“Through the Traveller’s Eye”

 
with Dr Alan Rosevear on Thursday, 9 January 2025
at 7pm at the Leonardo Hotel Exeter

Our speaker describes himself as “singer, historian interested in English road transport, digital mapping addict, and retired research chemist”. A Google search for Alan elaborates "singer" as “a singer of traditional English folk songs” although we were not to be treated to this aspect of his accomplishments on this occasion.

Alan promised us a talk which would be “an exploration of inland travel in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, based on travel diaries and contemporary illustrations. Through the personal diaries of men and women who journeyed across Southwest England, the talk will address what modes of transport they chose, why they travelled and their experiences along the way. Their tales will be illustrated with pictures made at the time and maps that plotted their itineraries.”

I am indebted to Alan for allowing me sight of his PowerPoint presentation and this summary relies heavily on the images and text.

The documents studied by Alan included travel diaries and journals from the 1640s to the 1830s plus contemporary illustrations and roadbooks. The guides he cited were Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) who was renowned for rapid sketches to capture the moment from social, political, satirical and decorative prints, and Road Books of Cary and Paterson – what many travellers record as carrying with them – some strip maps but predominantly itineraries A to B.

Alan presented the “Classic” view of inland travel by way of Roads, Modes and Journeys. This suggests that English roads before McAdam and Telford were very bad before the 19th century, and that most people had to walk, the better off using mail coaches. Most of the population rarely strayed beyond their parish boundary, and this was particularly true in rural areas. Illustrations to show this included a Woodcut of the 18th century of the highway through Highgate, a JMW Turner painting of 1796 entitled ‘A Family Seen from Behind’, and a popular Christmas card with coach, passengers and horses. The evidence from travel diaries challenges this view.

The road network improved between 1640 and 1840 with the turnpike system, posting inns which served both public and private transport, a modal change from riders to passengers and a dramatic growth in public transport. But for many, walking to wherever they wanted to get to was the only option.

For journeys outside the parish, Alan focused on personal travel using Roads and Rests to highlight the Infrastructure, and Modes and Reasons for Travel. The administration of roads pre-Dissolution was the responsibility of the Church and involved charity. During the Elizabethan period it became obligatory to labour as decreed by the Parish – Statute Labour. This in turn led to the introduction of Turnpike Trusts in the 18th century which granted powers to maintain and improve a section of a principal road and the tolls to pay for the work. In the 1880s Highway Boards and County Councils introduced taxation. Each Turnpike Trust was established by an Act of Parliament and gave powers to manage and finance the maintenance of a main road that passed through several parishes and could erect turnpike gates to collect tolls. Responsibilities and Powers of an individual Turnpike Trust were:

• To repair, improve and maintain a specified section of road through several specified parishes;
• To levy tolls on specific classes of road users to pay for maintenance;
• To take a portion of the Statute Labour of parishes through which roads ran;
• To raise capital mortgaged against future income from tolls: interest paid from current tolls;
• To acquire land and materials at a fair rate to maintain and change the road.

The road remained “public” and responsibility would return to the parishes when the improvements were complete, and all debts cleared. Toll collection was let by auction. Potential lessees bid at auction to run a gate for a year – guaranteeing the trust a set amount and themselves a profit after running costs. Alan showed newspaper accounts for Exeter Turnpike and images of Toll Gates – some sleepy, some bustling.

Alan showed maps from 1725, 1750, 1790 and 1830 detailing the spread and growth of the road network. After 1800 links were made to areas of new prosperity and leisure. Eventually over 1000 trusts were managing 20,000 miles of main road in England and Wales. But only a sixth of public highways were ever turnpiked. Local travel was toll-free on parish roads. The money raised by tolls was spent on repairing and maintaining, improving by straightening and widening, draining, bridging, easing gradients (cutting and embanking), and macadamised with broken stone/gravel roadbed. If it was deemed irredeemable a new road was made on a new alignment. Exeter’s Improvement Commissioners oversaw road changes to improve the flow of traffic. The Medieval Exe Bridge was replaced on a new alignment, the medieval gates were removed, and the gradient from the East Gate was eased. As part of the infrastructure, posting inns were built where the hiring of post-horses and chaises were available along with stables, accommodation and food. They served as a stage stop for stagecoaches and an image showed the paying of an ‘earnest’ at a coach office. A map of Road Books for England and Wales (by Cary and by Paterson) showed routes suitable for post-chaise and posting inns.

Stagecoaches became a popular mode of public transport and a regular change of horses for each stage maintained high speeds. By 1680 there were a few stagecoaches from London to major provincial centres such as Exeter but after 1760 the number of services and passengers increased rapidly. This was due to improvements in coach design, in particular the suspension and improvements of main roads because of Turnpikes. There was better management of coach services with pre-arranged, regular changes of teams at posting inns which enabled travel to further destinations.

Images by Thomas Rowlandson depicted the sort of people who travelled by stagecoach in 1750 and how many could be accommodated. Inside were clerics, fellows, officers, farmers, masters, merchants, shopkeepers (wives and children) and outside was affordable for young craftsmen, soldiers, scholars, gentlemen’s servants, and maids with 3 passengers on top and 4-6 inside. By the 1830s in Exeter, 10 passengers could be accommodated on top and 4 inside.

Passenger Fares per mile c.1820 were:

• Scheduled coach – inside 3d to 4d, plus tips and outside 1.5d to 2d. with smaller tips.
• A Labourer’s wage was 10s a week and a Wagoner’s £1 a week.
• Individual, private travel was by Carriage (privately owned, maybe with post (i.e. hired) horses),
• Post-chaise (hired), Gig (privately owned), and Saddle horse (privately owned or post horse).

