The Grand Henham Steam Rally is a charitable organisation and is committed to educating people about all aspects relating to the rally, including the history of steam power, agriculture, rural life and much more. This section of the website aims to provide relevant educational material, available for use in schools, colleges & other teaching organisations. It is our hope to add a new feature each month and therefore build an interesting library of information, accessible to all.
May 2008: Ploughing through the Ages
One of the highlights of the 2007 Grand Henham Steam Rally was the 'Ploughing through the Ages' pageant, presented by well known TV presenter John Craven. The following text is taken from the script used in the pageant, as read by John Craven:
"This pageant is called Ploughing through the Ages and it will be my aim over the next sixty minutes or so to show how the task of cultivating the soil developed from primitive man’s earliest efforts to the mechanized production we see today. Along the way we will see the impact this development had on the history of farming, how it helped change the landscape around us and had such an influence on the social and economic life of our rural community. Stay with us; it’s a fascinating story and we plan to make it both interesting and entertaining.
Where to begin?
First we should look at what is meant by ploughing. To plough is essentially to dig, in other words cut into the soil and turn it over to bury the top rubbish and expose the fertile soil below. It’s what we do in our gardens with a spade but it’s back breaking work especially if you have a large area to dig so it’s not surprising that from early times man was looking for a better way. But the two key elements needed for really effective ploughing, namely a device that will cut the soil while at the same time turning it over and a power source that can make this possible would exercise the minds of men for many centuries. It’s this story that we will be following.
It’s known that primitive ploughs were being used well before the ancient Egyptians over 4000 years ago but, for our story, we’ll start at around 1000BC when the early occupants of, what we now call East Anglia, evolved from being nomadic hunter gatherers to settled peoples whose survival became linked to the success of the crops they could grow.
The first task was to make space for the crops to be grown since most of the country at that time was covered with forest. So, what we see over the next few centuries as trees gave way to arable farming, was a dramatic change to the landscape.
The first efforts to cultivate soil used primitive tools like this. Simple implements, sometimes literally timbers cut from the tree, able to do little more than scratch the surface of the soil. But man’s ingenuity soon developed these into more effective devices, although still primitive, that could be linked to draft animals such as the ox.
We’re in Saxon times now and here we have an example of one of the earliest ploughs.
As you can see it’s fairly crude!
J.C: (to the farmer). "Who made the plough?"
Farmer: "I made it myself. If I hadn’t done I wouldn’t be allowed to plough. That’s the law of the land that is."
J. C: "You mean Saxon law prohibits anybody ploughing if they have not made their plough? How amazing. So what have you made it from?"
Farmer: "A good bit of elm that is, I cut it and shaped it and it does a good job."
J. C: "What pulls it along?"
Farmer: "My two oxen."
J.C: "And how do you control them?"
Farmer: "With this rod. Some people call it a pole or a perch."
J.C: "And how long is it?"
Farmer: "Sixteen foot six inches."
J.C: "How long would it take you to plough this area, say about an acre?"
Farmer: "Best part of a day that’d be."
So here we have ploughing giving us two measurements. The rod or pole or perch which is 16’ 6” and an acre - widely believed to be the area that a farmer could plough in a day.
By this time the importance of the ploughman had been recognised in the community and the ploughman took great pride in his plough. At the Saxon burial site at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge graves have been found with ploughmen buried alongside their plough.
But we must move on.
The design of the plough continued to develop and by the time we reach the 14th century we are beginning to see something that we would recognise as a plough.
Here we have our 14th century ploughman:
The body of the plough – the bit that does the work is constructed of wood, elm or oak, it is carved to form a knife edge at the front to cut through the soil and has a metal plate at the base to increase its cutting effect and reduce wear at the most vulnerable place.
It’s mounted on an oak beam and behind the body is a curved mould board that turns the soil over after it’s been cut. It is steered at the back by the ploughman.
J.C: "What pulls the plough?"
Farmer: "Oxen."
J.C: "How many animals would you need?"
Farmer: "On this light soil probably only 4 but on heavier soil you could need up to 8."
J.C: "But how can you control that many animals while steering the plough?"
Farmer: "I have a man walking beside the beats to guide them."
J.C: "How many acres can you plough in a day?"
Farmer: "On a good day, nearly 2 acres."
J.C: "What do you have for lunch?"
Farmer: "A good bit of cheese, a pickled onion and a chunk of bread."
The importance of the plough in rural society is reflected at this time by the number of pubs that were named after it. We have one in Wangford.
Although small design changes took place over the next few centuries, particularly in the greater use of iron in the construction, it was not until the mid. 18th century that we see any significant improvement in plough technology. This came in 1763 when John Small, a Scotsman, brought the appliance of science to the design of the plough. He used mechanical calculations to design the perfect shape for the mouldboard. The result was this (holds up plough body) the ‘Scots Plough’. You may think it looks familiar, and you’d be right, because Small’s design proved to be so efficient that it became the standard shape for all plough bodies right up to the present day.
