The race of the stagecoaches

Last week I was considering the increasing cost of food: this week I have been thinking about the cost of petrol these days, I happened upon an account of a stagecoach journey from the early 1800s. Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake, writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts in 1952, in an article entitled 'Carriages and their history', just happened to mention Loughborough in relation to a stagecoach race, which I found quite interesting, so I'm sharing this with you, below. 

"For those who could not afford their own travelling chariots, and, at the same time, had occasion to travel, there was only one other way of doing so, if they neither rode nor walked, and that was by one of the public coaches that traversed the roads of this country; and I think it is only right and proper that I should deal rather fully with the stage coach, which was so important a vehicle before the days of steam (i).

The four-horse coach has been depicted so often by the artists of its day that it may come as a surprise that prior to 1784 the team used was three horses driven unicorn fashion, one in front and two behind. Stage coaches were running regularly before the days of MacAdam (ii) and made good time over atrocious roads.

Unicorn formation

 

Coach and four

One, in 1807, ran from London to Stamford, a distance of 90 miles, in just over nine hours. Races between rival coaches was not infrequent. In 1808 the coach The Patriot started against The Defiance from Leicester to Nottingham. Both changed horses at Loughborough (iii), and after a severe contest The Patriot won by only two minutes, having covered 26 miles in 2 hours 10 minutes with a full load of twelve passengers. This was coaching at its best in good weather; in the winter it was a very different story.

It is recorded, for example, that the Eslafette coach from Manchester one Sunday morning did not reach London until Tuesday night, having been dug out of the snow twelve times. Again, the Hope coach out of Sheffield on a Sunday arrived in London the following Saturday afternoon; heavy snow, nine feet deep blocked the roads: on one stage either horses were used and on another ten. Under such conditions the coaches themselves had to be stout, strong vehicles, and were driven by coachmen of strong physique and endurance; the horses they drove, wanted a lot of driving: Nimrod, writing on mail coaching in 1835, describes one of the wheelers in a tea “as fine a thoroughbred stallion led towards the coach with a twitch fastened tightly to its nose”. 

This particular journey from Leicester to Nottingham was reported in the newspapers of the day, from London to Gloucester, to Salisbury, to Ipswich, etc.. Interestingly, these contemporary newspaper reports do say that the carriages were drawn by 4 horses, and give an exciting account! This is how the Saint James' Chronicle (London) of 18th August described it:

"COACH RACE

On Sunday the 7th (August) a coach called the Patriot, belonging to Mr. Hart, of the Bell (iv), Leicester, drawn by four blood horses, started against Messrs. Pettifore and Co.'s celebrated coach call the Defiance, from Leicester to Nottingham, a distance of 26 miles, both coaches changing horses at Loughborough.

Thousands of people from all parts assembled to witness the event, and bets to a considerable amount were depending. Both coaches started exactly at eight o'clock; and after the severest contest ever remembered, the Patriot arrived at Nottingham first by two minutes only, performing the distance of 26 miles in two hours and ten minutes, carrying twelve passengers,

Whatever praise may be due to the proprietors of these coaches, for the goodness of their cattle, and the soundness of their vehicles, we cannot compliment them on their humanity."

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(i) The Midland railway opened in Loughborough in 1840

(ii) John Loudon MacAdam developed road construction around the 1820s, which involved putting large stones at the bottom of the route, covering these with crushed small stones and gravel, which were layered up to make the surface convex. This camber meant that rainwater would drain off into the ditches rather than hang about on the road surface. See Story of Streets Part 1 for more info.

(iii) I do not actually know where the horses may have been changed at Loughborough, but suspect this may have been at the Bull's Head on High Street.

(iv) Today, the Bell Hotel can be accessed off New Walk, Leicester, and bears a blue plaque commemorating it as once the home of the Gimson family of engineers, one of whom was Ernest Gimson, famous for his arts and crafts designs, including houses, like Stoneywell.

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Dyer, Lynne (2022). The race of the stagecoaches. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-race-of-stage-coaches.html     [Accessed 20 March 2022]

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Lynne