THE Marown Royal Ploughing Match Society is staging a special match to commemorate 150 years of competitive ploughing in the parish of Marown tomorrow (Saturday).
It takes place at Ballafreer, Union Mills (at the top of the Ballahutchin Hill on the main Peel to Douglas road) with ploughing starting at 10am.
There are more than 20 competitors taking part with eight entries in the horses ploughing, the rest are tractor ploughing.
The field was marked out ahead of the ploughing match on Tuesday using horses. This involved using horses pulling the plough to create a long furrow along the edge of the field.
David Rawnsley, Marown Royal Ploughing Match Society committee member, explained that until Tuesday marking out using horses, instead of a tractor, hadn’t been done for decades.
‘In 1937 it was all [done using] horses, no tractors involved. 1938 one tractor on field, 1939 there was five or six and by mid-50s [it was] all tractors.’
The plough used on Tuesday was that of Joe Quine, a famous ploughman in the 50s, which is now owned by the Marown Royal Ploughing Match Society.