Leslie Goodwin won the World Ploughing Championship for Great Britain in Germany in October 1958.
He was born near Hay on Wye on the Welsh-English border in 1930.
His father was a champion plougher so it was no surprise when Leslie started competing in ploughing matches in 1949.
He was dedicated to the dicipline throughout the 1950's culminating in his British Championship win in Scotland in 1957.
This meant he was selected as one of the two members of the Great Britain team competing in the World Championships held at Hohenheim, near Stuttgart in Germany on 3 and 4 October 1958.
Leslie practised assiduously on fields at his home in Dorstone for the nine months preceding the event.
After the first day of the two-day event Leslie was placed third after ploughing a nine inch deep furrow on a Fordson Power Major Diesel tractor.
However, the final day's competition involved the tough conditions of ploughing a 6 inch deep furrow through grass. But this dicipline was Leslie's speciality.
The photograph on the left shows Leslie splitting the last two furrows at the 1958 World Championship.
More than 70,000 people watched Leslie clinch the World Championship on 4 October.
His efforts were enough to beat off the challenge of Lawrence McMillan of Northern Ireland by the slender margin of a quarter of a point.
He was awarded the winner's trophy of a large Gold Plough and a small replica of the trophy which he was allowed to keep.
The Hereford Times reported a massive welcome home on 13 October 1958 for the man with The Golden Plough.
Leslie began his triumphant homecoming at Hereford railway station before being taken to the town hall where hundreds of people watched him being seated on a specially adapted Ransomes plough mounted on a farm trailer hauled by a bright new Fordson tractor whilst 14 trumpeters sounded a welcoming fanfare.
After a civic reception at the assembly hall everyone stood to give three cheers and sing "For he's a jolly good fellow."
The 1958 World Championship was the last time that Leslie Goodwin ploughed competitively, citing his impending marriage and the demands of farming for his retirement.
Nevertheless, Leslie continues to judge ploughing matches to this day and is a judge at the 2008 British Ploughing Championships held at Marden, near Tonbridge in Kent on 11 and 12 October.
He is a Life Vice-President of the British National Ploughing match and a member of Radnor Valley Vintage Club.
He is now retired from farming and lives in Kington in Herefordshire
1958 World Ploughing Champion
