The Bradford family coach is located in the Stables Courtyard.
"Thrupp and Maberley, the company that built the Bradford Coach, was one of the leading coach building firms of the middle and late nineteenth century and the company survived into the era of the motor car by coach building bodies for Bentley and for Daimler.
The Bradford Coach is presented as a travelling coach rather than as a town coach (which would be fitted with a hammer cloth). The coach was commissioned by George Bridgeman, second Earl of Bradford. The second Earl divided his time between Weston Park, the family's London home which was then in Belgrave Square, Castle Bromwich Hall and St. Catherine's - a villa that over looked the head of Lake Windermere.
The coach would have been used by the family to travel between their different houses and an unusual drop break on the vehicle testifies to its use in the hilly countryside of the Lake District. With the advent of the railways, it is known that the family would have had the coach transported longer distances by train.
With the advent of the car in the early twentieth century, the fifth Earl sold the coach to a travelling circus, but it was re-purchased by his son, the sixth Earl.
Restored by students at Wolverhampton College of Art, the carriage's condition declined and it was eventually put into store almost twenty years ago.
The carriage was restored and conserved in 2012-13 by the Wellington Carriage Company for the Weston Park Foundation. This was a project that took place over 14 months and involved many different skills and suppliers. A number of these, including the Leather trades, who were based on former Bradford Estate properties at Walsall."
Source: Information about the coach on a notice board in front of the coach.
The coach was restored by The Wellington Carriage Company. Photographs of the restoration can be seen at the following link:
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Weston Hall is a magnificent stately home that sits amongst 1,000 acres of well kept gardens at Weston Park.
The landscaped park, surrounding the house, was laid out by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the 1760's. The Italianate gardens adjoining the house were devised in the later C19.
The house was built in 1671 for Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham.
It was inherited in the 18th century, by Sir Henry Bridgeman, 5th Baronet, whose mother Lady Anne Bridgeman (née Newport) was a granddaughter of Lady Wilbraham. (
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