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1706 is significant because it was the year a “Stage Company” was formed. It established a regular coach route between York and London but it had a unique new characteristic.
Its new idea – and the reason for its name – was to change horses at regular intervals during the entire journey, each section of the journey being called a “stage”.
Being able to change horses at fixed points along the route isn’t as easy as it sounds. It needed an organised structure which had to be put into place and maintained reliably if the coaches were to run successfully.
Stables were needed at fixed points all along the route. They had to have enough horses and facilities so that a fresh team would be ready to put into harness when the coach arrived and where the tired team could be stabled until needed to haul another coach. This would only be after they’d been well fed and fully rested.
Setting all this up required contracts to be taken out at suitable inns all along the route. It would only work if the inn keepers could rely on the coaches to keep coming, and the coaches could only operate if fresh teams were reliably available when they arrived.
A number of suitable inns already existed on main routes with stabling for post horses. This was where travellers, often clubbing together to share the cost, would hire a carriage or “post-chaise”. It was known as “posting” and was an expensive alternative to the uncomfortable stage waggons or riding on horseback.
Coaches were adding a more affordable way to travel in something approaching comfort but the new, more efficient, service that the Stage Company proposed needed an infrastructure in order to operate.
The venture was successful, Journeys times were reduced and soon there were regular stagecoach services on many other routes.
Coaching inns sprang up along these routes to provide horses (it was called “horsing the coach”) and also service their passengers. Many of these inns are still trading today. They can be recognised by the archways which allowed the coaches to pass through into the stable yard behind the inn.
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