All hands to the plough for big match in harvest-time tradition
Ploughing matches have been part of the agricultural world’s autumn calendar since, it is reputed, that two farmers in Dorset settled a dispute over who could plough the best, with their heavy horses, in 1847. They developed into annual events all around the countryside to celebrate harvest having been completed and for farmers to demonstrate their skills in preparing their land for crop establishment for the next year.
They developed into annual events all around the countryside to celebrate harvest having been completed and for farmers to demonstrate their skills in preparing their land for crop establishment for the next year.
Barugh & District Ploughing Association, pronounced Bark by locals, holds its annual ploughing match today (Saturday 26 October) courtesy of the Rowbottom family of Mount Farm, Woolley and committee member Darren Easter, who was competing in the British Ploughing Championships a fortnight ago, in the Classic class with his Ford 3000 tractor and Ransome TS86 match plough says it’s as popular as ever.
“We will have somewhere in the region of 70 competitors across 11 classes with tractors and ploughs of all ages from new to vintage, including this year a new class for Grey Fergies. We normally get a crowd of about 150 and it’s a great day with so much concentration going on and some great ploughing. If anyone fancies just popping along to have a look we’ll be at it right the way through to 4.30pm.
“My brother Tim and I aren’t farmers, but we have always driven tractors in our amenity grass cutting business. We’d also always enjoyed attending ploughing matches and it was a chap from Barugh & District Ploughing committee, who we’d seen many a time and had got to know, who set the ball rolling for us when he asked whether we’d like to join. We weren’t ploughing at that time, but that’s how we started around 2002.
“You could say we really enjoy it as we now take part in somewhere between 20-25 matches a year and mainly within a 75 mile radius. It’s a great environment and we’ve met so many great people who are now good friends.
Darren says that he’s still learning after 22 years, but he must be doing something right as he won a match in the Classic class in Staffordshire which meant that he qualified for the British that took place on Thoresby Estate in Nottinghamshire, and three years ago he won the Ford & Fordson class at the British National in Northumberland.
“I’ve still a long way to go before I reckon I can class myself as any good. It was a shock when I won up in Northumberland.
“Tim and I both plough and our first ploughing match where we took part was the Pennine & District Ploughing Club’s match at Robert Laybourn’s Elmsall Lodge Farm at Badsworth. I used a Ford 3000 then too, but not the one I’m using now.
“We started collecting vintage and classic tractors before we took up with ploughing matches and also have a Massey Ferguson 35X and some crawler tractors. I prefer to buy them in their working clothes and keep them that way. I’m more bothered about the job they do, rather than how they sparkle.
“I have more of a liking towards Fords on the Classic class side but the modern tractors we use in our business are all Massey Fergusons from B&B Tractors in Barnsley.
“Our main business today is made up of amenity grass cutting for schools, parish councils and sports clubs of all kinds from football, cricket and rugby clubs, including Manley Park home of Stanley Rodillians RUFC. We travel anywhere up to around 20 miles.
Darren and Tim grew up at Great Cliff, near Crigglestone where their father was a miner but Darren says that he wanted to get involved with something outdoors from being young.
“I was always interested in farming and I started going on to local farms and getting involved on weekends when I would have been about 10-11 years old. There was a field next door to us and I’d always watch the farmer through the fence, then I’d go and help. I’d do any general farm work from bits of fence repairing to helping with the cattle and sheep, but getting on a tractor for the first time was what I really wanted to do and when I did it was something special. I’ve driven tractors ever since that day.
Darren says he must have been about 13 years old when he ‘blagged’ his way to driving one and that it is a moment he will never forget.
“It was amazing!” says Darren. “I think he said, ‘can you drive?’, and I said of course I could, which I couldn’t, and so he told me to go down into the field and see how I went on. It was a white David Brown 996. I got away with it that day and I absolutely loved it. I started off with doing a bit of rolling after they’d been drilling and as the years progressed I did quite a bit more. I’d drive for him most weekends.
Unfortunately, there weren’t the jobs available in farming in Darren’s area at the time, but he did find work that brought him outside and on tractors.
“After leaving school I went to work for Wakefield District Council on landscaping, grass cutting and grounds maintenance. Tim and I both worked there. Tim left first as we had started doing our own work on nights and weekends, and within six weeks I left too, as there was that much work for us.
Barugh & District Ploughing Association’s chairman is John Hill of Hoylandswaine, a former British and World champion ploughman, one of many great Yorkshire ploughmen.
A fortnight ago East Lutton’s James Witty took the Supreme title at the British Championships, having won in the Conventional class. Other notable Yorkshire results came from Andrew Chappell, John Milnes, David Thomlinson, Ian Berriman and Stephen Watkins, some of whom may be appearing today at Mount Farm, Woolley WF4 2JJ.
“We’re looking for someone willing to host for 2025 in the Barnsley and Wakefield area,” says Darren.