History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

During our work on a new book for the Willesden Local History Society, we found that Sydney Galvayne, and son Frederick were living at the Model Farm, Neasden in 1891. 1894 OS Map showing site of the Model Farm in Neasden (Marked X) Sydney was shown in the census as a horse farmer and his son Frederick was described as a Professor of Horsemanship. In 1891 they advertised as ‘Galvayne and Son, The Model Farm and Horse Depot Neasden’ with 70 large horse boxes. This was intriguing as Neasden was still a remote village and the Galvaynes were born in Australia. Sydney first appears in the online newspapers at the end of November 1884 as Professor Galvayne ‘the celebrated Australian scientific horse trainer’. He was opening his first school at the Corn Exchange in York and giving demonstrations of how to break previously difficult horses of the local gentry to harness in a few minutes. In his ‘Galvayning’ method a string from a strap on the the horse’s head was tied to its tail causing i...