The death today of John Moffitt has been announced. It follows a long period of illness.
The two Gentlemen of the Party: John Moffitt (right) and Jack Kemball during filming at the 1998 'Power of the Past' event at Wantisden, Suffolk. Jack Kemball died in March this year, just short of his 97th birthday.
Born in Cumbria in 1929, John Mofitt left school at 16 to work on his father's Hunday farm. In the early 1960s he and two other cattle breeders formed the first private AI company, CBS, which became Premier Breeders. The success of this operation, the renown of the Hunday dairy herd, the efficiency and size of his farms, his venture into Hunday Electronics, his public works and his founding of the Hunday museum all brought him acclaim and honours.
John had a deep interest in agricultural engineering, and in particular the work of Dan Albone, creator of the Ivel tractor, and Harry Ferguson. He restored an Ivel, making it perhaps the oldest working internal-combustion-engined farm tractor in the world. Working with George Potts, he built up one of the finest collections of Ferguson tractors and equipment.
John's enthusiasm was infectious. No one who was there will forget the Historic Pageant that he put on for Friends of Ferguson Heritage in June 1999 at his home at Stocksfield, near Newcastle.
Besides a parade of all his Ferguson tractors and equipment, he created a pageant in which the achievements of three great tractor innovators were recalled by actors.
(left) John Moffitt and his pageant actors: Alex Albone (acting the role of Dan Albone); Bill Martin (as Harry Ferguson), and Gerry White (Henry Ford).
John kept a detailed diary from 1950 and he was a great collector of records, literature and other items to do with his interests. In his later years these formed the basis of three books: Fergusons, the Hunday Experience (with John Farnworth, 2000); The Ivel Story (2003); 60 Years of Farming - an autobiography (2007). All have been published by Japonica Press.
Old Pond DVDs to which John Moffitt contributed are Power of the Past, in which he talked about his Gyrotiller and Ferguson Tractors which featured several of the rarer machines from his collection.
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