The icon of the Lord Mayor’s Show, the gold State Coach, is under new management this year as the role of pulling the 250-year-old coach through the streets of the City of London has been handed over to a new team.
Brewers’ horses have traditionally led the new Lord Mayor of the City of London in the State Coach to the Royal Courts of Justice in the City of Westminster. But for the first time in more than a generation, responsibility will this year fall to six strapping shire horses from Waldburg Shires, based at Sacrewell Farm and Country Centre near Peterborough. The six, led by David Lawless and Elspeth Ross, are:
Wheelers
Nearside – Waldburg Macy, eight years
Offside – Waldburg Scott, six years
Centre horses
Nearside – Waldburg Horace, nine years
Offside – Waldburg William, eight years
Leaders
Nearside (Postillion) – Waldburg Comet, 10 years
Offside – Waldburg Beatrice, 12 years
On the Show day itself, Saturday 10th November, they will be expertly guided by another new face – coachman Alan Tillier.
Although it may seem a far cry from Alan’s current job as a lorry driver, he is in fact an expert coachman, having worked with shire horses in the UK and across the world for almost 30 years. Alan, 50, from Cullompton in Devon has been making the 223 mile journey from his home to Peterborough every week to train with the new horses in preparation for the big day.
Alan said: "I have known David and Elspeth for many years, and when they asked me to take on this role I was honoured and delighted.
“I have been a coachman for many years, but this particular role is prestigious and of course we have been rehearsing to get everything as near perfection as possible.”
The first time Alan, the Waldburg shires and the State Coach will get together will be during a pre-dawn rehearsal through the streets of the City on Wednesday 7th November.
The Lord Mayor’s Show is the first public engagement of the new Lord Mayor (elected annually) as he travels through the City from the Mansion house to the Royal Courts of Justice and back to pledge allegiance to the sovereign. He is preceded by a three-mile long procession celebrating music, dance, culture and the history of the City and beyond. A spectacular fireworks show, set off from a barge on the Thames between Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges, at 5pm finishes the day off with a real bang.