Pleasureland, was the starting point for today’s ‘Southport Drive’ horse & trap/ horse & carriage charity fundraising event which is aimed at raising funds for local charities.
Pictured below is local trap rider Les Roberts (in red jacket) before the event.
Dozens of horses and riders from around the area gathered at Pleasureland to take part in this year's 6-8 mile trek around Southport town centre. This is the second time the event has taken place and the organisers hope the ‘Southport drive’ will take place annually.
Pictured below is local taxi driver Roy Roberts at the reigns.
Horse & riders in today's event.
The trap was a nineteenth century mode of transport, designed in different sizes to suit a pony, cob or horse. A jaunt in this comfortable open vehicle could be very pleasant in fine weather. It was necessary for travelling to town and to Mass on Sunday. For many years it was quite a status symbol.
Sidecars were similar to the trap. Passengers on the sidecar when seated were facing in opposite directions. In the case of the ‘Back to Back’ as the name implies, passengers were seated again in opposite directions.
Often asked question is: why is a small carriage, or a pony cart, called a trap? To be specific, the OED says this vehicle known as a trap is “a small carriage on springs, usually a two-wheeled spring carriage (also called) a gig, or spring cart.” The earliest citation for this use of the word trap is from 1806. The word trap is listed as having a dozen or so different meanings, starting with the basic meaning of a contrivance or snare for catching an animal. This seems to come from an Old English word with much the same meaning, and it may be related to the source word for our modern word “tread” – implying that originally a trap was a pitfall (something that would trap an animal who should happen to “tread” upon it). As far as the cart is concerned, trap is, a contraction of “rattletrap”. This was, in all probability, applied to early spring carriages because the action of the springs made them rattling and rickety. There are three possibilities as to why “trap” was added to the end of “rattle”. One is that it goes back to the old sense of “tread” – suggesting that the “tread”, the movement or ride, of the spring carriage was the source of the rickety rattle. The second is that people inside a spring cart felt that they were “trapped” inside a rattling, rickety vehicle. The third, and more likely, possibility is that “trap” was added to “rattle” simply because of the sound it made – this third syllable giving the word an appealing, rhythmic sound.
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