Welcome

Old Pond Publishing Ltd are publishers of DVDs and books for enthusiasts in the land-based industries: farmers and smallholders, workers in the earthmoving, forestry and heavy transport occupations. We deal with current activities and machinery as well as the history of the industries. We are based in Ipswich, Suffolk, UK.

The Books or DVDs pages are probably your best starting point in this site. You can order securely directly from there or you can access more detailed information about particular books and DVDs and their authors.

You will find books and DVDs on the following subjects: Classic Tractors, Vintage Tractors, Model Tractors, Traction Engines, Garden Machinery, Trucking and Earthmoving, JCBs, Ploughing, Working Horses, Bee Keeping, Duck Keeping, Organic Farming, Sheepdog Training, Goat Keeping and Husbandry, Poultry Management, the History of Agriculture … and much more.

Our DVDs, books and other items are easy to buy. You can buy any of them online from this site in complete security. Or if you prefer, you can telephone us on 00 44 (0)1473 238200.

Enquirers from Canada and the United States of America should note that our programmes are produced in PAL format. If you wish to play our DVDs on a machine that cannot accept this format you should order them directly from the Ontario-based company Diamond Farm

If you are searching for a former Farming Press title, please click here

For those who would like to keep track of what's happening (or not happening) at Old Pond Publishing, why not visit our Blog at www.rogergsmith.typepad.co.uk

