Antique Farm Equipment Show Brings You Back in Time on Aug. 17
While visitors to Dudley Farm can step back in time with any visit to the museum and its grounds, on Saturday, Aug. 17, Dudley Farm will give visitors a true look at the equipment that made farms run more than a century ago as it hosts an Antique Farm Equipment Show beginning at 9:30 a.m. The exhibit marks the first of its kind in the museum’s 25-year history.
“When the museum first started we did exhibit a few engines, but this is the first time since then,” said Doug Williamson, one of the event coordinators and the founding director of Dudley Farm in 1991. “There’ll be a number of exhibitors who will bring their machines—they’ll be fired up and running so you can see how they work and how they’re adapted to the equipment that they run.”
During this time period, Williamson explained, the farms in the area had pieces of equipment for harvesting, hay-baling, corn-shelling, wood-cutting, and more. When it was time to use a certain piece of equipment, the engine was attached to it.
“These machines aren’t dissimilar to what was used in the first automobiles in the 1880s: single cylinder, heavy flywheels, and simple construction with only about a half-dozen moving parts,” said Williamson. “I’ve always been intrigued by their simplicity. It’s a piece of equipment that just does not break down.
“Kids flip out over these things—they’re a very odd sounding machines because as each cylinder fires, there’s a pop, but it only happens every four or five revolutions,” added Williamson. “When you get a half-dozen going at once, it’s a musical event.”
Dudley Farm has several pieces of equipment that will be on display and clubs from throughout Connecticut, such as the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association, will also be showing their machines.
“We’re in need of people bringing their equipment and showing it off so the public can see it run,” said Craig Reynolds, who is overseeing the event. “Since this is a farm that used equipment, I thought it would be of interest to people. There are a lot of old farms in the area and we’re hoping they’ll dig out their old equipment, dust it off, and show it off.”
While there is no cost to view the machines at the Antique Farm Equipment Show, donations will be collected. Proceeds from the event will benefit the restoration of a 19th century sawmill donated to Dudley Farm by Reynolds, who purchased the 1879 machine with his father from a family in Hamden.
“It needs a lot of work, but it’s a good old mill that fits perfectly with the farm because of the year the farm was operating and what they did back then,” said Reynolds. “A lot of farmers had saw mills to keep them busy when crops were growing or things were slow. Dudley Farm is the perfect place for it to keep it running forevermore.”
The restoration plan for the mill includes building a mill house. Reynolds estimates the restoration and repairs, along with the construction of the mill house, could take up to five years.
There will also be an antique book sale and antique tool and equipment sale and silent auction to benefit the mill restoration. Dudley Farm has several duplicate items or items that do not match the era of the museum and those items will be offered to the public as part of the fundraising efforts.
In addition to viewing the antique machines and the silent auction and sale, there will be food and refreshments. The Dudley Farm Museum will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the weekly Farmers’ Market runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
“Dudley Farm is a center of community in North Guilford and we’ve become a gathering place for all kinds of events and sharing our history, where we’ve come from, and why we do some of the things we do,” said Williamson. “We have an active membership at the farm of about 350 families and we’re always hopeful people will join us.”
For more information, call 203-457-0770 or visit dudleyfarm.com.