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The Cost of Travelling by Coach

Section 2:

The Age of Coaching

Introduction


The world of long-distance coach travel

An Early Advertisement

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

Destinations

The list of places you could go to is remarkably familiar to the modern traveller

London Coaching Inns

We’re familiar with railway termini but what were the departure points like in the Age of Coaching?

Famous London Coaching Inns


Here are most of the coaching departure points in London, together withe here you could travel to from each one

Inns and Politics

An example of how politics influenced attitudes in some inns along the road

The Battle of Barnet

Not a war, just passengers trying to grab a bite to eat on the road

The Coachmen


Coach drivers were an elite group, but as the coaching age declined, they lost their importance

An Industry at Full Gallop


The first half of the 19th century saw coaching at its peak

Inns, Drivers & Passengers


Who were the travellers and who owned the horses and coaches? Find out here

One Coach Proprietor

William Chaplin was one of the most successful coach proprietors - and he survived the move to railways

Swan With Two Necks

One of Chaplin’s Inn has an unusual name which comes from history

The Cost of Coach Travel

We complain about rail fares but coach fares were far higher

Cost to Proprietors

What did it cost to run a coaching business?

The Value of Money

To understand coaching prices you must compare them with present day values

Accidents

Coach travel was not without risk. Here are some reported  coach accidents

The Post Office

This is the story of the Mail Coaches, how the mail evolved and what mailcoaches were like

Itineraries

A set of possible journeys that you might wish to make

Death by Steam

The railways effectively killed the coaching industry very quickly. Here’s what happened 

Inns Become Booking Offices

City inns had to change when the coaching trade dried up. Here’s how they coped


______________________

Part 1: Living Memories

Anecdotes written by people who actually travelled on the coaches

Part 2: The Age of Coaching

The coachmen, the inns, the coach proprietors - they’re all here. Come in and meet them

Part 3: The Roads

Britain’s roads were pretty impassable for most of our history.  Coach travel was very difficult until they improved

Part 4: The Coaches

Wheeled transport evolved over many years. Find out how coaches developed

Background

Sources and information about how I came to create this website

Home Page

Home Page of the Coaching Website

We complain about the price of rail travel today, but it’s far less than the cost of travelling by coach in the first half of the 19th century. Back then, only the wealthy could afford to travel, whereas nowadays cheap day fares and advance tickets mean that everyone can travel if they wish to.

Also, when we travel by train the price of the ticket is essentially the cost of the journey and there’s little else to pay. You might buy something to eat and drink, perhaps on the train itself, but that’s it. Even paying a porter has become a thing of the past and you’re unlikely to need overnight accommodation when travelling within the British Isles.

In the early 1800s, it was a different story. Travel was an expensive option and the price of your ticket was not your only expense. You had to tip the coachman and the guard every time there was a ‘crew change’. And coaching inns, like motorway services today, had a reputation for being expensive and a little too willing to charge passengers for all sorts of extras as they stopped for rest and refreshment.

For example, it was widely established that meal stops should last twenty minutes. Passengers were expected to pay for their meal in advance but rarely had time to eat it before the coach was ready to go on its way. So inns commonly re-sold ‘left-overs’ to the next coach party to arrive. 

If you decided to stay overnight, it was usual practice to tip not only the coachman but also any accompanying staff, waiters and inn porters. You were often even charged for extras such as candles in your room which could be as much as 5 shillings extra per night (that’s £25 in today’s money)! And then there were ‘local’ taxes levied for the support of the poor.

* * *

The following description of the cost of travelling by coach was written by Charles G. Harper in 1888 in his book “The Great North Road: London to York. The Old Mail Road to Scotland.” At the time of writing, rail travel had become the norm and the writer is looking back at how much it cost to travel in 1830 when the industry was at its peak:-

“It was a costly business to travel from London to Edinburgh. It was also very lengthy at over 42½ hours by stagecoach! Admittedly the mail coach was a little quicker, but that was even more expensive. 

We shall take a stagecoach:-

If you wanted to be comfortable during the forty-two and a half hours of travelling you went inside, especially if it happened to be winter. An inside place cost 11½ guineas – and that was a much larger sum in 1830 than it would be nowadays (this was written in 1888 so it would be even more now … in fact it would be £1200 at 2019 prices!).

Less well-to-do people chose to travel outside, on top of the coach, and saved no less than four guineas, their fare being 7½ guineas (£900 in 2019).

But you mustn’t think this would have been the whole cost of the journey.  There were numerous people to tip, such as porters and waiters, but also – and more importantly – the coachmen and guards. Each time these two stepped down to let a new driver or guard take over, they would “kick” the passengers (as it was known) for their respective two shillings or so (£10 each). To be “kicked” at intervals all the way from London and Edinburgh was expensive.

You then had to add meals and refreshments, which for a journey of over forty-two hours, added up to a princely sum. An “inside” would be lucky if the whole journey cost less than fifteen guineas (£1700), and an “outside” less than eleven (£1200).

A journey of over 42 hours would be gruelling and so many people chose to stop overnight en route and take the next coach the following day. This would give you a night’s rest but it would add the cost of accommodation to everything else.

* * *

By comparison, rail fares in 1888, taken from the famous “Bradshaw” railway guide are considerably less:-

There are three different routes, but the distance and time are much the same, whether you go by the Midland Railway, the London and North-Western, or by the Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern is fastest by a slight margin. It travels the 395 miles from London to Edinburgh in just ten hours. 

The rail fare is 57/6* (£400) for first-class (the equivalent of “inside” in old times) and 32/8* (£200) for third-class (equivalent to “outside”). You don’t need to tip unless you want to, and even then, it will only be once or twice. No-one will “kick” you for a tip. And finally, whether you travel “first” or “third,” a dining-saloon and an excellent dinner are available on the train for a reasonable price.”


It’s difficult to understand prices when they are given in pre-decimal money and at 1830 values so the following summary is in 2019 values. The prices are correct but adjusted for 190 years of inflation. You can now see how much coach travel cost and how it changed with the advent of rail:

•    Total cost of travelling by coach from London to Edinburgh in 1830:-

        Inside: £1700

        Outside: £1200

•    The same journey by rail in 1888:-

        First class: £400

        Third class: £200


Note: A guinea was a common price for many things. It was one pound and one shilling (£1.05). I have no idea why this curious measure of value arose but it still exists in certain situations, horse race prizes being an example.


*‘57/6’ is fifty-seven shillings and six pence.

    It was pronounced “fifty-seven and six”,

    and was actually two pounds, seventeen shillings and six pence 

    (£2-17s-6d) there being were twenty shillings in a pound,

    so it was a little under £3 – worth around £400 today!

    Similarly, 32/8 (pronounced “thirty-two and eight”) is £1-12s-8d,

    about £1.69 in today’s money but worth about £200 today.


Next: The Cost to Proprietors