We live in a highly technological and mechanised era but sometimes the old ways are best.

And even in the 21st century the removal of timber from some areas of Farnley Tyas is better carried out by the Shire horse rather than cumbersome and intrusive machines.

Yesterday, John Sykes, a former Conservative MP, who co-owns Farnley Estates with his brother, showed off its partnership with Holme Valley Heavy Horses, a family-run, not for profit organisation.

As Major, William and Ted, the three magnificent Shire horses showed off their logging skills, Mr Sykes said: “There is the possibility of establishing a Shire Horse Visitor Centre at Farnley as an attraction which will exhibit the way our forefathers extracted lumber from the forests and how they ploughed the fields.

“Horse-logging and ploughing competitions would be popular demonstrations on show days like Honley Feast or for school visits.

“Once timber has been brought to the yard, most of it will be chopped for firewood and sold.

“This provides us with a brilliant solution to getting logs out of places difficult to access by using 21st century technology.

“We have a 10-year management plan which involves the Heavy Horse way of working and which makes commercial sense to us and them.

“We like to think we have a modern outlook but sometimes it makes sense to go back in time.

“If you send the horses into the woodland you will know nothing about it, that’s not the case with using mechanised equipment such as tractors etc.”

Pam Brooke, of Holme Valley Heavy Horses, said: “We have a new working partnership with Farnley Estates and it’s a wonderful opportunity for us and the estate to work together.

“I’m working on a history of Farnley Tyas and this is all about preserving things that have been lost and this way of working is better for the land.

“The estate is as passionate as we are about maintaining the woodland.”

Her son Michael, a former musician who works with the horses, added: “There are lots of places where you can’t get machinery in and there are meadow flowers that they are anxious to preserve so this is a good way of working.”

Holme Valley Heavy Horses is launching a project to record the agricultural, industrial and social history of Farnley Tyas and its neighbourhood.

The Brookes want to collect oral accounts of village life and want to hear from anyone with memories and photographs about life and work in the village.

They also want to organise activities which will include: carriage rides, gourmet picnics in partnership with the upmarket Golden Cock, Heavy Horse experience days and heritage days.