IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hawthorne Close, ANDOVER, SP11 8JL

A warm welcome awaits.

Weather vanes have always been more than just a wind direction device. Created by skilled craftsman, there is true artistic expression in the varied designs. Initially wood vanes were carved by carpenters or furniture makers, and iron, copper and tin ones were forged by the local blacksmith or tinsmith. In the 19th century weather vanes started to be mass-produced from moulds.

A vintage tractor rally enter the village on the way to the Plough inn for a lunch stop.

A vintage tractor rally enters the village.

This building is now part of a private house, but used to be one of the hubs of village life years ago.

Sadly, the public house is closed and to let.

Previously photographed in happier times Image, the pub is now closed and to let.

The earliest form of cultivation consisted simply of scratching the soil with a branch or antler to enable a seed to be buried. Early ploughs did no more than this. Later models were designed to bury the remains of the previous crop and surface debris. The Romans designed a plough with stout iron teeth mounted on a wooden sole which turned the soil. Celts and Romans, using light ploughs, adopted the practice of cross-ploughing, so that their fields tended to be almost square. The Saxons, using a heavy, eight-oxen plough, made their fields long to reduce the number of turns. The old English furlong, one-eighth of a mile, is derived from ‘furrow long’. The earliest mould-board plough, similar to that used today, dates from Saxon times. But the really modern mould-board dates from the 18th century with the introduction of iron. Double-furrow ploughs, pulled by two horses, were common until tractors were introduced. Today, powerful tractors pull banks of ploughs which cut many furrows at the same time. This plough stands outside of the village pub.

The Plough is one of the commonest pub names in the country having been in regular use since at least the 16th century.