coachbuilt prams

In 1965 when I was 3 months pregnant with my first child, I saw a beautiful Marmet pram in navy and white going round on a stand in the baby shop window. I was smitten and went in and put £1 deposit on it as it was £36 plus£2 for the bag. I paid £1 a week until it was paid for, but the lady In the shop would not let me have it until the baby was born as it was unlucky to have a pram in the house until all was well. It served 5 children and I kept it and had it remodelled and is now as new and I use it for my great grand son when he visits. It takes up a lot of room but I refuse to sell it as it holds so many memories of all the walks we had. People stop and say how lovely it is to see a baby in a proper pram and it is always the centre of attention whenever we go out.

Grannyactivist's post reminded me that my Mum hid her bottles of drink in my Brothers Silver Cross. Posh place for an alcoholics ' stash ' wasn't it?
It could be a bit noisy pushing him about. LOL

I had a brown Churchhill pram (a Glasgow company) and used it for both of my DC. It had bigger wheels at the back and leather straps for the suspension. We live up a hill and it was no problem to push it even filled with shopping and growing child. I am lucky to have a big cellar (being up a hill) and that's where my pram still resides even though my youngest will be 32 this year. I just can't bear to part with it.

modern prams are almost as big as a real pram, but they don't have any room for shopping and the baby looks so crumpled in the too upright seats

I had a silver cross for my first in 1985, but of course it wouldn't go in the car, so was only good for country walks along the lane - ex-mil didn't think that one through, but it was excellent for baby sleeping in the garden in the winter, and loading up with hay bales and water for my pony down the lane.

Ten years later, I had a lovely new one for Ds which folded up every which way. Flat, tilted at several angles, padding that could be removed, carrycot ditto, and as the child grew it could all be stripped away to make a really neat little stroller. I think what you see isn't always just what you get nowadays, my daughter's is almost the same, I bought it for her. As in, when you see them out and about, they may be capable of doing more than you can see. And at £500 in 2010 not much different from what the silver cross pram cost in real terms in 1985. However, I think all the folding in and out of car boots doesn't help them to last.

My sister had a black Silver Cross in the days before she could drive. The road she walked along into town was mostly across open marsh land even though it was a main road. My nephew and niece would be lovely warm n dry in the pram. My sister would be freezing and look like a drowned rat on wet days.
I had my children quiet late so 1987 and1991 and was driving by then so the coach built was no use. I would have loved one though. I had an old fashioned version of todays travel systems. Folding pushchair (suitable from 5-6mths) with a carry cot that clipped on. Bought for us by my dear mum.

The best thing about the coach built prams was that the baby faced the parent - unless, like DS2, they insisted on lying on their fronts. I see that there is a resurgence of prams/buggies that face the pusher. Research has shown that these are better for the baby's development than the forward facing kind.

Thank you for this thread, Greatgran, it brought back some happy memories! My mum bought our pram from George Henry Lee's - now John Lewis, and it came with a free cot! We only lived a couple of miles away from mum and dad, which was just as well, as the pram obviously wouldn't fit in the car. I used to push the baby there in the afternoon, and then Mr H would come after work and push the empty pram home while I drove home with the baby! When I had number two, I got a little seat that fitted on top, and pushed two of them round. All my little'ns have been in it too, and it's up in the loft in case there might be any more! Oh, happy days!

Lovely posts , I always , always wanted a Silver Cross pram , did not seem to happen with first born , then second time around I had twins so that put an end to that .
I always fancied one though , so suggested to DD that we bought her one , but, as she quite rightly pointed out they are not practical in this day and age . Heyho.

I have loved this post. It's made me feel happily nostalgic reading everyone's happy memories.

Proper prams are so useful for baby to sleep in during the day, I never knew what to do with GC and usually ended up with folded blanket on the floor.

My Silver Cross pram is still in my loft along with the fringed pram rug and broderie anglaise sun canopy.

I always thought I would use it for the GC however that never seemed to happen as DD's own pram was more practical.

I had the Silver Cross and it was so smooth to push. I think she are safer than todays buggies. They keep the babies high up, away from dogs and smokers.

