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It’s not easy for us to imagine a world with no engines, where the only motive power is animals. If we do think about it, perhaps when visiting a former coaching inn like the Bell at Stilton or the George at Stamford, we probably imagine the occasional coach trundling in to change horses. We assume that efficient long distance travel only began with the railways.
The reality was very different. People were just as intelligent and resourceful as we are; they simply didn’t yet have engines.
By the 1800s, a countrywide network of coach routes had developed and hundreds of coaches covered thousands of miles every day. They travelled day and night in all weathers, and interconnected with each other in a way that we would find completely familiar.
You could plan an itinerary and travel from one end of the country to another just as we do today. It was a world far more recognisable than you might expect and long distance travel was efficient and frequent.
The only real differences between then and now were speed (coaches averaged eight miles an hour) and comfort (inside had no heating and outside was exposed to the full force of the weather!)
But that was their world and a crack coach timed at eight miles an hour including stoppages was as efficient for them as an inter-city train is for us.
The two inns mentioned above - the George in Stamford and The Bell in Stilton - are on the Great North Road and saw forty coaches a day passing through them – twenty up and twenty down! The Great West Road was similar with fifty coaches a day passing through Hungerford, stopping to change horses at the town’s coaching inns before hurrying onward.
Coaching inns were noisy bustling places, especially between 11am and 3pm during the day, and believe it or not, between 10pm and 3am at night!
Many routes converged on London and altogether 342 coaches departed from or arrived into in London every single day. They travelled in all directions and for very long distances, setting out from Inns across the city.
There was no photography in those days but we do have paintings from the time. Here, for example, is an eye-witness painting by James Pollard which captures the daily scene as coaches travelling west stopped to pick up passengers at the Gloucester Coffee House in Piccadilly.
The Coaching Age was a world of travel very similar, yet very different from the one we know today. This section describes the people and the infrastructure that enabled it all to happen.
Section 2:
The Age of Coaching
The world of long-distance coach travel
A coach advertisement from 1706
Beginning to End
How long did the Great Age of Coaching Last?
Two Coaching Periods
The age of coach travel falls into two distinct phases
The First Coaching Period
Coaches in the early period were uncomfortable, slow and dangerous
Highwaymen
The scourge of the early coaching industry, these robbers eventually disappeared
Transition
The change from the early period to the late happened because life in Britain was altering
The Second Coaching Period
This is the Great Age of Coach Travel - surprisingly familiar; just slower and wetter
Facts and Figures
A look at prices, costs and numbers involved in coaching
Different Ways to Travel
There were stagecoaches and mail coaches, and more besides
The list of places you could go to is remarkably familiar to the modern traveller
We’re familiar with railway termini but what were the departure points like in the Age of Coaching?
Here are most of the coaching departure points in London, together withe here you could travel to from each one
An example of how politics influenced attitudes in some inns along the road
Not a war, just passengers trying to grab a bite to eat on the road
Coach drivers were an elite group, but as the coaching age declined, they lost their importance
The first half of the 19th century saw coaching at its peak
Who were the travellers and who owned the horses and coaches? Find out here
William Chaplin was one of the most successful coach proprietors - and he survived the move to railways
One of Chaplin’s Inn has an unusual name which comes from history
We complain about rail fares but coach fares were far higher
What did it cost to run a coaching business?
To understand coaching prices you must compare them with present day values
Coach travel was not without risk. Here are some reported coach accidents
This is the story of the Mail Coaches, how the mail evolved and what mailcoaches were like
A set of possible journeys that you might wish to make
The railways effectively killed the coaching industry very quickly. Here’s what happened
City inns had to change when the coaching trade dried up. Here’s how they coped
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Anecdotes written by people who actually travelled on the coaches
The coachmen, the inns, the coach proprietors - they’re all here. Come in and meet them
Britain’s roads were pretty impassable for most of our history. Coach travel was very difficult until they improved
Wheeled transport evolved over many years. Find out how coaches developed
Sources and information about how I came to create this website
Home Page of the Coaching Website