Thursday 25 April 2013

Cockney Barrows on Pathe News reel.

I must thank Sarah Lovett for this little gem; as many people may have seen, she sent a comment on the Tappy barrow in Berwick Street; she has an old Tappy barrow for sale.
The dimensions of, and information for, the barrow cart she has are:

Overall length:  9' 11"
Width : 46"
Height: 7' 6 1/4 "
It has 270ยบ steering.

She also said about the Pathe News clip from 1967 which really is very informative; the barrow maker in the clip is Terry O'Doherty  who had workshops both at Covent Garden and Hertfordshire. The clips show the hand barrows being made by his assistants and the makers name being very nimbly carved "with pen-like flourish".
It seems the barrows were made of Ash, a hardwood, known for its elasticity and resilience; I'm assuming that the Tappy barrows would have been made in the same way using the same techniques and wood type. 
From the information given in the film, it took about a fortnight to make a hand barrow; I wonder how long it took to make a wagon barrow?

 The video in the link below was slightly temperamental in starting, this may be due to my computer.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/cockney-barrows


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