Another agricultural query

[Top-of-the-hill]

  As I mentioned in my recent post about turnips(!), I am writing a piece about the local ploughing matches. I blithely assumed that men and horses walked to and from the site, but then realised - what about the plough? Did one of the horses have to pull a wagon with the plough on it? Most of the teams were 3 or 4 horses, and the distances involved were between 2 and 5 miles. This is in the 1840s.

[Nick_Ips]

By the 1840's ploughs would commonly have wheels (but not universally), so it is plausible the plough would just be pulled along the road or tracks on it's own wheels to get to the match site.

The wheels were usually independently height adjustable - in most cases when ploughing one wheel would be set much lower to run in the furrow, whereas the other wheel would run 'on the land'.  For transport the wheels would be adjusted to the same height.

As the wheels were usually right at the front the ploughman would have to 'lift' the plough so the plough body would be clear of the ground.  Doing that for 5 miles would be hard work.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thanks Nick. I found a picture of a Kent turn-wrest plough and I see what you mean about the wheels at the front. Most of the "roads" they were using would be fairly rough, I guess, just lanes.

[Nick_Ips]

  Thanks Nick. I found a picture of a Kent turn-wrest plough and I see what you mean about the wheels at the front. Most of the "roads" they were using would be fairly rough, I guess, just lanes.

I was going to mention the roads, but thought I'd said enough already.

Small horseploughs in that era would have had cast iron wheels - which on a hard road surface like modern roads would be noisy and cause the whole plough to vibrate... in other words quite tiring for the ploughman.

Because the wheels were designed to run on soft land when ploughing they would be happier running over the unmade/rough roads and tracks that were common in rural areas.

[AlanBoyd]

I suppose my question would be: why wouldn’t they have used a cart or wagon?

[Nick_Ips]

I suppose my question would be: why wouldn’t they have used a cart or wagon?

Some probably did - but bear in mind lifting a plough on and off a wagon would be a two or three person job, and the wagon wouldn't neccesarily travel a great deal faster.

To us using a cart or wagon might seem the obvious solution, because what we would do today would be hitching a trailer to the car and loading the plough on the trailer, and then drive however far in airconditioned comfort.  The cart/wagon is the closest alternative to what we'd do.

But the day job for a ploughman would be ploughing at least an acre of land per day, which (depending on furrow width) involved a walking distance of (say) 10 miles.  More if he was using a larger team that could work faster.

So to the ploughman, walking 2 to 5 miles behind the plough to get to a ploughing match wouldn't have seemed out of the ordinary.

For a single furrow plough (typically used for match ploughing) you'd normally need only one or two horses - so if a team of three or four were being used it may be one or two were used for the journey there, leaving one or two fresh for the match work.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I did wonder about a horse and cart on lanes, so maybe I should go back to my original vision of them walking there. The classes were for 4-horse, 3-horse and 2-horse teams and most were 4-horse.

[youngtug]

Depends on the type of plough. Some were sit on though the single walking one in the link could be reversed and drawn behind a cart etc, with the wheels at the rear. ;
 https://willmow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/WM11305-1.jpg

[Rena]

A farmer usually had fields that adjoined each other and for crossing pastureland and old lanes  the farmer only had to move a large wooden lever to lift the plough and lower a wheel.

https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/ancient-plough