UK village wants to bring back the donkey

Reuters | Friday, 08 February 2008


What does one do when modern transport just can't get the shopping to the front door?

The central English village of Chalford has decided to take a page from its past by employing donkeys to haul groceries to homes atop a slope so steep that cars can't get to them.

"There's about 30 houses that don't have car access so everyone who lives there has this long, winding, torturous path to climb," resident Anna Usborne said describing the 100m hill.

Usborne is now raising money to buy village donkeys, plans to keep them on her land and to organise volunteers who will guide them up the hill when locals have heavy loads to carry.

Older residents may find the sight conjures up distant memories of the past when donkeys delivering coal and provisions to remote hillside cottages were a common sight.

"They were very much a part of village life," said Usborne of Chalford's donkey past.

"It's touching a note with people, bringing back traditions of the past."

The village has already purchased special panniers in anticipation of the arrival of the donkeys.

Usborne said she needed to raise enough money to buy two donkeys – as one would get lonely – and says they can cost up to stg600 ($NZ1521) each.

The hills in the local area, known as the Cotswolds, may literally be a pain in the back for some Chalford villagers, but for others they are a thrill.

The Cotswolds is also home to the centuries-old annual cheese-rolling contest in which competitors hurl themselves at great speed down a hill in hot pursuit of a wheel of Double Gloucester.