A lorry or lorrie was a low flat horse-drawn vehicle with no sides, related to the trolley and dray.

Vehicle delivery trailer

This version was a low-loading trolley used mainly for the carriage of other vehicles, for example for delivery from the coachbuilders or returning there for repair. Its very small wheels were mounted under the deck which had to be wider than the track of the vehicles to be carried. It had two ramps, stowed above the back axle and below the body. These were withdrawn from the lorry and one end of each attached to the back of the deck while the other ends rested on the ground. A winch, mounted on the headboard was then used to draw the load up the ramps and onto the deck. The winch cable, low fixed sideboards and a low hinged tailboard plus lashings retained it there. The lorry was rather like a wooden version of the modern car-carrying trailer, intended for towing behind a car, except that the

wheels A wheel is a rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axl ...

were

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

en, with iron tyres and were not close-coupled. The front ones were on a steering undercarriage. The driver's seat was mounted on the top of the headboard. Around 1900, the lorry developed a sturdier form for carrying the heavier motor cars. These motor car lorries were two-horse vehicles, partly because of the weight carried but also because the roll-resistance of the very small wheels had to be overcome. For the same reason, it was primarily an urban vehicle so that, on the paved roads, the small wheels were not an insurmountable handicap. In any case, the axles were sprung. As in many fields, as time went by, people used the word perhaps without understanding its detailed meaning, so that it became applied less precisely and other configurations were given the name. By 1911, as the motor-propelled

lorry A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructio ...

(a kind of

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...

) developed, a pedant would have regarded it as being more the heir of the heavy trolley than of the horse-drawn lorry. However, the railway vehicles, first noted by the Oxford English Dictionary from 1838, were more like the horse-drawn road lorry. In these earlier years, it was also called a lurry. In Britain, "lorry" nowadays means any large powered

References

*Ingram, A. ''Horse-Drawn Vehicles Since 1760'' (1977). . *''Oxford English Dictionary'' (1971 & 1987). .
Horse-Drawn Carriages
(archived) {{Horse-drawn carriages Wagons Horse transportation

Vehicle delivery trailer

See also

References