Crockey Hill York 2016
Cable 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.
The equipment on display at Crockey Hill broadly fell into the following categories:
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Ploughs
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Cultivators
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Harrows
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Combination implements
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Mole Drainers
Unfortunately, I did not have the time (or knowledge) to systematically record them. What follows is a small selection of the equipment. First though is another extraordinary survivor, a Smith Windlass of 1855 which would have been used with a portable engine for roundabout ploughing. It was accompanied by a cultivator of similar vintage. Both items were on loan from the Milton Keynes Museum.
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Broadly speaking, the first three implements would be used sequentially, although often cultivators were found sufficient. The next pictures show some of the ploughs present, those shown are, I believe, all manufactured by Fowler.
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Some of the cultivators present close-up and in use:
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Two harrows, one similar to cultivators and the other very different:
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I seem to have omitted to record any of the mole drainers or combination implements (oh dear).
The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
The first picture is Yuehong's.
If you like this sort of thing then try David Collidge's Steam Scenes http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/