Stoke St Gregory History Pages
The Horse - from Eric Hembrow's Book 'Winter Harvest
And then came the Tractor Click HERE
The neolithic timber causeways known as the the Post Track and the Sweet Track are not many miles from Stoke, and the soil of West Sedgemoor may well hide similar early roads, but the peat in this area has not been subject to the same excavations as in the Brue valley, so we may never know for certain. Later road systems served the village for local horse transport and occasional trips to the market towns of Taunton, Bridgwater and Langport. Eric Hembrow, in his book, ‘Winter Harvest’, gives us some interesting descriptions of road traffic.
"It is often forgotten that during the era of the horse it was not only farm work that they did, but every conceivable type of hauling. It is said that during the period there was nothing used in Stoke that could not be fetched in a day by horse and wagon. The heaviest load and most spectacular sight I remember was the timber carriages, taking out trunks of dead trees. Loaded and chained to what was little more than four large iron bonded wheels on a wooden frame, pulled by two, three or even four horses. Their harness, both leather and brass, was polished smooth."
Many kept a horse or pony to ride, others to pull a trap or a governess cart, (like this one outside the vicarage).
"One character who became part of our lives was Jack Paul. He was a butcher and lived at Woodhouse Farm. His slaughter house is now the ‘Old Barn’. On Saturdays he sold meat and offal from a stall in Taunton. After closing he would ineviatbly get drunk, late in the evening he would somehow get into the trap, throw the reins onto the back of his fine black horse and lie on the seat. The horse would then come home, running into a lean-to shed, often standing there in the shafts until the next morning when Jack would be capable of unharnessing him. This homeward journey meant passing our house, and my parents were never at ease until he was home, so we had the ritual every Saturday evening of listening for the sound of the running horse."
"All deliveries and services were horse drawn, including the post, doctor and vet. Without question the most frightening was the Fire Brigade. There are still people living (1990) who remember the fire at the old Vicarage in 1906. They recall the arrival of the Brigade drawn by a team of six horses, white with a foaming sweat. Even so the house was a total loss, our vulnerability to time and distance clearly shown."
This is the baker’s delivery van. Charles Squire baked at what is now Ash Grove in Meare Green
"A form of horsedrawn public transport which lasted for many years was the Carrier. This was a person who drove a covered wagon to toen on market days, Brisgwater on Wednesdays, Taunton on Saturdays, taking a limited number of people and produce, and bringing back every conceivable item of shopping. Kelly’s Directory for 1914 shows the Stoke Carrier as Jo Patten operating from Woodhill."
Jo Patten, carrier and horse breeder, with one of his horses, Gypsy
And Now . . . The Tractor
Horse Meets Tractor at the top of Pincombe Drove
Another, shorter example of the new hitch from Metford Morris' Sturts Farm
Don Boon driving the House family's Fordson
Don Boon also taught David House (far right) how to drive the family Fordson
And then came the Combine Harvester, first seen in Stoke at Slough Court