MY MASSEY FERGUSON 35X TRACTOR STORY
The tractor was one of 45,023 of that model produced at the Banner Lane, Coventry factory in that year and supplied new to the MF Dealer Corlett Sons & Cowley at Douglas, Isle of Man. Registered on 5 April 1963 to its owner William Thomas Radcliffe with registration number 7243 MN, having the Registration Book number 12311.
During August 2006, as a family, we stayed at a farm B&B on the Isle of Man having travelled over on the car ferry from Liverpool. The mixed farm was run by Mr Duggan and his son and was located in the south of the island near Ballasalla. Mr Duggan owned an MF 135 tractor and two-furrow competition plough, which he competed with at ploughing matches both on the Isle of Man and mainland Britain. My interest in introducing my wife and daughter to the island stemmed from the various business visits made during my employment with Massey Ferguson UK in the Sales and Marketing department to both Corlett Sons & Cowley and the more recent MF Dealer, Gibsons. I also latterly did business with farmers on the island, one of whom I visited when he was busy combining.
Mr Duggan invited me one evening to accompany him to view an MF tractor in the north of the island near Kirk Andreas, which took us along many of the roads dedicated to the Isle of Man TT races. The next day he decided
