Festival of the Plow

The Festival of the Plow was held in the neighboring village of Low Burnham.  It truly celebrated the plow.  There were horses plowing, steam plows, tractors, rototillers and anything else you can think of that could plow was demonstrated.  Terrier raced as well as ferrets. Birds of prey were on display and it could arrange to have them come fly over your fields to catch rabbits. Tents of vendors selling a wide variety as well as tents of poultry, antique farm equipment, models of fairs, boats and steam engines were set up.  Dancers, bands, a carousel, kiddy carnival rides, and food booths rounded out the assortment.

John was amazed by a pair of steam tractors pulling a plow between them by means of a steel cable.  This method was used into the 1960’s.

First tractor- up hill pulling plow

 

second steam tractor-down hill- pulling plow

 

 

pulled plow-double sided doesn't turn around, other side just engages

cable to pull plow

 

 

 

 

I like the horse plowing competition.  The competition seemed to be who could plow the straightest and most even rows.

 

                         The ferret racing was fun to watch though none of them were very fast.

Ferret race couse

 We haven’t seen many birds of prey flying around England. Talking with the people who had them on display, we learned that many of the birds of prey were killed so they wouldn’t hunt the pheasants as people like to do that.  The ones they had were hand raised and trained to only hunt rabbits, so they could help farmers. No mention of birds hunting mice. To see wild birds you need to be in forested areas away from large estates where hunting was or is popular.