This development could not have been more timely. It was at the beginning of the industrial revolution and the country was experiencing an unprecedented growth in population that would, in turn, produce a huge demand for food.
With more and more land falling under the plough we see further changes in the landscape and the plough playing an even greater role on the farm. So with more efficient ploughs and the horse becoming the main draft animal we move on to the next part of our story, horse ploughing and who better to tell us about it than Nigel Oakley.
Nigel Oakley with a Suffolk Punch and a plough:
By the 1830’s the new technology ‘steam power’ was beginning to have a dramatic impact in every walk of life, a bit like the digitaI technology of today, and it was not long before people started to look at how it could be applied to the cultivation of the soil.
In 1854 the Royal Agricultural Society of England offered a prize of £500 for ‘the steam cultivator which shall, in the most efficient manner, turn the soil and be an economical substitute for the plough or spade.’ Over the next four years contests took place throughout the country, including one at Chelmsford, without an award being made.
But in 1858, at trials in Chester, four different systems competed against each other and this time a winner was declared for a system developed by John Fowler, an engineer and entrepreneur from Leeds. His system which we are about to see demonstrated here soon became adopted as the standard method of steam ploughing and John Fowlers name became synonymous with steam ploughing not only in the UK but throughout the world.
Two ploughing engines, a cultivator, a living van and a water cart enter the ring:
As you watch this equipment enter the ring here, just try to imagine yourself living in rural England in the middle of the 19th century. You had probably not ventured beyond the village in which you lived. You probably didn’t read, so had no access to books. The fastest and most powerful means of transport was a horse. And then suddenly one morning you see and hear these monsters travelling along the quiet country lanes. Just imagine the impact this would have. Not surprisingly, like with most new developments, particularly at that time, there was concern among the natives. Fear of the unknown, fear that these monsters might explode and if you worked on a farm, fear that you might be put out of work.
But here to tell us more about the development of steam ploughing is none other than the great grandson of John Fowler, Robert Pelly.
A steam ploughing team consisted two engines, a plough, water cart and a coal wagon. It needed four men to operate the equipment and a boy to do the carrying. In 1860 this equipment cost in the region of £3000. That’s about half a million pounds in today’s money, so it was way out of reach of all but the very biggest estates. Fortunately there were moneyed entrepreneurs who saw an opportunity to set up in business buying the equipment, employing and training the men and offering to visit farms to undertake their ploughing for so much acre. We see here the beginning of the farm contracting business.
The steam plough teams would travel from farm to farm living on site in a living van where the ‘boy’ would also act as head cook and bottle washer They covered very large areas and would often be away from home for the whole of the ploughing season from October to March. The role of the boy should also be explained - what sort of work he had to do, how long he worked, what he was paid and how he coped with being away from home for so long.
Points to be brought out in this section should also include the importance of the balanced plough, the significance of local firm Ransomes Simms & Jeffries in the development of the plough.
The biggest benefit of steam ploughing was the dramatic increase in output. A team could plough as much as 80 acres in a week compared with about 20 acres with a horse but it also turned the soil more effectively to produce a better tilth.
The most suitable conditions for steam ploughing were in the flat lands of East Anglia so it was in this area that the technology developed with manufactures like Burrells of Thetford and Ransomes of Ipswich being at the cutting edge.
But when you see this equipment in use you will see that it would have been ill suited to the small fields of the traditional farm. So what was required? Bigger fields and that meant the removal of hedgerows. So again we see the need for more efficient farming techniques having another impact on our landscape.
Steam ploughing reached its peak in the 1875 but farming was about to enter a major depression caused by 10 years of very bad summers. A depression from which it would take many year’s to recover. Steam ploughing would continue alongside horse ploughing for many year’s to come, until the middle of the 20th century in fact, but there was now a new technology about to make an even more dramatic impact. The internal combustion engine.
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We’ve taken an hour to move from a situation where man struggled to cultivate a plot of land; remember 3 days to plough an area the size of this ring, we’ve seen how teams of men with their horse braved the weather to plough a field. We’ve seen how technology and ingenuity have been used throughout the centuries to improve the efficiency of cultivation to provide a growing population with affordable food. We’ve seen the changes these developments have had on our landscape and on the rural community. And we end with this monster, with its air condition cab, stereo CD player and radio, satellite navigation that enables one man to plough ? acres in a day, that’s equivalent to 30 teams of horse ploughs, and he, or she, can do it in total comfort. I don’t know where we go from here, perhaps it will be done by remote control, who knows? But I have found this a fascinating journey and I hope you have enjoyed it too. I would like to thank all those who have taken part and thank you all for staying with us."
End.