Working Horses

Rural industry with horses needed a range of specialist skills and knowledge just to manage the team, and the huge loads they hauled.

Horses were involved in all aspects of industry and construction. This images show both men and horses labouring hard to build the bridge to Walney.

Horses were involved in all aspects of industry outdoors - and indoors. This image shows a horse being worked in the shipyard. It is wearing blinkers; used to help keep horses from being frightened by too much sudden movement. Yet, like the men and women who toiled at Vickers, nothing could save this lovely animal from the noise and heat of the workshop.

The photograph shows Edwardian era horse-drawn delivery carts drawn up along the sides of the street. In the distance (left) a passenger is climbing into a carriage. Transport for the urban crowd is, by this time, mainly by electric tram - you can see one approaching at the far end of the street.

Though the stagecoach had been superseded by the railways for long journeys, more locally people were still moving around pulled by horses; even in the 1920s. Lined up outside Preston Library and Museum, the Hansom Cabs and Four Wheelers (their drivers in the nearby cabbies' shelter) were among the last such vehicles used to ply this trade.

Out in the countryside with no trams, public transport still relied on the horse. This photograph shows the horse bus climbing to Newland Hause, the pass between Keswick and Buttermere. On what looks to be a sunny day, using a horse-bus would be a pleasant and leisurely way to travel. In winter weather it would, however, have been a very different matter.

Horsepower was essential to the transport of goods. Heavy loads particularly depended on them. Here, above Bowness, a team of seven heavy horses, led by a workman, labours as it pulls the timber wagon up the hill. The motor van behind can manage lighter deliveries.

Long before ‘click-and-collect’ or on-line shopping, the shop would come to your street with fresh goods; including fruit and vegetables - and rabbits. This street trader in Bispham brings the shop to the customer using a horse-drawn cart. The small child on the pavement opposite clearly finds the camera more of a novelty than the procession next to her.

The butcher also did deliveries. Clearly a well turned out horse and van (with an understandably contented butcher’s dog on the seat) was a matter of pride worth recording. Other images captured by the Sankeys show similar vans delivering bread, groceries and laundry.

Farmers required a range of skills in horse care and management for all the heavy work on the farm. These talents are on display in this classic image of ploughing by horse.

Chain harrowing on the outskirts of an expanding Ulverston. It's an interesting image, giving the juxtaposition of 'modern' houses alongside an age-old farming activity.

A beautiful photograph of harvesting on Birkrigg, overlooking the village of Bardsea on Morecambe Bay. Here we see a two horsepower binder reaper in action.

The Lake District tourist industry required the coordinated transport of the trains, ferries across Morecambe Bay, steamers on the lakes and the local horse buses such as this one in Nether Wasdale.

Visiting the West End Pier at Morecambe by horse and carriage was clearly an essential part of the fun!

Down on the beach, the bathing machines and trippers’ boats had to be towed up and down the beach by horses. Only the donkey rides may be still seen today.

A well-groomed horse and well-polished trap were a source of pride to the people who owned them. The family and their horse and trap are beautifully turned out.

Perhaps oddly to our eyes now, there are few pictures of horses being ridden - especially bare-back, as this one is. It took real skill to ride a horse without a saddle.

Great occasions required the ceremonial splendour of horses and special carriages. This image shows the Lowther State Coach complete with postillion.

After the Great War - the First World War - this Barrow parade, celebrating victory, was led by horses. An estimated eight million horses, donkeys and mules were used in the war (as well as millions of bullocks and camels). Many died as a result of harsh working conditions; many tens of thousands also died, alongside fighting men, on the battlefield.

A man is seen holding a horse with a wagon full of sacks of coal, whilst three boys nearby look towards the camera. Behind them another man sits on his horse drawn cart with the Black Bull Hotel and Golden Ball Inn in the background. Crellin's bakery and refreshment rooms is to the right. The buildings have changed little since this photograph was taken.

Lowick Green. A day of deliveries for the grocer’s horse and cart. It is 1914 - and the posters on the wall drum up the volunteers as the First World War starts. The men volunteered and the horses were drafted.

After the First World War, the world had changed and the decline in the use of horsepower accelerated in the post-war period. Within a few short years the farm horse had been replaced at the plough by tractors. This image shows a farmer ploughing with an early tractor.

After the First World War, in people’s leisure time the horse drawn bus gave way to the charabanc or a motorcar - for those who could afford it.

A dramatic scene of the pleasure boat setting off with the horse patiently assisting.