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Most books mark the first real use of a coach as Queen Mary's Coronation carriage in 1553. She rode from the Tower of London to Westminster on her Coronation Day on September 20th, 1553, in her State Coach.
It was drawn by six horses, not so much for show as sheer necessity. Even then it spent most of its journey axle-deep in mud. With fewer horses, it would probably have been stuck fast in the gulf of mud which formed the road between the twin cities of London in the east and Westminster in the west. Only three other carriages followed her Majesty on that historic occasion and all the ladies who attended her rode on horseback. Coaches at that time were heavy, solid, unsprung vehicles, more like a cart with a roof than a coach.
Elizabeth I’s reign, which followed (1558 – 1603) was more progressive and by 1564, five years after her accession, she was using a carriage brought over from Holland by a certain William Boonen who became her coachman. His services can’t have been in much demand judging by descriptions of travelling in coaches of the time. For example, when the French Ambassador waited on Elizabeth in 1568, he found her suffering “aching pains, from being knocked about in a coach driven too fast a few days before.”
It’s no surprise, then, that the great Queen used her coach only when occasions of State demanded. She travelled to Greenwich by water and to her palaces - at Eltham, Nonsuch and Hampton Court - on horseback.
On long journeys she would ride pillion behind a mounted chamberlain, holding on to him by his waistbelt just as ladies continued to do for centuries after. Her many country progresses were always on horseback and she only resorted to wheels with advancing years.
Clearly, travelling in the earliest coaches was only to be undertaken by those of the strongest frame and in the rudest health.
Section 4:
The Coaches
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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