# What kind of implement (plough?) is this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2021, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370 "2021-08-23T13:13:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370/1 "2021-08-23T13:13:28Z")
The animated opening sequence for the 1975 BBC show _Rutland Weekend Television_ features someone pushing what looks like some sort of farming implement across a field: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JldBvtzMYTI/hqdefault.jpg "RWT - Opening") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JldBvtzMYTI) Is this supposed to be some sort of plough? The reason I’m confused is that most pre-industrial ploughs I’ve seen are pulled by animals rather than pushed by people, and in any case always have much, much shorter blades than the one in this animation. The few photos I’ve found of manually operated push-ploughs invariably have a very short blade, and also have a wheel mounted on the front. Does the sort of plough depicted in this animation have any real-life counterpart, or is it just a fanciful or overly exaggerated depiction on the part of the artist? If there really do exist elongated, manually operated, wheel-less push-ploughs like this, then is there a particular name for them, and any photos I could see? On the other hand, if it’s not a plough, what is it? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370/2 "2021-08-23T13:42:22Z")
It appears to be a stylised version of a simple horse or ox-drawn plough, minus the animals. Presumably for comic effect. Edit: here’s something that looks sort of similar: [https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm\_v2.php?id=record\_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000491&rd=121396](https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000491&rd=121396) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370/3 "2021-08-23T13:47:04Z")
Closer match about 1/3 of the way down this page: [Some Old Farm Implements and Operations (1918) – The Devonshire Association](https://devonassoc.org.uk/devoninfo/some-old-farm-implements-and-operations-1918/) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370/4 "2021-08-23T14:07:50Z")
You mean the one labelled “Two-way zole”? Also, that page mentions that hand ploughs without wheels are called “swing ploughs”, and that a zole is a kind of swing plough. So maybe the device in the animation is a zole or a swing plough. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370/5 "2021-08-23T14:12:59Z")
The animation is apparently nothing much more than a parody of this: > **[Ploughing interlude](https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/ploughing-interlude/zhthqp3)** > > Scenes of traditional ploughing in Tilford, Essex. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370/6 "2021-08-23T14:15:22Z")
What makes you think it’s a parody of that particular footage? I mean, both what you’ve posted and what I posted feature ploughing, but as far as I can tell that’s the extent of the similarity. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-implement-plough-is-this/949370/7 "2021-08-23T14:15:49Z")
[https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/bbc-motion-graphics-archive/rutland-weekend-television-1975](https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/bbc-motion-graphics-archive/rutland-weekend-television-1975) > The opening titles for ‘Rutland Weekend Television’ began with the animated RWT Corporate Identity which segued into Bob Gale’s animated send-up of one of the early BBC interludes of a field being ploughed.