The Lincolnshire Wagon

Before my acupuncture session, we visited the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading University today. Very interesting farm equipment from small tools to large wagons. The wagons come from all parts of the country, each one different according to the terrain where they were used, from Cornish carts to fit the narrow lanes, with extendable boards so the load could rise upwards rather than outwards, to wagons with broader wheels for clay and claggy soils in Wiltshire, and even a steam powered lawn mower which never quite caught on. Many of the wagons are decorated wonderfully, remembering they are just working farm vehicles.

This is fairly obviously from Lincolnshire, where my father's family were farm labourers not 2 or 3 miles from Leadenham, at Rauceby. Both sides of my family had 10 children, a small village could not support that number of workers and some had to go further afield to find work. Highly possible that one or more fetched up at Leadenham.

The wagon was made in 1829 especially for General John S. Reeve of the Leadenham country estate, and restored by the museum in 1961. Leadenham House is still occupied by the same family today. General Reeve fought in the Battle of Waterloo, 1815 with the Grenadier Guards. The wagon was donated by his great grandson, Lt. Colonel W.Reeve, keeping up the family tradition. The house is open to the public by arrangement only, with all proceeds from the tours going to village charities.