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Railways were originally built to move materials such as coal, slate and minerals, and were at first designed to be hated by horses. The Stockton and Darlington Railway, for example, was built in 1825 to haul minerals and was not designed for passengers. However, steam power was being harnessed and by 1830 a few paddle steamers were operating on rivers and making shorter sea crossings. Steam greatly improved ferries and allowed them to operate to published timetables for the first time. Local stagecoaches introduced services based on the new ferry timings and thus benefited from the introduction of steam.
The Liverpool and Manchester railway, however, which opened on the 15th September 1830, was different. It was designed from the start with passengers in mind as well as freight. It had a passenger terminal at each end, its carriages were comfortable, it reduced journey times by half and reduced fares by half as well. On top of all this, its employees were not allowed to accept tips (‘kicking’ as it was known had long been an annoying extra cost on stagecoaches).
The railway was successful and showed that the future of travel on land was going to be by rail. The stagecoaches could not compete. In 1830, there were 30 coaches a day running between and Liverpool and Manchester, and more to and from other local towns. Two years later, only one was still running.
The new railway was extended to Birmingham in 1837 and London in 1838. Its trains made the journey between Liverpool and London in 11 hours compared to 24 hours by the fastest stagecoach.
“Railway Mania” hit the country and new railways were built across the country. Some new stage-coach routes were started to bring passengers to the railways but in general, wherever a railway was built, stagecoach routes closed. Coaching had lost its image as the fastest mode of transport and the smart way to travel. Coaches came to be seen as slow and old-fashioned and it was engine drivers who became the new elite workers, replacing the coachmen’s former status.
Of course, as is always the way with any new technology, there was extensive disruption. Tens of thousands of people were put out of work - drivers, guards, ostlers, farriers, toll-keepers, innkeepers, booking-clerks, cooks, waiters, chamber-maids, coach-builders, harness-makers, providers of fodder, disposers of dung - most of them lost their jobs. And so did hundreds of thousands of horses.
The main roads of England changed from bustling highways full of fast long-distance travellers, to sleepy backwaters with nothing but local traffic. The turnpike trusts fell apart as their main source of revenue dried up. Again, as often happens, the operators of the turnpikes did not innovate and adapt. Instead, when motorised vehicles first appeared on the roads, a few decades later, they imposed very high tolls and tough restrictions. As a result they stifled innovation and allowed Germany and France to take the lead in developing road transport.
Stagecoaches did struggle on where there gaps in the railway network, and there were occasional revivals for sentimental reasons. But for most people the railways offered a much better way to travel and stagecoaches became a thing of the past.
The remains of the coaching industry lives on in the large number of old coaching inns that still stand in towns and villages and out on the old highways. They’re often in quite unlikely places because their location was decided 200 years ago by the need to change horses at that distance from the previous inn on the coach route. They have survived because they continue to welcome visitors with good food and good cheer.
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