Parts of a Carriage – Labeled Horse-Drawn Carriage

All 19 parts on the diagram

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Body 9

Body The part that carries the passengers. It hangs on the springs, above the wheels and axles.
Hood A folding cover over the seat, also called the head. It can be folded back when it is not wanted.
Seat The cushioned seat for the passengers.
Driving seat Where the driver, the coachman, sits. It is also called the box or box seat.
Boot A box at the front of the body. It carries the driving seat and can hold luggage.
Footboard The board the driver's feet rest on. It is in front of the driving seat.
Dashboard (dasher) A wood or leather screen at the front. It stops mud and water thrown up by the horses' heels. Coachbuilders called it the dasher.
Lamp Lamps are fixed to the front of the body on iron stays.
Step A foot iron under the body, for climbing in.

Wheel and springs 5

Elliptic spring Two bowed springs of steel plates, joined at their ends. This carriage hangs on four of them, one over each wheel.
Hub (nave) The central block of the wheel. It turns on the end of the axle. Wheelwrights call it the nave.
Spokes They fit into the hub and run out to the felloes.
Felloe One of the curved wooden segments that make up the rim. Also spelled felly. This wheel has two spokes to each felloe.
Tire A protective band around the outside of the felloes.

Fore-carriage 5

Axle The bar the wheels turn on, one wheel at each end. It is also called an axletree.
Fifth wheel (wheel plate) A flat ring between the body and the fore-carriage. The fore-carriage turns under it, so the carriage stays steady as it steers. British builders call it the wheel plate.
Futchells Timbers framed through the axle bed. They spread apart behind it and carry the splinter bar and the pole in front.
Splinter bar The crossbar the horses are hitched to. Their traces hook on to it.
Pole A pair of horses goes one each side of it. A carriage for one horse has a pair of shafts in its place.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 and kept only where two independent sources use it. (1) Wikipedia, text only: Carriage, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carriage , with Horse-drawn vehicle, Dashboard, Wheel and Axle. (2) James W. Burgess, A Practical Treatise on Coach-Building (1881), https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72016 . (3) G. A. Thrupp, The History of Coaches (1877), https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49194 . Both books are in the public domain. The two coachbuilders write dasher where Wikipedia writes dashboard, and wheel-plate where Americans say fifth wheel; both names are given. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's product, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

The carriage drawn is a victoria: an open carriage with a folding hood, a low body on four elliptic springs and a raised seat for the driver. The second view is its fore-carriage.

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Body above, wheels below

The passengers sit in the body, under the hood. The driver sits on the driving seat, which stands on the boot, feet on the footboard, with the dashboard in front. Springs hold the body above the axles. Each wooden wheel has a hub, spokes, felloes and an iron tire.

The fore-carriage steers

The front axle turns under a flat ring, the fifth wheel. Two timbers called futchells run forward from the axle to the splinter bar, where the horses are hitched, and the pole reaches out between the pair.

Coachbuilders call the hub the nave, the dashboard the dasher and the fifth wheel the wheel plate.
A carriage for one horse has two shafts in place of the pole.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a horse-drawn carriage called?

The body, with its seat, hood, boot, driving seat, footboard, dashboard, lamps and step; the springs, axles and wheels under it; and the fore-carriage, with its fifth wheel, futchells, splinter bar and pole or shafts.

What is the driver's seat on a carriage called?

The driving seat, box or box seat. On the carriage drawn it stands on iron stays above the boot, a box at the front of the body. The driver of a carriage is the coachman.

What are the parts of a carriage wheel?

A wooden carriage wheel has a nave, or hub, in the middle, spokes that run out from it, felloes, the curved pieces of wood that form the rim, and a tire, a band around the outside.

What is the front of a carriage called?

The turning front part of the running gear is the fore-carriage. The screen at the front of the body is the dashboard, and the long beam that reaches forward between two horses is the pole.