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Liverpool Carters
For more than 250 years horses were used to move goods to and from Liverpool docks and businesses. At their peak more than 20,000 horses worked on the streets of Liverpool, more than in any other city outside London. During the Second World War the Liverpool Carter's and their horses maintained the vital link between the docks and the city, keeping food and raw materials moving during the most difficult of times.
Liverpool’s carters and their horses were famous for moving heavier loads than was common elsewhere, yet the men also had a good reputation for the treatment of their animals. The city’s transport system was reliant on horses into the twentieth century, and carters could wield considerable influence in labour disputes as a result.
A number of factors made Liverpool an unusual place for short-distance transport, and particularly suited to heavy carting. There was no direct railway connection to most of the dock estate, so goods had to be carted out of the docks to warehouses or to railway goods stations, which were usually just inland of the Dock Road. In addition, Liverpool City Council and the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board both invested heavily in granite setts for road surfacing, which, combined with special horse-shoes, gave horses a powerful grip.
Carters also worked the market areas of Liverpool were fruit and vegetables were sold in quantity, areas such as Queen Square in the city centre. By 1904, Queens square” with exception of the Royal Court Theatre, and half dozen hotels was devoted to the wholesale disposal of fruit and vegetables.
Not only were there pyramids of strawberry and cherry filled boxes, towers of tomatoes, and castles of cabbages and cauliflowers, but the centre of the square was occupied by an ever- varying body of carters. The carters transported the goods from the docks and to the fruit exchange in Victoria Street and to St Martins (Paddies) Market on Cazneau Street.
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