From Littleborough to Dorset in 16 hours on a 1966 tractor

Date published: 04 September 2022

A 20-year-old lorry driver from Smithy Bridge has raised over £2,000 for mental health charity Mind after driving to Dorset in under 24 hours on a 1966 David Brown tractor.

Sat on a 56-year-old tractor with no cab, Sam Hodson set off from The White House in Littleborough on 22 August, aiming to reach the Great Dorset Steam Fair – some 260 miles away – in under 24 hours, before returning a week later.

“It came about because of a daft drunken idea,” Sam admitted. “Someone said I couldn’t do it so I wanted to prove them wrong. I was going to do the journey anyway and thought, ‘why not do it for charity?’”

The first leg of the journey took 15 hours and 45 minutes, whilst the return on Monday 29 August saw Sam shave nearly an hour from his time, returning in just 14 hours and 47 minutes.

“That particular tractor (a 770) has a top speed of 18 miles an hour. In total the round trip was 520 miles in 30.5 hours,” he added.

Sam laughed: “I didn’t expect it to grab half the attention it did. One of the tractor magazines rang me up about it too.

“I chose Mind because it’s something that affects everyone, and it was pointed out to me that the tractor represented farmers’ mental health, something that doesn’t get spoken about.”

A 2021 study by the Farm Safety Foundation found that 88% of farmers under the age of 40 ranked poor mental health as the biggest hidden problem facing farmers and agricultural workers.

Sam, who has been interested in tractors since he was a young boy, said he’s planning a bigger journey next year, a 1,750-mile round trip via Yorkshire, John O’Groats and Lands End before the week at the Dorset steam fair.

“It should take about nine or ten days and I plan to involve charities where I stop. I’ve got more time to plan this one!”

Donations can still be made via GoFundMe.