Northumberland to host British Ploughing Championships

The event, to be held at Mindrum Mill by kind permission of D Harvey & Son on October 9-10, will be only the third time in the past 70 years that it has been held in the county.

Organisers say entries have been coming in from all over the country and space for trade stands, shopping stalls and agricultural machinery demonstrations is being snapped up after many shows have been cancelled.

There will be 15 different ploughing classes over the two days – including world style conventional and reversible, vintage classes for trailing, hydraulic and classic ploughs, horticultural ploughing, crawlers, tractor high cut and magnificent heavy horses.

There are also tractor club classes for Ferguson, Ford & Fordson and David Brown.

In five classes, the top 10 competitors from the first day will take part in a Plough-Off Final on the Sunday to find the British Champion in each section.

There will be something for everyone alongside the ploughing competitions, from steam ploughing engines, vintage tractors and machinery displays and working vintage demonstrations.

Machinery manufacturers and local dealers will have an area for demonstrating the most up-to-date machines they have for sale and for those farmers who want to shop or browse, there will be agricultural trade stands with everything from tyres to tools. More shopping will be available with shopping stalls and country crafts.

The organisers are expecting around a dozen pairs of horses ploughing on each day, including the current British Horse Ploughing Champion, Jim Elliott who lives near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.

The 250-acre site at Mindrum Mill, close to the Scottish border, is looking good and the crops are almost ready to be harvested.

Host farmer Ian Harvey, president of the Society of Ploughmen, organisers of the event, said: “I have been planning the crop rotation around this great event since 2018 and there is a lot of local and national interest and excitement about the championships coming to north Northumberland It will be an honour to host such an outstanding event.”

Main sponsors are Bridgestone/Firestone and Continental Tyres and further support has been given by Tama, Cereals Event, Ivor King, Friends of Ferguson Heritage and CBS.

For further information visit www.ploughmen.co.uk

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