnal sunshine photography.

Baling is hard and dusty work, and even running the machinery as slowly as possible didn’t seem to allow time to do all necassary to feed the baler and insert the iron wires that hold the bales together. It is hoped to carry out some further baling like this again – watch these pages for potential dates…