Old Pond publishing days

AEC Matador book reprinted and HAC at Nieuwport 1945

AEC Matador: taking the rough with the smooth, Steve Richards. Paperback 280 x 215 mm, 80 pages inc. approx 167 photographs. Published by Japonica Press and available from them at £15.99.

This is a high-quality reprint of the book first published in 2009 by the author.

Part 1 deals with the AEC (0)853 4x4 Matador, armoured command vehicle, Deacon SP gun and civilian adaptations. Part 2 covers the (0) 854 6x6 refueller, Coles crane, mobile oxygen-nitrogen plant. There are also 15 pages of appendices including military colours, AEC types, Irish Matadors and a list of the surviving vehicles.

The photographs below are not included in the book but are from my own family album.

Patrick Doyle, my godfather (seen in the first photograph) accompanied the Canadians in the Normandy landings. After the end of the European war he was at Nieuwport in Belgium. The two images are from August 1945. The late Patrick Doyle was Gnr PD Doyle of the Honourable Artillery Company HAC 1813018. He served with the Royal Sussex Regiment.

Special Transport DVD advance information

Special Transport, Gertjan Houtman. DVD, approx 70 minutes. ISBN 978-1-908397-09-6. Now available from Old Pond at £16.95 inc VAT.

Among the Dutch transport companies there are several with a world-wide reputation for moving heavy and outsized loads. This programme features the work of three of them.

We see the Sarens group transporting the largest sections of a newly built cutter-suction dredger as well as a port container crane.

Mammoet’s skill with SPMTs is demonstrated when they move three heavy Smit transformers over water, road and use 2-stack work to cross a railway. We also see them place two viaducts, one of which is over a hundred metres long.

Saan’s special load is a Hercules plane being taken from its museum to painting facilities in Lelystad. This involved lifts to ‘hop’ over roads.

Finally there are some trailer transports, one with a houseboat and one with a steel vessel for a refinery.

Gertjan Houtman is a Dutch journalist and film-maker who specialises in heavy transport. His company is called Videoprofessionals.

Massey Ferguson old boys get-together

We had a very good weekend at the Newark Tractor Show where we were joined on our stand by David Walker, author of Inside Massey Ferguson: a story of service published by Farm Power.

Having signed and sold a good few books, and having had some lengthy meetings of mind with Massey enthusiasts, David (left in the picture) enjoyed a surprise visit from another MF partner in crime John Kirkham (right).

David's 21 years of service with the company was bested by John at 45. Apparently they first met in 1952 when David would have been seven. They met again at Coventry in 1966 but hadn't seen each other since 1987. John was Tractor Service Manager with MF; David a regional service manager. They had a lot of memories to swap.

New beekeeping DVD in stock

A New Introduction to Beekeeping with Paul Metcalf, DVD approx 70 minutes, is now in stock at Old Pond at £19.95 inc. VAT.

Paul's companion DVD, Honey a beekeeper's guide, is expected in early December.

New information on Frederick Rolfe the King of the Norfolk Poachers

In 1935 Frederick Rolfe - although his name was not revealed at the time - was made famous by Lilias Rider Haggard in her 'Life and History', I walked by Night. In 2009 Charlotte Paton researched the real man, publishing her findings in The King of the Norfolk Poachers.

Charlotte reports that since publication of the hardback "barely a week goes by without someone contacting me about Fred, his book, his life and times". The photograph opposite is one of the new finds, Frederick Rolfe in 1927. It was generously given to Bungay Museum after its owner found it among the effects of her late mother and recognised the name on the back.

There has always been some debate as to whether Rolfe actually wrote the material that was included in Lilias's book. When Charlotte prepared her own account, and subsequently released a DVD The Truth Behind "I Walked by Night", there was little supporting evidence. However, she has recently come across this reproduction of a letter in a 1936 edition of the East Anglian Magazine.

Written by Rolfe to Lilias Rider Haggard in November 1933 (click on the image for an enlargement), it refers to his writing about prison conditions and continues: 'I am shure I can rite some interesting things of how the Labour lived and fared 60 years ago ...' Confirmation that he did indeed write at least the basis of what was to become a classic of rural literature, I Walked by Night.

Irene Grimwood the Land Girl inspiring the BBC television series

The Radio Times issue 5-11 November includes on page 51 a preview of the new BBC1 drama series Land Girls.

Writer Roland Moore says that his inspiration was a photograph he had seen of former land girls returning to their wartime billet and looking over the wall at the rectory that was once their home. He saw the image in one of our books, Land Girls at the Old Rectory, by Irene Grimwood.

The photograph below shows Irene at the Suffolk Show launch of her book in June 2000. We have recently reprinted it for the third time. (Photo: Martin Looker, BHR Communications.)

Four years ago Irene was invited back into the rectory - blog 27 January 2008 – to be interviewed by ITV Anglia. Now approaching her 90th birthday, Irene continues to live in Ipswich.

Old Pond has four books of reminiscences and one DVD in the Land Girls section of our website.

Thank you BigLorryBlog for your rave review of Looking at Logging Part 1

Thank you, BigLorryBlog for today's excellent review of the DVD Looking at Logging Part 1.

"Logging truck videos don't come much better! Martin, Pete and Old Pond have done it again says Biglorryblog!

"Calling all logging fans! They've only gone and done it again? Who has? Well trucking video 'mavins' Pete Connock and Biglorryblog's very own 'Keeper of the Flame'  Martin Phippard  together with the folks at Old Pond Publishing, have come up with another winner!

"'Looking at Logging Part 1' is an absolute belter, filled with great moving images of logging lorries from around the world and there's some real treats in it too including Sisus in wintery Finland, Classic Pacifics, big Kenworths in Canada, Tasmania and New Zealand and bringing it all back 'full circle' a super section on Dai Williams' new FMX logger in action in Wales. There's tidy ... and flipping 'tight' too on some of those roads! There's even a short bit on heli-logging featuring a Sikorsky Sky Crane...how much better does it get?

"All of it backed by an expert commentary from Martin too..."

Hitachi, Iveco and Fiatallis at Carrara

In the blog of 4 September we showed some Liebherr machines recorded in preparation for Steven Vale's next DVD Massive Wheeled Loaders. This is due from Old Pond late spring 2012.

The first image is of Colonnata, a quarry village high above Carrara.

The machines and trucks shown are: Hitachi 800H prising out a 400-tonne marble block; Hitachi ZW 550 loading a block and waste; hedge Magirus Deutz; a loaded Iveco Trakker 440, and a Fiatallis FR 20B working deep underground in an excavated hall.

The Maize Silage Campaign new DVD by Chris Lockwood is now in stock

Chris Lockwood's new DVD featuring the 21st - and last - last year of contractor Robert Self's maize harvesting is the 83-minute programme The Maize Silage Campaign. It is now available from Old Pond Publishing at £16.95 including VAT

Alan Spillett's new book of truck paintings Roadscapes II in stock

Roadscapes II: Landscapes of the Road by Alan Spillett. Hardback book, 160 pages with 180 illus. ISBN 978-1-906853-99-0. Now in stock at Old Pond Publishing at £24.95.

We also have a very limited stock of Alan's first book, Roadscapes I at £24.95. Enquire at (0)1473 238200 for this book.