Served my time there ,worked in the machine shop, It a sad day,I couldn’t watch the last one ,I couldn’t believe what happened I loved working there it was a massive part of my life

Greetings from southern Ireland...MF was the best tractor ever designed and built.

Thank you guys for making my tractor, she's a MF 35X, built 2nd January 1964. I promise to look after her and I've named her Mrs Banner!

As an Irish man it’s never ceases to fascinate me as to how the British tractor and car manufacturing industries fell in to total demise. What I’m referring to it’s British owned companies , who were fantastic innovators , availing of a fantastically skilled workforce. It’s most unfortunate when one considers the fantastic machines from Massey UK and leyland and David Brown. Most tractors now are fabricated by massive entities like Agco , but the British innovations and engineers should never be forgotten. A crying shame that these industries died out totally . I know that hindsight reveals all flaws and a variety of factors resulted in the demise I refer to , but unfortunately we now repent the B loss of these powerhouses of British innovation and Industry at our leisure

@agt155

2 жыл бұрын

We swapped them for the banking industry in London...woohoo.

Some people are very good at creating things and some are hell bent on destroying them, that’s the way of life.

I remember when i was working for Harry Ferguson Building the TE 20's or as they where called (little grey fergie) this was a sad moment. Rest in peace Harry and banner lane.

Best tractors in the world.maide in banner.lane

I lived and worked in Coventry and saw all the car factories close down, get smaller or move till Coventry became the town it is today. Blighted by town planners, it’s just a mess now…..a ghost town.

It’s sad when a company is closed down and the people loose there jobs

A sad moment for those who were there and for those who love massey ferguson.

It's always a sad moment when they close assembly plants 1200 out of work it must have been realy hard for them skills lost etc

Worked in no1 machine shop for two years, 1965- 1967.

The DVD is very emotional with in depth interviews from key members of staff from the factory as they share their recollections with the help of original footage filmed at the factory over the years and on the final day of production. It lasts for 94 minutes and can be purchased from our website: www.secondsightproductions.co.uk

I worked for the Ford then CNH tractor plant at Basildon for over 30 years and I miss it everyday

We have an old 135 in yellow it is apsaloutly bulletproof and it has had a hard life with over 80,000 hours and running like brand new it is hard to believe it came all the way from there very sad and the factory deserved to live

Thật ngưỡng mộ chúng tôi đến từ việt nam 🥰

I farm in Kenya and own a 265 made in Coventry. Sad that this place where quality tractors were made is no more. Sadder still is that in these parts of the world we no longer can buy quality long lasting farm tractors and equipment. AGCO now sells us crumbly 'MFs' from India and China and genuine spares are becoming scarcer everyday.

@billymoore8731

6 жыл бұрын

Why didn't the employees buy the factory

@johnobrien2207

3 жыл бұрын

@@billymoore8731 ..It rights and patents also ...Multi billon euro deals and that it folks .We are closing down. Look at Fiat Agri a shame to see no longer producing tractors ...And they knew how to make them

Its 2019 hope they came back i grew up with massy Fergus and they made a darn good tractor a little low set up in amarican style y we always set up like eropean farmers with tall skinny tires. Hade a 175 all done up she was beautiful traded her in on a farm trac and hated watching that massy leave the farm after heping build her after she was in a fire and we bought it cheep cheep and restored it and we still have a old to35. And always had at least one

that was a sad day i bet I still like ferguson tractors

I worked in no.1 machine shop at Banner Lane for 12 years making the gears for the transmissions. Thought I had a job for life there. Sadly AGCO's plan all along was to close the plant and sell off the land to property developers. I've not been back to look at Banner lane since I picked up my P45. But I'm told nothing is left whatsoever. Very sad.And a final stab in the back of the workforce by AGCO was to rob the guys of their pension entitlements

@231MasseyFerguson

6 жыл бұрын

+Gixxeff 750 I'm American & Massey Ferguson is my favorite. Why would you say this? Just asking.

@LSF315

5 жыл бұрын

TheGee6 it was an absolute disgrace and should never have happened. I have been to Banner Lane and it’s just a housing estate and the only thing left in one corner is a sign to the social club.

@davel6780

3 жыл бұрын

That’s just low to have done what they did it should never have closed, and the price of Massey parts today is shocking money

coventry built was better built .......true .....we had a massey ferguson 165 square axle 212 engine for over 30 years took all the abuse i could give it did everything was asked utterly reliable .... shame the plant was closed .....

I've been there... Worked for a company who built the fixturing and tooling, but still.... When they drop the bomb on you, it flat out sucks...

4:09 Con Houlihan once wrote that the three saddest words in any language were "the last time".

It's a bloody shame it closed Massey Ferguson Coventry used to export all over the world Harry Ferguson would be disgusted . Had many Massey Ferguson tractors that were built there , 135 , 165 , 290 and 3 390s brilliant tractors well who knows maybe one day when this country gets back on its feet when we get out the EU there might be another Massey Ferguson tractor making Factory 👌👌👌.

@LSF315

5 жыл бұрын

Michael Powell , yes, I’m sure Mr Ferguson would be.

