Page 102 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

We allowed a couple of hours to get Ebony used to the idea of walking slowly with the iron
tyred cart trundling behind.
When the time came to begin, the undertakers loaded the coffin which was lead lined as
Charles’ last resting place would be in the family vault above ground.

The first problem was that the box built inside the cart had been built still following the line
of the cart bottom, that is, sloping backwards! The second was that the security pegs were
too wide for the coffin and would not stop it falling out of the back.

Drastic measures had to be taken as there were over 50 people waiting to walk behind, all
the way to the church. A further 150 members of the factory workforce were also waiting
patiently by the factory gates to pay their respects.
The only thing to be done was drop the wagon shafts down on their back chain; the result
was the shafts wobbling about around the area of the horse’s front knees instead of in line
with his shoulders! The cart then swayed from side to side with every step of the horse as
his body was not there to prevent this happening.

There was no point in trying to chock up the coffin to a more horizontal position as this
would increase the risk of it skating backwards and ending in a heap on the road. It was
also too long to mount the cart’s back board into place.
As we began to move off, Roy whispered in my ear that no matter what speed we had to
do the walkers would keep up.

THE JOURNEY
Joe Smith was my helper for the day and I decided he would be best placed ‘guarding’ the
coffin from the rear of the cart. We moved off and Ebony did not like the motion of the cart
shafts swaying around his knees one little bit. You could see him saying “this is nothing like
our practice runs this morning”!
The road was typical of the fen area, relatively narrow with a steep camber from the centre
to the sides. On each side was a deep water filled dyke; the road was apart from all this,
quite straight.

The first vehicles to approach us was a six wheel ready-mix cement delivery lorry, about
25 tons in weight and unable to pull off the road in any way, we took to the grass verge.
The next was an ice cream vehicle fortunately not playing its silly nursery rhyme chimes
and finally there was a local service bus.
All the time we had spent practicing during the morning we had seen nothing at all on the
road.
From time to time we outpaced the walking mourners and did our best to slow our speed.
Joe by now was walking close to the back of the cart with his thumb pressed hard on the
coffin as each sway of the cart seemed to encourage the coffin to edge gently nearer the
back.
I could only think that soon the time would come when it would overcome the centre of
balance of the cart, tip the whole thing up into the air and crash out onto the road.
It was so heavy, Joe would have no chance of stopping it.
I really did wish that the first farm vehicle Charles had built had used four wheels instead