Britains Farm Gates

[MDFord]

Probably not that interesting to most of you, but I have a thing for Herald and Britains old plastic figures and accessories.

 

Here are my latest buys, I have wanted the gate for a long time - Now I have three

 

 

 

 

[PDH]

Probably not that interesting to most of you, but I have a thing for Herald and Britains old plastic figures and accessories.

Here are my latest buys, I have wanted the gate for a long time - Now I have three

Very nice Mark. Remember buying those gates in a toy shop in Ashford Kent in the late '50's.

Think of me if you decide to reduce the number down from 3.

For me today I paid a visit to Hamblys the local Claas dealer. Ordered the new Wiking Arion 650 and came away with two Axions, the 950 and 930. All in dealer boxes. According to the Claas stock control system only just over 700 of the Arion 650 left in stock. So they've sold over 2200 in pretty quick time.

P

[david_scrivener]

Probably not that interesting to most of you, but I have a thing for Herald and Britains old plastic figures and accessories.

 

Here are my latest buys, I have wanted the gate for a long time - Now I have three

Good buy getting three of those gates boxed (un-boxed they're fairly common), and I notice in the later box with the Britains B logo - earlier boxes have the Herald logo. Even rarer than these gates in boxes are the boxed packets of the fit together post and rail fencing to go with them - and this type of fencing is even rare as odd bits without a box, and brown version rarer than white.

Of course, the cats are among the rarest Britains/Herald farm animals. Usually expensive to buy on their own, but they sometimes turn up in job lots.

The Orpington (the breed depicted) chickens are among my favourites, mainly because my other obsession, apart from toys, is rare poultry breeds. As is apparently normal, if you have two of them, the colour you don't have is white - rarer than blacks and orange (called 'buff' on the actual birds). Keep all you get of these as there were several moulds of both the cock and hen, with minor differences in plumage details. A magnifying glass job to sort them out (+the relevant Jonathan Stephens study, obviously).

[MDFord]

Thanks Peter and David,

 

I will remember you if I ever decide to sell Peter  - surely you're not old enough to have been collecting in the 1950's

 

Thanks for the helpful info David, I might have a white hen as per these on the way as well as other similar bits and pieces 

Do you know anything about why some of these gates have one diagonal bar, and others two ? I wonder which is more rare ?

 

 

[PDH]

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I will remember you if I ever decide to sell Peter  - surely you're not old enough to have been collecting in the 1950's

 

.....

 

That gave me a good chuckle Mark. No I would have been playing farmers in those days. Would have been about 7/8 with my base board farm, DDN's and E27N's and about three fields and a farm yard.

 

Very simple but hours of enjoyment!!

P

[david_scrivener]

Thanks Peter and David,

 

I will remember you if I ever decide to sell Peter  - surely you're not old enough to have been collecting in the 1950's

 

Thanks for the helpful info David, I might have a white hen as per these on the way as well as other similar bits and pieces 

Do you know anything about why some of these gates have one diagonal bar, and others two ? I wonder which is more rare ?

I've checked my gates, old catalogues, and Barney Brown's book on Herald Farm, and it appears that both types of gate were made throughout, and they both probably exist in large numbers. I've also just noticed that there are two types of the gate with one diagonal bar - with different fastners. One has a cross piece near the top of the fastner, the other hasn't. I'm guessing there were three moulds on the sprue, and the three types of gate were turned out in equal numbers. No idea why they made them so obviously different, as mould differences are usually quite minor, such as slight differences in fur/feather details of animals or details in the pockets or folds of clothes on people.

If there were any differences over time, the only way of telling would be to examine several examples of the brown plastic version - difficult to achieve as brown gates are much rarer than white.

[super6]

A nice find Mark, one of each as well. All boxes complete with end tabs? I'm envious as the two boxes I have are incomplete and one is split along the bottom. The gates were used up into the last of the play bases and also in the stone wall set, with out paint as far as I can tell.

 

At an educated guess I reckon the gates without the cross piece near the top of the fastener are the earlier version as the two I have are both in Herald label'd boxes.

Early brown one, if you look closely you can just about see that appears to be a brown stained grey plastic

A latter alternative style brown plastic. The latch post is missing from this and a corner post from the make up fencing has been substituted

White gate in early Herald box

Close up showing the two types of latch as refered to by David

all three and base of one box

 

I'll leave the fencing for another post/thread

[david_scrivener]

So that makes it 4 moulds for the gate then:

One or two diagonal bars, each with or without cross piece to fastner.

I'm guessing most of us have had several of these gates for years, or in my case decades, without noticing these different types until yesterday/today.

[MDFord]

Happy memories  Peter, Did you keep any of those old models ?

 

If the mods want to split this into another topic feel free

 

Always something new to learn David it seems.

 

Thanks for your info Super 6 helpful to see the pictorial explanations, I'll have to keep a look out for brown gates now

Yes all of mine have fully intact boxes, and one has the complaint slip inside.

 

 

Also here is an incomplete one that I got from Exeter toyfair a while ago, the base is a mottled green/brown colour.

 

[PDH]

Happy memories  Peter, Did you keep any of those old models ?

 

Unfortunately not Mark. They all got scrapped at some stage. As a kid I moved house about every nine months, Dad was in the RAF. So they jusy shoved in a box loose and onto the next house. Come the end they were pretty beaten up, must of done thousands of hours in the fields!!

 

However I do have mint/boxed replacements in the collection these days. Not that these will see the same farming work!

P

[Guest]

 Thats the good thing every one to there own        i have to say i have started to look at gates a little more as im out walking these days

[MDFord]

And then there were four

 

Another two diagonal, but with a greener base.