A much-loved donkey who spent all 32 years of her life at a farm in Downe has died, leaving staff, visitors and villagers mourning an animal many had known for decades.
Ellee, one of the donkeys at Christmas Tree Farm, passed away on Wednesday 11 November, aged 32. Born at the farm in 1994, she was the oldest animal there — and she even outlived her own foal, who died around five years ago.
Manager Paul Gubby, who has run the farm for more than 40 years, was there for both the beginning and the end of Ellee’s life. “I actually was here when she was born, I’ve got a picture of me holding her as a little baby,” he said. “And I was there right until the end, so it was a bit sad for me.”
Gubby still has the photograph of himself holding Ellee as a baby — a reminder of a bond that stretched across three decades, from the day she was born at the farm to the day she died there.
“Over the years you see a lot of animals born and it’s very sad when they go,” Gubby said. “She will be missed, not just by us but by members of the public as well.”
Ellee even outlived her own foal, who died around five years ago — a reminder of just how long she had been part of the farm. In more than 40 years running the place, Gubby has seen countless animals born, grow old and pass away, but few stayed as long as Ellee, and fewer still were as loved.
Villagers were among those feeling the loss. “Even a lot of the villagers are a bit upset because they used to walk round the farm with their dogs and they’d quite often bring her a little carrot or something,” Gubby said.
The farm’s post on Facebook announcing Ellee’s death has drawn more than 2,000 reactions and 142 comments. Many of the comments share memories of the donkey and the part she played in families’ visits to the farm — the children who fed her, the walks past her field, the photographs taken over the years.
Christmas Tree Farm sits in Downe, a village in the London Borough of Bromley best known as the place where Charles Darwin lived and worked at Down House. Gubby has run the farm there for more than four decades, and in that time he has seen countless animals born, grow old and pass away — but Ellee, who arrived as a foal and stayed for 32 years, was one of the constants.
As Christmas approaches in Bromley, the borough’s festive season is already under way. In nearby Chislehurst, the Christmas event has been scaled back this year, but the season remains a busy time for the area’s farms and attractions.
Down House, where Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, still stands in the village — and the farm has been part of the same landscape for decades, its animals woven into the daily life of the place.
For now, the field where Ellee spent her days is a little quieter. The carrots the villagers brought will go uneaten, and the farm’s oldest resident is gone — but the memories, in the photographs and the comments and the stories, will stay.
Ellee’s 32 years spanned three decades at the farm, from a foal held in her manager’s arms to the oldest animal on the site. For the families who visited her, and the villagers who brought her carrots, she was a fixture of the place — and her passing leaves a gap that will be felt well beyond the farm gate.
