A Tyne Tees Television edition of the ITV About Britain series about 81 year old Thomas William Forster (1906 - 1998), one of the last and best of the Northumbrian ploughmen. This documentary includes dramatized scenes of his early life and developing love of ploughing and features training with Clydesdale horses at Sillywrea Farm near Hexham with John Dodd. The film opens with scenes of Tom Forster ploughing with a tractor on a farm near Great Whittington in Northumberland. He tills the...

A Tyne Tees Television edition of the ITV About Britain series about 81 year old Thomas William Forster (1906 - 1998), one of the last and best of the Northumbrian ploughmen. This documentary includes dramatized scenes of his early life and developing love of ploughing and features training with Clydesdale horses at Sillywrea Farm near Hexham with John Dodd. The film opens with scenes of Tom Forster ploughing with a tractor on a farm near Great Whittington in Northumberland. He tills the land with his four-furrow reversible plough. In voiceover he muses on how ploughing makes him happy. An interview follows with Tom talking about ploughing with horses in comparison with a tractor; it is exactly the same he says, if the plough isn’t right, then nothing is right. Back inside his tractor cabin, Tom continues to plough the field. He stops for a break and pours himself a cup of coffee from a flask. He talks about how he ploughed the same fields last year as he did back in 1921, which brought back memories from his youth. A dramatic interlude follows of Tom’s early life as a small boy dressed in Edwardian clothes ploughing the sand along a riverbank with a piece of driftwood. His mother calls him to come and have tea at a picnic set up beside the river. The boy continues to plough furrows in the sand with his stick, ignoring her shouts. Back in the present day, Tom drives a different tractor and plough along a road crossing a stone bridge as he makes his way back to Wallington Hall near Morpeth where he has been based since 1940 looking after the arable crops on the farm. Driving into a yard at the hall, now run by the National Trust, he climbs down from his cab carrying a can of oil and begins to pour the lubricant onto the plough blades helping to maintain them. The commentary continues to tell his story, of how he set up on his own at the age of 61 instead of retiring. It maintains his link with the land. Returning to the dramatisation, a school bell is rung and two boys call out for the teenage Tom to hurry up as they don’t want to be late for class. Tom, carrying a number of books, walks slowly along a country road. In a nearby field an agricultural labourer is ploughing with two horses. Tom watches the worker as the other pupils make their way into the school building. Tom climbs over the wall, leaving his books behind, and runs over to the labourer to learn from him how to plough a field. Tom ploughs the field while the worker holds the horse reins. In his garden at home the older Tom uses a fork to dig up a patch of potatoes. A neighbour comes out of his house and asks if Tom would like a cup of tea. Inside Tom and his neighbour sit at a table laden with sandwiches, cake and a plate of cherry buns chatting about ploughing and discussing the time when Tom first arrived at Wallington. The neighbour’s wife pours each of them their tea. Taking part in a traditional autumn ploughing competition Tom works with two large Clydesdale horses to plough the straightest furrows. Nearby other farm workers also plough their furrows watched by spectators.  An announcer declares Tom the winner and he is presented with a trophy by a woman. Various certificates and trophies for ploughing won by Tom hang on a wall inside a barn. Outside Tom and a colleague work to remove and replace a circular plate wheel on an older horse-drawn plough. Tom walks through a churchyard and into the church where he looks at his late wife Mary’s name written inside a book of remembrance. Tom talks about how he was able to continue living when she died eleven years previously in 1976. Out in the fields Tom and a farmer discuss the condition of the earth and how best to plough the field. The farmer reminds Tom it was 1979 when he last ploughed this field, after the night of a big storm. Tom begins the work using a four-furrow reversible plough as the farmer talks about how Tom is the man to go to for tricky ploughing jobs. The tractor pulls up in front of a large boulder in the field. Tom climbs out of his cabin and with the help of the farmer moves it out of the way. The ploughing begins again.  A winter scene at Wallington Hall follows with snow laying heavy on the ground and icicles hanging from the guttering. Inside an out-building Tom fills a metal bucket with chopped wood and carries it back to his home placing it beside his fire. He places some of the wood on his fire. Outside his tractor stands idle covered in snow, the blades on his plough showing signs of rust due to lack of use. Back beside his fire Tom lights and smokes his pipe while he rests his feet against the warm tiles surrounding the fire. He reminisces about life as a labourer on the farm 50 years ago when there was always something to do even in winter. In voiceover he says: “We were slaves them days, just slaves. They used to watch you and time yer. [He laughs] They treated the dogs better than the men.” The film returns to a dramatized past and Tom, now a middle-aged man, uses two horses to pull a cultivator and is reprimanded by the farmer for stopping a few minutes to light a pipe. Back in the present, Tom makes a start ploughing a new field. From the cabin of his tractor he watches the plough carefully, making sure the furrows are straight. A young boy walks over to the tractor carrying a wicker basket containing Tom’s lunch. He comes to a stop and lets the boy, James, on board. He allows him to drive the tractor and plough the field under his tutoring. At Sillywrea (“Quiet Corner”) Farm near Langley-on-Tyne, Tom and farmer John Dodd work together to harness two Clydesdale horses in readiness for ploughing. The two men lead the horses from the farm to the field discussing the work that needs doing. In voiceover John Dodd talks about how he first met Tom fifteen years earlier asking for the loan of his horses. He’d heard a lot of stories about the legendary ploughman. In a partially ploughed field they couple the horses to the plough. Taking control of the horses, Tom begins to plough the field at a slow regular pace. He reminisces about working with the animals a long time ago and why he likes it so much. Back beside his tractor Tom continues the earlier interview. With a smile he says he has no intention of retiring. It’s the love of ploughing that keeps him going. That’s all. Tom is back ploughing with his tractor. The documentary cycles back through the dramatized sequences from middle-aged man to small boy ploughing furrows in the sand along a riverbank. The film ends with Tom sitting peacefully beside his fire smoking his pipe. [Sillywrea is believed to be last farm in England to rely on horse power and featured in the documentary and accompanying book The Last Horsemen by Charles Bowden.]