History

During Victorian times, no funeral was complete without some degree of pomp and ceremony provided by undertakers with black plumed horses, elaborate horse drawn hearses, funeral coaches and attendants. Traditionally black horses would be used for adults and white plumed horses with white coffins would be used for children’s funerals.

Dickins immortalised the an image of the grim, money-grasping undertaker with Mr Sowerberry, in his classic tale of “Oliver Twist”, but the reality was that they became essential to the community because everyone, irrespective of status, wanted a decent burial for their kinfolk.

As many cemeteries were established on the outskirts of towns, a means of non-human conveyance was required for the coffin. So during the Victorian period, the design of hearses evolved. Originating with a depressing black, solid two wheeled box cart open to the elements, hearses developed into the elaborate, glass sided, four wheeled conveyances with purple, white or silver fittings, hammercloth and curtains – a vehicle befitting the silent solemnity of the occasion.

Most Coach Builders manufactured hearses, Marston & Co, located in Birmingham, even designed an economical combined hearse and mourners coach. Not every undertaker owned a hearse. The Burials act of 1852, allowed burial authorities to provide hearses. Some were owned and provided co-operatively by cemetery companies; others were owned and hired by undertakers, along with black horses, by the black jobmaster. In 1899, the cost of a horse drawn hearse was in the range of £70 - £180 depending upon its splendour.

At the high end of the scale, an elaborate most expensive funeral would include a hearse and four horses, two mourning coaches with fours, plumes of ostrich feathers, velvet to cover horses and carriages, a strong elm shell with lead coffin, intricate furnishings and inscription plate, silk and velvet pall, two mutes (professional mourners), 14 pages, feather men, coachmen and finally an attendant with silk hat band.