Crockey Hill York 2016
Roundabout Steam Ploughing

This is one of a series of pages which I have uploaded to illustrate facets of steam rallies we have attended in the UK (since 2013). Such events occur all over the country in the summer months, they are easily found by using your favourite search engine and may have anything between a handful of steam engines and hundreds (as at the Great Dorset Steam Fair which could probably be fairly described as having an excess of riches). Click here for the Crockey Hill index and click here for the overall 2016 index.

During the 19th century, before what became the standard two engine cable ploughing system was universally adopted, single engine systems were potentially an attractive alternative as they required roughly half as much investment. The roundabout system involved taking a cable around  the periphery of the field which was then used to pull a plough backwards and forwards across it. The key was the use of a windlass with two counter-rotating drums which could be driven by either a belt (with a portable engine) or a shaft (as in the Howard engine below). The former was soon abandoned when the portable was developed into a traction engine which could move itself. Howard's system probably represents 'best practice'.

The engine shown above (Howard 110/ca 1876) was exported with its associated equipment to the USA in 1929 where it was displayed outside the (Henry Ford) Dearborn Museum, slowly deteriorating until it was bought and returned to the UK for restoration by Richard Vernon in 1991. The museum had been supplied with a 3 furrow plough, a 5 tine cultivator, two pulleys and two self-moving anchors but the latter had disappeared. Like many such projects it has taken many years to come to fruition but in 2014, Richard went to Australia where there is a similar Barford and Perkins anchor used in a portable powered roundabout ploughing system. (Click here for a YouTube clip.) As a result, he was able to build a replica and this was to be the first public demonstration of his equipment. In fact, no-one alive will ever have seen anything like it at work and I feel very privileged to have been present.

I have uploaded a short video clip to my own YouTube Channel, at some stage I hope I can film the engine again 'at leisure' and do full justice to it.

The first pictures show the equipment in some detail:

Plough	Cultivator	Rope Porter	Anchored Pulley	Self-moving Anchor

The second set of pictures shows the engine in some detail. Note that the engine is not 'handed' and can operate to either side as required. It must have been very fiddly to set up, requiring a horse to deliver the cable to the outlying points.

If you like this sort of thing then try David Collidge's Steam Scenes http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/