HEAVY HORSES Stuart and Bridie Fawcett are ensuring heavy horses will endure at Grimsthorpe Castle.

Send in the Send in the HEAVIES HEAVIES

This summer you can enjoy a sedate ride around the Grimsthorpe Castle Estate with Stuart and Bridie Fawcett, ably assisted by their four beautiful Clydesdales. But there’s a serious point to this pursuit too; saving our native breeds...

THEY SAY IT’S BETTER TO TRAVEL than to arrive. Following a recent visit to Bourne’s Grimsthorpe Castle I’m inclined to agree. These days in our cars we hold dominion over many hundreds of horse powers... but proving that less is sometimes more, we discovered that just four horsepower was sufficient to provide a really sedate journey through the countryside of the 3,000 acre country estate... and we won’t be the only ones to make that discovery this summer. The Castle and its grounds were still closed when we arrived in early May to meet carriage driver Stuart Fawcett and his wife Bridie, who were hosting a group of journalists and photographers in advance of Grimsthorpe’s

Horse Power & Horsepower at Grimsthorpe

Both mechanised and four-legged transport are celebrated this summer at Grimsthorpe

n Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th July: Baston Car Show at Grimsthorpe Expect to see all of the usual goodies with car displays and trade stands for all marques, car and bike clubs, live music, keen engines and polished bodywork... and what’s more this year will see the introduction of a new 4x4 Adventure Show. n Saturday 31st July: Festival of the Unexceptional Celebrating the cars that were the workhorses of their day: the base model saloons, hatchbacks and estates that were sold in their millions between roughly 1968 and 1996, and are now all so rare. There will be live music, good food and lots of unexceptional motors too! n Saturday 28th August: Grimsthorpe Speed Trials Authentic Edwardian and pre-WW2 vehicles and the excitement of vintage racing, against the background of the castle. Vintage attire is appreciated but not obligatory. heavy horse drawn carriage rides, which are being offered throughout the summer. The Grimsthorpe Estate re-opens as Pride goes to press and is one of the county’s most established country estates, standing alongside Burghley, Belvoir & Belton as being historic buildings surrounded by working farmland. Today, Grimsthorpe is held in trust as part of the 75,000-acre Grimsthorpe & Drummond Castle Trust; the latter is located in Perthshire near Crieff.

The Castle at its centre is home to The Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, a baronetcy established in 1491 with the abeyance of Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke. The 28th Baroness Jane Heathcote Drummond-Willoughby served as one of the six Maids of Honour at the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. This month, visitors can enjoy the beautifully manicured gardens and Capability Browndesigned deer-grazed parkland, and the Vanbrugh-design baroque architecture

Heavy Horse Population Decline

of the current building. Before we set off to enjoy the parkland, though, there were a couple more introductions in order.

Today, there are thought to be fewer than 3,500 Shire horses being desired that were fit for worldwide, an example of the Plough and the Dray,’’ says the decline in heavy horse Stuart. “There are four main populations since the mid-20th breeds in the UK, of which three century... are native. We’re at Grimsthorpe this year to provide visitors of the estate the “At the front we’ve Seamus and Sirius, and here we’ve Silas and Severus,” said Stuart. “The four Clydesdales are all around five opportunity to help our conservation effort by taking a carriage ride with our Clydesdales and enjoy the splendour of the parkland.” years old and they weigh in at about 700kg It’s thought in the early years of the 20th each. At around 17hh they’re about as tall century, when the population of the UK as they’ll get, but they will fill out a little was 38,328,000, we had a heavy horse more in the coming years.” population of around 1,000,000. As we set off, two things became abundantly Today, with a UK population of 67,886,011 clear; firstly, the horses clearly enjoy their we have a heavy horse population of around work. They were keen to provide VIP travel 3,500, which demonstrates the decline in the and they love to meet their two-legged fans. population of heavy horses, relative to the Secondly, though, is that Stuart & Bridie growth in population. both know their stuff and have a real passion for ensuring heavy horses aren’t consigned to the history books. Indeed, it’s thought that there are fewer than 1,200 Clydesdales in the UK, around 1,500 Shires and approximately 500 Suffolk “Heavy horses were in fact first mentioned Punches alongside the French Percheron around a thousand years ago with horses which came to prominence in the UK after

BATTLE PROMS BACK AT BURGHLEY HOUSE...

Classical music, cavalry displays and a Spitfire flypast all making summer special on Saturday 10th July at Burghley House!

