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Society of Antiquaries

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The Gentlemans' Magazine of 1859 (New Series Vol.VI,p.58) records a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries held on December 1st 1858 at the Castle of Newcastle.  There was an unusually large attendance for the Chair man, John Hodgson Hinde, Esq., who proceeded to read an elaborate and curious paper, full of interest and amusement "On the Old North Road", of which the following extracts are a portion.

“Between Berwick and Dunbar the country is as nearly impracticable as any which has ever yielded a triumph to scientific skill.  No such skill was available in the sixteenth century, and we see the results in the extraordinari1y circuitous course adopted. Chirnside, the first stage, lies five miles to the west, and the following stage, Coldingham, three miles to the east, of a direct line.  North of Coldingham, the line was sufficiently direct; but it is impossible to pass over it without being filled with amazement that a road which crosses ravine after ravine, at such frightfully steep inclinations, could ever have been traversed, as at one time it certainly was, by wheeled carriages

“In 1745 the line of turnpike from Boroughbridge by Northallerton and Darlinglton to Durham was sanctioned by parliament. This was the first turnpike road which crossed the Tees, although Bailey, in his “View of the Agriculture of Durham,” gives precedence to that from Catterick Bridge to Durham by Yarm and Stockton fixing the date of the latter in 1742. This is one year previous to the passing of the act for the road from Boroughbridge to Catterick and Piercebridge, on which the other was dependant for its connection with the South.  The true date of the Catterick, Yarm, and Durham Act is 1747.

“Saddle horses for riding post were established on the principal roads at a very early period; and it was probably by this means and not by relays of his own, that Sir Robert Carey made his extraordinary journey from London to Edinburgh to announce the death of Queen Elizabeth to King James. On this occasion performed fully 150 miles on each of two successive days, sleeping the first night at Doncaster, and the second at his own residence at Widdrington, twenty-two miles north of Newcastle.  The third day progress was less rapid, in consequence of a severe fall; but he still reached Edinburgh at night.

“Although carriages, under the various denominations of chares, caroches, and whirlicotes, are noticed from the reign of Richard the second, they were not in ordinary use in England till the time of Elizabeth when they occur under the name of coaches.  The first wheeled carriage which ever crossed Tyne, adapted to the conveyance of passengers, was probably that in which the ladies of the Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry the Seventh, accompanied their mistress on her nuptial journey to Scotland.  It is described as ‘a chare richly dressed, with six fair horses, led and conveyed by three men, in which were four ladies, lasting the voyage'.  Considering the state of the roads and the absence of springs, which were then unknown, it seem as marvelous that the ladies did ‘last out the voyage’. Whilst they were thus jolted in their splendid but uneasy vehicle, the princess herself was mounted on ‘a fair palfrey,’ with the additional convenience of ‘a very rich litter, borne by two fair corsers, very nobly dressed, in which litter she was borne on entering towns, or otherwise at her good pleasure.  Horse litters, according to Fynes Morrison, were of great antiquity, both in England and in Scotland, ‘for sickly men and women of quality’.

“Coaches left the 'George Inn,' without Aldersgate, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for York, the Monday's coach being continued every week to Newcastle, and once a fortnight to Edinburgh. The Friday’s coach had a branch to Wakefield, from whence were conveyances to Leeds and Halifax.  The time occupied on the road and the fares to the principal towns, were as follows:

“The time occupied north of York is not stated; but early in the next (eighteenth) century, the journey to York still took four days, and two more were allowed to Newcastle whilst the extraordinary period of thirteen days was required to perform the journey from London to Edinburgh, being six days from Newcastle to Edinburgh, even on the assumption that Sunday was spent as a day of rest at Newcastle.

“A curious letter has been preserved from Mr. Edward Parker, of Browsholme, in the county of Lancaster, describing a journey from Preston to London in 1663.  Whilst he gives a much more favourable account of the company which he met with than an anonymous pamphleteer (the author of' ‘The Grand Concern of England Explained.' 1672), he by no means corroborates Chamberlayne’s commendation (Anglia Notitia) of the easiness of the vehicle and the absence of' ‘hard jogging and violent motion'. The letter is printed in the Archæologica, but an extract may not be out of place here:  'I got to London on Saturday last.  My journey was nowise pleasant, being forced to ride in the boot all the way.  The company that came up with me were persons of great quality, as knights and ladies. The journey's expense was thirty shillings.  This travel hath so indisposed me that I am resolved never to ride up again in the coach.  I am extremely hot and feverish.  What this may turn to I know not, as I have not yet advised with any doctor.'

“In the spring of 1764, the down coach began to leave London at 10 at night, halting the following night at Grantham, and proceeding the second day to York.  On the 21st of May a further acceleration was made, by which the distance between York and Newcastle was performed in one day by way of Boroughbridge.  The coaches between London and York now ran every day, except Sundays; and between York and Newcastle twice a-week, on Mondays and Thursdays.  They are advertised as the 'Newcastle, Durham, and York flying post coaches, on steel springs, with postilions.'

“In 1763 the proprietors of the London and Newcastle coach for the first time advertise that they will convey outside passengers at half fares, restricting them from conveying any baggage whatever with them.  The very next year they return to the old system, and appeal to those travelling inside to aid them in preventing the coachman taking up outside passengers on their own account, as a practice quite as dangerous as it was fraudulent.  They also discourage the transmission of heavy boxes, but undertake to carry parcels and game.  The mails undertook the conveyance of four insides and one out; and this was found so convenient by persons having a servant with them, that the plan was adopted by the other coaches, and gradually extended.”

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©Biff Vernon 2001