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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
By 1830 coach travel was an industry at full gallop. They were going just about as fast as was possible using only the power of horses and they had become fashionable conveyances with each service each having a grand name. Their drivers were the elite workers of the period. And even their horses felt superior as they cantered or galloped faster than any other conveyance, along their regular stretch of the turnpike roads.
Stagecoaches had reached a degree of speed, reliability, and complexity far removed from their beginning in 1657. Roads were rapid and safe. Travel was in vogue. And travellers with the time and the money had a very sophisticated set of travel facilities at their disposal.
Short routes enabled people living in country towns and villages to visit their nearest big town, conduct some business there and return home the same day. Longer routes criss-crossed the country, linking major towns, and many minor ones. The longest journeys involved travelling through the night or an overnight stop along the way.
A stagecoach travelled about 100 miles in twelve hours (about 8½ mph), so for the 200 miles from Cheshire to London, Bristol, or Edinburgh, the traveller had a choice - either travel non-stop and do the whole journey in 24 hours, or stop overnight en-route and take two days. Everyone travelling longer distances had similar choices.
Mail and post coaches wooed the non-stop travellers. “Day coaches” and coaching inns provided an integrated service for those who preferred to rest overnight. To cater for day-coach travellers, several large towns - London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, etc. - located about a hundred miles apart, developed into travel-hubs. Each was the focal point for many stage-coach routes, and had several large Inns and Hotels.
In addition to overnight accommodation, the larger Coaching Inns also provided complex travel facilities. They could usually arrange a through-journey to anywhere in the country, and to the main continental European destinations. A journey may have needed several changes of stagecoach and several overnight stops, but it could be arranged by the booking-clerk in the travel office of one of these Inns ... for a price.