Donald Taylor from the village sent the following:
Dear Colin,
The mystery machine pictured on the village website is definitely a trench digger for land drainage. The trench was just wide enough to take 3 or 4 inch drain tiles. I am not sure who the maker was but many such implements were built by J C Bamford, if they were not the makers they would probably know who was.
The basic tractor is an "N" type Fordson with a vaporising oil engine of about 4 litres developing 24 bhp at the drawbar and 27 bhp at the power take off. The digging wheel is powered by the pto as is the lifting and lowering machanism. The six segment halftrack in place of the normal rear wheels give support and traction under the boggy conditions in which these machines were required to work and the deep flanges on the front wheels were designed to give steering by cutting into the soft surface. This type of tractor (especially when mounted on iron wheels, as most were during World War Two) had a tendency to go straight on when the driver wanted to turn, particularly under heavy load and on wet ground. Of course no steering brakes were fitted on a tractor whose basic design goes back to 1917. Although the "N" type was a development of Henry Ford's original "F" model of that year there were a few differences in the main components. The tractor type was produced in the USA until the late 1930s when it was superceded by the 9N model designed by Harry Ferguson. This was radical change and represented the beginning of the modern tractors which all owe their hydraulic and hydrostatic drive systems to Harry Ferguson.
The "N" type Fordson continued in production in the UK and Ireland until the end of the 1940s, the UK factory being at Dagenham in Essex. It was the most widely used power plant in agriculture during and immediately after the World War Two. It was so robust a machine that a large number are still to be seen at vintage ploughing matches and tractor exhibitions and rallies.
Regards,
Donald
Donald later called to say that the machine was almost certainly made by Howards of Bedford.
See here for more on Donald's activities with vintage tractors.