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A single furrow plough comprising wooden frame with iron fittings. Wooden hake strapped with iron. Cast iron mould-board inscribed 'TL'. Made about 1880 by Tom Lucas, Cwmteuddwr, near Rhaeadr, Powys. The ironwork was made at Newtown. Used until 1918 at Glyn farm, Rhaeadr.

Ploughing prepares land for crop-growing. Essential features of the plough have remained the same since medieval times: a horizontal beam to which is attached a ploughshare and knife coulter to cut the furrow slice, and a mouldboard to turn it over. Improvements in design and efficiency evolved over the centuries but quickened in pace from the Victorian period. Regional variations in the type of plough used were once very marked, but gradually faded in the later nineteenth century as manufacture became concentrated upon fewer large firms rather than local craftsmen. As horses were replaced by tractors with specially designed implements, the process of ploughing has progressively speeded up so that it can now be completed much more quickly and with fewer people.