PHOTO: EAST NEWS/SSPL
A photograph titled 'Ploughing and Burning', taken by Colonel Joseph Gale (c 1835-1906) in about 1890. Two teams of oxen pull ploughs across the soil, driven by the farmers and encouraged by the ploughboys standing at either side with whips. The burning in the background is probably harvest debris or shrubbery which needs to be cleared, so the land can be developed. Horse and ox teams for ploughs were still being in used in Britain until around the time of the Second World War. Joseph Gale specialised in naturalistic photographs of rural life and figures in landscapes. He was one of the first members of the Linked Ring Brotherhood and was also a member of the Royal Photographic Society.