A GENEROUS donation has been made to a hospital unit which cares for premature and seriously ill babies.

Organisers of the Allonby Charity Ploughing Match donated £1,500 to the department at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle earlier this month.

The hospital unit was once of two beneficiaries of this year’s event, with £700 also donated towards a defibrillator box in Allonby.

The event, which takes place every summer and sees competitors creating perfect furrows in the soil, has taken place every year since 2007. It is held in memory of Allonby farmer William Williamson and brewery owner Peter Yates, of Westnewton, who died in a sailing accident.

It it’s first year money was raised for Maryport and Silloth Lifeboats and since then various local causes have benefitted from a share of more than £27,000.

Ian Tordiff, one of the organisers, was pleased with the total raised at this year’s event.

He was keen to support the baby unit after his grandson Riley Tordiff Barnes was cared for at a similar unit in Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary after he underwent open heart surgery at just two days old.

He said: “We are thrilled. It shows we have got the support of the local community.

“The nurses were thrilled because they are going to use the money towards a mobile monitor.

“It’s marvellous really what they do.”

This year’s event, held at Allerby Hall, near Allonby, was attended by more than 150 spectators.

They watched on as master ploughmen and women - including one who was due to take part in the ploughing World Championship - laid down their best furrows.

The sport – or the origins of it – is a lot older than chariot racing.

Devotees claim farmers have been trying to trump their neighbours’ furrows since the days when land was tilled with reindeer antlers.

Ian explained it takes an enormous amount of skill and dedication to make the furrows as straight as can be.