2014/19

I've got a brand new combine harvester,

This is a seven inch vinyl music single record of the song 'Ive got a brand new combine harvester' by The Wurzels. It was acquired from Jonathan Durnin and was donated in memory of his father, Terry Durnin. This acquisition followed on from the Collecting Twentieth Century Rural Cultures project, on which Jonathan Durnin was an external evaluator. As a child in 1976, Mr Durnin became obsessed with the hit single by The Wurzels and as a result attended a local fete with a homemade combine harvester model made by his father. The donation of the record was accompanied by a digital copy of a family photograph showing the combine harvester model in 1976.

Seven inch vinyl record

Emails, Jonathan Durnin to Ollie Douglas (and others), April-October 2013 - [see paper copies in accession file], Email, Jonathan Durnin to Ollie Douglas and Isabel Hughes, 26 February 2014 - 'Dear Ollie // I am meeting Isabel tomorrow to handover the Wurzels single in London. I have attached the photo, and would like to donate it and the record to MERL in memory of my father, (Terry Durnin). I would be grateful if this could be noted in the object accession and in any displays. // The photo was taken in the summer 1976 in the hamlet of Upper Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire by my Mum, and shows my father and me heading off to the Walton and Kimcote fete with the Combine Harvester that they had made for me for the fete, as inspired by the record (which I was obsessed about). The Combine Harvester was made from a trolley, a washing machine box, metre sticks for the blades, and wire looms for the blade ends, and stickers that I think my father had obtained from farming friends in the Windmill Pub, Walton. // The fete was held on a farm at the Poultney Lane, Kimcote, which is about 2 miles from Upper Bruntingthorpe, and was raising money for a new village hall. My father pushed the Combine Harvester to the fete and back, as it would not fit in our car. // When the final Collecting Cultures report is published by HLF, I’d like to blog/tweet about this as an ‘unintended outcome’ if that is OK with you. // Finally – I am placing the single in a cardboard backed envelope, and it will travel next to my computer. Is this OK? // Look forward to catching up soon, // Best wishes, Jonathan', Museum Object Entry Form – ‘Museum Name: MUSEUM OF ENGLISH RURAL LIFE // Received from: JONATHAN DURNIN // Address: ... // Tel No: ... // Owner (if different): // Address: // Tel No: // Description of Object/Collection: Vinyl 7" single of 'I've got a brand new Combine Harvester' 1976. Donated in memory of Terry Durnin // Reason for Entry: Donation // Additional Agreement (Donations/Sales Only): // Museum Signatory: Isabel Hughes 7/2/2014 // Return of Object to Owner:‘, Pre-MERL packaging - [Homemade sleeve made from brown cardboard], Photographic print – [Printed copy from a scan of a photograph showing Terry Durnin and Jonatahn Durnin about to head to Walton and Kimcote fete with a model combine harvester made for the occasion], MERL miscellaneous note – The offer and donation of this object occurred in tandem with the final stages of the Collecting Twentieth Centruy Rural Cultures project. The challenges of cost and size around collecting a combine harvester and the acquisition during this project of a Corgi toy model of a Massey Harris 780 was used at this time as a powerful and useful example of the challenges facing rural museums and their collections development policies. As a result of this, The Wurzels song had been referred to tangentially in the course of a talk delivered on several occasions by Dr Ollie Douglas about the outcomes and process of this project. This talk was later published and the call to arms in this talk and paper for someone to donate a copy of this very single was met by Jonathan Durnin's kind gift. [Ollie Douglas]

1976 - 1976