I too had a Silver Cross pram - racing green. I kept it in the shed all wrapped up in sheets for years 'ready for the grandchildren' which never happened as they lived far away and they all had one of those all singing/all dancing contraptions. The chrome had flaked on the chassis and the frilly bit round the hood had lost its oomph so 3 years ago I sold it on eBay to be renovated by a dealer . I think I only kept it so long because of sentimental reasons.
Like Bellasnana I also had a Silver Cross dolls pram which my Mum gave to my cousin's daughter (what was she thinking of?] before I was married or even contemplating children. What made it worse was that she put my favourite doll in the pram and I never saw either again.....I would so have loved my girls to have played with them.

i also had a coach built silver cross pram...the rolls royce of prams....

my dil is expecting their first baby in august and has been looking at prams and she sent me the link to show me the pram/pushchair that they were thinking of buying...OMG it looks like something out of space and i nearly fainted at the price £400!!!!! it does not look big enough for a baby let alone when the child is 2yrs and needs the pushchair part!!! and on top of that its another £100 for the car seat!!!!...an i the only one that think that these are just over priced? after all its only a mothercar one...

I have a photo of me with my coach built dolls pram - wearing a winter hat -one of those that sort of had an Alice band at the front and made of a velvety material to match the coat collar

I had a grey Marmet pram, my pride and joy. The beauty of the Marmet prams was that the handle was fixed to the chassis and not the body of the pram so that when going up kerbs the body was suspended and you didn't feel as if you were about to tip the baby out. I could not afford a new sun canopy so I took an old 'cream lined with dark green' one and unpicked it. I made a new one from some very pretty grey material with pink roses, dyed the fringe pink and re-assembled it using the original green as a liner. It was much admired - I think I missed a trick there as everyone asked me where I had bought it. This was 1958 and all available sun canopies were very plain.

Mine was second-hand and fantastic,especially when collecting from school. Youngest DS in pram No2 DS on pram seat, No1 DS walking beside. Coats, PE bags, Book bags,shopping and loads of other stuff in tray underneath. My DGD's nursery has an outside area where babies sleep in old-style prams I watched a staff member lifting the cat nets and checking the babies the other day and thought "what a good idea." So there are still prams around.

I had a Marmet for my two sons. It had a green fabric body which could be detached from the chassis which was the non collapsible strap hung type. I walked for miles with this pram and had a toddler seat on it when DS2 was born.I remember walking with it the two miles to the city centre to get wallpaper, and carrying the rolls on the shopping tray.I also had my hoover strapped across it when I took it for repair, baby happily sitting in the hood end.None of the modern versions could stand up to that.It was still in very good condition when I parted with it when DS2 was three, it was five years old then.
My mother told me that my pram as a baby was used to carry black market meat home during the war.She had an uncle who ''did the books'' for a butcher, and every Saturday she would push me in the pram and stand outside the shop where her uncle was waiting and he would slip the parcel of meat under the pramcover!.
When my youngest DGC was born in 2002 I managed to buy a refurbrished Wilson coachbuilt pram for her. She and I loved it but DS2 and his wife never used it because it would not go into the car. They carried on using the stiff unsprung travel system pushchair that made you aware of every bump in the pavement so imagine how the poor baby felt in that.
The Wilson still stands in my house taking up space, I wont part with it as I hope to see my future great grand children in it.

I want another baby! I want to push a proper pram again especially one with a tray to put my shopping on.

Pushing a sleeping baby in a coach built pram, through a leafy park, on a summer day...heavenly!

pinkprincess treasure that pram.

One of the joys of owning these 'big' prams was that the children sitting in them were facing you, and you could talk to them when once they were sitting up and taking notice. I loved doing that, and since we obviously walked everywhere, there was quite a lot of chat going on too. It was lovely too, to wrap them up warm, dry and cosy on the not so nice days.

And I agree, PRINTMISS

I didn't own one, but one of my earliest memories is being in one, I remember it had a false bottom where I had some toys stored.

When it came to buying one for my first child, my main consideration was that it would fit into the back of my car which I don't think is allowable now, as babies have to go straight into a car seat from birth. I did have a friend who had a Silver Cross coach pram, we were living in quite a small cottage at the time and when she turned up and I saw it for the first time, I did wonder whether she was going to get it through the door.