The dramatic 1961 tractor rescue that led to an emotional reunion 41 years later

After the tractor slid and then toppled on top of her, neighbouring farmer Eric Preece rushed to her rescue. She never forgot it, regarding it as a miracle she had got out alive.

Flashback to February 4, 1961, when Helen Marsh was working as a relief milker at Lower Faintree Farm. There had been torrential rain and the ground was saturated. She was driving a three-ton tractor when it began to slide on a slope, and the bank below then gave way and it toppled over, landing upside down on top of her.

All she could move was her head and she shouted for help. Fortunately her cries were heard by farmer’s wife Sylvia Matty, who ran to fetch Eric from the adjoining farm.

He arrived to find the tractor upside down in boggy ground, with Helen pinned by the steering wheel and seat. The tractor was still sinking, but ignoring the danger Eric got underneath and toiled for an hour to cut through the steering wheel and free the screaming Helen, who was given a morphine injection. She suffered bruising to her chest and ribs but was able to return to work a few days later.

Her grateful parents came to see her rescuer, bringing him a big basket of fruit and flowers as a thank you.

There was a sequel. In old age Eric, who had moved to Chorley, near Bridgnorth, was looking through his scrapbook and wondered what had happened to that young woman he had not seen since those days 41 years previously.

Helen had lived at the time of the drama at Church Vale, West Bromwich.

Eric appealed in the Star for help in finding her, and readers came up trumps. It led to a reunion in August 2002 when Helen, who had become Mrs Helen Fowler and lived near Pershore, met 79-year-old Eric at his home where she gave him an emotional thank you and a gift in the form of a china plate with a picture of a tractor on it.

After much reminiscing she and husband Tony also treated Eric and his wife Mary to a slap-up meal at the Duck Inn, Chorley.

Helen revealed at the reunion that she celebrated her escape from the accident on February 4, 1961, on every anniversary since.

“I count every one of those years as a bonus. It’s a miracle I got out alive, and it’s all thanks to Eric,” she said.

After surviving the accident she had gone on to become a leading figure in the Ministry of Agriculture, based at Wolverhampton and the National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh.