Carriage memories confirmed

We’ve had many people coming up to us recalling old horse-drawn carriages stored at Kings Weston shortly after the Second World War. It’s been a bit of a puzzle as to what they were, and what happened to them, but this week the story came into sharp focus. A new on-line interface for the collections of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery Provided the answer.

While searching for Kings Weston related items an entry appeared for one of a collection of carriages in the City’s ownership. This was an early Nineteenth Century carriage used by the Duke of Beaufort of Badminton. During the war it had been on display in the rear atrium of the museum when, in 1941, a bomb detonated on the roof, completely destroying a biplane hung from the ceiling, and badly damaging the carriages. They  were speedily removed to Kings Weston estate buildings for safe storage for the remainder of the war, where they must have stayed into the early 1950s when people recall seeing them. They reputedly received more damage from damp through the leaky roofs of the stables than they did in the initial blast!