More images by Thomas Rowlandson showed private carriages with 4 wheels and matched horses – a symbol of status – and only for the better sort of traveller. There were newspaper adverts showing hire charges for post-chaises and horses. A post-chaise hired from a posting inn with horses and a postilion was charged by the mile, to be returned to the inn (by the postilion) which could be expensive if alone but a shared chaise was little more than travelling by stagecoach. An advantage of this form of travel was that it could be at any time of day, wherever one wished to go, was private, quick and away from coach routes and could carry luggage. For ladies, young gentlemen and merchants it allowed for recreational travel from home to stagecoach stop.

Images by Thomas Rowlandson showed two-wheel carriages. A street scene of Exeter showed people travelling in one-horse gigs and carts. Travel by saddle horse in rural areas, farm horses were multi-purpose either ridden (or used as pack animals or for gigs and carts). Keeping a horse in town was very expensive and it was common for horses to be lent to trusted acquaintances. Images showed women riding either side saddle or “double”. Riders often preferred smaller horses or mares, larger horses were used by the elite. The working poor walked barefoot so could not go so fast or far. The “better sort” walked for pleasure in good footwear. Observations by Carl Moritz, a German pedestrian visiting in 1782:

“Bath Road; met hardly any other pedestrian though coaches rolled past continuously. I met also many people on horseback, which is here the usual mode of travel. On the vehicle poor people who cannot afford to pay much ride on the top of the coach without any seat or hand hold. Anyone travelling afoot was regarded as a beggar or a rogue. At Ashford (Peak District) they at last had two fellow walking travellers, a saddler (returning home after working away for 2 months) and a quiet townsman.”

A graph showed trends in the method of passenger transport based on 350,000 miles of recorded travel in diaries. Plus a chart showing ‘How fast and how far in a day?’ Maximum daily range and speed:

• On foot: up to 25 miles, 3 mph (allow for rests and refreshments)
• Saddle horse: up to 50 miles; 4 to 6 mph (short gallops more than 10 mph by post horse)
• Coach: grew from 40 to 80 miles (120 for mail coaches; 4 mph in 1700s, 8 mph in 1800s – regular
• Fresh horses to give 10 mph
• Steam train: up to 100 miles, 25 mph
• Travelling inland by water, rivers were restricted by mills, weirs etc. Travelling downstream a boat was fast and comfortable.

It was noted that the Countess of Bath at Tawstock in the 1640s was rowed on the Taw – her boat was more useful than her coach to reach places along the estuary. But upstream trips were problematic (unless on the tidal stretch) and travelling across the flow could be particularly scary on ferries.

Travel within the city was depicted by images of a Stand by St Lawrence’s Church, the Subscription Rooms by the New London Inn, and a Sedan chair in the High Street on a Rocque map cartouche of 1744.

There were many reasons for travel beyond the city and reflected the regional needs - long-distance travellers seeking cures, those seeking knowledge or the picturesque and local travellers seeking services or entertainment, and trips to the coast to take advantage of sea bathing. Locals took the stagecoach from Exeter to Exmouth which went daily from Southernhay in 1768, the fare being 2/6d for 12 miles. Rev. John Penrose en-route from Penryn to Bath gave his notes and observations on travel in 1755, April 1767 and Bath to Bristol in 1767.

Samuel Curwen in 1779 wrote about his day return journeys from home as did Tamsine Carslake in 1820/30. Evidence also from Tamsine’s diary showed that she rode in a carriage to Honiton on several occasions in the 1820s and Directories showed that there were 2 stagecoaches services, through Honiton each day (i.e. 4 coaches). A later image in Alan’s presentation noted that an elderly woman also rode a donkey.

An example from Honiton showed modes of travel in an East Devon market town with a 1788 image with arrows pointing to travellers depicting:

• a couple riding “double”;
• a two-horse cart;
• a man on a saddle horse;
• a woman riding side-saddle with 2 panniers; and
• a pack horse with pack saddles.

In 1844 there was a new mode of travel with coaches and omnibuses and the beginning of the railway. Initially railways ran along the busiest inter-urban routes, but people still needed to get to and from the station by carriage, omnibus, horse or foot. Iliffe’s Exeter to London stage wagon c.1746 could carry passengers. In 1819 there were 4 booked and 7 “cabbage passengers” in one of Russell’s wagons – but the latter were not recorded since their fares were the wagoner’s perk.

Along with technical improvements to coaches higher average speeds were achieved by regular changes of horses at stages, and shortening stages meant speeds of 10 mph were maintained.

According to the Table of the Prices usually paid for the hire of Horses and Carriages (from Paterson's Road Book 1785), if hired by the mile for local trips:

• 4d per mile for saddle horse;
• 11d per mile for a chaise and pair.

Keeping a horse in town was prohibitively expensive – but horses could be spared from farm work in rural areas so travel into town on a saddle or a two-wheel carriage was common. Short-stage routes radiating from hubs such as Exeter became horse omnibus routes in the 1830s.

Alan’s presentation was dominated by the many images he had found by Rowlandson which gave a colourful depiction of how travel by individuals evolved with improvement in road conditions, the advent of turnpike trusts and tolls, and the various ways people could travel – on foot, by horse, by post-chaise and stagecoach, by boat, carriage and eventually by train. It was interesting to see how one’s station in life dictated the mode of travel that could be afforded and the reasons why people undertook their journeys, either for business, pleasure or any other need. This was a talk greatly enjoyed by our members and prompted a lively exchange of questions and answers at the end.

Sue Jackson