Cradur

This section – a gift to AIMA newsletter readers from members and friends – started out small, then grew and grew, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of our contributors, so here is a medley of images from around the world, with some technical details thrown in to add to the pleasure. We begin here… Continue reading Carts And Wagons From Around The World

Utilitarian harnessing methods are invariably the pertinent expression of an activity (agricultural, industrial, commercial) in a particular environment (that may be economic, geographic, technical and cultural, all at the same time). Innovation has been a permanent feature over the last 2500 years and applies to material (harness, vehicles, tools), zootechnics, architecture, urbanism, agronomy… Over the… Continue reading Animal Draft And Its Multiple Heritage: A French Problem?

Model farm vehicles from the collections of the COMPA Chartres, France. The COMPA (Conservatoire de l’agriculture) has a very large collection of model farm vehicles and implements created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as their archive collection of photographs and postcards, to share with us. With thanks to Élodie Massouline, Chargée… Continue reading Small is beautiful

Since the beginning of 2018, the Centre for Agrarian History (CAG) Leuven, Belgium, has been responsible for the management and public valorization of the ‘Collection Bulskampveld’, owned by the Flemish government. The collection counts more than 8500 artefacts and consists among other things of carts, wagons, agricultural tools and material for crafts such as wheelwright,… Continue reading Carts And Wagons In The Bulskampveld Collection

The Hermaphrodite Cart is a type of cart ~ waggon that was used in the eastern counties of England, for example Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, from the 1800s until the mid-1900s. In farm parlance, it was often called a “mophrey” and was created, primarily in hay or harvest time, by extending a two-wheeled cart through the… Continue reading The Hermaphrodite Cart

Like most Shire publications, this small volume is packed with erudition, outstanding photographs, both black-and-white and in colour, enhanced by numerous line drawings of the vehicles and of their component parts, carefully labelled, so the book punches far over its weight. It opens with a surprise – to us, perhaps – that is, the suggestion… Continue reading A Classic Source Book On Carts And Wagons

Unfortunately, the news is not too good – unable to find members who can carry on the publication of Wheel Write and other communication, the Guild decided to close down at their October 2018 AGM, although the website will continue for an as yet undefined period at http://www.guildofmodelwheelwrights.org/ and you can still enjoy the pleasure… Continue reading News From The Guild Of Model Wheelwrights

Jærmuseet is a family of museums at 13 different locations across the Jæren region as well as the regional science center for Southwest Norway. Jæren is a traditional district in Rogaland county, Norway, and the largest flat lowland, including the Stavanger Peninsula, so strongly connected to the farming industry, due to its long crop period and… Continue reading Horse-driven Transport In Agriculture In The Collections Of The Jærmuseet, Norway

A medley of transport vehicles for multiple uses from the National Museum of Agriculture and Food Industry, Szreniawa, Poland. The following pictures come from the museum’s collection and from the exhibit catalogue Historia Transportu Wiejskiejo (History of Rural Transport) with illustrations of vehicles, wheel and carriage design, implements, horse harness, human draft (carry yoke), and… Continue reading Polish Multiple-Use Transport Vehicles

A Symbolic Tale From The World Of The Villages Of Ialomița. The history of traditional transport brings with it an emotional charge that is hard to imagine in a century centred on individualism and speed. From the research projects of the [Romanian] National Museum of Agriculture, materialized through the acquisitions of objects, we would like… Continue reading The Horse Cart Of Brăila

José Luis Mingote Calderón reminds us that postcards figure among the finest documents attesting to rural and urban traditions in Portugal, if their limitations – so often being posed for the photographer, among others – are taken into account. José Luis has been kind enough to send us an extensive bibliography in Spanish on carts… Continue reading Portuguese Carts In Postcards

A moving experience! Goa Chakra is a transportation museum, the first of its kind in India. Conceived, created and curated by Victor Hugo Gomes, it is a place for collection, restoration and documentation of the rich heritage of the wheel. Exhibition galleries display a unique collection of over 70 non-mechanized indigenous carriages, carts, palanquins and… Continue reading The Goa Chakra Transportation Museum

Two-wheeled dump carts were common in America prior to the Petroleum Era. This one was purchased in the late 1980s at an antique store in Gap, Pennsylvania. The shafts are not original and do not have the typical hardware: a metal staple to which the draft, support, and hold-back straps connect on each side. The axle is made… Continue reading An American Two-wheeled Dump-cart

The Sunny South wagon and bobsled pictured is part of the ‘working collection’ used on a 130-acre historic site operated by the Mercer County Park Commission as a “living history” farm where visitors can learn about the lifestyle, buildings, and crop/livestock operations commonly seen in rural New Jersey (USA), circa 1900.   In keeping with… Continue reading Presto Changeo! Farmer’s Magic: Summer Wagon To Winter Sled