They once chugged around the East Riding countryside to help bring in the mechanisation of farming.

Distinctive Field Marshall tractors, with their famous popping noise, were among the new mechanical workhorses of agriculture.

As bigger and more powerful tractors came in the once familiar "poppers", as they became known, disappeared from the land.

Now they are making a comeback as classic tractors at shows such as the popular Driffield Steam and Vintage Rally which takes place on Saturday and Sunday.

Vintage tractor enthusiasts, like John Scholey, will be putting their restored Field Marshalls through their paces at the two-day spectacular.

Businessman Mr Scholey, 60, from Hutton Cranswick, near Driffield, said: "A Marshall is a very distinctive tractor and it was always an ambition of mine to own one.

"Mine is a 1948 model that came from a farm in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, and before that had worked for 28 years in Australia.

"The previous owner had done some work on it, but other local Marshall enthusiasts advised me that the tractor was worthy of the full restoration."

Field Marshall tractors have engines with a single horizontal cylinder, instead of the usual four vertical ones, which give them the popping sound.

There will be a line-up of almost 200 vintage tractors, many of them owned and restored by East Riding enthusiasts, as well as giant smoke-belching steam engines.