THE STAGECOACHES
OF
GREAT BRITAIN.
I was aware of snow, a blizzard stormed across the hills, Gilles the Coachman was yelling at me, "Wake up man for gods sake, wake up, the coach is stuck fast in a drift, wake up man and push".
My job as Royal Mail Guard on the Irish Post from London to Holyhead was to ensure the mail got through at all costs.
I was just coming to my sences when, "The Brigands of Twu Cym Cher" fell upone us with blood curdling crys.
My book fell off my lap and knocked my glass of Cyder over, the glass 'tinged' on the leg of the chair and I woke up.
"Dam" I said, I was dreaming.
This got me thinking about:
THE STAGE COACHES OF BRITAIN.
THE DRIVER.
To most young lads in the late 17th and early 18th centurys in England the 'Coachman' was a god, a man to look up to and many dreamed of taking the 'four-in-hand' of "Quicksilver" London to Devonport, maybe "Wonder" Shrewsbury to Birmingham, or maybe "Telegraph" London to Manchester, or the wildest most dangerous trip of all, across the bandit infested wilds of North Wales,"The Irish Post", London to Holyhead.
The stage waggon drivers of the era that preceded the Golden Age of Coaching were a true reflection of the roads they travelled and the hardships they endured. They wore many layers of mud-encrusted clothes and were a rough and tough breed of men who were generally figures of fun. They were in basic terms drovers of animals in sharp contrast to the highly skilled and heroic coachmen who were soon to make such an impact on the history of transportation.
This new breed were artists in handling their reins and in the management of their horses on all roads in all weathers. Beautifully turned out, confident and authoritative, they were the symbol of all that coaching had achieved.
The accepted dress for a coachman on one of the crack roads was a well cut and stylish box-cloth coat surmounted by a beaver hat and a dashing spotted cravat. The real extroverts in dress and mannerisms were known as flashmen and were the flamboyant characters of the road.Men such as Sam Haywood, who drove the Wonder between the Hen & Chickens, Birmingham, and the Lion, Shrewsbury. He was a skilled whip and was famed for the feat he performed nightly after crossing the English Bridge. He then galloped up Wyle Cop and drove in through the inn archway at a smart trot, reminding his outside passengers to mind their heads. The whole manoeuvre was timed to a nicety and the coach had only inches to spare on each side. Passengers who had not experienced that feat were most alarmed but the townspeople loved to watch the spectacle of the coach arriving.
Deeds of skill and daring were well recorded and they were the talk of princes and paupers who avidly followed their exploits. Above all, they were supremely confident of their art, and this gave them the ability to converse with all classes and to drive difficult teams in every weather.
Only the most determined and promising rose to drive four horses, and when the pinnacle of success had been achieved it was hard and demanding work.
A coachman had to augment his salary by accepting or shouldering passengers without the proprietor's knowledge or allowing some wealthy young man to take the reins. This last act was rightly considered a very serious offence as it was the cause of many accidents and was punishable by instant dismissal and a
fine of between �5 and �IO at the discretion of the magistrates.
Many young men of noble birth turned to the box seat after squandering a fortune at the gaming tables. It was the one profession that could still offer a gentleman in reduced circumstances nation-wide renown.Prominent among these were Sir St Vincent Cotton who for many years drove the Age on the Brighton road. Educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, he was known to the other more humble professionals on the Brighton road as the Baronet. He was rewarded for his skill on the box by an income of some �300 a year, but this did little to comfort him for the loss of his previous income of �5000 a year.
Others included Harry Stevenson, known on the road as the Cambridge graduate. Nimrod says of him that he was a supreme artist "whose passion for the bench exceeded all other worldly ambitions". We are also reminded that he always remembered the social graces of his birth and was singularly refined and courteous".
The coachman enjoyed the deference shown to him on the road. He was almost always cheerful, helpful to young travellers and keen to impress his passengers with the quality of his team and the speed and regularity of the coach.
THE PASSENGERS.
It was often said that the real test of a gentleman was his behaviour when a coach stopped on route for the refreshment of its weary passengers . The journey often turned them into starving savages who would descend on the dining room, demanding service. The true gentleman would escort a lady from the coach,and ensure she was provided with dinner and pay her bill. This inevitably meant that it was impossible for him to eat himself as time was strictly limited. The inn-keepers would often exacerbate the situation by delaying the food so passengers had little time to eat their fill before they had to be on the road again.
Many of the better run inns supplied local delicacies which achieved a great fame. Friends and relations would often ask the traveller to purchase them. At the inns where the coach parties stopped for refreshment, and prominent among these was the Bell Inn, at Stilton, on the Great North Road between Huntingdon and Stamford. It saw an endless procession of coaches and carriages, many of which stopped to change horses and refresh weary passengers.
