The shire horses still ploughing the fields of London deep into the 21st century

When Elizabeth II died in 2022, photographer Natasha Durlacher felt compelled to volunteer at London’s Green Park, which had been touchingly overrun with tributes of flowers, letters, candles, songs, prayers and teddy bears. Her initial task was to separate the tributes and plastic wrapping from the thousands of decaying bouquets, but she came into contact with the quiet Shire horse heroes of London’s parks and has never looked back.

‘We loaded the flowers onto a cart pulled by two beautiful Shires driven by Tom Nixon, a breed expert who then had the task of transporting the flowers in the cart to Kensington Gardens, where they were blended with leaf litter and other green waste to be composted and turned into mulch,’ she explains.

‘This compost was used to nourish London’s parks; meanwhile, we preserved as many as possible of the thousands of notes, letters and cards.’

She continues: ‘Through chatting to Tom, I discovered that Shire horses, the gentle giants of horse power, and the adorable-looking Clydesdales have long been used to help with the management of bracken in the parks and green spaces of London.’

Thus began a two-year-long photography project in which Ms Durlacher has documented the horses at work, usually in March, June or September, ‘ploughing, harrowing, reseeding, logging, rolling meadows and pasture, bracken rolling and mowing hay and wildflower meadows… restoring London’s parks’ ecosystems and improving biodiversity. I find it fascinating, calming and therapeutic to be in the company of these magnificent animals’.

Visit www.natashadurlacher.com to see more of the images, and you can follow Natasha on Instagram.