HE was aged just 11 when he bought his first Land Rover a 1958 series one off eBay which he re wired and fitted with new brakes.

Now aged 17 and an outstanding agricultural engineering student David Stoakes has rebuilt the engine on his own David Brown tractor and is taking on projects from farmers several times his age.

His knowledge of a tractor engine is outstanding and thinking ahead to the future he can already see himself with his own agricultural machinery dealership.

The dream looks very likely for the farmer’s son from Herefordshire who has his own growing farm machinery fleet on the family farm at Holme Lacy, including two tractors, two Land Rovers and a baler, which he coupled with his fully operational David Brown this summer to help out locally.

David, who is studying Land Based Technology, or ‘agricultural engineering’ at the Holme Lacy campus near Hereford, said he took his David Brown tractor down to the college workshop to revamp.

He has a series of photographs and a YouTube video showing how he took the 1981 built machine apart, cleaned everything up, and successfully pieced it back together again.

“I rebuilt the engine down there. It had been quite rough and had not been looked after for quite a while. It was really tatty and everything leaked on it.

“It had been my grandfathers and was handed down.”

Since then David has bought a leaky Fiat 880 tractor of the same vintage which he has fitted with a new clutch and gear box seals.

His enthusiasm for mechanics is endless.

“It’s like taking scrap and making it into usable machinery. It’s the sense of achievement you get out of it. It’s nice to have the sort of skill that other people might not have,” he explained.

His interest in farm mechanics comes from one of his grandfathers, Glyn Jones, a butcher at Fownhope, Herefordshire, and an ex mechanic, who has helped him get started.

“I started off buying a 1958 series one when I was 11 off eBay. I fitted new brakes to it and did the wiring and got it back on the road. My granddad taught me a lot of it.

“It just snowballed from there. I think he would be proud of me now. I tell him what I am doing at college,” said David.

On the day of this interview he had gone to college and built a Wagtail fertiliser spinner.

“I stripped it down and assessed the condition of it. Other people had taken an interest and shoved it back together. I like to do it properly and got stuff working on it that had not been working for years,” he said.

At the end of his two-year course, which finishes next May, David will have an extended diploma. He then plans to study agricultural engineering and has his sights set on Lackham College in Wiltshire, which hosts one of the few courses available and suits David because its “hands on.”

He also sees himself working initially as a one-man engineer responding to farmer call outs. Further down the line he said he’d like to work towards having a workshop and his own dealership.

David’s Course tutor at Holme Lacy, Richard Rudge, described David as “very keen and enthusiastic.”

“The David Brown was done at college, so we helped him, but the majority of the work was done by him. He did extra sessions and came in in the holidays and evenings to work on it which showed commitment and dedication,” said Richard.

He added: “David seems to have a plan and wants to go on to higher education after this course. The industry is looking for students who go above and beyond like David.”