Keeping ploughing tradition alive
It might have gone out of fashion in the 1950s but vintage ploughing still has a place in the heart of Robert Reade.
The farmer and South Staffordshire local councillor organises the annual Lower Penn Vintage Ploughing match.
He said "There is something about the turning of the soil that I love. Anybody associated with growing and farming will tell you that.
"It is a new start. You plough up last year's troubles and failures and begin again. You bury the old stubble and weeds and get a nice even seed bed. The furrow is straight with a nice finish."
His family have farmed in Lower Penn since 1934 and he started organising ploughing matches in 1996.
The split into eight categories ranging from horse drawn ploughs, though vintage tractors to horticulture where a person walks behind a two wheel plough.
The winner is chosen on the overall quality of the work.
Mr Reade said: "Ploughing with heavy horses like a Shire or Clydesdale is a real art. It is not just the ploughing you have also got to have good horses. It is a team effort. "
He has been doing it for over 60 years and the skill is one that people like Graham Turner from Chuckery are keen to learn.
The 54-year-old motor mechanic who drives and rides his mounts at around a dozen county shows a year, explained: "I have kept heavy horses for 17 years and would love to help keep the tradition of vintage ploughing alive. The horses are an expensive past time with them costing anything up to £5,000-a-time with a real show stopper fetching twice that. It is a lot of hard work but when you get it right it is a marvellous feeling."
