The Gold State Coach

[goodhors]

Stagecoaches in the American West, were a totally different design than Park Drags or Road Coaches found in the UK and the East Coast States.

Then there are sub-stagecoach catagories, of various body styles, used in the West and East before railroads had much track to distribute goods and passengers. The most commonly known is what was seen in movies, made by the Abbott and Downing or Concord Carriage Companies in the East.

Their design used leather “thoroghbraces (sp?)” as slings to support the body on a running gear. Somewhat similar but not exactly the same, to the Gold State Coach body hung on leather straps. The American design had about 12 leather strap layers under the body, with the driver’s seat fastened to the coach body, which had it moving constantly as the stagecoach traveled along. The boot in the rear of body held luggage, mail, goods, which probably helped balance the body on the straps. The driver had a loose rein connection to horses, due to the rocking motion during travel. He/she could not maintain a steady mouth contact over the rough ground. Roads could be usable or disappear seasonally, nothing like maintained, sometimes surfaced roads in the UK that allowed fast stagecoach travel. These were very tough vehicles, heavily built, braced, to survive the conditions they were driven over.

European design seemed to often have the driver on a “perch” above the wheel and axle running gear, unconnected to the slung body where passengers rode. One of the articles mentions a King having the drivers seat removed from the Gold State Coach in the past.

I would call the pictured red and black coach as likely a private vehicle. It may not have carried people inside! Servants don’t count. All the friends would be riding on top to the excursion or picnic outing. Spare parts, servants would be inside, food and drink in compartments, coolers, in the rear behind a fold-down tailgate/table to serve off of. Once parked at the destination, inside the coach body was also probably the loo, since porta-potties had not been invented yet! We have seen a number of private coaches fitted out this way, with a potty.

[ShenanAnna]

When I was a tour guide at a carriage museum, one of the features visitors liked was the potty under the fold-up wooden seat of a coach. They also liked me blowing the coach horns for them.

[RMJacobs]

That was fascinating! Thank you for sharing your extensive knowledge.

Rebecca

[Rackonteur]

@goodhors

Once parked at the destination, inside the coach body was also probably the loo, since porta-potties had not been invented yet! We have seen a number of private coaches fitted out this way, with a potty.

Was it like a close-stool, self-contained?

[Equibrit]

Love the Frey website;

Sport-Ray Combination Carriage

[goodhors]

@Equibrit The Frey Company does incredible work with carriages! Both in restoring antiques and his modern designs. He literally can not build the modern ones fast enough, so people go elsewhere because they can’t wait that long. Not sure how fast restorations get done, but probably “a good while!”

Sorry, no idea of plumbing details in a private coach. Like mentioned, we just saw the wooden cover under the cushions. I expect some were not contained systems because collectors joke about them.

To compare the coach in the Frey site to a Road Coach that had paying passengers on routes, you can Google the Nimrod or the Tantivy coaches for photos. They are quite notable here in the USA. Things in design might look similar, but the experts can tell them apart even without the lettering. And the Road Coaches obviously carried people inside during travel. They use a different kind of harness, carry different accessories. Do you know how hard it is to find a straw collar?!! Both Road Coaches and Park Drags carried the horn blower to announce their coming, with various short tunes actually saying what the coach would be doing. Going straight or turning at a hedge-sided country road intersection, coming up a blind hill, to warn people ahead. The Road Coach carried the third man, a Guard in the old days, to protect the coach from robbers, aid the other two men on the paid crew with horses. Now usually the driver is the owner, a friend sits beside him/her, so men in livery sit on the back seat. Private coaches usually carry two liveried men, grooms, on the back seat to blow the horn and manage the horses.

Livery is usually subdued, darker colors on private vehicles and bright, showy, on Road Coaches. Read the ADS Rulebook, Pleasure Driving Section, for the details on accessories, how many buttons, button locations on livery coats of grooms and Coachman! The detail is mind boggling!! You need it all to turn out properly for show or excursions. A Coachman friend knows ALL the reasons behind the picky details which can be quite interesting.

[Rackonteur]

More on the Gold State Coach in this film of King George’s Coronation, 1937.

Coronation of King George VI: Westminster Abbey 1937

[Willesdon]

Interesting . That film makes obvious just how reduced and slim-line the recent coranation was. I doubt there are now sufficient senior people able to ride well enough to provide a mounted escort and the British military has shrunk to a fraction of its 1937 size. The empire is no more.

Interesting that the crowd was so large: not only the abdication crisis but the two decades of the 20s and 30s in Britain were a time of political turbulence and great uncertainty. We tend to pass over the period between the two world wars as a kind of “catch your breath” moment but the fascist movements in Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal and the spread of Communism is all rooted in the economics and politics of that time.

OK serious thought time over. Back to coaches.

[Rackonteur]

The ladies in the gallery watching with their lorgnettes. I wonder if Princess Elizabeth and Queen Mary were as close as Charles and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother?

[Rackonteur]

@goodhors

The Road Coach carried the third man, a Guard in the old days, to protect the coach from robbers, aid the other two men on the paid crew with horses.

[ShenanAnna]

Just watched the 1937 coronation. Such a difference between the Gold coach and all the others. Others drawn by only two horses, very different shape and accoutrements. Gold coach drawn by eight Windsor grays, no driver or other personnel on the coach, each horse had a side walker, some had riders, announcer said that the man walking behind the coach was there to apply the brake.

Lots and lots of people riding.

Pretty impressive spectacle!

[Willesdon]

Coaches have a fascinating history. As major status symbols, they reached ludicrous new heights in 17th century London, in the time of Samuel Pepys and his Diary. The higher one’s social status, or deeper one’s pockets, the bigger, brighter, blingier the carriage. Some were so high the footmen at the rear were sitting fifteen or more feet above the pedestrians. A Duchess preferred a bald man as her coachman because his bald pate would shine in the sunshine and draw attention as he perched on the box! There was a tradition of society - all the A-listers - going to Hyde Park daily to drive in The Ring. It cost sixpence, paid to lay the dust with water, at a time when an agricultural labourer earned about 9 pennies a day. The coaches went in two circles around The Ring, which wasn’t very large, but in opposite directions so the passengers could see each other and be seen. There were so many coaches in London that the first vehicle congestion charge was imposed on them. Pepys writes about getting his first coach.

[Rackonteur]

Was that Rotten Row? (Or was that just for horse riders?)

[Willesdon]

Rotten Row is just for riding. The Ring has long disappeared. It was in the vicinity of Speakers Corner.