c. 1890
This leather, mainly pigskin, side-saddle, c. 1890 and made by Merit's Saddlery of London, was bought new by the Addy family, well-off Bradford Mill people in England, and certainly carriage folk in the 1850s. Between the First and Second World Wars the Addys moved to the North Yorkshire area and bought a large house, farm, land and property to rent. A friend of the last of the immediate family rescued the side-saddle from the fate of a bonfire. It was last ridden on regularly in the 1930s.
The
side-saddle has an interesting stitching design on the nearside
safe (see close-up picture), which runs down the centre, rather
than covers it entirely (compare this with other side-saddles
in the Museum), and the offside earlier handkerchief pocket of
the 1880s has now developed into a neat slit. The pommels are
probably lined with suede or doeskin (now worn smooth), and the
offside has the popular 'Y' girthing system. This is a very nicely
made example of the time.