Horses in Marlborough

Even by the 1920’s horses were still used to pull the Marlborough fire engine. The fire horses were stabled up Hyde Lane and put out to grass in Duck’s Meadow. The horses were so well schooled that at the sound of the fire siren on the Town Hall (which alerted the retained firemen to go to the fire station) they were harnessed up at the stables and could find their own way to the fire station in the High Street. Horses were used to pull Marlborough Borough Council dust carts well into the 1930’s.

There was a drinking fountain for horses in the High Street until 1929. Farms, of course, used horses for ploughing. This had been the case from the 12th century when they took over from oxen. A horse and ox have the same pulling force but a horse can walk at twice the speed so is much more efficient. The traditional unit of area, the acre, is defined as a chain (22 yards) by a furlong (220 yards) and is the area one horse can plough in a day. Farms didn’t finally give up on working horses until after the Second World War.

Horses used in farming, commerce etc. required a lot of harness and harness companies would have tendered for annual contracts. The staff of a harness company would have a contract to go, sometime during the year, to the farm or business premises and spend a week doing repairs. Part of the annual contract would have been to supply sets of new harness.

Going back in time a few centuries, before the arrival of the canals, large teams of horses were used to pull heavy wagons loaded with merchandise. These teams criss-crossed the country and had bells on their harness to warn other teams of their passage. (A collection is held by The Merchant’s House) In the 17th century the London to Bath road through Marlborough was in such a bad state of repair that travellers by-passed the town altogether.

The appalling state of the roads didn’t however stop individual riders from visiting Marlborough. John Wesley preached in Marlborough in 1745 and 1747 where he had a better reception than he received in Devizes. William Cobbett passed through on his way from Hurstbourne Tarrant and Bedwyn. Although he would have deplored the status of Marlborough as a “Pocket Borough” he doesn’t mention Marlborough in his “Rural Rides”. Cobbett is very rude about Calne “a vile rotten borough” and Ludgershall “a mean and beggarly place” so perhaps his lack of mentioning us is a sort of compliment.

It wasn’t until early in the 18th century that roads started to improve with the arrival of “Turnpike roads”. This was in response to a petition of Marlborough traders in the 1720’s complaining about the poor state of roads around the town.  In 1726 a Turnpike was opened from Speenhamland to Marlborough: this was on the line of the present A4 and replaced the east west route via the Kennet Valley and Ramsbury. ln 1743 a Turnpike from Marlborough to Beckhampton was opened so Marlborough now became a major stopping off point on the London to Bath road. It was at this time that Bath was becoming very fashionable. Journey times between London and Bath varied between thirteen hours in summer on a John Palmer express mail coach (an inside ticket cost 30/- for a single) to five days in heavy wagons for thirty-six people drawn by teams of twelve horses or oxen.

The Castle Inn opened in 1750, catering for the fast coach trade, and was the place where coaches from London to Bath changed horses. By the early 1800’s, with coach traffic at its peak, the Inn had sixty beds for travellers, twelve post carriages for hire, sixty horses for hire and forty coaches a day changing horses. A calculation gives a total of two hundred and fifty horses having to be available with grazing land of about five hundred acres (this is almost a square mile and larger than the total area of the Borough!). There were also other inns that catered for the coaching trade but the Castle lnn was by far the largest.

All this trade and employment came to an abrupt end when the Great Western Railway opened through Swindon in 1841. The effect on employment and business was partly mitigated by the opening of Marlborough College in 1843 on the site of the Castle Inn (now C House).

The residents of Marlborough had always enjoyed the leisure activities involving horses. This involved racing or hunting (my family saddlery business described itself as “Racing and Hunting Saddlers” i.e. focused on the leisure market). The meets of the local hunts, the Tedworth and Craven, were advertised in the local press throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and must have on occasions met in Marlborough High Street. Stedman reports that Marlborough schools had many absentees in 1900 when the Craven Hunt met on the Common.

There was racing on Marlborough Common in the 18th century. The Oxford Journal of Saturday 26th May 1764 reports a race meeting for up to four year olds, with a purse of fifty guineas¹. The Mayor seemed to have acted as chief steward for the day.

According to Stedman, racing finished in 1773 but started again in 1840 with a straight mile course parallel to the Rockley Road. The Race Committee were given permission for a stand in 1846 (at an annual rent of 5/-) which was demolished and replaced in 1867. It was finally demolished in 1876. Racing continued on the Common and in 1887 it hosted the Savernake Hunt Steeplechase.

George Frederick, Marquess of Ailesbury from 1856, kept a string of racehorses and supported the Tedworth Hunt financially. Stedman reports that the Borough banned the training of horses (as opposed to the racing of them) on the Common in 1886.

A race meeting of August 4th 1842 is reported in the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette. It was a family fun day as well with pony racing, jumping in sacks and other amusements. There were five races, all with £25 prize money, (including a race sponsored by the councillors!). There were almost thirty runners. From that time has come down the beautiful solid silver tankard known as “The Marlborough Cup” which is now in the possession of the Town Council. A replica was made of this cup by Count Konrad and raced for in the Barbury “Timber” Races in the early 2000’s.

Marlborough and district has a long tradition of training thoroughbred racehorses dating from the early 19th century. Alec Taylor set up as a trainer in Fyfield in 1848 and had his first classic win in 1851 at the age of only twenty eight. With the support of his leading owners he created a purpose built racing stable at Manton Down in 1870. One of the reasons for locating the new establishment on the Marlborough Downs was because of its remoteness and inaccessibility: an important consideration in that era of tipsters and race fixers! A lee Taylor handed over to his son in 1902 and Alec Junior retired in 1927. He was succeeded by Jo Lawson who trained until 1947 when George Todd took up the licence.

The Darlings at Beckhampton were also well known nationally. Gordon Richards who later became a knighted jockey with over four thousand winners started his racing career as an apprentice at Beckhampton with Fred Darling. Sir Gordon made his home in Marlborough when he was race riding.

Marlborough is still a major centre for race horses with the stables at Manton Down, Ogboume and Beckhampton continuing to produce winners. In addition to racehorses, several leading event riders have set up in the area: not least Mark Todd, the Olympic rider for the New Zealand team.

A new racecourse has been created below Barbury Castle and has a beautiful setting for the point to points and other races.

There are lots of horses still around Marlborough but they don’t impact on our lives as they did over a hundred years ago. Riding and handling a horse has gone from something that practically everybody could do, to being an expensively acquired specialist leisure activity.

Horses have been partners in the development of Homo Sapiens and continue to be admired and loved.

¹ Fifty guineas in the 18th century would be equivalent to tens of thousands of pounds today.

Acknowledgements:
Nick Baxter
Count Konrad Goess-Sura
A R Stedman’s “Marlborough and the Upper Kennet Country”
Paul Mathieu’s “The Masters of Manton”