Reference
Z1792/1/1
Title
First Prize Certificate issued by Bedfordshire County Council Agricultural Education Committee for Ploughing Match. (Joe Minney).
Date free text
1908
Production date
From: 1908 To: 1908
Scope and Content
The Beds Times reported the 1908 match in quite a lot of poetic detail. ‘The warmest interest was taken in the very artistic work in hand, and it was verily a competition in a pure art of the highest practical and educational value, forming an opportunity for a pleasant open air meeting and free from the gambling taint’. Prizes were offered for ploughing half an acre of land in the best and cheapest manner within the space of four hours. The depth of ploughing was settled at five inches. Each ploughman had to set two ridges and make his finish exactly in the middle and leave an equal number of furrows in each land. The ploughmen drew lots for their position on the field. Of the Class B (competitors over 21 years with a pair of horses) that Joseph won they said ‘This was also a popular win, and there could not be much doubt about the result. The work was marked by a well closed up ridge, clean and straight ploughing with furrows well laid. It was done with B Brown and Son’s (Leighton Buzzard) R P plough, which on September 17 took the first and champion prize at Thame. Minney, we understand, had never been in a match before. In Minney’s work the stubble was well buried, and the ploughing was favourably commented upon. (13 November 1908)
Level of description
item