On todays show I have something a little bit different for you, and have put together a show from all the archive interviews I have of my dad Walter who died in 2018 age 93.
I had done many interviews with him over the years, mostly about his travels to Appleby Fair with our ponies which he lived for every year, and also from some interviews recorded with children at Settlebck school in 2010.
Walter as a boy in 1938, travelling with his donkey near Zennor in Cornwall
Walter Lloyd (right) with his father Will LLoyd (left) and brother George LLoyd, travelling with donkeys in Sicily
Walter LLoyd with Heltondale Polly Perkins VII being unloaded, having just come from the the Heltondale dispersal sale in 1995. We also came home with Heltondale Polly Perkins XII
Walter Lloyd talking about Fred Pickup tethering ponies on the way to Appleby Fair
Show notes
To begin with Walter talks about travelling with donkeys as a young boy, and how he got into breeding the Hades Hill Fell ponies in the 1950’s.
The late 1940s and early 50’s saw the demise of the working pony but Walter started breeding ponies when everyone else was getting tractors.
The subject of the fate of the semi-feral herds is something that came up time and time again. Here he is with children at Settlebeck School in 2012 talking about the problems that need addressing.
So at this point I would normally be asking my guests to call the herd home.
When I first took on our herd in 1995 I didn’t carry on my dad’s call that had come from the hills at Whitworth.
Instead I took on the call of our local dairy farmer Margaret Airey who would come down our track every day with her few cows to the rushy meadows. I never managed to get Walters call on tape but here’s my brother Bill to give his best rendition of Walter as he would call the cows and ponies at Duckworth farm.
The children at Settlebeck wanted to know what’s the most important quality of a Fell pony?
What is it about keeping Fell ponies that you like the most
Walter was passionate about ponies living out on common land and open fell.
But what are the advantages?
Since the late 1970’s Walter had driven a bow top waggon with a couple of Fell pair of Fell ponies from his farm outside Rochdale to Appleby Fair - one in the shafts and a sideliner and this journey was probably the thing he looked forward to most every year. Here he is describing what it feels like to make the journey horse drawn.
Want to hear more of Walter’s stories, you can watch Romany Rai, a 60 minute documentary following Walter on his journey to Appleby Fair with his Fell ponies
Winner of the Equus Film Festival New York. A 60 minute documentary, 20 years in the making following our Fell ponies on the road to the biggest Gypsy horse fair in Europe.
Re-live the journey to Appleby Fair and follow the wagons from Kirkby Lonsdale to Fair Hill in this 60 minute documentary, winner at the Equus Film Festival 2018
Horses, bow-top wagons, interviews with Gypsies and horseman, music and more. Download online or buy the DVD romanyrai.com