Wheelwright

Wheel making

It is a trade which is involved in making wooden parts of means of transport, especially farm carts and wagons. In Slovenia it has developed not only as an independent trade but also supplementary activity. Wheelwrights used to be trained in vocation schools or as apprentices working for a master. They used to work in close cooperation with a blacksmith who fitted wooden wheels with metal parts.
In 1927 there were 30 wheelwright’s workshops in district of Murska Sobota and in 1957 only 36 in entire region of Prekmurje. The wheel making trade started disappearing with the introduction of rubber-wheeled carriages and tractors in the 1970s and 1980s.
Apart from carts wheelwrights used to make and also fix a lot of other things, such as sledges, tool handles, wheelbarrows, farming tools (harrows, ploughts, ladders etc.) hearses and skis.
Wheelwright ̕s workshops owned master Andrej Holcman ( 1925-2001) from Ižakovci.
He studied in Lenti (Hungary) for four years and was apprentices in Kočevje, 1952 he passed his mastership exam in Ljubljana and opened his own Wheelwright ̕s workshops in Ižakovci where he work until his death.