Our thanks go to the researcher and author Terry Grace for providing this week’s Bygone Salisbury:

Previously thought to be a locomotive on the Porton Light Railway, this machine (right) was actually a Pedrail Landship.

In 1915 an Admiralty Landship Committee was formed with the brief of providing an armed landship, capable of transporting up to 100 troops across the battlefield. Several ideas emerged; all being rejected except the first one.

It was designed by Colonel R.E.B. Crompton based on the Pedrail patent of designer Brahma Joseph Diplock. This system was a wide track, similar to that on a modern tank, but much wider, and with feet attached so that it actually walked across the ground. The tractor had two of these tracks along its length and they could swivel independently. Twelve of these were ordered, but it was realised that because of its length at 10m, the machine would not be able to negotiate the narrow streets of French villages, so only one was made.

The parts made went to Stothert and Pitt of Bath, who produced the prototype pictured. It was sent to the Trench Warfare Department at Porton for trials. Although it could be heavily armoured and carry 50 troops, it was slow and had difficulty crossing trenches, and the project was abandoned. In 1919 it was taken to Bovington, where it was known as The Porton Tractor and where tragically it was scrapped in 1926. This vehicle was the prototype battle tank, having been completed before “Little Willie” which was the forerunner of the battle tank of today, and it was tested in our back yard.

This information was discovered during research for a new local history book, Reminiscences of Porton Railway Station, the Railway Cottages and the Porton Camp Light Railway.