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Family reopens Shire horse tourist attraction

Emma RuminskiDevon
News imageBBC Staff at the Shire Horse Centre Farm gather around a black and white Shire horse in the middle of a courtyard. There is an orange tractor behind them.BBC
Vicky Richards and her team of staff and volunteers are passionate about protecting Shire horses

A once popular family-run tourist attraction featuring Shire horses has reopened more than two decades after it closed.

The Shire Horse Centre in the South Hams welcomed 300,000 visitors a year during its heyday in the 1980s but shut in 2000 due to rising costs and dwindling numbers.

The Richards family has gradually been reopening the site in Yealmpton and hopes to welcome a new generation of customers.

Managing director Vicky Richards said it was her father John's idea to reinvent the business and she was determined to carry on his legacy following his death.

News imageVicky smiles at the camera she wears a blue coat is holding on to Swift a large black Shire horse with a white stripe down the mare's nose.
Swift is a well-loved Shire horse at the farm. She lost 95% of her sight after an accident and the staff at the centre have trained her to respond to verbal cues

"Being his dream, we just hope we are making him proud and making it what he had planned," she said. "We have changed things a bit but there's lots here that reminds us of him."

Richardson said she was also bolstered by her daughter Ashleigh's love of Shire horses.

The site, renamed The Shire Horse Centre Farm, is now home to three Shire horses, four Cobs, Shetland ponies and other birds and animals.

Richardson said they had planned to start small by allowing only 200 people a day through the door.

She said it had been hard work re-entering a tough market place and watching similar businesses like Dairyland in Cornwall and the Miniature Pony Centre on Dartmoor close was troubling.

But the family found there was a lot of interest and the site had been fully booked over Easter.

"We didn't want to jump in too deep, too quickly, because there are similar places closing down at the moment," she said.

"Initially we did guided tours just for donations, just to see if it was an attraction people would come back to.

"It was a very popular. We were full."

News imageVicky Richards Ashleigh has long dark hair and is standing behind Lorraine and John, who are seated. Lorraine is wearing a black, square-neck top and has shoulder length blonde hair. John is wearing a red and grey striped shirt and a black blazer. He has grey hair.Vicky Richards
Ashleigh, centre, with her grandparents Lorraine and John Richards, who ran the centre previously

Children that visited in the 1980s and 1990s are now parents themselves and nostalgic about bringing the next generation.

Josh Coggins said: "I came here as a kid - bringing my children here brings back memories."

Garry Adams, who worked at the centre in the 1980s, offered to return to the site as soon as he heard it was re-opening.

He said: "The place was derelict for 20 years, nature took it back and there's an awful lot of work that's gone on to get it where it is now.

"We still have so much to do [and] it's a much smaller offering now. But people are joining us on the journey,"

News imageTwo Shire horses pull a carriage full of children.
Vicky Richardson is training to drive a carriage so she can one day reinstate the rides around the park that used to happen in the 1980s and '90s

The family hopes to continue building an aviary for peacocks and making the site a wedding venue.

However, anyone hoping to revisit the site's infamous "death slide" - a chute in the former adventure playground - will be disappointed as it remains out of bounds at present.