Meet London's last working herd of shires horses - seven mighty animals which still mow grass outside around Richmond.
It is estimated there were 2.6million of the heavy horses working in the UK at the start of the 20th century - 1,500 alone collecting rubbish in London.
But while the capital has changed beyond recognition, seven shires still plod across the same royal parks and streets as their predecessors.
Stabled at Home Park, in Hampton Court Palace and Holly Lodge in Richmond Park, the horses mow the lawns and traverse woodland slopes machinery cannot reach.
Massey, Murdoch, Heath, Tom, Joey, Nobby, and Bess do not damage the soil as much as tractors, allowing wildflowers to grow and proving habitats for wildlife.
There are only 1,500 shire horses left working in the world - making the breed rarer than pandas.
But London's last working herd can still be seen pulling trams and carriages around the Royal parks.
The one-tonne beasts also work in equine-assisted psychotherapy, with teenagers, the homeless, and soldiers with PTSD in therapy.
The project keeping the gentle giants at work, Operation Centaur, was set up by Professor Andreas Liefooghe.
Prof Liefooghe said: "Far from romanticising a bygone era, we demonstrate time and again that working horses are relevant in contemporary communities.
"Shire horses are one of the great icons of this country, and we're doing our best to keep them as visible as possible in the capital."
Operation Centaur's herd was acquired from traditional breeders in Yorkshire and the Midlands and have been trained from the age of four.
They pull horse-drawn machinery to help control bracken in sensitive acid grasslands.
The horses work alongside tractor contractors on big fields, pulling hay-cutters behind them at wildflower centres like Barnes Wetland Centre and Ham Avenues.
The shires mow grass verges in Richmond Park during the spring and summer, returning to the hay-cut areas in winter to harrow.
Head coachman Edward MacDowell said working shire horses "give Londoners an opportunity to meet these gentle giants and see real horse power in action".
And Adam Curtis, assistant Royal Park manager, said using Shire horses to manage parkland made "total sense environmentally and economically."
The Shire breed can trace its ancestry back to Henry VIII, who instigated two Acts which governed the breeding of horses in England.
From the mid-18th century until the Twenties, they were used primarily for agricultural work, towing barges along canals, and as cart-horses.
But as agriculture was mechanised, the demand for Shire horses fell, and their numbers dwindled to a mere hundreds of thousands in the Sixties.
The population of Shires world-wide is just 1,500, considered 'at risk' by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
This winter, Shires will pull old-style carriages through Richmond Park until January 6.
Prof Liefooghe added: "What can capture the Christmas spirit more than riding through Richmond Park in a horse-drawn carriage?"
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