Sedan chairs were once a familiar sight in Haverfordwest used by the well-heeled to move around town at a time when the roads were in poor condition and the steep cobbled streets were difficult to negotiate especially at night.

Many of the wealthier families only spent the winter and spring months (‘The Season’) living in Haverfordwest retreating to the comfort of their country estates during the rest of the year.

Sedan chairs were the taxis of their day and often ferried people from their town houses in Goat Street and Hill Street to the Assembly Rooms in St Mary Street or to the Masonic Hall in Picton Place.

In contrast carriages seemed less popular for these short journeys as explained the traveller and writer Mrs Morgan:

By 1846 sedan chairs were common enough to cause a nuisance for pedestrians who were often forced from the pavements and footpaths into the road to avoid being pushed out of the way by the chair-men; this was not just a case of stepping aside but meant stepping off a paved area onto the filthy and rutted cobbled carriageways in the town.

In 1853 there were at least six sedan chairs in regular use and the 12 men who provided the service advertised locally that in future a minimum fee of one shilling would be charged for each journey, today the equivalent fee would be £6.40.

The use of sedan chairs as a favoured form of transport for gentlewomen in Haverfordwest continued for far longer than might be imagined and the service was still available as late as 1888 as indicated in this comment from the magazine By-gones printed at the time.