i spoke to the guy at newwark who sold it on ebay and he has 2 more of them.

Hi, I am a new member & owner of the Coleby Shire purchased off Ebay in September. There were 2 on Ebay that month, one was a very tidy example, mine is the one from Derbyshire needing restoration. It does need a lot of work, in particular the gearbox which obviously suffered a failure before being left out in the elements for 20 years & filling with water. This is the biggest challenge as a gear or two will be required along with bearings etc.
The engine is seized but should be ok, I have no idea what make it is & can find nothing that resembles it in books or on the net. According to the limited literature that I have, BSA was used (it is not one of those) or JAP model 6 (not that either but barrel/head look exactly like JAP items). All I know so far is the bore diameter is 80mm, it has a Wico mag & Zenith carb.
Perhaps someone can help me here as I (& my 12 year old apprentice) are keen to learn as much possible about this intriguing little tractor. The intention is to show it (hopefully next year, but may be optimistic), I also have a 1946 Kendall tractor.

post some pics of engine someone will no and identyfy this is a very good and helpfull forum best o luck cant wait to have a gander lol

Sorry, 2 more here.

Thanks Alan,
That did cross my mind, in that case mine is possibly a later model? Certainly all photos of other colebys have BSA or JAP as per the sales brochure. Should make finding parts even more of a challenge!

thanks chris for refering to mine again. it is most certainly a jap derived engine. from years of chasing coleby’s all 4 wheelers i’ve come accross are different. to my knowledge there are two bsa engined models, with a 320, and a 420 cc engine. plus single or twin engine j.a.p engines. in both petrol, and petrol parifin veersions. yours is the first one i’ve seen with a jap derived engine, similar to as fitted in the 2 wheelers. over the years i’ve only come accross 4 4 wheelers other than my own , which has a jap 55 twin. sadly i’ve been without a computer since september, so missed out on this dirth of bay of e exposure.

Spam and tag removed.