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55 mins

Countryfile

Adam Henson and Charlotte Smith are in Cambridgeshire at Cheffins’ famous agricultural machinery auction. It’s the ultimate trading floor for agricultural machines and a window into the ever-changing mechanics of farming.

Ahead of the auction, Charlotte helps farmers William Wombwell and Chris Haylock to get their machines gleaming before they go under the hammer in the hope of fetching a great price.

With the help of auctioneer Joe Page, Adam discovers the history of Europe’s largest auction of farming machinery at their 42-acre site, where farmers across the UK and the world buy and sell the vital tools of their trade. He also takes a ride on a mobile auction car to get stuck into the bidding action.

Exploring the site, Charlotte meets a cast of characters and learns how the UK’s used farming equipment is a big pull for international buyers looking to bid and ship home a machine with provenance. Further afield, we meet a family of mechanical tinkerers who restore the vintage tractors of yesteryear, which are ripe for reinvention.

Tom Heap investigates the perfect storm of factors contributing to the ‘death’ of Lough Neagh, the UK’s largest lake.