A HORSE which had never worked a mill before managed to do it with ease at a farm in south-west Herefordshire.

Tommy worked the horse-drawn cider mill for the first time at the open weekend at Fair Oak Farm in Bacton.

Hilary Engel, who owns the mill with her husband, Matthew, said: "Tommy is a nine-year-old Gypsy Cob, bred in the hills above Hay-on-Wye by John and Wendy Lloyd of Llanigon.

"He had never worked, and never worn a working collar before: but John believed he would be the right size – at 14.2 hands – and have the right temperament to do the milling: and so it turned out.

"Tommy took the job calmly in his stride; and despite a stream of visitors coming into the dark, confined space of the millhouse to admire him through the weekend, he went at a steady pace, with plenty of rests in between."

The weekend drew a record turnout.

The Fair Oak cidermaker, Alan McCardle, had a new helper this year: Ed Budd, from Dorstone, and also present was Sam Williams, from Lower Maescoed.

Visitors enjoyed the new half-hour documentary film made by David Bishop, Horse-powered in Herefordshire, telling how the seventeenth-century mill and press came to be restored, and how Fair Oak cider is made, from harvesting to wassail.

Also on show was a Victorian apple scratting machine, made in 1859 by Knapton of Somerset.

This was passed on to Fair Oak Cider recently by the family of the late John George, of Much Dewchurch, well-known locally as a vintage machinery enthusiast.

He had restored it, adapted it to be used with a stationary Ruston and Hornsby petrol engine, and was making cider in it until shortly before he died this year.

Any reader who has the expertise to get the machine and engine going is urged to contact Fair Oak Cider on 01981 241 210.

Even when Tommy is not working, Fair Oak cider mill is open all year round by appointment for tasting and sales.