History
By Peter Ibbett
Donkey Power at St. Neots The donkey (Equus africanus asinus) has been used as a working animal for at least 5000 years. There are (assuming that their census count has been accurate) over 40 million on this Earth, mainly tasked with transporting materials. There can be few who have been put to use as a lawnmower! In about 1880, when the graveyard around St. Neots Parish Church could not accommodate any more burials, a site called Trap Close was purchased in what is now Cemetery Lane and a new burial area was laid out. The photograph was taken when it was comparatively new and shows the first cemetery keeper, John Peck, supervising grass cutting with three small boys and a Huntingdonshire donkey! Another local, Ernie Hedge, who was licensee of The Peacock public house, was a well-known figure in the town for many years and sold his own ice cream from a special hand-made cart pulled by his donkey, Molly. Donkeys have also been used to emulate racing horses and provide great amusement to spectators at their own races. A relative of mine, John Ibbett, one time backbone of Lewes Rugby Club was once Clerk of a Donkey Race as recounted by the Sussex Express on 2nd July 1954 (in a reporting style not seen in most papers these days):-
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3,500 See Donkey Racing At Its Jolliest Donkey Racing, which has become an established sport, with its own equivalent of the Jockey Club, was seen at its jolliest at the Lewes Donkey Racing Club Summer Meeting at the Dripping Pan at Lewis on Saturday. The riders were not to exceed 9 stone, and were children, most of them girls. The only ones who, perhaps, regarded the occasion with real levity were the donkeys themselves. They knew, it was evident, that the rules declare that no rider shall carry, whip or spur, or employ any other artificial means of inducement whatever for the purpose of increasing the speed of a donkey. Assured that they could be a law unto themselves, the donkeys consented to play, holding themselves free to stop or buck or turn aside at will, and even shed their riders, secure from any reprisals. Those donkeys that were of a mind to race went either at a spine-jarring canter or a dainty (and dead slow) trot. The St. Neots Museum web site is looking for Local Stories. Perhaps you have an animal story, maybe even one of the ‘Bull In A China Shop’ type to add to the site.
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