@michaelpowell9640

3 жыл бұрын

@@LSF315 yea it's so sad

It's testimony to the inbuilt quality of the proper Massey - Ferguson machines that most of them have way outlived the original company , don,t get me wrong , I,m an M - F fan , but I feel the company did not or perhaps could not respond quickly enough to the proverbial writing on the wall , or perhaps they just could not see it . I was privileged to go round this plant twice while it was running , 1st in 1974 , making the 100 series day & night , yes , it never stopped , & they were the days , every tractor sold before it was built ! , then again in the early 1990,s , doing the 300 series , much sadder atmosphere , & far fewer tractors going out per day , it seemed to take far longer to " do " one tractor , alright , the 300 series had far more complex systems on it than the old favourites , the 100 series , but the feel of "drive to achieve " had diminished across the years . It was still a black day when "The Factory " finally closed , I know this part of Coventry well enough , but I now just don,t go there , as I hate to see houses where a much thought - of factory used to be that employed thousands of people , doing derivatives of the same jobs time & time again , when building houses only employs people once , & that's basically it.

What happened to the plant? it is now a housing estate.....a very sad story, personally I worked at the plant for 34 years, leaving on my own steam 18 months before it's closure, I did my bit.Happy now to live in Cyprus.

@handmadebyjacqui

7 жыл бұрын

do you remember Doug Bowler?

@ronnieg6358

3 жыл бұрын

Housing estate for immigrants.

Where is this tractor today

I remember going there loads of time for admin. So sad

Skilled men needed no longer, Shameful decisions to close Banner lane

And this is why we never bought another MF...

I like work in this company . because i work in Allgazi tractors .

18 year ago now 😭

It was awful to let this factory go, the people should have fought to the bitter end, its too late now, a criminal shame.

Would there be any chance of borrowing some of the footage? We are making a film about the Irish in Coventry Kind regards Ciaran

Where is the last tractor that came off the line now

@dennisking1555

3 жыл бұрын

I think it is in the Coventry motor museum

A real tractor shop shut for good (shame)

Yesa, yes and yes but WHY was it closed??? Costs, bought out, liquidated, labor unrest or other?

@grahamariss2111

Жыл бұрын

Cost of building in Western Europe with a "boomer" work force relatively high salaries and a defined benefit pension along with demand for tractors declining in Europe because of higher productivity of farm equipment meant either the French or UK plant had to go. It was much more expensive to close a factory in France due to the labour laws so it was the UK factory to go.

I have a Massey Ferguson 231 tractor. Does it have anything to do with Banner Lane? It's been an excellent tractor & id like to know the history on it. I've been thinking about buying a new small Massey Ferguson utility tractor 2604H or 2605H. I love Massey Ferguson.

Back when MF was very strong\good tractors :(

So sad from hero to zero over night

so sad!!!

so whatever happened to the factory?

@antlane365

4 жыл бұрын

I went to the closing down sale, What a waste it was a really good place.

@observant98

4 жыл бұрын

Buildings torn down and housing put up.

dommage tres belle usine ou tout a commence pour ferguson en1946

international harvestor shut down a plant in East Moline ILLINOIS a few years after this place closed Damm shame Britain's and America can make good tractors 🚜

Worst decision AGCO ever made. Bob Ratliff had one of his infamous temper tantrums and closed Banner Lane after the British Government refused to give in to his demands for tax concessions! No tractor produced since then has met the quality standards of the Coventry plant! I work at a Massey dealership, so I know what I am talking about.

@UltimateHulk32011

6 жыл бұрын

Thank God that the MF/Landini escaped the clutches of the greedy Agco raiders someday the sun will set upon their pseudo empire and with Luck Massey will be free again.

@observant98

4 жыл бұрын

The competition ate Massey Ferguson’s lunch. Company’s like John Deere spent money on researching new and bigger tractors. The Massey Ferguson Ferguson big shots were only interested in dividends and put no money into developing new products. The last major executive of Massey Ferguson was Conrad Black and then by Victor Rice. They were close to broke and the Canadian government gave them money but it wasn’t enough as the executives continued to take out big wages.Margaret Thatcher did not give them a hand out. Incidentally Conrad Black did time in jail for being crooked and was recently given a pardon by Donald Trump. You can only imagine how history will treat him. His portrait will some day be hung beside that of the 37th President of the U S...Richard Nixon.

Awful to see grown skilled men having their livelihoods taken away at the whim of some faceless corporate board

I hate AGCO

@archierockey

2 жыл бұрын

I agree 💯 AGCO is a bad company because they have stopped making Massey Ferguson combines

Such a shame

Can the British government with help of British investors only restart reproduction of world renowned Massey Ferguson tractors. AGCO USA has British heritage MF which has been household names in its colonies around the world.

This is why people voted to leave the eu

@alfindigo

Жыл бұрын

I very much doubt that was the reason.

@sweed58

Жыл бұрын

@@alfindigo you are right but maybe it was one of the reasons

Taken to France with funding from Brussells... we actually part funded the demise of this magnificent tractor plant. It staggers me how could this happen?? GREEDY ACCOUNTANTS STOLEN FROM THE UK BY THE FRENCH.

@agt155

2 жыл бұрын

Stolen by the Euro neo-liberals. The Eu were never going to allow us to be a manufacturing and a finance powerhouse - so London chose one.

@grahamariss2111

Жыл бұрын

Rubbish, they had been building Tractors in France for nearly as long as Coventry and there was no funding from Brussels, it was the reality that both factories had list their export markets outside Europe due to high costs of building in Western Europe with a Boomer workforce. They had over capacity, difference was those French with all their labour regulations meant they were much more expensive to close down than a UK plant. If you voted Conservative then this is what you voted for.