Wheelwrights

First thing this morning my thoughts turned to wheelwrights and cart builders, two trades which often went together. Thoughts which were probably the delayed product of a rather smart horse drawn hearse in the street a few days ago - although not so smart that the coffin was not transferred to a motor hearse for the journey to the crematorium, a run of between five and ten miles.

Back in the days of George Sturt of reference 1, or at least those of his father, wheelwrights must have been fairly common, with plenty of them needed to service the many carts of agriculture and commerce. Whereas now there are just a few enclaves of carts - notably the undertakers who do horse drawn hearses and the royals who still do carriages. But where would you go to get a wheel or a cart made? I had a wooden cart wheel in mind, but one might also have difficulty finding someone to make the lightweight iron wheels with long spokes and rubber tyres that served during the transition to motors.

How would a wheelwright advertise his services? In obscure trade magazines which you might be lucky to find in your local reference library? Given that the trade must be pretty thin on the ground, it would have been a bit of a problem before the arrival of the Internet, by virtue of which I am able to turn up the people at reference 4 in seconds. Even so, one supposes that the business is such that the few wheelwrights that there are all have waiting lists. Getting a wheel in a hurry might cost you.

At which point I remembered a couple of other places. First, Calbourne Water Mill in the Isle of Wight, a place that sold us some bread flour in the days of panic buying that followed lockdown last March, but a place which certainly used to go in for repairing wooden carts, although I doubt whether they went as far as wheels. Second, the Coachmakers' Arms of Marylebone, a place we used to use in the margins of lunch time concerts at Wigmore Hall. Perhaps a glass of something before, or a plate of something after. I think closed for refurbishment last time we went past. Just about possible that it was named for a Marylebone coach builder of days gone by, but I would not bet on it.

PS: while BH thought that the horse drawn hearses came from France where there are a few firms that specialise.

Reference 1: The Wheelwright's Shop - George Sturt – 1923.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/tree-show.html. Last mention of the book at reference 1, in the margins of the only show we went to last year, after the bug clicked in in March.

Reference 3: https://www.calbournewatermill.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://wheelwrighting.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://www.thecoachmakersarms.co.uk/.

Reference 6: http://www.gypsycaravancompany.co.uk/. Turned up when looking for a cart to illustrate this post.