car

1) In general a two-wheeled vehicle, used to carry heavy loads such as stone and timber.

The meaning may have differed from one region to another over the centuries: in the hilly areas, for example, it was used for loads of peat and turf. The vehicles were carpenter made but had some metal parts, possibly at the corners for protection: 1280 ac iidem homines eosdem carros de iisdem mćremio et busca carcassent, Bilsdale

1360 Pro ij plates pro le karre 3d

1399 j magna kerr cum iiij rotis pro petra, meremio, et hujusmodi cariandis, ij kerres cum rotis pro aliis petris extra le loge cariandis, York. There is still a lack of evidence for the fifteenth century but the Act of 1576 mentioned ‘cars or drags … furnished for Repairing … Highways’ and the inference is that the vehicle had changed little over that period: 1541 one carre full of turfs ijd, Dalton in Furness

1575 ij peite horse carres vjd

j carr to leade corne and haye iiijd, West Burton. The word survived with this meaning into the eighteenth century at least: 1615 to lead stones at Newlay Bridge … and to bring sleds or carrs for leading the same, Armley

1756 2d for every such 2 wheel Carr, West Riding. It was used as a verb: 1596 for 2 hundred of peatts and carringe them to the storehouse, 12d, Howden.

dates 1280 1360 1399 1541 1575 1576 1596 1615 1756

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