The Shakespeare Stagecoach Tour from Stratford to Blenheim – part one

Recreating history to support UK cancer charities

Driving a coach in the park, to lunch, or to the races, is all well and good, but nothing compares to turning out and driving a stagecoach just as they did in the first half of the 19th century, writes Liveryman Mark Jurd. With this in mind, two intrepid modern day coachmen, Liveryman John Brown and his fellow Coaching Club member, Rod Stockton, decided to undertake a tour in 2008.

Two road coaches were built, exact copies of original examples that ran on English roads well over a century ago, named The Monarch and ‘The Nimrod’. Of course they then needed passengers and a support crew and the roles were quickly filled by other equally passionate, ‘coachies’, now affectionately referred to as the ‘Monarchists’ and the ‘Nimrodians’.

Fast forward 16 years and this intrepid band of coaching enthusiasts have now completed nine coaching tours in various parts of the country, culminating in their most recent endeavour; driving 58 miles from the birthplace of William Shakespeare in Stratford upon Avon, to the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill; Blenheim Palace. Over four days, the route wound its way through beautiful Cotswold countryside. At every turn we were surrounded by architecture and landscape moulded by history; visiting, and even staying at remarkable houses, whose origins could be traced back hundreds of years. Serialised in the next three issues of Coachlines, this article tells the story of our most recent adventure and the history of the places we visited. To find out more please read on.

Part 1. How it all started

The automobile ousted the horse as ‘king of the road’ well over a century ago. Established by Royal Charter in 1677 to regulate the business practises of coach and harness making in the City of London and to promote the interests and welfare of its artisans, the Coachmakers’ Livery Company now recognises the importance of the motor and aerospace industries and their representatives “became the modern equivalents of the coachmakers of old”.

The number of our Company’s liverymen connected to the historic crafts which led to its foundation may be less than in earlier times, but that is not to say their skills are obsolete, or that traditional carriage driving is not perpetuated by them with as much passion and enthusiasm as the Coachmakers, and indeed coachmen, of old. The ability to work a team of four spirited horses put to a well-made coach, captured the imagination of English sporting gentlemen early on and the first driving club was established as early as 1808.

Others came and went; with the most famous being the Coaching Club of 1871, which still flourishes today and has the distinction of being the oldest driving club in the world. Its President is our own Renter Warden, Mark Broadbent, not only a highly skilled Coachmaker in his own right, but a coachman of some repute. It would be remiss not to mention that he is the only person in this country, and indeed Europe, capable of building his own coach and training and keeping the horses with which to drive it. The various driving clubs organised regular driving meets, where members gathered with their coaches and teams and then drove to lunch or dinner. There have, however, always been coachmen who wanted to try their hand at the ‘real business’, namely, undertaking a specific route on public roads, with stops at various hostelries on the way.

This was, in essence, the definition of the English stage coaching system; the country’s fastest mode of public transport, which operated successfully between the 1780s and the 1840s, when the railway then rendered coach travel obsolete. If horse racing was the sport of kings, then the ‘road’ was the sport of gentlemen: “Indeed, the time of George IV was the heyday of coaching in England; and from 1820 to 1840 – a short life but a merry one – it became as characteristic of the national temperament as roast beef”, (taken from the 1925 souvenir booklet of the ‘White Horse Cellars’, one of London’s best known coaching inns). This era is still referred to as the “golden age of coaching”.

The motivation to replicate stage coach travel as it once was, coupled with the simple desire to have ‘Fun on the road’*, led Liveryman John Brown and fellow Coaching Club member Rod Stockton, to gather a group of coaching friends together to undertake a coaching tour in 2008. They agreed that hedonism alone was not adequate motivation and decided that their two coaches should raise money for charity as they made their way through the English countryside.

(*Fun on the Road, a popular coaching tune blown on the coach horn by the coach guard to entertain passengers).

Broadly speaking, there are two types of coaches, the private drag, owned and driven by a gentleman for his own pleasure, and the stage, or road coach – a vehicle used for public transport. Although very similar in design, the road coach was a utilitarian vehicle, more substantially built to cope with higher mileage and usage. Other differences include wider seats to accommodate more fare-paying travellers, and a side-hinged rear boot to allow the guard access whilst the coach is in motion. They were much more colourful than their privately owned counterparts, boldly painted with their names, destinations, and the coaching inns visited en route.

