Medieval

MEDIEVAL CARRIAGE

A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn. The carriage is designed for a private transport, but some are also used to transport goods. It may be light, smart and fast or heavy, large and comfortable.

Carriages may be enclosed or open, depending on the type. The hood or the top cover of the carriage is mostly flexible and designed to be folded back when needed. Such a folding top is called a bellows top or calash. The top, roof or second-story section of a closed carriage was called an imperial. A closed carriage may have side windows called quarter lights as well as windows in the doors, therefore a glass coach. On the forepart of an open carriage, mud or snow will thrown up by the heels of the horses, so they have a screen of wood or leather called a dashboard to catch water. The dashboard or carriage top sometimes has a projecting sidepiece called a wing. A foot iron or footplate may serve as a carriage step.

A carriage driver sits on a box or perch, usually elevated and small. When at the front it is known as a dickey box. A footman might use a small platform at the rear called a footboard or a seat called a rumble behind the body. Some carriages have a handy seat called a jump seat. Some seats had a connected backrest called a lazy back.

The shafts of a carriage were called limbers. A tough elastic wood of various trees called Lancewood was often used for carriage shafts. The end of the tongue of a carriage is hanging from the collars of the harness by a bar called the yoke. At the end of a trace, a loop called a cockeye attaches to the carriage.

In some carriage types the body is perched from several leather straps called braces or thorough braces, attached to or serving as springs.