Petrol Pump & Weighbridge.

Farm Petrol Pump

& Weighbridge.

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From the earliest days of the Astor's running and developing the farm there was always a cattle lorry and a milk delivery lorry. So to make sure both always had a full tank before starting out on a journey, a petrol pump and a weighbridge were installed. The pump is indicated as (A) in the picture above, and the weighbridge as (B). They can be found on the farm map as location number 38.

The weighbridge was used by the carters when bringing in roots or kale from the field to weigh and make sure of the ammount fed to the dairy herds. Also grain when thrashed was weighed before being put in the granary bins.

The mock up below is of the type of petrol pump that is use up until the late 1950's. Each glass cylinder held a gallon when full, and was pumped up from the underground tank by a hand wobble pump. As one cylinder was filled the other would feed into the vehicle tank by gravity. I remember filling up the first Standard Ferguson tractor at the pump, which held 8 gallons and enough for a days work of ploughing. The tractor engine was the same as used in the post war Standard Vanguard Car.