Classical music in the open air with the breathtaking backdrop of Burghley House! What could be better? The Battle Proms features a full orchestral performance by the New English Concert Orchestra. While the orchestra will be slightly smaller this year to allow for social distancing on stage, organisers have lined up yet another programme of soul-stirring classical favourites, including the 1812 Overture and Beethoven’s Battle Symphony, performed with the full complement of 193 live firing Napoleonic cannon – a Battle Proms speciality! An annual highlight for many ‘Battle Prommers,’ the iconic Grace Spitfire will once again perform a meticulously choreographed aerial display to the opening pieces of the orchestral performance, including Elgar’s Nimrod. “There’s a family-feel to the Battle Proms, and that’s not just amongst the crew and cast behind the scenes, but every single one of the Battle Prommers who come along year after year. The impact of Covid hit everyone in different ways – but not to be able to meet up and share the spectacular, joyful, musical, magical Battle Proms Picnic concerts last year was a disappointment for us all. But we’re back - delighted to re-join our Battle Proms friends to munch picnics, shed a tear at the dancing Spitfire, cheer the guns, singalong with the melodies and have a fantastic time together!”says compére, BBC Presenter Pam Rhodes. Tickets for the Battle Proms are (£48/person) available from www.battleproms.com and the organisers are encouraging people to book early to avoid disappointment. This is a spectacular summer event you really don’t want to miss this year!

the Army returned home with them after the First World War.

It was the Second World, however, that signalled the decline of working horses. The move towards a plant-based diet led to lots of pastureland being given over to arable crops, which in turn necessitated greater mechanisation, and led to the rise in the tractor, commensurate with the new ‘threepoint link’ system still in use on modern tractors and invented in Britain, patented in the 1920s by Harry Ferguson. Farmers moved away from heavy horses and towards mechanised ploughing and haulage to and from farms. And this was exacerbated, too, by the ex-MOD vehicles which were available cheaply to farmers, post-WWII. Remarkably, it remained cost-effective for heavy horses to be used as beer drays right into the 1970s and 1980s, but larger breweries like Carlsberg and Heineken phased them out in favour of haulage. Still there remains four or five breweries who use heavy horses to make deliveries, but sadly, most drays have been lost to vans and lorries. The same is true in terms of the proliferation of motor vehicles through the first half of the 20th century and the gradual replacement of horses by mechanised transport, hence it was in the post-war era that the UK’s heavy horse population declined most dramatically. And yet there remains enclaves where the heavy horse endures. North America has a greater presence of heavy horses, certainly in states with Amish populations, but the Budweiser Clydesdales are probably the best-known examples of the breed worldwide. The stables have around 250 Clydesdales based in Missouri, and the heavy horses open the US Superbowl event each year. “We’ve always had horses but after I injured my leg my ability to ride was effected,” says Stuart. “Bridie worked with horses in the early 1900s town and pit village of Beamish. We decided to start keeping Clydesdales and it soon became our way of life, with carriage rides and driving tuition becoming both our living and that of our horses’’ “The parkland of Grimsthorpe Castle is stunning and we’re really looking forward to welcoming people to enjoy carriage rides this summer so they can meet our Clydesdales!”

“The parkland of Grimsthorpe Castle is stunning and we’re really looking forward to welcoming people to enjoy carriage rides this summer. We’ve established different routes to provide a little bit of variety, and they’ll cover just over two miles during the 30-40minute rides. We’re planning to provide three rides each day, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.” “Dray horses would walk about 12 miles a day and plough horses would walk around 11 miles for each acre of land they’d plough, so this is a gentle workload for them, and you can tell they enjoy it.” “They’re quite playful and mischievous, but as soon as they get the harness, they become very serious and well-behaved. You can tell they love the attention too, they become very self-important and proud when there are people around to fuss them. They lap up all of the attention!” As Pride goes to press the team will be hosting Grimsthorpe’s Heavy Horse Weekend which, in addition to debuting the carriage rides, will also see us welcoming Jonathan Waterer, who we believe is the UK’s last heavy horse farmer; Recommended Trainer’s Gary and Kelly from Intelligent Horsemanship with horse whispering techniques pioneered by Monty Roberts. There will be farrier demonstrations from Master Farrier Alex Mercer alongside some great Equine trade demos. Sweeping through the parkland though, remains the best way to appreciate the estate. The carriage experience is smooth, comfortable and very civilised thanks to our four very well-behaved boys (five if you count Stuart). So if you’d like to enjoy a trip back in time this summer, there’s only one way to travel... under horse power! n