Tracie Beardsley catches up with C&O’s Matthew Holland – in between him selling tractors, fighting fires, making honey and selling cider!
All Images: Courtenay Hitchcock
When the excited 16-year-old Matthew Holland walked through the workshop doors of Stanley Pond Ltd in Blandford, it was his first step in making his childhood dream of becoming an agricultural engineer come true. Fast forward 46 years and Matthew is sales manager at the renamed C&O Tractors, the same family-run business dating back to 1753*, and now Massey Ferguson specialists. It’s one of the largest agricultural machinery suppliers in the south, with six depots, a hire fleet, parts and after-sales services.In his deep, delicious Dorset lilt, Matthew tells me: ‘My siblings went to university – I went to the university of Stanley Pond Ltd! But it’s given me 46 years of consecutive employment.’He can even remember the exact date he started: ‘July 3rd, 1978. I turned up on the moped I’d bought with money from summer bale stacking.’His hands-on apprenticeship was four intensive years. ‘I was essentially married to the senior engineer Ronnie all that time. I was a teenager: he was hard on me, but I needed it. Back then the workshop was buzzing. We had a blacksmith and a real character of a tinsmith – Burt Gale. Even my listening to Radio One didn’t drown out the backing track of Burt tapping out the tin.’
No more hammers
A rural childhood in Tarrant Keyneston ignited Matthew’s love for tinkering about with farm machinery. He was always either under the bonnet of a tractor or behind the wheel. ‘I loved going with my dad, a farm manager, to fix machinery,’ he says. ‘I was mesmerised by the forge and all the tools.’
Matthew looks back on the changes in his industry. ‘It’s changed beyond all recognition. We used to actually repair things – hammering, welding, brazing … that’s a style of welding with a bronze rod that’s not done anymore. For today’s agricultural engineers it’s far more complicated.
‘Machinery’s become so complex – it’s all digital, satellite, state-of-the-art technology. We need product specialists just to keep us on track … especially me, computers are not my forte!’
Given the opportunity, Matthew will still roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty, though: ‘I delivered a machine to my old form master recently and got my overalls on to get it ready for him. And I still tinker about in my spare time. I’ve got about eight acres, and I keep some vintage Ford tractors that I love to play around with.’
A King’s Medal
There’s not much of that spare time, however! A fire engine hurtles past the C&O office and Matthew wonders if it’s “one of his” – he’s been a part-time firefighter for Blandford station for the last 39 years. He modestly reveals he’s just received the Kings Coronation medal: ‘I was going to bring it in to show you but thought it would be a bit ostentatious.’
I ask him about this challenging – and brave – commitment taking up his spare time.
‘Who doesn’t want to drive a fire engine?’ he laughs. ‘I’m in the rare position that C&O will let me “turn out” to a shout. My former boss Mr Pond let me do it, and so does my present boss, Andrew Coles, for which I am very grateful.’
Many of the “shouts” take him to his C&O customers. The heatwave summer of 2022 saw the rural crew regularly battling dramatic field fires. ‘The adrenalin rush is incredible. It’s physically demanding, which I enjoy. I can also bring along my practical and engineering skills. And it’s very humbling. No matter how bad a day you’ve had, there’s someone else who’s had a much worse one! When things get demanding in the office, my leveller is my sense of humour. It helps to remind myself “no one’s died”.’
As if work and firefighting were not enough to squeeze into normal life, Matthew also keeps bees and produces quality craft cider and apple juice, aptly named Cider By Rosie. ‘I’m learning from an octogenarian cider maker. She’s the sorcerer and I’m the apprentice…again!’
There’s an agricultural saying about the secret to happiness: “tractors, fields and freedom”. Matthew certainly seems to have found all three. ‘Work is a joy,’ he says. ‘It’s a good habit. I enjoy everything I do, and it’s all been made possible by the support of my wife Charmian and my two children, Daniel and Michaela – and more recently my two fantastic granddaughters.
‘I’ve had opportunities to move on over the years. Is it loyalty or lack of ambition that I haven’t? ‘For me, it’s loyalty, a value instilled in me. The Pond family were good to me when I was a boy. As a man, the Coles family have been brilliant. I’ve had only two bosses in 46 years, and the chance to travel to Brazil, Zambia, Canada and Arizona for work. It’s a job that takes me across the stunning Blackmore Vale most days, and I go home to my own “little piece of England” at the end of my day. Not bad for a country bumpkin!’
A-list dinner party guest?
‘Steve Fletcher, former centre forward for AFC Bournemouth when the club was going through a hard time. He was so loyal. And Eddie Howe, a top man who should have been knighted for Bournemouth FC’s fairytale transformation. Charmian, and also my first boss Timothy Pond, who I’m ever grateful to.’
Book by your bedside?
‘No books. Farmer’s Weekly Magazine. I go to bed dreaming of tractors!’
C&O Tractors, Construction and Garden Machinery candotractors.com
*C&O Tractors was founded in 2000 – Stanley Pond Ltd, now owned by C&O, was founded in 1753.
