Our work at Harvington Hall has revealed a curiosity in the incised images of three ploughs at the entrance off the courtyard.
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) identified the plough as a Lincolnshire plough by Ransomes of Ipswich from the late C18th. and the rare image is possibly ‘an adoption, derivation or misinterpretation of apotropaic marks’ connected with the blessing of ploughs on Plough Sunday.
Indeed the plough has been a totemic symbol of the hopes and wishes for the coming planting season since pre-history, so it is intriguing to note that for the first time in a millennia farmers are doing without the plough which may just become part of the churn of heritage.