Around the turn of the twentieth century, horse power began to give way to the new ‘horseless’ carriages, which had started to appear in the village and the local Council  felt it necessary to improve the roads accordingly.

          But it was not all plain sailing, as there was some opposition from the horse-drawn fraternity when,  in 1907, they protested because some roads had been tarred.  The Mumbles Press reported that ‘horses had slipped on the tarred road and people had been pitched out of vehicles’. One person threatened to report the matter to the SPCA (Society for the Protection of Sick animals). Mr. Graham Vivian complained that ‘the horse in his milk cart had fallen down’ and furthermore ‘the smell of the tar reached up to his house in Clyne!’

By 1911, there were still a  number of grievances. The Oystermouth District Council received a petition from businessmen, Messrs. J.C. Eley, Reginald Peachey, J. Peachey. J.H.Griffin and Reuben Jones with regard to the alleged inconvenience caused them by the tar-spraying of the hills in the district.

Later, they appeared before the Committee to state their case. Mr. Eley explaining that, ‘in consequence of the smoothness of the roads and the tar-spraying operations, horses were no longer able to pull a heavy load up the hills. The poor horses could get no "grip" upon the slippery surface, with the result that they floundered, slipped or even went down on their knees'. The group wished to ask the Council to try to prevent this inconvenience and loss to hauliers and horse owners. The group admitted that great benefits had followed the tarring of the flat roads, 'but the Council had made a mistake in tarring the hills.’ The method of shoeing of the horses had had to be altered — frosted nails had been utilised, but the heads of these wore down in a day and  Mr. Griffin argued that 'it was impossible to shoe horses every day'.

Mr. Eley suggested that the Council should provide a quantity of coarse gravel at the roadsides for the use of the horse-owners. Councillor Mr. Viner Leeder pointed out that the object of the tarring was not just to make things pleasanter for motorists, but also to prevent dust nuisance and to preserve the road surfaces. But, as things must, life changed and the traditional forms of transport gradually gave way to the combustion engine.

Nevertheless, horse-drawn carriages had featured prominently in the pre-Great War childhood of Teresa Hodge (nee Peachey) whose family had owned Peachey’s Livery Stables in The Dunns.  She looked back on those times with much affection and nostalgia  and so it was, following a long life of 101 years, that her final wish to travel once more in a horse-drawn vehicle – a glass hearse, was realised.

          On the sunny afternoon of Tuesday 16th April 2002, many people stopped to admire the  hearse. The Cortège, hired from a Carmarthenshire firm and headed by Prancer and Dancer, two magnificent black horses wearing customary black plumes on their heads and their coats  brushed to a shine, travelled from Pressdee’s Funeral Home, down  through the village to her funeral service at the Christadelphian Church, where she had been a regular worshipper for many years. 

Afterwards, the picturesque procession travelled past, what had once been the livery stables in The Dunns, round the corner in to Newton Road and on through modern traffic, to her final resting place at Oystermouth Cemetery.