THE British National Ploughing Championships and Country Festival will be celebrating 70 years when the event is held on October 9 and 10 this year, at Mindrum Mill, Northumberland, only the third time the event has been held in the county.

Organisers report that entries for the event are coming in from all sides, while space for trade stands, shopping stalls and agricultural machinery demonstrations is being snapped up. With many other shows cancelled, visitors are actively looking for somewhere else to go and this year Ploughing Championships should fit the bill.

Ploughmen and women, some travelling from as far afield as Devon, the Isle of Wight and Kent, will compete 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 and Fordson and David Brown. In five classes, the top 10 competitors from the first day will take part in a Plough-Off Final on the Sunday to find the British Champion in each section.

Alongside the ploughing competitions, there will be steam ploughing engines, vintage tractors and machinery displays and working vintage demonstrations. Machinery manufacturers and local dealers will have an area for demonstrating the most up-to-date machines, and for those farmers who want to shop or browse, there will be agricultural trade stands with everything from tyres to tools. More shopping will be available with shopping stalls and country crafts.

The 250 acre site at Mindrum Mill is very close to the Scottish border, between Wooler and Kelso and is currently sown with wheat and oil seed rape. After a recent site visit, president of the Society of Ploughmen, organisers of the event, and host farmer, Ian Harvey said: “I have been planning the crop rotation around this great event since 2018 and there is a lot of local and national interest and excitement about the Championships coming to North Northumberland next to the Scottish border. It will be an honour to host such an outstanding event!”