Barkway Carriage Wash

 A roadside pond at Royston, Hertfordshire is actually the oldest carriage wash in the world. Barkway Carriage Wash, also known as the Wagon Wash, dates back to 1600 and is one of only four such structures known in England.

The carriage wash is a brick-lined structure with a gentle slope towards the water, which is drawn from an underground channel. With this, the trains could be run in water to clean the coach wheels and nameplates, so that the interior does not get flooded. Washing the car allowed the wheels to get wet, which prevented the wood from shrinking to the metal rim. In hot, dry weather, wooden wheels can shrink, causing the spokes to fall off.

During the heyday of the coaching era, the barway was an important stop on the route from London to Cambridge and the north of England. It is believed that carriage washes were used well into the 20th century until cars became more widely used. Later, steam tractors used carriage washes to feed water to their boilers.