Plough Sunday tradition revived at Cawston in Norfolk

Once a major event in East Anglian towns and villagers, ploughs would be blessed and drawn through the streets accompanied by singing, dancing and drinking on the first Sunday after the Christian festival of Epiphany.

The practice has fallen in and out of fashion over the decades, but it has seen a revival in recent years.

One example is in Cawston, near Reepham, where more than 50 people sang carols while joining a procession of horses and tractors from Sygate into the village on Sunday.

The tradition of Plough Sunday was revived in the Norfolk village of Cawston (Image: Rebecca Whitehead)

Team vicar, the Rev Andrew Whitehead, said: "It’s been a real joy to revive the tradition of Plough Sunday in Cawston.

"It gives us a chance to remember and thank all of those people who work in the fields around us to provide our food, and it allows us to pray for them as they go about their important work."

READ MORE: Norfolk Ploughing Society event postponed due to wet weather

The festival mirrored the medieval celebrations of the village's Plough Guild, which used to meet at the nearby Plough Inn in Sygate.

The tradition of Plough Sunday was revived in the Norfolk village of Cawston (Image: Rebecca Whitehead)

The church of St Agnes in Cawston is one of many in Norfolk to house a horse-drawn plough - a reminder of how farmers used to work the land -  as well as other artefacts including the pub sign from the Plough Inn, which closed in the 1960s.

Plough Sunday coincides with the church’s celebration of Epiphany - the time in the nativity story when the wise men visited the infant Jesus.

So this weekend’s celebrations in Cawston blended the two traditions, with the wise men catching a lift to the church in the cabs of the tractors.