ABSTRACT
Suffolk's county breed of carthorse, known alternatively as the Suffolk Punch or the Suffolk Horse, has long been associated with a proud tradition of skilled agricultural labour in which the ethic of craftsmanship was, and is, deeply enshrined. William Camden's Britannia, published in 1695, notes that breeding of the Suffolk Horse dates back to 1506. According to a local Suffolk axiom, the best Punches were 'bred in the Sands', a narrow strip of coastal heathland extending northwards from Bawdsey to Lowestoft. Arthur Young, political economist and champion of agricultural reform in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, promoted the breed, describing Suffolks as 'the most useful.. [to] be found in England'. During so-called Victorian 'High Farming' the Suffolk galvanised and embodied a highly-specialised regional horse culture in which occupational identity and competitive craftsmanship were intensively cultivated.
