Giant Of The Skies, Gentle Giant Of A Horse

I was told a few years ago about the Zeppelin that crashed landed in Little Wigborough near Mersea by the leader of one of our S2000 car club runs. Unusually we parked and set off on foot to see the piece of the structure displayed in the church and the site of a champagne picnic where he wooed his wife.

I returned for Zepfest, an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the forced landing of Zeppelin L33. The organisers had marked out the shape of the giant 650ft long craft in a field where it bounced before coming to a halt bestraddling a tiny lane, very close to a house where the family hid under the stairs in fright. It must have been an awesome sight, in the true sense of the word. 

The German crew were unhurt and knocked at the house to inform the occupants that they were going to set the wreckage on fire but the people were too terrified to answer the door. A dog that was tied up outside got scorched. The Germans started marching, hoping to reach Colchester but were apprehended by the military.

I greatly enjoyed a ride in a carriage pulled by two Suffolk Punch horses. These beautiful beasts carted heavy artillery to the front in the Great War. Thousands of them died. Britain's oldest native breed is now critically endangered owing to the mechanisation of agriculture and is rarer than the giant panda.

A husband and wife team own Roy and Falcon, they run a business out of Hylands Park using the gentle giants for forestry, logging and the giving of carriage rides.

PS Being a petrolhead, I got a lot of mileage out of the fact that the L33 was powered by six 240hp Maybach engines. Maybach today is the ultra-luxury sub brand of Mercedes Benz.