Dennis lorries, the early models having solid tyres. Railways were also used for flour delivery. The company built up a fleet of flatbed lorries and bulk tankers to adapt to the transition from rail to road transport. Before World War I the company had its own horses which were stabled at the mill. The records show that there were normally six heavy horses which were used to pull the drays. They were brought from S. Harvey of Hartpury and tended by George Hotham, the Gloucester veterinary surgeon who practice was at Bearland. A small "Horse Book" records the names and the details of the horses kept in the years 1907–1917. These horses suffered a number of ailments. For example, Prince had to be put down when he was 17 years old because he seedy foot. Millers' horses were susceptible to a number of problems due to heavy work on hard surfaces, including bone diseases caused by feeding the horses with too much bran which, as a by-product of flour milling, was consequently cheap and readily available. Several pictures of Priday, Metford's early transport have survived together those of bakers' carrying the company's advertisement. Management and staff Priday, Metford & Co. was founded by Charles Priday, who was already milling at Over and at St. Owen's Mill in the Docks, Mr (later Col. Sir) Francis Killigrew Seymour Metford and Mr Francis Tring Pearce who had been a partner in the firm of Reynolds and Allen. Messrs Priday and Pearce retired in 1922 and in 1946 Sir Francis (knighted in 1938) retired after 60 years with the business. His knighthood was celebrated with a party at the Connaught Rooms, later the Cadena in Eastgate Street, and gifts, silver cigarette cases or workbaskets, for employees. A signed photograph was produced in 1936 to mark his jubilee of service to the company. The mill was run by descendants of the three founders until the death of Mr John Priday (a grandson of Charles Priday) in 1980. Two of the families are still represented on the board of Directors by direct descendants of the founders, although the day-to-day management is the responsibility of full-time executives. When the business was incorporated in 1900 the original shareholders were Charles and Florence Priday, Frances and Agnes Metford and Francis and Martha Pearce together with Henry Allen Pearce (their son) and Henry Witcomb Arkell, the mill foreman and nephew