Farming Equipment
Farming Equipment
Take a look at our outstanding collection of mainly horse-drawn agricultural machinery.
Discover MoreAll the machinery you see as you walk around the museum site was made or used by Cambridgeshire people.
Not all of the tools are painted – some are a bit rusty – but they are remarkable evidence of a way of life that has almost disappeared. Very few people can recall first-hand how the machines worked or how the tools were used
Notable farming equipment on display includes an early sail reaper, sugar beet farming equipment, haymaking equipment, ploughs, and potato harvesting machinery.
You can find an outdoor machinery guide here to give you an idea of what’s on display.
Machinery Highlights
We have over 60 pieces of agricultural machinery on display, here a just a few to whet your appetite!
The Sail Reaper was developed in 1862 to cut grain. It was drawn by horses, and the arms would rotate and push the cut stalks off the platform into piles to be collected and bound by hand by farm workers.
Our sail reaper was last used in 1957 after a storm flattened the crop and the modern machines were unable to access the crop to cut it.
Our Ferguson Tractor, also known as ‘Little Grey Fergie’, is a TE20 and was manufactured between 1946 – 1956.
It is small and lightweight, making it manoeuvrable, versatile and popular. In many parts of the world, the TE20 was the first affordable tractor and replaced the horse and manual labour. Today, many are still in use and are also a popular collector’s item for enthusiasts.
This combine harvester was manufactured in the 1950s-60s and is only 6ft wide compared to the 40ft combines we see today!
Grain is cut and collected in the tank inside the combine, which is emptied regularly into carts that drive alongside in the fields.