Why Every Windsor Carriages Experience Is Hosted, Not Hailed: From Hackney Carriage Rank to Today
- Rebecca Seear
- Sep 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 27
A Living Tradition
For over three centuries, Windsor Carriages has been part of the story of our royal town, operating under one of the oldest commercial carriage driving licences in the country.
Our origins can be traced as far back as 1687, when licensed hackney carriages first stood outside Windsor Castle. By the mid-1800s, an official Hackney rank had been established, where our vehicles could be hailed like London taxis. For more than a century, they worked daily as Windsor’s horse-drawn transport.
We honour those beginnings with pride. Yet traditions must evolve to survive. What began as a service of convenience has become something rarer and more meaningful: a hosted experience, designed with care.
Today, every Windsor Carriages experience is hosted, not hailed.
Nothing is casual. Nothing is left to chance.
Every element of your day is brought in and orchestrated for you alone: the horses, the carriages, the licensed coachman, the grooms, guides, and the host who will accompany you.
Behind the scenes, our logistics crew transports, stables, and supports everything required to deliver a flawless experience.
1. Your Experience Comes First
We no longer offer short loops or quick rides from town.
Instead, each visit or event is personally hosted: a dedicated host welcomes you on arrival, shares the stories of Windsor, and ensures your day flows seamlessly.
Behind the scenes, our wider team coordinates everything quietly — from chauffeurs and carriage routes to dining reservations and weather adjustments — so all you notice is how effortlessly your visit unfolds.
We host just one visit or event per day, so you — like our royal visitors — take centre stage.
2. Horse Welfare Continues As Priority
Our horses are part of our family, and their well-being is central to everything we do.
Passenger numbers are always restricted far below what they could physically pull
This ensures every drive is as enjoyable for them as it is for you.
Loop rides often mean repetitive back-to-back trips.
We avoid this completely to keep our horses fresh, engaged, and happy. Instead, we design varied routes that take in woodland tracks, sweeping avenues, and open parkland, always built around the horses’ rhythm and comfort.
3. Windsor’s Changing Landscape
Windsor is a living, working royal town. The Long Walk and other estate routes are royal thoroughfares, and they are not always available due to state visits, ceremonial events, security measures, or even the autumn deer rutting season.
Over the past decade, the volume of traffic — both on foot and by car — has made it impossible, and indeed undesirable, to maintain a central waiting point in town. We no longer have, nor seek, a rank from which to operate.
That is why we no longer “wait in town.”
Nor can we promise fixed loops or set start points, as would be required for multiple rides in a day, nor do we wish to. Our heritage, and your visit deserve more. Instead, our logistics team monitor every change across the estate and works tirelessly to design routes worthy of a presidential visit.
Working on a living estate and within a busy, working town is exciting, but it can mean last-minute changes. From closed roads due to a helicopter landing a guest at the Castle, to operational needs across the estate, we adapt quietly around it all.
We do the heavy lifting: adjusting the route, diverting chauffeurs to bring guests to meet the horses, and moving the horseboxes to meet the horses — not the other way round. Every decision is shaped with their comfort in mind.
On occasion, we may receive notice of a closure or new restriction on the very morning of your visit.
When this happens, we act swiftly — adjusting start and end points, transferring you by chauffeur where necessary, and reshaping the order of the day so nothing is lost.
In summer, this may mean switching your Castle visit and carriage element to ensure the horses work during the cooler part of the day, as forecast.
Every decision is made with foresight, precision, and care.
This is why we can no longer provide just a ’30-minute ride' and why you need our full attention. It is the only way we can deliver on our promise: to create not simply a visit, but a quintessential British experience and memories for a lifetime, that stands out as the finest day of your UK visit.
Our Commitment
From the Hackney carriage rank beginnings to today’s curated moments, Windsor Carriages has always been about more than transport. We exist to preserve a living tradition in a way that can survive in the modern world — honouring our horses, protecting heritage skills, and offering hospitality with quiet excellence.
For me, this evolution is personal. I was raised in a world where carriage driving was not a hobby but a heritage, passed from father to father to daughter, from one generation of coachmen to the next.
People often asked my father how he got into carriage driving, and he would smile and ask them how they ever got out of it.
Before the motor car, horses and carriages were simply part of British life: how you travelled, traded, went to school, and reached the market. It is easy to forget how deeply the horse shaped our culture, our countryside, even our history. There is nothing wrong with a short, 30-minute jaunt — we love them — but the question we must ask is how many of those minutes a horse must work simply to absorb the rising costs of licensing, training, insurance, commercial parking, and professional welfare standards.
Those costs should never be offset by a horse’s labour. They should be offset by the value of the experience, the memory, not the minutes. That is why we now create one thoughtful, meaningful, hosted moment, honouring the horse, the craft, and the legacy that brought us here.
That is why every Windsor Carriages experience is hosted, not hailed.
