Kennet Valley Carriage Driving Group is the four wheeled twin of Riding for the Disabled. Based at Jilly Carter’s Maisey Farm, the Group now has a splendid 2.2 kilometres of specially levelled tracks – with access gates – across the downs.
The opening of this new disabled driving route over the Marlborough downs by General Sir Mike Jackson was held at the foot of the downs, at Rockley Manor on Tuesday (September 2) – it was sunny and clear and the views when the drivers left the Manor and took the three carriages up onto the downs were going to be great.
One of the great advantages of driving for the disabled is that people in wheel chairs can have exactly the same chance to drive as able-bodied people – and do it in exactly the same way.
Before work started on the route, some of it had ruts too deep for a 4×4 let alone for fairly small-wheeled and delicate carriages and their fairly small horses. The stretch of the route starting at Eagle Cottages, Rockley (which used to be a coaching inn) was, long ago, the Marlborough to Swindon road – winding over the downs towards Old Town.
This much needed development has been made possible by the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Area (MDNIA) – a group of farmers who work to conserve and encourage wildlife and improve access for the public over 25,000 acres of the downs. Jilly Carter’s Maisey farm is one of the forty farms in the MDNIA.
As the MDNIA’s coordinator, Gemma Batten put it: “ Contrary to popular belief, these farmers are very keen to share what’s on their farms.”
General Jackson was there to open the new route because the Group invite wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women from Help for Heroes’ Tedworth House Recovery Centre to use the carriages as part of their recovery programme. As he said at the opening, this kind of open air outing and interaction with animals helps significantly the “challenge of putting soldiers injured in body and mind back on the road.”
The General, who was formerly Chief of the General Staff and now lives locally, said that through his army career he had “witnessed the devastating effect a disability can have both physically and mentally” and knew that driving on this new route would be “hugely beneficial and healthy for the body and mind.”
Making the first run over the new route were the Group’s horses Drummer, Perrine and Prophet – aided by the volunteers who accompany the drivers and keep them safe. A quite new young volunteer who was in complete control of things, Jarvie Georgeson, said “It’s really fun and the horses are great.”
One of those driving along the new route after the changeover on top of the downs, was Neil Whysall from Collingbourne Ducis. He comes once a week – because of a painful hip he cannot ride, so driving is for him a wonderful chance to control and work with the horses:
“I have been driving for over two years and I consider it a wonderful thing to be outdoors once a week – to forget for an hour or so my disability and feel the clip clop of the horses feet and look at the most beautiful views…Riding for the Disabled is my outdoor joy each week and I love every minute of it.”
On the day of the opening, the weather was as kind as could be and the views were indeed, as Neil Whysall had emphasised, stunning.
The cost of the grading and the new hard surfaces was £30,000. Some came from the MDNIA budget – but the biggest sum (£15,000) came from The Hills Group Ltd through the Landfill Communities Fund. The final £4,500 came from the Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon via a Public Health and Wellbeing grant.
To put those figures into some context, the annual budget for the Kennet valley Driving Group is about £21,000 – for looking after the horses, their feed and straw, equipment and training for the volunteers.
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