It was regrettable that none of the cheeses sold at the Bell was ever made at Stilton but imported from Wymondham in Leicestershire. The list of other famed delicacies is endless York Hams, Banbury Cakes, Bath Buns, Everton Toffee and Shrewsbury Cakes.
The coaching inns were open twenty-four hours a day and provided a multitude of services. Not only did they provide rest and refreshment for the passengers who arrived by coach but they also looked after the stabling and welfare of the horses.
The head yard porter was in charge of the stables and ran his yard as a benevolent dictator. To him came the young bloods anxious for a place on the box seat next to the coachman which would be arranged for a fee. In busy yards he would command a weekly income from tips of around E5 and it was important for the regular traveller to be on the right side of him if favours were required. He, in turn, was answerable to the proprietor if the horses and harness were not turned out to perfection.
Before the average citizen set out to travel by stage coach he would take care to survey the market carefully and weigh up the rival coaches thrusting for his business. Once he had 'made up his mind, he would go to the booking office where the clerk would enter his name in the ledger and issue a ticket for the journey. Great care was taken to avoid overbooking as the cost of conveying any passenger in this unfortunate circumstance was charged to the clerk responsible. This could prove expensive as the extra customer would usuall be sent by post-chaise at a cost of up to one shilling a mile unless he ways forgiving enough to wait for the next coach.
The journey itself could be the cause of abject misery or sheer elation for the passenger. The weather could be foul and the company uncongenial. On the contrary, it could be an experience to savour on a fine summer morning with lively and interesting fellow travellers to converse with in the fresh country air.
Contemporary cartoonists lampooned the stage coach passenger who was forced to spend many hours inside the coach with a fat woman carrying a parrot and a fishmonger smelling of his wares.
THE GUARD.
The first mail guards were the employees of the contractors who furnished the horses. This arrangement proved most unsatisfactory because of the unreliable nature of some of the untrained staff provided on a purely business basis. The Post Office therefore stepped in to take over the appointment of guards so that they became directly responsible to the Crown.
They were given a new and exalted status and were responsible for the time keeping of the coach and the safe delivery of the mails. In general they were recruited from the army because of their ability to use firearms and to defend the coach and its passengers against the perils of the road. They were also considered to be suitable in terms of reliability and self-resourcefulness gained in service life.They wore scarlet livery to signify their royal appointment as custodians of His Majesty's Mails and they were issued with a blunderbuss to protect the mails, together with a brace of pistols and a cutlass carried in a case. In addition they carried a watch in a sealed case to avoid it being tampered with and this was carried in the leather pouch hung over the shoulder.
The guards often carelessly discharged the blunderbuss to the alarm of passengers and bystanders in general. Things became so bad that an Act of Parliament was passed in 1811 forbidding the firing of a guard's blunderbuss except in defence and instituted a penalty of �5 for the offence.
The guard was provided with an assortment of tools and spare parts so that urgent repairs could be made in the event of a breakdown. He was required to ride on to the next stage with the mails if the coach could go no further on account of an enforced stop, the weather or an accident. It was in the interest of the guard that his coachman should keep to time as a considerable fine was levied if the mail coach was late.
He was the man who often bore the first news, good or bad, into village communities, and he was often not averse to writing a few words for the local newspaper to add to his income of half a sovereign a week. Out of this small sum he had to pay for the oil for his hand lamp and the stable boy who cleaned and reloaded his weapons.
He made up his income where he could and on a main road where the coach was usually full he could expect a tip of two shillings and sixpence from inside passengers and two shillings from the outsiders, which enabled him to enjoy an income of between �300 to �500 a year.
Some of the guards became involved with the illicit trade in game, the sale of which was prohibited before 1831, safe in the knowledge that no one dare challenge or search the Royal Mail. Needless to say this infuriated the country landowners who were unable to do anything to put a stop to the abuse.Thomas Hasker, Chief Superintendent of Mail Coaches, was forced to step in and issue a notice to the effect that local superintendents had the power to search the coach at will and carry out a thorough inspection. In more lighthearted vein he added that he could only permit "such a thing as a turtle tied to the roof, directed to any gentleman to pass unnoticed once or twice during the course of the year but for a constancy cannot be suffered".
The guard was also strictly forbidden to allow any passengers to travel on the hind part of the coach, which offence was punishable by instant dismissal.
COACHING INNS ..
Inns were a vital part of the coaching tradition. They not only feed travellers, changed horses and provided beds, they linked the coaching system throughout Britain. They hired post chaises, or other vehicles, to finish journeys and sometimes inn owners in vital locations took the plunge and became coach operators themselves.
