drop toe prams

Drop toe prams seem to becoming very collectable, and although they have been around for some considerable time but are now quite rare. The advantages of a drop toe pram is that they can be used from birth until a child is around 3 or 4 years old as the front end of the pram drops down to allow an older child to stretch its legs. Some drop toe models were coachbuilt, others were made of canvas type material. Not many have survived as the drop toe mechanism was the weakest part of the pram and obviously because of the design these prams were well used. They also went out of fashion in the sixties when most people wanted a large coachbuilt pram and a pushchair as well. Previously families could only afford one pram and that had to last them several children and in the war years prams of all kinds were scarce and were only obtainable on special order.

If you are lucky enough to find a drop toe pram, then take care of it, it is quite a rarity! Any problems with the drop end mechanism may be able to be repaired, but depends on what the problem is and I am no expert on this so can't really offer any advice, except perhaps ask someone who is a bit of a handyman! A lot of the prams had wood bodies so it could be possible to remove the old wood and replace it then re-attach the drop toe hinges.

Let us know on the Blog if you have a drop toe pram, I know some of the ladies on the Preloved forums have them and their prams are stunners!