Plough Service

A County Plough Service, celebrating the traditional start to the Farming Year, will be held on:

Sunday 11 January at 3.00 pm

in Chester Cathedral, St Werburgh Street, Chester CH1 2DY

No booking required.

Bishop Mark, the Bishop of Chester, will preach at this celebration of farming and agricultural life.

Plough Sunday dates from the medieval period, when the village plough was kept in the local church. Ploughing began after Epiphany. On Sunday those villagers farming the medieval strip fields would go to church to collect the plough and ask God's blessing on the plough and on their work.

In modern farming, if fields are ploughed at all, it is in the autumn, ready for crops which germinate over winter. Nonetheless, the traditional Plough Service provides an opportunity for the agricultural community to gather and to celebrate their work.