Brewery horseman

Callum Whittle on keeping history alive in a small Wiltshire town by delivering beer using a horse-drawn dray

- Madeleine Silver

I’m the fifth generation in my family to be working with Shires. My great-great-grandad bred them, my great-grandad worked at the Hull brewery when they had Shires, and my dad and grandad worked for a Shire show team, travelling the country.

Ten years ago, my dad was headhunted to work as the head horseman for the Wadworth brewery in Devizes, Wiltshire, because they wanted someone with showing experience, and so we moved down for the job from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. I was 16 at the time and when I left school, I got a job working under him as the horseman.

Our day starts at 6am every morning at the brewery’s onsite stables, when we muck out and groom Sam and Jac, the two Shires. We still strap them the old-fashioned way — it means you’re not shampooing all the time. Instead, we’re just buffing up the natural greases, which gives a great shine.