Have you read the story about Peter Williams and the One-Wheeled Coach yet? His funeral aroused macabre curiosity because he had advocated the reintroduction of an old custom which can even be considered as forward looking and in harmony with the environment—but t was most certainly not in tune with Victorian attitudes.
A startling object suddenly appeared on display in the High Street window of Messrs Williams and Richards whose front page advert in the Prestatyn Weekly read:
Their claim to supply everything was not an exaggeration—in their window was a coffin! The Prestatyn Weekly of 16th May 1908:
‘New Idea in Coffins.
At times one sees some novel objects shewn in the shop windows at Prestatyn, but what may be described as the most curious of all is a unique coffin exhibited at Messrs Williams and Richards’ establishment on Tuesday, which attracted the attention of scores of people. The coffin was a most ornamental affair, made of wood covered with purple cloth, and furnished with massive brass fittings, and containing a shroud all complete.
The most striking thing about the coffin is that it is intended to be re-used, Mr P. A. Williams, Maes Melyd (the inventor and designer), being of a utilitarian turn of mind, claiming that it is too good a piece of furniture to be buried. A tray is provided inside, in which to place the body, and the idea is to bury the corpse on the tray, to which hooks are attached so that it may be lifted out of the outer case immediately before interment, and the latter would therefore be available for further use. Mr Williams’ description of the coffin is as follows:
‘The family coffin, the village coffin, the church or congregational coffin. Available for re-use as a hearse may be re-used, and no objection raised. Let us invite rather than repel each other in death. Have we not been rather repulsive or gloomy in our ideas of mourning for some years back? And we are yet open to improvement in that respect.’—The makers were Messrs Williams & Son, Penrhwylfa.’
The Rhyl Record and Advertiser also reported:
‘MELIDEN MAN AND HIS COFFIN
Some amusement, not unmingled with awe, has been created by the determination of Mr P A Williams, of Meliden who is notorious as the inventor of the Meliden “One Wheel Coach,” to exhibit a specially prepared coffin, he has had made by Messrs Geo Williams and Sons of Penrhwylfa, near Meliden. The coffin is now laying in one of the shop windows of Messrs Williams and Richards’ well known establishment, and is an elaborate piece of work, consisting of a large oblong box, generously draped on the outside with purple cloth, and ornamented profusely with gilt. A drawer fits into the coffin, and since the completion of the coffin, Mr P A Williams has expressed the opinion that it is “too good a piece of furniture” for himself. Therefore he has decided that at the grave side his remains are to be lifted out on the drawer, and interred minus the elaborate coffin. Naturally the whole affair has created a good deal of comment.’
The answer to the question you are all asking was given in the Prestatyn Weekly’s obituary on March 25, 1911.
‘This idea also, does not appear to have found favour, nor was it adopted at the interment of the deceased.’
….. and what became of the One Wheeled Coach? One local history source says that it continued to appear at the Rhyl May Days until 1913 but the truth is found in a little article that appeared in the Prestatyn Weekly on May 13, 1911:
‘The One-Wheel Coach.
At the Sale of the furniture of the late Mr P. A. Williams this week, the well-known Meliden one-wheel coach came under the hammer. Among the company no one was enterprising enough to bid for it for auld lang syne, the auctioneer (Mr Jos. Williams) therefore knocked it down to himself for the sum of 7/-. It is said that he intends to present it to the children of Meliden—they looked particularly lonely without it this Mayday.’
It was never seen again.