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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
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’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.