Huge Caterpillar auction
Home Farm, Ossington, Nottinghamshire, was an amazing place to be as A R Wilson Agricultural Ltd.’s collection went under Cheffins’ hammer on 19-20 May. The collection was the culmination of a lifetime’s work by the late Alan and Robert Wilson and the auction was the last and biggest of the three sales held since last October.
It featured 240-plus machines, mostly Caterpillars, and the three auctions were certainly the largest of their type of this century, and may never be repeated in the UK again.
The father-and-son combination saved so many Caterpillars, and imported them year after year, using them on the farm. They also restored them, supplied parts, and helped the Caterpillar fraternity across Europe.
The only rally they genuinely supported for decades was Arthur Hinch’s Little Casterton event near Stamford, and Robert continued his support when the event moved to the Knights’ farm at Great Casterton. It takes place on 16-17 September this year.
Despite numerous stand-out lots, the highlight was lot 1020 – a 1920/21 Holt 75 T-8 crawler, built in Stockton, California. Only 67 examples had been built when production finished in 1924.
This example features serial no.84034 and it originated from Williams, California, where it had worked, with the Holt No.36 combine in the sale, until 1954. It arrived at Home Farm in 1988 and was rebuilt, later becoming the star at Little Casterton events on several occasions.
The pioneering and successful crawler was
