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Ontario’s largest antique tractor sale benefits charity

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Gordon Brindley has been collecting antique tractors for the better part of 50 years.

“It just started as a hobby, and it guess it got bigger and bigger,” says the affable collector.

Now that Brindley is reaching his golden years, the former auctioneer and farm equipment dealer thought it was time to sell his collection of more than 570 antique tractors and another 1,000 pieces of farm machinery.

“This is probably the largest collection of antique tractors that has ever been assembled for a sale in Ontario, for sure,” says Brindley’s friend and fellow farm equipment dealer, Jeff Stewart.

There are tractors here in Lucknow, Ont. dating back to the 1800s. One uses the steering wheel as a starting crank, and another requires a shotgun shell to get it started.

“You put a shotgun shell in here, and put a cap on, and you hit it with a hammer, that’s how it starts,” says Brindley.

Brindley’s collection is so vast it took over three months to get all the tractors, cultivators, plows and implements to one sale location, near Lucknow.

Antique tractors and farm implements from Ontario’s largest collection of antique farm tractors up for sale near Lucknow, Ont., as seen on August 19, 2022. (Scott Miller/CTV News London) “They’ve been stored all over. In barns and sheds, 50 to 60 kilometres away from here. And we had to haul them all back here,” he says.

With a possible total value of more than $2.5 million, Brindley is sharing his collection’s potential wealth with the Huron Hospice and Wingham and District Hospital Foundation, by giving 100 per cent of the proceeds from two of his most valuable tractors to the health care organizations.

“It’s a wonderful gesture. It’s great, because we can all use the hospital,” says Wingham and District Hospital Foundation Chair, Ian Montgomery.

Bidding has already begun, but ends in a flurry next Wednesday and Thursday.

“There’s a little bit of everything. I didn’t go with one colour, I went with everything,” says Brindley.

While he may have amassed his collection by criss-crossing Ontario, some of his prized possessions may end up overseas.

“I would say there’s worldwide interest. We’ve already seen bids from overseas,” he says.

You can view Brindley’s life’s work on the following website, and bidding ends next week.  

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