RESTORATION
All good things
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lex MacDonald was born and bred in East Lothian and worked on a farm for 50 years. But, since he retired he’s been concentrating on his other passion – collecting and restoring old tractors. “I was born and raised at Abbey Mains, just up the road in Haddington, before eventually moving to Lawhead on the Tyninghame estate, which is the former seat of the Earl of Haddington,” he explained. “My father was what we call in Scotland the local ‘grieve’, or farm manager. Back in those days, we farmed a bit of everything, including cereal, sugar beet, turnips and cattle feed.”
Massey Ferguson enthusiast Alex MacDonald was having trouble tracking down the right MF135 until his three sons came to the rescue, as Bob Weir explains East Lothian’s economy has been based on farming for many years, and a large percentage of the land is under the plough. The county has a mild climate compared to the rest of Scotland, and some of the lowest rainfall in the UK. Although there’s some livestock farming, the focus is primarily on arable crops.
First job
Alex left school when he was 15, and went to work on a farm. “I went straight onto a holding at Lawhead, loading sugar beet with the help of a Massey Ferguson 35 and root bucket,” he recalls. “Back in the early 1960s there was a railway station at East Linton, on the main Edinburgh to London line, and I would use the tractor to take the beet to be loaded
Alex MacDonald with his superb Massey Ferguson 135. MASSEY FERGUSON 135
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10/12/2021 15:15
