Robert Burcombe EngTech MIAgrE

My first intro into agriculture was growing up on a small farm in south Gloucestershire, I boosted my pocket money by helping to milk, feed an_dtend local farm stock, this introduced me to various machinery. I always remember helping to feed the sheaves into the threshing drum and putting the needles into the stationary baler and feeding the wire through and twisting the ends together. Obviously as farm machinery developed, I then started to use a pick-up baler, a bale sledge that put the bales into flat eights, which could then be picked up by a fork unit on a front­ end loader.

During my last year at school, I took and passed the entrance exam (1958) for Rycotewood College, and with the help of the Career's Master I was granted an 'out-of-county' grant.  During this time, I took and passed C&G 260 and C&G 78 exams in 1959.

My last block release was in 1962 when I passed C&G 261 (final) AG. ENG. Fitters course !st class and became an A.M.lnst. Ag. Engr's. In 1964.

I then started an apprenticeship with a small company at Bromsberrow, near Ledbury in Herefordshire, where there was a huge variety of farm machinery, for cultivation and harvesting Blackcurrants, Hops, plus the normal crops of hay and cereals. Because the Hop crop was so vital I was paid to be on site every day of the harvest.

I then moved to a new job with FH Burgess in Tewkesbury, which is where I met my wife.  I was a service engineer working in the workshop and visiting farms in the area.

I then took a new position with E.V Twose Ltd. In Devon, representing the company with sales and technical representation, this however involved covering most of the UK, and as I was recently married, it was not acceptable, so I took a new position with Farmhand UK representing them in the West of England, however as I became more experienced, I was asked to cover other parts of the UK, and move to their HQ in Norfolk; again we didn't want to move, so I found a new position with Rocol Ltd in 1973. a specialised lubricants company, based near Leeds in Yorkshire, this did involve travelling to Leeds for meetings, but I didn't have to move home representing the company in the midlands and southwest.

I worked closely with the automotive Aerospace and Naval industries, being granted clearance to visit secure military sites, and got products approved by the MOD and issued with NATO stock numbers.

I retired early at the end of 2004 due to heart problems.