Our Profile and All about us.

Restoring Classic and Vintage equipment helps to maintain our countries heritage, instead of fueling the blast furnaces with scrap metal to produce modern day equipment that has a limited life span, not 40 - 50 years like some of  the restoration projects we are currently undertaking, Many years of development has seen vast improvements to Tractors and Farm Equipment, to keep pace with needs of production, versatility and power to drive today's implements and to remain safe in doing so, therefore old Tractors and equipment like the ones on this web site need to be preserved.

My story is much of my childhood which was around farming and farm equipment in Essex where I lived, my Father was a farm worker and worked the land ploughing with the Suffolk Punches and Clydesdales, with the common names of Boxer etc, so I had a pretty good pedigree when it came to the working knowledge of farming in general and keeping a very straight furrow, my school pals and friends were all of the same breed and in those days some 40+ years ago it was quite common to work the land if you lived in the country, with driving tractors and farming on my mind most of the time it was hard for me to concentrate at school, wondering if it was dry enough to cut the corn, or would the field of barley outside my house be cut by the time I got home from school, all these things have come back to me all these years later in the restoration and conservation of the 1950s and 1960s Tractors.

Summer agricultural shows like the Tendring Hundred Show in Essex were always attended well, during a show in around 1966 I had the opportunity to parade a Peter Standen self propelled Sugar Beet Harvester with an MF 35 power unit on the top, the machine became quite popular but never really caught on as the tractor was never taken off again, I enjoyed that day and can remember it well, my school friends will remember it well also when we all clambered over a new Ford 5000, Whatever they are doing now? Richard Ollis, Trever Bradbrook, Derek Daines, David Rowland, David Slater, Geoff Smith, Phil Smith etc, if anyone who reads this and knows please advise me, as I am having a 60th Birthday party in November 2010, Time just passes us by and we get very nostalgic. Present owners of the MF 35 please note the type of silencer on the tractor, the bullet type is available and for sale in our parts shop.

Farming went away from me for a long time when all my pals started getting better paid jobs in Construction, like driving diggers and dump trucks etc, I soon followed them and that is another story, Construction stayed with me for 30+ years as a Heavy Equipment Operator, 70t diggers, Twin Engine Scrapers, Dozers and Dump Trucks, still having that urge to drive large pieces of equipment, the bigger it was the more I wanted to drive it, nowadays its different,  I now Teach others how to do it which is all part of the business we have in Stoke on Trent.

Building up a tractor restoration business was something I had always wanted to do since I attended the Great Dorset Steam Fair in 1990, and caught the bug, so now I am living a dream, and running a business from it at the same time, I am very passionate about vintage and classic farm equipment and get a lot of pleasure from seeing the end products from a lot of hard work, it also gives me hope that these old tractors will never disappear from our countryside heritage. 

My very understanding wife Pam, and I now reside in Meir Heath, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, where we also run the business from, Our customers base range from Farmers to individuals who had their Tractors restored by us, varying in full rebuilds to general tidy ups, all in accordance to their budgets, Customers come from all parts of the country as far away as the South Coast to West Wales, and the far North, we are currently awaiting the arrival of a John Deere from Canada to be worked on.

I also spend lots of time working on this web site making changing the photo's etc to keep the interest going and what is happening at CCM Tractors.

Nowadays when we get time to get away from it all, we spend time watching Drag Racing in the USA, and yes the girls do it too, Ashley Force is the first female NHRA Funny Car driver to win an event, Ashley's father is a 15 time champion, so she also has a good pedigree, I look a little different to how I was in 1960, overweight now and a little less hair.

The Tractor scene is just as great in the USA as it is here in the UK, lots of nice examples for sale on the side of the highways, and lots to choose from, one of our recent trips led us to the Caterpillar Plant in Peoria Illinois and the John Deere Pavilion in Moline,  where lots of restored examples live in the museum. this location is well worth a visit for those that travel across the pond, although the Cat plant is usually invited guests only, access to the John Deere Pavilion is easy and has a visitors centre, If you have your own profile you wish to share with other visitors to this web site, please email to: info@ccmgroup.co.uk Dave Mann. If you have your own profile you wish to share with other visitors to this web site, please email to: info@ccmgroup.co.uk Dave Mann.