Coachlines - December 2022

15.12.22 Honorary Assistant Lesley Upham

The day of the horseless carriage is coming


This month’s ‘from the archives’ piece is from The Court Journal 25th December 1897.

When a City Company smiles upon progress it is a certain sign that one more prejudice is within measure of being broken through. The hated motor-car, for which the boy in the street cannot find a sufficiently humiliating epithet, is to be taken to the worshipful bosom of the Coachmakers Company. For the first time, this body will in its annual offer of prizes include one for the best design for a motor carriage, and if there should be a successful competitor he may, according to a rule of the Coachmakers, actually become a freeman of the company. Now that there is a steam Royal Mail Van, and encouragement from the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers, we may well expect that the day of “horseless carriages” is coming.