A road less travelled: Chester

During a short few days visiting Chester early this month, it emerged that this ancient and historical city was an important mail coach destination in the 18th century.

Old mail coach routes in England primarily radiated from London, connecting major cities and towns. The first mail coach route, on the Bath Road, was established in August 1784, quickly followed by others. By the end of 1785, routes extended to Norwich, Liverpool, Leeds, Dover, Portsmouth, Poole, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Holyhead, Carlisle, and Chester. These routes were crucial for the rapid and efficient delivery of mail before the advent of railways.

The mail coaches, horses and the drivers were all provided by contractors. Competition for the contracts was fierce because it gained status, and a regular income in addition to passenger fares. The first mail coaches were poorly built but an improved patented coach, designed by John Besant, was adopted by The Post Office in 1787. Besant, later in partnership with John Vidler of Millbank, enjoyed the monopoly of supplying the coaches.

By 1797, passenger-only stagecoaches were travelling between Manchester and London in 36 hours, but the mail coach did the journey in only 28 hours. Further improvements to the roads and shorter stages (the distance between horse changes) helped to speed the coaches. Coaching inns arose everywhere to provide teams of fresh horses for the coaches and sustenance for travellers. The number of passengers increased and this led to even more coaches, new routes, even shorter stages and faster speeds.

Every morning, when coaches reached London, they were taken to a constructor’s works, usually Vidler’s, to be cleaned and oiled. In the afternoon, they were returned to the coaching inns, where horses were hitched up for journeys to all parts of the country. Outside London, coaches also made journeys between the main post towns.

The average speed of the coaches was usually 7-8mph in summer and about 5mph in winter but with improvements to the quality of the roads it had risen to 10mph by the time Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837.

I discovered on my trip, The Pied Bull, within the city walls of Chester and reputed to be the oldest coaching inn in Chester (pictured above). Now a pub and hotel, it dates back to 1155. Today, the interior continues to reflect its distinctive heritage, still housing an original handmade staircase dating from 1535, it is a listed building. On the exterior is displayed an old coaching sign from 1763 (pictured below).

By 1830 the stagecoach industry had reached a degree of speed, reliability and complexity far removed from its beginnings 173 years earlier. Journeys were more rapid and safe travel was in vogue. Travellers with time and money had a sophisticated set of travel facilities at their disposal.

Stagecoaching had evolved into a number of specialist services targeted at different needs and pockets. These included:

• Mail coaches, the elite stagecoach service which travelled non-stop other than to change horses. They were fast and expensive, their primary purpose was to carry mail but they also carried a few premium-paying passengers to help defray expenses. To travel by ‘the mail’ was a luxury only a few could afford.
• Post coaches tried to match the speed and luxury of the mail coach, they carried a limited number of passengers and parcels but no mail.
• Lastly, ordinary stagecoaches tried to keep fares as low as possible (although still not cheap), by packing in as many passengers as the law would allow.

All the above coach services had grand names such as ‘Quick Silver’, ‘The Rapid’ and ‘The Defiant’, they ran to fixed schedules, usually daily although some, particularly to destinations in Wales, did not run on Sundays.

As an example of operating costs on the Chester to London route, 188 miles in just under 24 hours, for a daily service in each direction the operator needed:

• Four stagecoaches, (at any one time, one coach was travelling south, another travelling north, and a spare coach was kept at each end of the route to allow for maintenance, breakdowns, etc.)
• 188 horses, (a team of four every eight miles, horses rested every other day, a simple equation that works out at one horse per mile of route.)
• Eight coachmen (drivers, 50 miles each per day)
• Four guards (each did 24 hours on-duty then 24 hours off)
• Payment of stagecoach tax (a sum per mile)
• Payment of road tolls (substantial sums)

Chester is a fabulous city to visit on a short break. Surrounded by a complete Elizabethan built city wall and walking path, erected on roman wall remains. The stroll the entire periphery at an elevated level to view points of interest. The range of both Medieval and Victorian ‘colombage’ timber framed architecture is stunning. The riverfront on the Dee is very attractive.