For Listing Review 2023. Photographer's note: 'carriage (or wagon) wash believed to date since 1600. Barkway was a coaching town from the late medieval period to the C19. It was a frequent stopping point on the coach route between London and the North East of England. Coaches and carriages had to be washed periodically. They had wooden wheels with metal tyres, and in warm, dry weather the wood could shrink causing spokes to fall out, or the loss of the metal tyres. To prevent this, coaches and carts were regularly driven into water to soak the wood. In many places, where there was a convenient shallow watercourse, the carriages would be washed and wheels soaked there. In some locations, where there was no naturally occurring shallow water, a carriage wash was formed. The most basic were dug-out pits with a shallow incline each end, to allow the vehicle to be drawn in and out. Sometimes the carriage wash had a stone or brick lining, and retaining walls each side, and sometimes a raised brick or stone walkway each side so a person could reach to wash the sides of the carriage. These structures were known variously as a “carriage wash”, a “carriage splash”, a “wagon wash” or a “cart wash”.'
This is part of the Volume: VF000197 Historic Building Survey, Planning, Advice and Listing; within the Series: HEC01/026 Historic Building Survey, Planning, Advice and Listing; within the Collection: HEC01 Historic England
© Historic England Archive
Photographer: Lever, Sarah J: Historic England
Carriage Splash
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