Recent Publications
	Modern Tractors Part Two - Presented by Stephen Richmond This is the second Tractor Barn programme in which tractor enthusiasts Stephen Richmond and Jonathan Whitlam look at the technical advances that have continued to increase the sophistication of tractors in the 21st Century. In this DVD they cover New Holland, McCormick and Landini, Fendt, Challenger and Massey Ferguson. ...more
	The Big Mill: steel in the West of Scotland - National Library of Scotland The four archive films in this collection all show aspects of Scottish steel-making in the 1960s and ’70s. Each of the films takes you into the heart of the factory to show the details of Scotland’s industrial past. ...more
	Young in Heart: Scottish industry in action - National Library of Scotland The five archive films in this collection record a variety of enterprises from Scotland’s industrial and energy heritage. They range from 1958 to 1975. ...more
	Working the Fields: the 4th Diseworth working day - Stephen Richmond and Jonathan Whitlam Diseworth, Leicestershire is host to an outstanding annual working day. The 2009 event, recorded by Tractor Barn Productions, was also the occasion of the Ford & Fordson Association’s national ploughing finals. ...more
	I Walked by Night - Edited by Lilias Rider Haggard Subtitled ‘the philosophy of the King of the Norfolk poachers, written by Himself’, this pot-pourri of autobiography, rural verse and philosophising has long been recognised as a rural classic. The superb illustrations by Edward Seago bring the text to life and remain long in the reader’s memory. ...more
	The Rabbit Skin Cap - Edited by Lilias Rider Haggard The wearer of the rabbit skin cap was George Baldry, born in the middle of the nineteenth century near Beccles on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a true country lad at a time when youngsters were flocking from the countryside to the town and the old simple ways were disappearing forever. ...more
	Modern Tractors Part One - Presented by Stephen Richmond The two DVDs which constitute Modern Tractors take a close look at the new tractors of the first years of the 21st century. Part One brings together the most sophisticated machines from John Deere, Claas, Valtra, Same Deutz-Fahr and Case IH. Stephen also explains how the powershift transmission has developed over the years to give more automated functions before developing into the ultimate - the constantly variable gearbox of the 21st century. ...more
	Seventy Years of Farm Machinery Part One: Seed Time - Brian Bell Brian Bell's Fifty Years of Farm Machinery has long been a standard book for enthusiasts. Although Brian can only show a random sample of the hundreds of implements and machines used on the land, in his new edition he has considerably expanded the work. To make the project more manageable, he has divided the subject into two parts of which this is the first. ...more
	Tractor Restoration: Paintwork - Alan Davies Alan Davies shows how he sets about preparing and spraying a tractor. Hopefully, if you follow his guidance you will be able to reach concourse standard....more
	In the Driving Seat - Alex Heymer Forty-four years driving for a living have given Alex Heymer a wealth of stories ... Alex always wanted to be a driver, like his father, and learned at a very young age. During his national service he drove for the RAF, and then went on to trolleybuses for London Transport. He returned to London Transport later to drive RTs and Routemasters. He has lots of tales about driver shenanigans on the trolleybuses and buses. ...more
	Harry Ferguson before the plough - Michael Clarke in collaboration with Jack Woods Colin Fraser’s standard work, Harry Ferguson: inventor and pioneer, sketches in the great man’s early adventures in less than twenty pages. This new book, dealing mostly with the period 1906-13, completes the story....more
	Sheep Station NZ - Dylan Winter Dylan spent three months in New Zealand recording a wide range of sheep farms and the background to them. Most of New Zealand gets plenty of rain – it’s a good place to grow grass. Where you can grow grass you can grow sheep, and on one station in this DVD they run 40,000 ewes, not to mention 1,500 cows and 4,000 deer hinds. ...more
	Know Your Trucks - Patrick W Dyer The Know Your ... series of books is ideal for novice enthusiasts of all ages. For this book, Patrick Dyer has selected 44 examples to show the wide range of truck types that you are likely to see on British roads. ...more
	We Waved to the Baker - Andrew Arbuckle We Waved to the Baker is an evocative and heart-warming collection of stories from Andrew Arbuckle’s youth in Fife. Through the fresh gaze of childhood, he depicts the rugged hard work of life on the farm, while capturing beautifully the essence of growing up in a boisterous family and a close rural community....more
	Working Combines Volume One - Presented by Stephen Richmond Stephen Richmond and Jonathan Whitlam have been making tractor and machinery programmes for over eleven years. They have now started releasing material from their extensive back catalogue. The sequences in this DVD were filmed from 2003 to 2009. ... more
	Britain’s Massive Miners Part 1 : Steven Vale Komatsu and Hitachi star in the first of Steven Vale’s films about the hydraulic excavators to be found at work in Britain’s surface coal mines. ...more
	Britain’s Massive Miners Part 2 : Steven Vale A Northumberland surface coal mine is the setting for the hydraulic excavator which is currently the biggest in Britain and the biggest Terex model in Europe – the Terex O&K RH 200. It works with advanced noise- and dust-suppression technology to load nearly 50 tonnes at a time with a 26 cubic metre bucket. ...more
	Suffolk Steam Railways - David Kindred The 200 photographs in this book reflect the diversity and importance that steam once had in East Anglia. For a hundred years it was the main carrier of people and freight, and a major employer, even though Suffolk was a mainly agricultural county with relatively few lines. ...more
	Bells Beneath the Sea: photographs of the Suffolk Heritage Coast - Carl White Legend has it that if you put your ear to Dunwich cliff on a stormy day you can hear the long-submerged bells of the town’s churches ringing under the waves. Such is the rich, haunting quality of this coastline, whose past resonates strongly in its present. ...more
	The King of the Norfolk Poachers: his life and times - Charlotte Paton "If I had my time to come over again I would still be what I have been a poacher. So I remain, Gentlemen, The Ex King of the Norfolk Poachers." The name of the poacher was Frederick Rolfe - Charlotte Paton has researched his life and written his biography. ...more
	Farm Machinery Film Records: Part 3 Testing & prototypes: Brian Bell This programme uses extracts from a collection of films made by the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering over a period of about ten years from 1945. The Institute had been established by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1942 with a remit to design prototype farm equipment and publish test reports of the performance of production tractors and farm machinery. ...more
	Destination Doha - Tony Salmon Doha, capital of Qatar on the Arabian Gulf – five thousand miles from London with 11 countries to travel through and 23 Customs posts on the way. Blizzards in Austria, sandstorms in Syria; broken-down trucks to repair and bogged-down trucks to dig out of the sand. ...more