The Coachmakers: a History of the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers, 1677-1977 by Harold Nockolds

Methods of transport today have had such an impact, and in such a short passage of time, on the way we live that modern man should perhaps be forgiven if he regards earlier methods as being of no consequence.

Yet, less than 100 years ago the most commonly used transport in Britain was the horse-drawn vehicle. Throughout the countryside, in towns and villages, the coach, carriage, trap and wagon were everyday sights; commerce and communications had expanded with the development of the stagecoach: the country-side had been affected by the making of coach routes and for hundreds of years the coachmaker had been an important and skilled member of the community.

This book is a history of the men who made the coaches and who, in so doing, created not only a functional vehicle but a beautiful one as well. They were craftsmen in the best possible sense and they established a tradition which, happily, did not vanish with the demise of the coach. 

The coachmakers were granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II in 1677. They were incorporated into the Livery Companies of the City of London as The Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers. They became the governing body of the coachmaking trade with power to legislate the conditions of the trade, standards of workmanship, the binding of apprentices and search of premises where the trade of coachmaking was carried on. The Company still exists today and has particularly strong links with the modern equivalent of the coachmaking trade, the motor car industry.

Black and white illustrations throughout. 

239pp