Chance to travel back to gilded past as Carriage Museum opens

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has inspected a gilded state carriage used by his predecessors ahead of the reopening of the museum where it is housed.

The Speaker’s State Coach, one of the only surviving examples of its kind from the 17th Century, was loaned by the House of Commons to the National Trust in 2011.

It is on display at the trust’s Carriage Museum at Arlington Court, near Barnstaple in Devon, which reopens today.

The coach has high quality carved woodwork and metalwork, painting and small plaques bearing the coats of arms of various speakers, and is thought to have been made in about 1698 for William III and was presented to the Speaker a few years later by Queen Anne.

It was last used by the speaker George Thomas in 1981 for the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, and was then displayed at venues in London before conservation work began.

Sir Lindsay viewed the coach on a visit to Arlington’s gardens and Carriage Museum while on holiday in the South West.

“The Speaker State Coach is an extraordinary example of its kind, having witnessed around 300 years of history, and which is now being cared for by the National Trust in Devon,” he said.

“The craftsmanship and the conservation are second to none.

“The conservation included removing over 60 layers of varnish and gilding added over centuries which was all but obliterating the detail of the fine carving,” he added.

Picture: PA. Sir Lindsay Hoyle hailed the “extraordinary” Speaker’s State Coach at the Carriage Museum.