Family History Fun: Carriages and Carters

A busy street scene is the focus of this week's prompt photograph from the Sepia Saturday website. My eye centred on the horse drawn carriage, so take a look at how our ancestors travelled around in times past.

The date is 1907 and Earlston Parish Church Choir is setting off from the Red Lion Hotel in the village to drive to Yarrow Manse in Selkirkshire - according to the Distances website a distance of some 29 miles over what would be a hilly, twisting route.

Hopefully it would be a dry day as there was no protection from the elements. It was surprising they did not take the railway for part of the route and and then by waggonette to Yarrow.

They must have got there safely, for here they are relaxing, with some hats off, relaxing outside Yarrow Manse.

In more modern times, a horse drawn charabanc in Krakow, Poland.

My cousin's ancestors, the Oldham family of Blackpool, Lancashire were carters and coalmen down three generations - Joseph Prince Oldham (1855-1921), his son John William Oldham (1880-1939) and his granddaughter Elsie Smith, nee Oldham (1906-1989).

The business was founded around 1890, steadily became prosperous and in 1905 moved to near North Station, Blackpool, Lancashire in a house with a large yard at the back with hay loft, tack room. and stabling for around 7 horses.

John William Oldham on one of the carriages in the family business of coal men and carters.

Here is My third cousin, Gloria a top of this carthorse. In the 1901 census Joseph Oldham was described as a self-employed carter and coal merchant with his son John a coal wagon driver. An accident at the coal sidings in the railway station resulted in Joseph being blinded and he died in 1921, with his will, signed with his "mark.

Below - two advertisements in the stable yard at Beamish Open Air Museum in north east England. It recreates life in the 19th and 20th century - a favourite place for a day outing.

Anyone tracing their family history may well have a "carter or carrier " in their ancestry - an essential occupation in transporting goods around. Such a man was my great great grandfather Robert Rawcliffe of Hambleton, Lancashire. More carter images are shown here with vintage photographs from the collection of my local heritage group Auld Earlston.

The 1851 census for Earlston (population 1,819) listed 9 men working as blacksmiths, 7 carters/carriers, 3 saddlers, 2 stable boys, an ostler, a farrier, a groom and a coachman - plus of course all those who would be working with horses on the many farms in the rural parish.

Thinking of a convivial drink? Large Clydesdale Horses here are pulling the dray, advertising Vaux Brewery Fine Ales - at the Border Union Agricultural Show in Kelso, Scottish Borders.

But being a carter was not without its risks. Local newspapers reported cases appearing in police courts - the offence ‘being drunk while in charge of horse" or "careless and reckless driving".

Likewise many graphic reports of road accidents appeared in local papers.

One such casuality was my great great grandfather Henry Danson (1806-1881) of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.

I had done a lot of research on his life many years previously, using standard resources, to find his family (6 daughters and 3 sons) and his occupations as a farmer and later as a toll collector at nearby Shard Bridge over the Riuver Wyre.

But it is never too late to discover new information on an ancestor, as more and more records come online. Such was the case for me. In 2021 I was doing a casual browsing on the British Newspaper Archive website. The result was a fascinating discovery in newspapers that had only recently been indexed - an obituary and a coroner’s report on Henry Danson's death - and information on Henry that was completely new to me.

I found out that he was well known locally as "a famous judge in horse flesh" and had died in a tragic accident on his horse and cart.

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser: Wednesday 02 Nov. 1881

“FATAL FALL FROM A CART. On Monday evening Mr. Gilbertson held an inquest at Poulton-le-Fylde, on the body of Henry Danson, collector of the Shard Bridge tolls. The deceased, who was 75 years old, was riding in a cart with Mr. John ? farmer, on the way to Poulton, when the horse took fright and jumped forward. Danson was standing in the cart leaning on his stick at the moment he was jerked out upon the road. He was attended Mr. Winn, surgeon, but could never walk afterwards, his left thigh being injured, and he had an attack of pleurisy fortnight before his death, which occurred on Thursday night last. The jury returned verdict of Death from the effects of injuries received, and resulting illness, through fall from a cart."

It is both sad and ironic that Henry, noted for his skill with horses, should have died, whilst driving his horse and cart.

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