BBC - A History of the World - Object : Wooden Plough

plough

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Small's ploughs were requested to be demonstrated by King 'Farmer' George IIIIn the mid 1700s, James Small from Berwickshire contributed greatly to the world development of the plough as we now know it. In addition to influencing the overall design of the single furrow horse plough, Small significantly improved the shape of the mouldboard so that it turned a proper furrow. Contributing to the success of the Agricultural Revolution, Small's ploughs were requested to be demonstrated by King 'Farmer' George III. Small made his first experimentally shaped mouldboards from wood covered in thin metal before eventually making them in iron. This plough, vernacularly made, is very much in the Small's tradition with a metal sheathed mouldboard. It probably dates back from the very early 1800s and is probably only one of less than five in existence. Museum founder Isobel Grant realised the plough's significance and noted that she only knew of three surviving ploughs with wooden mouldboards.

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