The Baskerville carriages were discovered in the late 19th century at Manton Grange in Marlborough and were removed from there in 1898 by the coach and harness manufacturers S. and A. Fuller who displayed them in their showroom.
They were built in 1698 for the High Sheriff of Wiltshire Thomas Baskerville and Fullers hoped that a local museum would be able to accept the carriages because of the Wiltshire connections. However none came forward and they were transferred to Nottingham Castle Museum in 1920 and eventually to the Industrial Museum, after restoration, in the mid 1980s.
S & A Fuller Ltd of Bath were building carriages from 1737, starting motor body construction in 1898. They mounted a few bodies on Rolls-Royce chassis between 1910 – 1924 when they ceased coach building
Email from the Wiltshire County Archivist
Dear Mike, Thank you for the images of the Baskerville coaches, they look very impressive.
According to a list of Wiltshire sheriffs published in Wilts. Arch. Mag. vol3 (1857)Thomas Baskerville of Richardson, Winterbourne was sheriff in 1698; an annotation in our copy has Richard as sheriff in 1736. As you have seen the Baskerville tomb in Winterbourne Bassett there is no need for me to send you the transcript in Phillip’s Monumental inscriptions
Steve Hobbs