1) Iron-bound carts and wains, or simply bound carts and wains, are referred to from an early date.
1419 Item de carectis ligatis, Beverley
1485 plaustrum ligatum cum ferro, Ripon
1518 my yren bownd wayne, Barkston. They are regularly contrasted with ‘bare’ wains: 1535 one iron bawnde wane
ij bare wanes, Stillingfleet
1556 my yron bound wayn, my bare wayn, Scarcroft. The inference is that a ‘bare’ wain was one with wheels that were not bound with iron: 1404 ‘one cart cum rotis nudis’, Selby and there is good evidence to suggest that iron-bound wains were those with iron-bound wheels: 1551 that Jenett my wyff have one yronbond wayn, and where thatt one of the wheilles of the wayn is unbounde I wull that my wyff take one other wheill that has the yron to bynd the other with, Knaresborough
1624 Item a wayne with boonde wheeles furnished, Birstwith. Such wheels had metal tyres which were nailed to the wooden felloes, and the large-headed studs protruded, as in a cart on the Luttrell psalter c.1342: it must be presumed that these gave the wheels a better grip and were longer lasting. In a translated passage of 1404-5, a payment of 33s 4d was made ‘For the service of the smith fitting the ... wheels with metal tires and nails of his own’, Selby. However, the advantages of the iron-bound wheel were not always approved of by municipal authorities: 1489 every bound wayn commyng to this Cite with eny carriage gere to pay iiijd to the reparacon of the briggs of Ouse and Fosse and the pavage of the toun, York. In 1497, shortly after expensive work on the Pavement had taken place, it was proclaimed in the open markets that those that bryngez waynez or carts bound with yren and loden with any maner stuff ... and comez within this Citie opon the Payvement whiche of newe is maid ... shall pay for every tyme xijd. The owners of unbound waynes or cartez ... without any naylez were to have free entry and passage. The authorities in Beverley had a similar attitude: 1709 for better preserving of the paving in the streets … excessive leading in wintertime … no inhabitant to lead any sort of goods within the town in any wagon, cart or carriage bound with iron between Martinmas and Lady Day, Beverley.