GATHERING in the harvest in a field near Bromsgrove by a method which vanished from farms more than 50 years ago has enthralled dozens of sightseers who turned up to watch.

Farmer Chris Cooke who has just finished cutting a seven-acre field of wheat, at Woodgate, with an old-fashioned tractor-drawn binder, said the work was watched with interest by many who had never seen one in use before.

He explained he grew the crop for thatching straw.

"The corn is a by-product and will be used for animal feed." he said.

Corn cut by modern combines produces straw which is useless for the thatchers' art.

The variety, Maris Wigeon, was grown commercially 30 years ago and is especially suitable for producing good strong, lengthy straw.

Three years ago he experimented by growing an acre and a half, next year he intends greatly increasing the acreage to satisfy increasing demand.

This year's crop has produced 6,000 sheaves which have been harvested by Chris and a small army of willing friends.

"Last year we supplied straw used to re-thatch a dovecote at Mary Arden's house, Shakespeare's mother-in-law's home, near Stratford-upon-Avon," he said.

Using a technique developed by Chris and fellow farmer Tim Tyrrell, 20 to 25 individual sheaves are bundled together on the field for easier mechanical handling before being taken to the farm.

There the grain is removed and the straw "combed" to remove dead leaves.

It is then made into manageable bundles or "boltings" ready for use by thatchers.

Binders which cut and tie the corn were introduced to Britain from the USA in the late 1880s.

Today they are usually only seen in farm museums. Chris's machine is one of the last made in Britain.

They were superseded by less labour intensive combine harvesters which cut and thresh corn in one operation.