DRESSED for the occasion, their manes plaited with ribbons and flowers, the horses from Chawton House Library stables went on parade for the last time this month to say goodbye to the village.

Led by their handlers, the horses walked out of their stables and along the road toward the village centre in single file – Summer, her mane decorated with sunflowers and led by Angie McLaren who, with her husband Richard, has run the stables for 11 years; Royston led by Mike Harris; Issac, led by Lucy Davies; and Speedy, the only Clydesdale, led by Olli Spencer-Corfield.

Visitors to Jane Austen’s House Museum joined villagers who had turned out to give the horses a farewell pat as they stood patiently in line on the green outside the cottage while a crowd milled round them.

Angie’s sister, Julie Spencer-Corfield, who sometimes helped at the stables, described it as a sad occasion.

“All the horses were given to the stables and Angie ran it as a charity and it has been a great success,”she said.

“The television programme Countryfile recently featured the horses and the stables, and people enjoying visiting them in their paddock. Angie was using them to demonstrate old farming skills like ploughing and reaping, which now she won’t be able to do.”

Mike Harris, who will be stabling Royston with his other three heavy horses, said he had given up a job he had held for 17 years to come and work at the stables in February and was upset things had not worked out.

He would be sorry to say goodbye to the horses and the people he worked with. It had been “a happy few months”.

Lucy Davies, now a veterinary nurse in Farnham, used to work at the stables. She felt the loss of the horses could affect the number of visitors who would come to Chawton House Library.

“People used to come to see the horses and I’m not sure that they will be going there just to read old books,” she said.

“Also, the pupils from the village school loved coming to the stables and seeing the horses, learning all about them and watching the farrier at work. It is very sad.”

Angie and Mike held a farewell party on September 2 before the horses went off to new homes. Summer has gone to stables near Hythe, Royston to Ringwood, Speedy to Malchet Maltravers in Dorset, and Issac to Devon.