For the first time in its 71 year history, the British National Ploughing Championships & Country Festival will be held in Derbyshire. The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire have given permission to hold the event on the Chatsworth Estate on land near Glapwell on the 8th and 9th of October 2022.
Space for trade stands, shopping stalls and agricultural machinery demonstrations is available to book with companies looking forward to getting back to normality after two difficult years.
Ploughmen and women from across the country are sending their entries ahead of a full calendar of ploughing matches. Around 250 are expected to take part, competing in one of fifteen 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 heavy horses.
There are also tractor club classes for Ferguson, Ford & Fordson and David Brown machines.
In six classes, the top ten competitors from the first day will take part in a Plough-Off Final on Sunday to find the British Champion in each section and the qualifiers who will take part in the World and European Ploughing Championships next year.
Visitors can also see steam ploughing engines, vintage tractors and machinery displays and working vintage demonstrations. Manufacturers and local dealers will have an area for demonstrating the most up-to-date machinery. There will also be agricultural trade stands with everything from tractors to tools.
For families visiting, there will also be plenty of shopping stalls and country crafts.
The 250-acre site reportedly looks good and is just a few minutes from junction 29 on the M1. After a recent site visit, Sue Frith, chief executive of the Society of Ploughmen who organise the event said: “There is a lot of interest and excitement about the Championships this year. The only thing is, when we mention Chatsworth, people ask if we will be ploughing in the Park!”
The British National Ploughing Championships & Country Fair is sponsored by Bridgestone/Firestone, with further support from Aztec Oils, Cereals Event, A R Demolition and CBS.
For more information go to www.ploughmen.co.uk