They were given names to reflect their sporting nature and speed of travel: ‘The Comet’, ‘The Quicksilver’ and the ‘The Greyhound’, to name but a view. The tour was undertaken by two modern day examples, exact replicas of the coaches once seen all over the country 200 years ago: ‘The Nimrod’ and ‘The Monarch’, owned respectively, by John Brown and Rod Stockton.

What started out as a single event proved incredibly successful and there are now 16 charities supported by the event: Help for Heroes, Household Cavalry Casualties Fund, Barnardo’s, John Radcliff Hospital, Breast Cancer UK, and Prostate Cancer UK Previous coaching tours include Snowdonia National Park, London to Dover, London to Portsmouth, Windsor Castle to Warwick Castle, Burford to Badminton House, Stratford to Blenheim Palace.

Years later this intrepid band of coaching enthusiasts has completed nine coaching for charity tours and raised significant sums for worthy causes. Such an endeavour requires great planning, passengers and a qualified support crew. These roles were quickly filled by other equally passionate, ‘coachies’, now affectionately referred to as the ‘Monarchists’ and the ‘Nimrodians’, and I have had the pleasure of being a member of this merry band ever since.

Their daytime professions are varied indeed, but privately they all have one thing in common; their love of horses and traditional driving. Among them you will find the country’s only carriage whip maker, horn blowers, grooms and some of the finest carriage drivers, also known as ‘whips’, to be found anywhere in this country; and, unsurprisingly, a number of our own Liverymen. Over time, the list of devotees has grown and now includes international coachmen – teamwork makes the dream work.

A dedicated organising committee is behind all the tours undertaken by the Coaching for Charities group. Planning begins at least a year in advance, with each team member assigned a specific role to ensure everything is carefully organised. A route is chosen and reconnoitred a number of times by car. The overall distance is calculated and spread over a number of days, to ensure each stage is a comfortable length for the horses. The most difficult task is to find stabling close enough to the route to minimise the necessity of having to drive the coaches too far past each day’s final destination.

Last, but not least, accommodation has to be found for the ‘Monarchists’ and the ‘Nimrodians’, preferably in historic coaching inns. Historic starting points and destinations have been the focal point of all the tours. With Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II’s consent, two of the tours departed from Buckingham Palace; the route to Portsmouth in 2010 and Windsor Castle in 2014. Destinations have included Lake Vyrnwy, Warwick Castle, Hampton Court, HMS Victory in Portsmouth and Burghley House.

The 2022 Cotswold tour finished at the historic home of English coaching, Badminton House; the country seat of Henry Fitzroy Somerset, the 8th Duke of Beaufort and the first President of the Coaching Club. Like his father before him, he was a talented coachman, who regularly drove public coaches on some of the country’s most famous roads.

The glorious Cotswold countryside proved so popular with the group, that it was unanimously agreed to undertake a second tour in the area in 2024. But where should we start and finish? A little research revealed that two of England’s most famous individuals were born nearby: Sir Winston Churchill at Blenheim Palace, and William Shakespeare in Stratford upon Avon. Depending on the actual route taken, the distance between the two was 50 or so miles and it was quickly agreed that this would be the, 2024 Shakespeare Coaching Tour and would run from the 8th-11th October. Incidentally, in 2002, these two remarkable individuals were voted 1st and 5th respectively in a BBC poll of the top 100 great Britons of all time.

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The two coaches set off at 1pm from outside the Bard’s birthplace in Henley Street. Although the house is situated in a pedestrian precinct, when Stratford upon Avon Council discovered that the tour was raising money for British cancer charities, they not only agreed to lower the electronic bollards to allow us access, but also accepted our invitation to have the Mayor in attendance to see us off. The two coach guards and some of the coach passengers passed through the crowds with our collecting buckets and distributed the tour’s dedicated QR code so members of the public could donate online.

To tell the story of the tour in any detail would take more time and space than this article allows, but I hope that by including some of the highlights you will be given a flavour of what we enjoyed. During the next four days, the route wound its way through beautiful Cotswold countryside. At every turn we were surrounded by architecture and landscape moulded by history; visiting, and even staying at remarkable houses whose origins could be traced back hundreds of years.

Modern day travel is of course so much faster than travelling by coach and four, but the country passes in a blur and with it the charms of olde England also pass unnoticed. Your elevated seat on the coach gives a grandstand view over the hedgerows as you trot through villages of glorious Cotswold stone, warmed to golden hue by the autumn sun, the air punctuated by birdsong and the woodsmoke from open hearths.

In the next issue of Coachlines: Part 2 The Road to Heythrop Park.