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East Kent Ploughing Match |
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Wednesday, 30 September 2009 |
East Kent Ploughing Match | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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 Vintage Steam Plough I have never been to a ploughing match before but I thought it might be really interesting and offer the chance to take some pictures I never had before. It seems that with record crowds to the event this year there were lots of other people with the same idea, so it took quite some time getting into the car park. The event this year was held at Merton Farm just outside Canterbury.
My first stop was to watch the beautiful heavy horses. It looked really hard work for both the horses and the ploughman trying hard to keep a straight line. The judges were watching very closely.
One of the most fascinating things I saw today was a steam powered plough which actually had two steam engines: one placed at each end of the strip of land to be ploughed. The plough was hooked up between the engines by a steel cable which pulled the plough from one end of the field to the other. It did seem to be a very effective plough but incredibly labour intensive. It was certainly very interesting to watch though.
During the morning the group ploughing had taken place and the winners of each of the groups took part in the final at the same time. The judges watched closely once more to judge on all of the criteria they use for good ploughing. I have to admit to knowing nothing about what make a good ploughed strip of land so someone kindly explained it all to me. It was nice to see some vintage tractors in the contest too but it certainly looked much harder work than using a new state of the art tractor with satellite navigation on board. They are, of course, not allowed to use satnav during the competition. It takes a lot of skill to drive the machinery and make a good job.
 Vintage Caterpillar tractor  Final ploughing round It was a real shame that the weather during the day was rather overcast but it certainly didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for the competition although I found taking pictures in the dull conditions a bit of a challenge. I’d certainly go to a Ploughing Match again as it made for a very entertaining and interesting day out.
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