Heavy horse tradition revived

The art of heavy horses working the fields will be revived in north Suffolk next week as part of an outreach project.Local people are being urged to get involved in a public ploughing day that will be held in Wingfield.

The art of heavy horses working the fields will be revived in north Suffolk next week as part of an outreach project.

Local people are being urged to get involved in a public ploughing day that will be held in Wingfield.

The initiative is being run by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, in Norwich, as part of its Culture of the Countryside outreach project alongside Wingfield Barns and Swingletree Stables.

The team will be using heavy horses and a vintage tractor to grow a crop of potatoes in the traditional way through a series of community events celebrating the heritage of farming in the area.

The project begins on Thursday, April 8 with a ploughing day from 11am to 3pm and will culminate with a potato festival immediately after the harvest in July.

The free event will also involve local schools and community groups and is funded by the University of East Anglia's outreach opportunity fund.

Veronica Sekules, head of education and research and Culture of the Countryside project director, said she hoped residents will get involved.

'It is a wonderful example of how the project, which takes world art as a starting point, gets people thinking about their culture and heritage, and brings communities together with some fabulous results,' she said.