Vickers Works Photographs of Valentine variants and prototypes

I know very little about the Valentine but I do have access and permission to share digital images from two Vickers Works albums of photographs. The majority are of interwar subjects and I have posted these on my blog Interwar Tank Development., but there are a small number of WWII vintage.

I posted this image of a 17pdr SP/Archer with a factory fitted armoured overhead canopy on another thread:



Some of the other Valentine photos are of various other SP and other variants and prototypes. They are high quality photographs and I am not sure if they will have been published elsewhere; there seemed to be interest in them from the other thread so I am posting them here.

(Mods - if it is appropriate to move them elsewhere please do so, but there seem to be a lot of Valentine topics). The images are reproduced with the permission of Beamish Museum, whio retain their copyright.

It would be interesting if those with more knowledge could identify each vehicle more authoritatively.

Gun tanks:





I think this is the Mk IX:



And Mk XI:



17pdr SP (Archer)



and with armoured canopy (as above):



Other SP (prototypes?)

Anti tank? I would be interested if anyone could identify the gun


Possibly 25 pdr SP in rearward facing barbette?


Funnies

DD


Flail tank


Bridgelayer


What is this?

Heavy agricultural tractor?


Some vehicles have clearly visible census numbers so someone cleverer than me may be able to use these to identify particular vehicles.

 

Hi VW,

Your SP prototypes: the first one is a 6-pounder anti-tank gun mounted on a Valentine. The second is the 25-pounder modification of the Archer (aka Valentine SP).

The last one is I believe a Valentine modified to be a tower. Note the suspension.

 

Yes I know the last one is a Valentine just wondering if it was some very odd military use or a more normal civilian one

 

It looks like it's towing to me like it's towing ... wait, I'm not sure what that is.

I think you're right with your Valentine mark identification. The XI is identifiable by the muzzle brake at the end of the gun. The IX could be a IX or a X - it is definitely a 6-pounder, which you can tell from either the barrel or the bulb shape above the gun. There's no visible machine gun, so it's probably a IX.

 

Isn't the tank/vehicle in the last photo towing a Grader of the sort often used to level land when preparing an airstrip, road etc? Also look in the foreground: that's levelled land not ploughed land.

 

That could very well be!

 

Possibly one of these or similar.

Judging by the background hillock and trees, that photo was taken at the War and Peace Show at Beltring some years ago.