Ploughs and Progress

Model C17th Hertfordshire plough from Festival of Britain (MERL 52/68)

Set of model ploughs, Festival of Britain, 1951 These ploughs were part of a series of eight wooden models made for the Country Pavilion of the Festival of Britain. Six of the original set still survive. This section of the Festival focused largely on technical progress and there they were shown alongside the latest farm […]

TURN WREST PLOUGH

Turnwrest plough (MERL 55/786)

In its early years the Museum of English Rural Life toured the nation’s many country shows, picking up objects from farmers and the public and using its collections to show rural communities about the past. This old horse-drawn plough was displayed at the World Ploughing Championships in Shillingford, Oxfordshire, in 1956. Other stands at this […]

Ferguson Tractor

A black and white photograph of a Ferguson tractor sitting in the old museum galleries on Whiteknights campus, University of Reading.
This Ferguson Tractor was found as a mess on a scrapheap by a retired teacher at Rycotewood College. He enlisted the help of students to repair and restore the tractor to working condition. At a later date, it was purchased by The MERL with the help of the Science Museum. The tractor was probably manufactured [...]
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