Horse traction in Victorian London

Work horses have not received the attention they be worthy of in studies of transport history. Nor did contemporary descriptions of life pay a great deal of attention to them, for, like the cars that line the ways today, they were too ubiquitous and too a great deal of a part of everyday experience to be worth writing about. Traffic congestion, the noisy clatter of horseshoes and ironrimmed wheels and the get scent of of manure did attract occasional mention, on the other hand most references to horses in newspapers and other periodicals related to saddle horses. This article is relate toed with the economics of harness horses, what they were used for, in what manner numerous they were and in what way much they cost to purchase and to maintain.

To the economist, and to greatest in quantity owners of the period, of that kind horses were simply depreciable capital serviceables used in fairly fixed proportions with stables, vehicles, harness, labour and dry food (i.e. fodder and bedding) to transport beneficials and people and, incidentally, to bring out manure.1 They had certain special characteristics, however. Being mobile, they had a ready second-hand market. Being animals, they required attention seven days a week, whether or not they were working; they could fall ill; they had a working life that varied considerably and unpredictably, and, finally, being sentient creatures, more [i]or[/i] less were stubborn or vicious and a certain number of could be mistreated in a way which tip overs us today and upset many Victorians at the time.

Major horse owners

Major horse holders bought almost all their horses first-hand, usually at five years aged When their horses became lame or not to be found their strength, they were sold generally at auction, and passed upon to a second owner. For 1875 we have a list of major horse proprietors which shows what kinds of business haveed large numbers. It comes from the minutes of the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) Other data for this company tend hitherward from its six-monthly reports to shareholders (Table 1)

Carnage horses

Carriage horses ranged from the splendid to the barely ordinary, but were generally superior to cab horses. a certain quantity of people kept their own, more [i]or[/i] less hired horses and vehicles from jobmasters - the Victorian equivalent of Hertz or Avis. Anthony Trollope relates in Barchester Towers by what mode Dr Grantly, who was rich:

kept a separate pair of horses for the exclusive use of his wife since the day of his marriage; whereas Mr Proudie had hitherto been jobbed about the roads of London at so a great deal of a month during the season; and at other times had managed to walk, or hire a smart mount from the livery stables.2

According to Mayhew in 1850 the support Office Directory showed 154 jobmasters located in London, fifty-one also being cab proprietors and twenty-eight also owning omnibuses. 'The number of job-horses kept for chance work in the metropolis may be estimated at about 1000 in addition to the cab and omnibus horses, many of which not rarely go out in flies.' greatest in quantity horse pairs drawing splendid carriages belonged to jobmasters, as true few noblemen brought their carriage horses into London.3

Omnibus and tram horses

When George Shillibeer initiated a London omnibus service in 1829 three horses were used, as in Paris, on the other hand after some years most London omnibuses were drawn by the agency of two horses. By 1901 almost the alone three-horse buses remaining were the r 'Favourites' from Highgate and Islington to the City. The LGOC had props of ten or eleven horses, eleven for omnibuses that did four replete trips plus a short single in a day. A replete trip averaged three and a half hours, thus without the extra short trip the day's work exerciseed eight horses, giving each pair in revolve a day's rest. An extra short trip meant an extra horse and a different a whole of relief.4 The horses did sixteen miles a day; while London Road Car horses did fourteen.5 These horses had to be muscular but they did not have to be handsome. They were similar to the horses used for light carts and tradesmen's carts. They formed a major proportion of omnibus company assets, and were treated accordingly.

The same kind of horse was used for trams as for omnibuses. North Metropolitan Tramways, started in 1871 hired its horsepower from the LGOC until mid-1878, at 63Ad by mile run. Each car upon duty generally ran seventy miles a day, requiring an active prop of eleven horses, one spare and five pairs upon duty, each pair doing fourteen or fifteen miles during three and a half to four hours, the contract providing that each pair of horses worked at least fourteen on the other hand not more than sixteen miles a day/ London Tramways was also supplied with horses until the middle of 1873 by dint of the LGOC, except for sum of two units lines, but by the next to the first half-year of 1876 owned an average of 1031 horses.7 by means of 1890 North Metropolitan Tramways had 3346 horses, London Tramways had 3211 horses and London way Tramways, the third largest, had 11278

Cab horses

Some cabs worked with single horse, especially those driven by the agency of owner-drivers, and some had three horses, on the contrary two horses, changing once in the day, was usual. Each horse might be on the outside for six to seven hours, in which case the driver would work twice as drawn out as that, sometimes up to eighteen hours by means of day, sometimes less than twelve hours a day.9 individual proprietor explained that he allow on the two-horse system to younger men who worked longer hours than the older men10