Mrs. Mountain of the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill in Holborn was one of the most powerful. She had a coachbuilder's workshop on her premises. She also ran the Louth Mail as well as several stage-coaches in partnership with others who rented her coaches.
The old coaching Inns of London were generally large galleried buildings built around a central courtyard similar to the Bull and Mouth.
Another famous inn of London was the Belle Sauvage which does not have the galleries, - but still all windows look out into a central courtyard.
The problem with mails in the middle of the night is that inn-keepers did not make much profit from just getting up to change the horses. There were few passengers and no time to stop. These inn-keepers often had to be dragged from their beds to provide a change of horse, and even then in the uncertain darkness they often managed to palm off their less than reliable stock, keeping the good horses for daylight and the stage. Or they might indulge in delaying tactics to keep the stage longer and draw the passengers from the coach to spend their money at the bar.
On nearing an inn the guard blew his horn to warn the inn-keeper of their arrival. This was supposed to ensure that there was food on the table for when the travelers arrived. A half-crown standard fee to eat at the inn was paid and all diners would be directed into a dining room. The reality was that there was usually a delay in providing a meal for travelers at these inns which, when barely ten minutes was provided for breakfast and 20 minutes for dinner, this proved barely adequate for them to be served and to get more than a few mouthfuls. Some unscrupulous inn-keepers also employed other various tactics to delay serving and prevent guests eating. This allowed them to serve the same joint up to 3 or more coach-loads. Methods included bribing the guard to get the company out before the time was up, and placing the joints before ladies who were said to be slower carvers.
The dinners at inns were of mixed fare - and while later writers such as Disraeli and Hughes give glowing accounts of coach dinners there are many contemporary accounts that are fair less flattering.
Jorrocks in New Sporting Magazine says;
"Our travelers had been driven through the passage into a little, dark, dingy room at the back of the house, with a dirty, rain bespattered window looking against a whitewashed blank wall. The table was covered with a thrice-used cloth, was set out with lumps of bread, knives, and two and three pronged forks laid alternately, Altogether it was anything but inviting, but coach passengers are very complacent; and on the Dover road it matters little if they are not. Coats No1, No 2, and No 3, are taken off in succession, for some people wear top-coats to keep out the heat; chins are released from their silken jeopardy, hats are hid in corners. Inside passengers eye outside ones with suspicion...Presently the two dishes of pork, a couple of ducks, and a lump of half-raw, sadly mangled cold roast beef, with waxy potatoes and overgrown cabbages were scattered along the table. "What a beastly dinner!" exclaims an inside dandy in a sable-collared frock; "The whole place reeks with onions and vulgarity." ..."Now harkee, waitee, there's the guard blowing his horn, and we have scarcely had a bite apiece," cries Mr. Jorrocks, as that functionary sounded his instrument most energetically in the passage, "blow me tight if I stir."
Lord William Lennox describes the great contrast he had on the road between the dinners when traveling in his own carriage to that when traveling coach. The coach dinners he describes as scalding soup (stained warm water), tough steaks, Scotch Scollops, underdone boiled leg of mutton, potatoes hot without and hard within; and no time in which to eat it even it if were eatable.
Not all coaching routes were so terrible, the Brighton, that pinnacle of coaching elite, had many fine inns along it and off the busy roads where time did not matter a great deal, 2 hours might be allowed for dinner at cosy inn along the way. The Shrewsbury Highflyer left Shrewsbury at 8 in the morning arriving at its destination, Chester at 8 in the evening. This journey of some 40 miles taking a leisurely 12 hours. The coach proceeded in a stately, unhurried manner. In season it would stop at a local farm-house renowned for the quality of its pork pies, dinner would be taken at Wrexham for 2 hours or as long as the passengers required. The coach would even stop to allow people to make visits to friends along the way.
It was necessary to have good stables - for many fashionable routes needed one horse per double mile Mrs. Mountain of the Saracen's Head kept some 2,000 horses in her stables for the routes she served. Lord William Lennox sometime later estimated that it took some 2 pounds per week to keep coach horses. It is also estimated that the life of a coach horse was some three years. After that they were sold for they still had significant working life left. It was the nature of coaching with the strain of pulling a coach weighing more than 2 tons for an average of 10 miles at a speed of some 12 miles per hour 2 days out of 3. Farm work seemed easy by comparison.
Epping Stagecoach Timetable - 1871
Epping and Ongar Highway Trust
DOWNLOAD MP3 of Coaching Horn
IMPORTANT NOTE ..
Most of the 'text' of this website is based on the following book:
STAGECOACH by John Richards.
Published 1976 by Watmoughs Ltd.
ISBN 0 903775 04 2.
Try to obtain a copy, its a great book.
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