Putting the hearse before the carts
Putting the hearse before the carts
July 19, 2018 Comments Off on Putting the hearse before the cartsThis 1906 Ford hearse was one of many vintage and veteran commercial vehicles on display in Guildhall yard on Wednesday 18th July for the City livery company’s most popular annual event – the Cart Marking Ceremony. Neil Sinclair tells us more.
This ritual, which dates back to the late 17th century, involves all licensed vehicles being marked with the City of London’s arms on the shafts and numbered on a brass plate.
A member of the Worshipful Company of Carmen, which celebrated its 500th anniversary last year, told Footprints of London that the Ford hearse had been built originally as a mobile crane to lift and move tombstones and other very 
heavy objects.
It was converted to a hearse in WWI amid a serious shortage of working horses due to thousands being commandeered for service on the western front in Flanders and France.
This had left many of the horse-drawn hearses in England without motive power.
The 112-year-old vehicle was parked, perhaps appropriately, over the remains of a Roman amphitheatre where hundreds of slaves and criminals were slaughtered as part of ritual entertainment for the population of Londinium from the late 1st century AD to around the mid 4th century.
In Roman days, the amphitheatre’s arena would have had a gravel and mortar base covered with a layer of soft sand to soak up the spilt blood. And in preparation for the Cart Marking Ceremony, sand is spread over the Guildhall yard – not to absorb blood but to catch any drips of oil from elderly engine sumps and gearboxes.
