18 Jul 2003 - 01 Jan 2004
Working horses return to Hyde Park after 50 years
Hyde Park

Teams of classic British working horses will be returning to London's central parks in a pilot project launched this week. Shires, Suffolk Punches and Clydesdales will be in Hyde Park for two weeks this summer, mowing meadows, watering plants and pulling carts, using vintage equipment and skills from the 19th Century/early-20th Century.

The last working horses left Hyde Park in the early 1950s. Following the successful introduction of a team of working Shire Horses to Richmond Park in 1993 The Royal Parks have been looking at ways of increasing their use.

"This is the next stage in gauging the effectiveness of working horses in maintaining and improving our parks," said Mike Fitt, Director of Parks. "They won't necessarily replace our tractors and mowers but they can do things that vehicles can't and can do it quietly too. More importantly they're sympathetic to the kind of atmosphere we want to create in The Royal Parks. The two-week programme will let us see how our infrastructure copes with the demands of working horses but it will also give local school kids and the public a chance to learn about how things were done before the internal combustion engine."

Now, in an event that is part celebration and part trial-run, working horses will be back in central London.

The varied landscapes in Hyde Park will provide a beautiful backdrop for these great animals and will show the way they used to work in London's parks and might do in the future.

The teams will be working from 15th to 25th July, excluding the weekend.

Related activities will include cart trips for the public, a farrier shoeing horses, bio-diversity walks through Hyde Park's meadows and a 'gentle' face-off between the latest environmentally friendly mowers and the type of traditional horse-drawn mowers that worked in Hyde Park until World War Two.

An outline schedule of activities is attached and if you'd like more information please contact Theo Moore on 020 7298 2128 or tmoore@royalparks.gsi.gov.uk

Source:
The Royal Parks

For further information contact:
The Royal Parks Press Office T: 020 7298 2128 E: press@royalparks.gsi.gov.uk

Editor's notes:
The vintage mowers come from the Hall & Duck Trust (www.hdtrust.co.uk).

The event is being supported by Ransomes, Rigby Taylor, Service Team, Carillion, Cripsin Borst, Fuller's Brewery, Young's Brewery, Bracknell Forest Borough Council, Banham Zoo, Capel Manor College, who are variously providing horses, staff or financial support.

Millions of Londoners and tourists visit the eight Royal Parks for free each year. The 5,000 acres of carefully conserved historic parkland provide unparalleled opportunities for enjoyment, exploration and healthy living in the heart of the capital.

The Royal Parks are: Bushy Park, Green Park, Greenwich Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent's Park (with Primrose Hill), Richmond Park and St James's Park.