Blists Hill Horses by Steve Ledsham - Owner & Founder of Shire and Carriage Horses


Town, one of the ten museums located in the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage site.


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The Victorian Town is a recreation of a typical town on the Shropshire coalfield. With costumed demonstrators, the town shows the domestic, commercial and industrial life in the year 1901.


In the early 1900’s, the heavy horse was the main motive power for short haul heavy haulage, with thousands employed in the towns and cities. The railway companies and the breweries were two of the main employers of heavy horses, along with haulage contractors and coal merchants.


The heavy horse operation at the Museum has been provided for over 20 years by Shire and Carriage Horses, who are traditional Jobmasters. The term Jobmaster, very rarely used today, was the title for companies who hired out horses for all uses. One of the biggest Jobmasters at the time was Thomas Tilling in London, who had over 3000 horses in the early 1900’s; there were “jobbed out” to various companies, the biggest of which was the London General Omnibus Company.


The horses at Blists Hill are worked in a variety of vehicles to illustrate the uses for the heavy horse, including a brewery dray, general delivery dray, a farm waggon and a Waggonette used as a horse bus to give visitors a ride around the town.


he working heavy horse is still alive and well at The Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Shropshire. The horses are based at Blists Hill Victorian


‘Shire and Carriage Horses’ also provide horses for weddings, film and promotional work and Shire Horse Experience Days.


outube Channel: SHIRE AND CARRIAGE HORSES Official. Visit www.ironbridge.org.uk for details of Blists Hill Victorian T


own.


For more info see: www.shireandcarriagehorses.co.uk Y


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JULY/AUGUST 2021


call 01295 404099 to advertise or email advertisng@vintagescene.co.uk


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