PLOUGHMEN from across Britain and Ireland descended on Surrey for the annual Chertsey Ploughing Match on Bank Holiday Monday.

A new Guinness World Record was set at the 168-year-old event held in perfect ploughing conditions at Wey Manor Farm in New Haw, when 24 two-wheel tractors took to the field at the same time.

To set a record, the organisers of the match had to have at least 20 Iron Horse-style tractors ploughing the field at a depth of 5in for five minutes.

George Holt, a Chertsey Agricultural Association member who helped set up the record attempt, said the success was "fantastic".

He said: "It went very, very well indeed. It was a fantastic event and it was far better than we expected it to be.

"We achieved the attempt and we did it. We had 24 two-wheel tractors ploughing at the same time. We had 22 Iron Horses and two other makes.

"We were successful in our bid and there is a lot of paperwork [to do], but it was terrific."

He added: "Believe me, it was absolutely fantastic and everybody said so.

"All kinds of people came and a lot of people came for the attempt only and it was pretty packed - there was a terrific number of people."

An Iron Horse plough has two wheels and is pushed by the ploughman.

The youngest ploughman on the day was 14 and the oldest was in his 70s.

There were two other ploughing matches which took place at the same time as the record attempt - the Chertsey Agricultural Association match and the vintage tractor first qualifier match.