The Open-lot, sometimes called the Yorkshire Bow, is a
direct descendant of the four-wheeled pot cart and its simplified construction
relative to the old types, facilitating standardization rendered necessary by
mounting costs. It is built on the existing four-wheeled tradesman’s cart,
called a dray, trolley or lurry; and unlike the other types is still being built
and decorated by travelers who own a yard or otherwise have access to working
space.
It has a bowed, canvas-covered top, a fixed back with
shuttered window panels and crown-board. The bow roof projects to form porches
front and back but there is no footboard. Its layout differs somewhat from the
earlier types.
 It was established as a type by the 1930’s, when the last of
Wright’s pot carts were showing signs of wear. The front at first had a single,
upright, chamfered pillar supporting the centre of the bow, and the front board
was dipped on the near side and shod with metal nosing to facilitate stepping in
from the steps or shafts. Builders later replaced the central pillar with two
pillars about 2ft 2in apart, which ran up to a decorated crown-board, and the
dip in the front board was placed in the centre. At about the same stage the bow
was extended forward to form a porch complete with chamfered weatherboard and
lined with match-boarding as on the Bow-top. A porch was also extended at the
rear and the detachable matchboard back became a fixture, with all the
decorative features and ‘couterments’, shutters, etc, of a Bow-top. Fixed
furniture was now installed inside, along with the stove and the characteristic,
vertical, glass-fronted cupboards on either side of the bow at the front of the
van. These rested on the ledges and were tall enough to contain three square
shelves for crockery. The last stage of the evolution was the fitting of
decorated panels at the sides of the bow in front, the shield the front
cupboards, and the Open-lot became almost as proud, self-contained and
decorative as a regular Bow-top van.
Demand for
this type of van still continues from traveling people who are confirmed
traditionalists and from those who retain horses. It is often used by dealers as
a summer wagon for visiting such horse fairs as Appleby, and by others for fruit
and other seasonal cropping.
The open front makes for pleasant traveling, as
everyone riding up is able to view the unfolding landscape. An open-lot can be
snug enough even in winter. In inclement weather specially fitted canvas
curtains, hooked back or reefed shut with a tie rope. For added privacy and
warmth a curtain is sometimes hung inside the open front. 
Although they are not
living wagons in the same sense in which we use the term, not being equipped as
homes and therefore not Gypsy caravan types, there are two ancillary vehicles,
sleeping carts, that have commonly been used for many years, longer than living
wagons proper, and it is appropriate to refer briefly to them. The word cart is
usually defined as a vehicle having two wheels and wagon as having four, but
both are called carts by travelers.
 
Photographs by Barrie Law
©From The English Gypsy
Caravan by C.H. Ward-Jackson & Denis E. Harvey 1973 Edition |
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