Lorry? Cart? at West Down North Camp, Salisbury Plain

[Moonraker]

 

This is a crop from a postcard of West Down North Camp on Salisbury Plain c1912-14. My initial impression was that the vehicle is a motor-lorry shown from behind, if only because of the mudflap above the wheel. But then it could be a cart. (The diagonal line that might be mistaken for a drawbar is in fact a cable supporting a flagpole.)

 

One of Moonraker's trivial questions, you may well think, but I have hardly any postcards showing motorised transport on the Plain, even during the War (when there would have been sensitivities about, or prohibitions of, photography of military activities). A small number of cards do show steam-tractors, either in splendid isolation or drawing a line of wagons.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

I'd say  it's the back end of motor  vehicle, a small lorry or large car/ charabanc rather than a cart.

Edited 8 April , 2021 by Dai Bach y Sowldiwr

[Moonraker]

Reassuring,  thanks, Dai.  Just Googled for images of "British lorries 1912" and naturally the results show the front views, but my eye was caught by the

 

1914 Leyland S-type

 

No mudguards on rear wheels, but then they might have disappeared from the model shown.

 

The full image of my postcard shows the vehicle parked close to a "refreshment tent", so it might have been delivering supplies - or the driver might have stopped for a drink and a snack. 

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Yes, something like that, There's no visible cab though is there.

I think that there are mudguards on the rear wheels and that must mean a motor vehicle.

GS Wagons (as an example) didn't have mudguards.

 

What I see is a rear offside mudguard reflecting light, and a rear nearside mudguard in shadow, so hard to see in the dark.

There's a front nearside mudguard also reflecting light.

[Moonraker]

Looking again at my link, the author has helpfully noted: "this 30-cwt lorry is one of the rare World War One Subsidy Scheme lorries ... Leyland was the first manufacturer to be granted a certificate by the War Office following the Subsidy Scheme trials in 1912 ... The success in the trials resulted in an initial order for 88 chassis ... By the outbreak of war in 1914 the company had built some 1275 petrol lorries against 415 steam wagons."

 

West Down North was used for summer training camps, with several battalions also being based there in September-October 1914, followed by Canadian units. I have no record of it being used thereafter.

 

Details of the Subsidy Scheme.

Edited 10 April , 2021 by Moonraker

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

This is where Lancashire Fusilier would have stepped in and given us the answer.

I do miss his thread

He hasn't visited the forum for some time...  :