A ‘work in progress’ family history website starting from an Archer family of South Oxford, who were freemen, brewers, haulage contractors, and first ‘Archer & Co’ then ‘Archer Cowley & Co’ furniture removers in the 19th and 20th Centuries, inter alia, to whom are linked by marriage the Penfolds and Wells of Southwark and Surrey, the Reeds of Devon, the Gilders of Oxford and Hinckley, the Morgans of Petworth, Sussex, the Garners of Middleton, Lancs and many others. There are connections via Phil and the present generation (born 1930s/40s) with a patent law firm known as "UD&L" with motor-racing and Scottish antecedents.
None of the modern loading-aids appear to be provided, in terms of power lifts and the like, but there is copious provision of ‘racking’ for secure tying of furniture and boxes in-place, with lots of Archer Cowley grey blankets (with their never-to-be-forgotten ‘warehouse fragrance’) carefully placed between all relevant items. The men worked on the lowered tailgate and within the van’s capacious body.