Page 59 - Chiron Calling Autum 2021/Spring 2022

Arborfield Cross 1904– 2021: From Army Remount Depot to Housing Estate
by Prof Graham Winton
Acentral Army Remount Department was created
in 1887 with responsibility for the purchase of all army horses. Two remount depots were created at Woolwich and Dublin.1 Prior to this date military units purchased their own horses, usually through civilian agents. In 1891 responsibility for
the personnel of remount depots was transferred to the Army
Service Corps. The Army Remount Department did not escape demands for reform following the disastrous Second Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1901. The 1901 Remount Commission recommendation that the number
of remount depots in the UK be increased to five, in line with the newly created Home Commands, was not accepted. However, in 1904 two new depots were created at Melton Mowbray and Arborfield Cross; ‘remount farms’ for keeping horses at grass, grazing land with
a few stables and agricultural
The Arborfield Depot was located approximately one mile (1.6 km) southeast of the village of Arborfield Cross, Berkshire. The original site was about 200 acres, part of the Bearwood Estate owned by the Walters family; taken on lease in 1904 and purchased by the War Office in 1911.3
The 1911 Acland Committee considered and reported on the extent and best approach to remedying the shortage of trained cavalry horses on mobilization. Most cavalry remounts were purchased in Ireland, straight off grass, with many reaching their regiments in very poor condition and quite unfit for training. The Committee recommended that all remounts should be placed on grass farms for rest and conditioning, as with the existing farm at Lusk
in Ireland (1899 accommodation for 20 horses). Mr Pinckard of Combe Court, Chiddingfield, Surrey, offered his farm as a gift to the Government for 21 years for use as remount farm,
forming part of the Arborfield Depot.4 The first Remount Statement
was issued in August 1912 and contained the detailed requirements and instructions for Army horses
on mobilization.5 No.3 Melton Mowbray and No.4 Arborfield
Cross depots were to act as reserve units, holding a nucleus of unfit, or untrained, horse left behind by units mobilizing. Arborfield held horses for the ASC and Engineer Units.6 During the 1914-1919 war the land holding and buildings at Arborfield were increased. However, during the 1920s reductions in the size of the Army and reducing requirement for horses saw a cut back in remount resources. Woolwich closed in 1921 and Dublin 1922. The lease on Pinckard’s farm was not renewed
in 1932 but additional land was purchased at Arborfield, marking its final period expansion.
Army mechanization during the 1930s saw the demand for horses significantly reduced.
Amy Goodman in her studio working on b‘uIcialrduisn’.gNso,testaheffmedaqluaerttgeeolfythbeyRomsey
sculpture right centre rear.
civilians.2
The Arborfield Horse Sculpture. ‘Icarus’ in the rear, sporting horse mare middle and her yearling foal foreground.
1 Army Order 172, November 1887.
2 See Winton, G, 2103 pp.125-134, Theirs Not To Reason Why: Horsing the British Army 1875-1925, pp.39-40, Helion Ltd.
3 Hume, R, ’Arborfield and the Army Remount Service 1904-1918’, Journal of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, 1980 p.38.
4 Winton, pp. 112, 146- 147.
5 The amended edition of the Statement was the one on which the Army mobilized in August 1914.
6 Winton, pp.178, 181.
Chiron Calling / 57