The Ploughing Competition

We marked the start of October by going to the Brailsford Ploughing Match. This is a fantastic local event which features ploughing (by horse, tractor and man driven plough) plus hedge cutting and you can buy everything from animal supplements to state of the art farming equipment.

Although the early records of the Society are unfortunately no longer available, legend has it among the descendants of the founders, that an informal challenge match was arranged in 1894  following an argument in either the Rose and Crown or Saracen's Head by several at the local farmers as to  their  respective  capabilities  as  ploughmen.  Joseph Harrison, it is thought, may well have been the prime organiser of the first competition proper in 1895.

The match was held on 13th November 1895 at Mr.  H. Yates's farm in Brailsford. Each year the Match continued to grow and more classes were added. In 1910,  the first set of formal rules to govern the Society were drawn.