Rodney Henn, former Chairman of Sulgrave Parish Council, sent the following:
Hi Colin,
The machine in question is a drainage trencher used for digging a trench and then manually pulling the pipes into a chute on the trencher which then laid the pipes as it moved slowly along putting clay pipes into wet land. After the pipes had been laid a tractor with a trailer having a side blade came along pushing the soil back into the trench. The machine in question is a Standard Fordson tractor with tracks that walked the machine along subsequently giving it better traction with less pressure on the ground than a wheeled type. The maker as far as I can remember was Howard.
The later type I worked with was based on a Fordson Super major and was owned by A.J. Cannon Contractor of Williamscot near Cropredy, Banbury. This type of trencher was used up to the Ford 5000 and after that the idea was changed to a large Mole type trencher on todays conventional tracks.
I would be very interested to see the one at Byfield, to the degree that I have been looking for one myself.
Regards,
Rodney Henn