Time small town dismisses lead ploughman's work (7)
I believe the answer is:
tillage
'ploughman's work' is the definition.
(a ploughman tills the land)
'time small town dismisses lead' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'time' could be 'age' (an age is a period of time) and 'age' is found in the answer.
'town' could be 't' (common abbreviation eg in football team names) and 't' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'ill' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tillage that I've seen before include "Cultivation of the soil" , "digging" , "dirty work" , "Working of the soil" , "Work on land" .)