The Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, England.
An organisation of Wheelwrights and Coachmakers petitioned for incorporation in 1630. The petition was granted forty years later, in 1670, when a royal charter was granted to the Wheelwrights. (The Coachmakers were separately incorporated in 1677.) The Wheelwrights' Company was granted the status of a Livery Company in 1763. Over the years, wheel making has largely changed from being hand-made by craftsmen to being made by machines. Whilst there are a number of working wheelwrights still practising the ancient craft, which the company actively supports through its apprenticeship scheme, the company is no longer a trade association for wheelwrights. Instead, it functions largely as a charitable body focusing on mobility.
The Wheelwrights' Company ranks sixty-eighth in the order of precedence for Livery Companies. Its motto is God Grant Unity.
See also
- Wheelwrights
Further reading
- Bennett, Eric. The Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights of the City of London 1670-1970 (David & Charles, 1970)
- Birch, Clive. Wheels and Wheelwrights (Hawkes, 2022)
- Scott, James Benjamin. A Short Account of the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights (1884; revised 1961)
External links
- The Wheelwrights' Company
