HORSE IN CELLAR

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 306, 22 September 1936, Page 9

HORSE IN CELLAR

Manchester Adventure A Manchester carthorse'found itseif in a strange predicament recently. It and the lorry to which it was attached were being backed by the driver out of Sussex Street, one of the many narrow streets of Manchester, into Norfolk Street when the horse lost its foothold on the setts and plunged through a large basement window rising flush from the roadway. The drop below is one of sjft., but the horse did not at once fall down into the basement. It remained with its head and the front part of its body through the window while struggling to regain a standing position, meanwhile cutting itself with the broken’ glass in its struggles. Efforts to assist the horse and free it from its harness proved of no avail because every time it got on -to its front feet its head struck the top of the window frame. Eventually all the glass of the window was knocked out to help the horse, which now, detached from its harness, fell forward into the basement, wounding itself afresh on the broken glass which had fallen on to the floor. The animal suffered severe cuts to both forelegs and to its forehead, and a veterinary surgeon applied bandages to the wounds.

The problem of getting the horse out of the window then gave place to the problem of getting it out of the cellar. From the cellar a short flight of stone steps leads to a door into Norfolk Street. The door was removed from its hinges, a gantry, supported underneath, was used to make a sloping platform of the ascent, and thus, attached by a rope to another horse which heaved in the street, and pushed and encouraged by a crowd of men from behind, the injured animal was brought to street level and safety before expectant photographers could get a good picture of the rescue. The horse was then removed to the stables In a cattlefloat. The whole affair lasted about three hours, and for long afterward the scene was being visited by curious persons who had heard or read of the misadventure.