A hundred years ago you could arrive at the doctor's in the same vehicle which might eventually take you to your grave.

Bradford museum worker Diane Charlton is putting the finishing touches to one such ambulance/hearse after a two-month restoration.

The carriage was built in 1908 by Knaresborough firm D Kitching & Sons and used in the North Yorkshire village of Burneston until the Second World War.

Now it takes pride of place in the York Castle Museum who sent it to the Bradford Technological Conservation Workshop, based at the Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill, to be spruced up.

Diane, 34, who is on a one-year internship with the museum, said: "I studied coffin fittings for part of my archaeology degree.

"I was also interested in funereal practices in the 18th and 19th Centuries so you could say this is just a natural progression.

"In the Victorian and Edwardian period there was a lot of prestige in having a good send-off and people were very concerned about the way they were buried.

"Even people who were very poor would go into debt to pay for a proper funeral and this is the type of hearse which would take their coffin to the grave."

Michael Callaghan, 38, runs the conservation workshop which carries out work for museums throughout the county.

He said: "The carriage was used as both an ambulance and a hearse. You'd be brought in on the ambulance and then, if the worse came to the worse, they'd put the glass top on if it needed to be used as a hearse.

"We think it was either pulled by hand or a small pony.

"We have been very careful to conserve as much of the original paint- work as possible and restore it to its former glory."

Susan Kitching, director at D Kitching & Sons Limited - which is now a timber merchants and celebrated its 125th anniversary this year - said the company had its own hearse/ambulance which took pride of place in the foyer.

She said: "My great-grandfather David Kitching set the company up when he was 25.

"We were originally an undertaking company and I have records of us supplying all the clothing and paraphernalia for funerals including these hearse/ambulances.

"What is nice for us is that my great-grandfather actually came from Burneston so that's probably why the village had one of these vehicles."

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