At a previous meeting, the 'Gentlemen of the Committee for the Management of Sedan Chairs' had discovered that many of the sedan chairmen - the men who carried the passengers - had been underpaid. As a result, in a meeting held on this day, they issued a tariff of fixed rates. Notification of this tariff was to be in clear view of users. 'Taking a passenger to and from a dinner or tea visit would be charged at one shilling. If the passenger was to be taken to or from an Assembly or a Ball the charge would be one shilling and six pence. Furthermore - if the chairman was kept waiting beyond the usual time at which they are ordered to attend, they shall, after having given notice they are in waiting, be allowed additional payment at the rate of sixpence for every half an hour waiting. However, the extra fare was not to be extended to the monthly assemblies.' A proviso also advised that the person to be carried must not exceed 20 stone in weight! The last sedan chair hired was for Miss Percival in 1864. (Tebbs, H.F., Peterborough, Oleander Press, 1979; Mitchell, Neil, Streets of Peterborough, 2007)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.