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By the early 1800s, coaches criss-crossed the entire country. They travelled North, South, East and West. Many routes began and ended in London; others connected provincial towns - Norwich to Birmingham, for example. To give you an idea how many coaches there were on the roads of England in the mid 1800s, these are the towns to which you could book a ticket when setting out from London.

Often, you would travel to one town and change to another coach for the next leg of your journey - just as we do today. The only difference being that, at stagecoach speeds (8 - 10mph) you might well choose to make overnight stops on the way whilst we generally expect to make even the longest UK journeys within a day.

The list below contains 279 towns. To see which London Inn you would start from for each town, check out the page entitled “Some Famous London Inns.

The scene at the start of a journey would have looked something like this

Aberdeen, Aberystwyth, Aldborough, Andover, Anglesey, Arbroath, Arundel, Ashby de la Zouch, Ashford, Axminster, Aylesbury, Banbury, Bangor, Barking, Barnet, Barnsley, Barton Mills, Basingstoke, Bath, Battle, Berkhamstead, Birmingham, Bishop Auckland, Bishops Stortford, Blackburn, Bradford, Braintree, Brentwood, Brighton, Bristol, Bromley, Burnley, Burton-on-Trent, Bury, Bury St Edmunds, Camelford, Canterbury, Cardiff, Carlisle, Carnavon, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Cheshunt, Chester, Chesterfield, Chichester, Chigwell, Chippenham, Colchester, Colne, Coventry, Cowes, Cromer, Croydon, Dagenham, Darlington, Darlington, Dartford, Dartmouth, Daventry, Devonport, Douglas, Dover, Downham, Dublin, Dudley, Dunstable, Durham, East Ham, Eastbourne, Edgware, Edinburgh, Edmonton, Egham, Ely, Epping, Epsom, Esher, Eton, Exeter, Fakenham, Falkirk, Falmouth, Fishguard, Folkstone, Forfar, Froom, Fulham, Glasgow, Gloucester, Gosport, Gravesend, Grays, Greenwich, Grimsby, Guildford, Halifax, Hampstead, Harlow,, Harrogate, Harrowon on the Hill, Hartlepool, Harwich, Hastings, Havant, Hemel Hempstead, Henley, Hereford, Hertford, Holmes Chapel, Holyhead, Hornchurch, Hounslow, Huddersfield, Hull, Huntingdon, Ilford, Inverness, Ipswich, Kendall, Kew, Kidderminster, Kilmarnock, Kirby Lonsdale, Kirkaldy, Knaresborough, Knutsford, Lancaster, Leatherhead, Leeds, Leek, Leicester, Leighton Buzzard, Lewes, Lewisham, Lincoln, Litchfield, Liverpool, Lowestoft, Ludlow, Lynn, Macclesfield, Maidenhead, Maidstone, Malmsbury, Manchester, Margate, Marlborough, Melton Mowbray, Milford Haven, Minehead, Mitcham, Monmouth, Montrose, Nantwich, Newark, Newbury, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newmarket, Newport Pagnall, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, Nuneaton, Oakham, Oldham, Oxford, Padstow, Paisley, Pembroke, Penzance, Perth, Peterborough, Peterhead, Petworth, Plaistow, Plymouth, Pontefract, Poole, Portsmouth, Potteries, Preston, Ramsgate, Rayleigh, Reading, Reigate, Rickmansworth, Ripon, Rochester, Romford, Rotherham, Rugby, Salisbury, Scarborough, Selkirk, Sevenoaks, Sheerness, Sheffield, Shepperton, Shepton Mallet, Sherborne, Shrewsbury, Sidmouth, Sittingbourne, Skipton, Sleaford, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, St Albans, St Austell, Stamford, Stanstead, Stevenage, Stilton, Stirling, Stockport, Stockton on Tees, Stockton upon Tees, Stoke, Stokenchurch, Stourbridge, Stow on the Wold, Stranraer, Stratford upon Avon, Stratford,, Streatham, Stroud, Sunderland, Sutton Coldfield, Swansea, Swindon, Tamworth, Taunton, Teignmouth (Devon), Tewkesbury, Thetford, Thirsk, Tipton, Tiverton, Tooting, Totnes, Tottenham, Towcester, Trowbridge, Truro, Tunbridge, Twickenham, Ulverstone, Upminster, Wakefield, Walsall, Waltham Abbey, Walthamstow, Walton on Thames, Ware, Warminster, Warrington, Warwick, Watford Wendover, Wells, Wells, Welwyn, Wentworth, Wetherby, Weymouth, Whitehaven, Wigan, Wimborne, Winchester, Windsor, Wisbech, Woburn, Wolverhampton, Woodbridge, Worcester, Worksop, Wrexham, Wrotham, Yarmouth, York.


Next: London Coaching Inns

Coaches lining up ready to depart. They will travel hundreds of miles.

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


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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