British Ploughing on The Chatsworth Estate

The Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire will be host to this years’ British National Ploughing Championships & Country Festival when the event is held at Glapwell, North East Derbyshire on 8th and 9th October 2022 by kind permission of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

Ploughing entries are now in and over 240 ploughmen and women will be travelling from all corners of Great Britain to take part in the Championships, vying for the titles in their respective discipline. The top 10 reversible and conventional ploughers from the first day will compete in a ‘Plough-Off’ Final on the second day, hoping to win the title and a place to represent England in next year’s World or European Championships. The top 10 competitors in the vintage trailed, hydraulic, classic and classic reversible classes will again win a place in their respective ‘Plough-Off’ Final again to win the title and hopefully a place to compete in the 2023 European Vintage Ploughing Championships.

There will also be classes for the stylish high-cut tractor ploughing, crawler tractors, horticultural, Ferguson, Ford & Fordson and David Brown. Finally, on both days there will be the crowd-pulling heavy horses which should be a sight to see with 16 pairs entered in the general purpose ploughing class on the Saturday and twelve ploughing in the high cut class on Sunday.

Alongside the ploughing competitions, visitors will be able to shop and browse in the trade stand & shopping area and craft marquee; they can see the latest agricultural machinery for sale being demonstrated in the working area; and see displays of old vintage tractors and machinery. They can also watch four massive steam ploughing engines showing how contractors would plough and work the fields in the early part of the 20th century, with a cable running a ride-on plough between two engines weighing 20 tons each. The Fowler BB1 engines, “Aries” and “Libra”, will be travelling all the way from County Durham with Stephen and Anne Kearton and another pair, “Tiger” and “Lion” are based locally at Ashover, courtesy of Marriott Drilling.

The 250-acre site on Elm Tree Farm is looking good, although dry at the moment and will be very easy to find, only a few minutes from junction 29 on the M1. After a recent site visit, Sue Frith, Chief Executive of the Society of Ploughmen who are organising the event said, “We are really looking forward to holding the Championships at Glapwell! We are very grateful that our host and President, the Duke of Devonshire invited us to Derbyshire as this is the first time in 71 years the event has ever been held in the county - and it couldn’t be on a better venue than the Chatsworth Estate.”

Main sponsors of the Championships are Bridgestone /Firestone and Aztec Oils and further support has been given by AR Demolition, Cereals Event, Cheffins, Dales Agri Sales Agency, Dalton Tags, Friends of Ferguson Heritage, Howard Marshall Engineering, Ripon Farm Services and Tama Farm Grown Solutions.

Discounted tickets are available online with extra discounts for ‘early birds’ before 31st August. For further information visit www.ploughmen.co.uk