by Nick Drew | Wed 07 Jan 2026
Priestman Beaver Catch Up
Stuart found the shots on an old American forum that I used to frequent in the early days, in a post from 2007, as seen in the image above.
It transpired that his father who lived in Devon, had sadly passed away, and Stuart had flown back to sort a few things out. It turned out that one of his photos taken two weeks previously was virtually the same angle as one of mine, which made him do a double take!
The classic old Beaver has hardly moved is at all in 20 years, and is quietly rusting away in the Devon countryside.
Apparently, Stuart has emailed the guys at the VET (Vintage Excavator Trust) to see is anyone is interested in taking her on, but so far has not had a reply. Commenting he said, “It would be a real shame to weigh the old girl in as scrap, but I guess there are probably not too many people chasing one of these anymore".
Stuart has asked me to put this post out to see if anyone would be interested in taking the machine on as a restoration job, and says that they also have a trio of CASE backhoe loaders available too, if they would be a more attractive option.
Drop me a PM and I will pass on Stuart's email address if you are genuinely interested in saving these machines.
We thank Stuart for reaching out to us about the old machine, and it was nice to recall the chat I had with his late father on the day I visited the machine all those years ago.
Checkout this video of another surviving Priestman Beaver which I think is located in Sweden.