THE CAST IRON SEAT STORY

Cast iron seats marked a shift in agricultural practices; a seat on a horse-drawn implement meant that the farmer or farm labourer no longer had to walk behind the implement. Work speeded up and productivity increased. The wealthier farmers with large draft horses bought the new ride-on implements, leaving only the “small-time” farmers to continue walking behind their farm implements in the dust and the mud.

Functional style

Although early tractor and implement seats were functional items, they were beautifully and intricately made. Victorian and Edwardian utility items were often both attractive and functional, a fact which makes them so appealing to today’s collectors. Ironically, cast iron seats were at the time usually covered with a hessian sack or anything that would provide a bit of comfort, for although the seats had cut away sections to allow rainwater to drain away, they were cold and hard to sit on for long periods. Implement seats remind us not only of a time before driver comfort became an issue but also of our great industrial past, and of a time when durable products were produced