The Impact of Quadrupeds in Hanoverian London

In his classic study, Man and the Natural World (1983), Keith Thomas assumed and asserted that by 1800 the inhabitants of English cities, and particularly London, had become largely alienated from animal life. This study challenges this assumption by exploring the scale and impact of quadruped mammalian life in London during the period, 1714–1837. My research represents a deliberate shift in historical enquiry away from debates centred on the rise of kindness and humanitarianism, and towards the integration of animals into wider urban historiographies and a demonstration of how their presence shaped urban existence. My central aim is to highlight the power of animals to make profound and far-reaching changes in society, and specifically in the British metropolis. Much recent historiography has given particular attention to human cruelty to animals. Yet, the tendency to consider human-animal histories solely as narratives of abuse threatens not just to over-simplify complex phenomena but also to seriously underestimate the role of animals in society. I seek to redress this imbalance by re-asserting the significance of animal technologies and by placing animals at the centre of eighteenth-century urban, social and cultural histories. I begin by considering the scale and contribution of cattle and horses to the social and commercial life of the metropolis as well as their impact on the construction and use of the built environment. I then turn to the disruptive influence of animals and the challenge of ‘commanding’ the recalcitrant beast, by examining the problem of the ‘over-drove’ ox and of equine traffic accidents

Horses & Livestock in Hanoverian London

In his classic study, Man and the Natural World (1983), Keith Thomas assumed and asserted that by 1800 the inhabitants of English cities had become largely isolated from animal life. My research challenges this assumption by highlighting the prevalence and influence of horses and other four-legged livestock in London in the period 1714–1837. This study represents a deliberate shift in historical enquiry away from the analysis of theoretical literature and debates concerning the rise of kindness and humanitarianism, towards the integration of animals into wider historiographies and a demonstration of how animals shaped urban life. Reasserting the need to unbound the social, my research places human interactions with non-human animals centre stage in London’s history to reassess key issues and debates surrounding the industrial and consumer revolutions; urbanization and industrialization; and social relations. Following an introductory section, Chapter one assesses the role played by urban husbandry in feeding the metropolitan population and asserts that Hanoverian London was a thriving agropolis. Chapter two challenges and complicates the orthodox assumption that steam substituted animal muscle power in the industrial revolution and asserts that equine power helped to make London a dynamic hub of trade and industry. Chapter three examines the metropolitan trades in meat on the hoof and horses. These were significant features of the consumer revolution and major sectors of the British economy which impacted heavily on London life. Chapter four asserts that equestrian recreation played a powerful role in metropolitan culture, both promoting and acting as an alluring alternative to, sociability. Chapter five examines the heavy demands which horses and other livestock placed on metropolitan infrastructures, and assesses the city’s remarkable investment in these animals. In my conclusion, I consider the significance of recalcitrant interactions between plebeian Londoners and non-human animals

'The brede of good & strong Horsis': zooarchaeological evidence for size change in horses from early modern London

Almost 200 horse bone measurements from 38 sites excavated across the city of London, dating to the period AD 1220–1900 were analysed. Results identified three main phases of size change: a reduction in size in the mid 14th to 15th century, and size increases in the mid 15th to 16th century and the 17th century. The decline in size testifies to the disruption of horse breeding in the wake of the Black Death, whilst the increases reflect purposeful attempts to increase the size of horses in England through a combination of regulated breeding and the importation of new bloodlines