Governess cart

14 years ago

Lynn and alisande wanted to know about my governess cart (Christmas card photo thread). Here are some other shots I took the same day. I've had the governess cart for many years, I used to collect carriages; but I put the cart before the horse you might say, as I never had a horse. I would borrow the neighbors pony named Bandit. The cart dates from the 1900's, early to mid. When I purchased it in the 1980's it was in original condition, unfortunately Bandit and I had an accident that resulted in the wheels and a portion of the wicker being damaged. A motorcycle going 70mph or more hit us in the left rear on a bridge on a country road. Neither Bandit nor I were injured, the motorcycle driver tried his best to swerve and ended up hitting a guard rail and breaking his arm. It could have been much worse. Thus, with wheels repaired, new shafts and a the rear entry door tweaked, the cart has more weight than the original. That was years ago, and I haven't driven since! Still can not bear to sell it.

A governess cart was used primarily as a vehicle for a nurse or governess to transport the children of the house and most always driven with a pony. Some had umbrella or parasol tops, there is an iron piece inside near the front of mine that could have been part of such a top, but no way to tell for sure. Everyone, including the driver, sits sideways facing each other which makes it an awkward position for driving and I can attest to that. Sorry I haven't much more info on the cart.

{{!gwi}}

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Comments (9)

alisande
14 years ago
Thanks for the info! It's charming......but how odd that it would be designed to be driven awkwardly. Did the governess usually do the driving herself? Or did the family have another employee for that job?

So glad you and Bandit weren't hurt!
schoolhouse_gw
Original Author
14 years ago
The driver sits in the back on the right side, and yes it would usually be the governess herself. Seating on the sides probably was best so that very young children could be watched more closely. No seat belts!

One other bit of interesting info about this particular cart. The axle is made in such a way that it can be raised or lowered according to the height of the pony being used to pull it. I always thought that was neat. Too bad it is so expensive to have wicker repaired or I'd done that long ago. I was even tempted to take lessons and learn wicker work myself but never followed through.
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sue_va
14 years ago
That is a beautiful cart. I just had to google for information on them. Lots of images and good info there, especially about the seating and driver.

Too bad about the accident. Glad it wasn't worse.

Thanks for showing it.

Sue
foggyj
14 years ago
Very interesting. Thanks for the pictures. That's a neat thing to have.
susan_on
14 years ago
That is a beautiful cart, thanks for sharing your pics. I'm glad you shared the information about such carts, I found it to be very interesting.
chisue
14 years ago
So...no 'get in the car and go', eh? We forget how much TIME was spent fetching the pony, getting him into the traces, reverse procedure on returning home -- plus just *tending* the animal.

The destination would have to be quite a distance to make this worth the trouble. (Perhaps this is the origin of those stories about walking for miles to get to school!)
jannie
14 years ago
Very pretty in the pictures. I'd never heard of one.
Marilyn Sue
14 years ago
What a wonderful cart. Too bad you didn't have the fellow on the motorcycle pay for the damages! That is really a nice little cart, thanks for posting a picture of it.

Sue
lindyluwho
14 years ago
That's beautiful. I love it.

Linda

Governess cart

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Governess cart

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