Hobcart

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David Smith and John Casey using their Hobcarts in the late 1960's.

A hobcart was a type of invalid carriage designed in the late 1960's by Dr. Steven Perry of Albrighton,Shropshire,UK. In his practice he had two young children, both of whom had the condition Spina Bifida. He considered that the wheelchairs the children were provided with were liable to set them apart from other children of their age, so set about designing an invalid carriage, that would look more like a go-kart. The end result was the hobcart, which when it was first made, was produced at a local borstal. The idea behind this was to try to provide the inmates of the borstal the opportunity to be involved in a project which they could see was doing some good. Hobcarts were still being made into the 1980s.