By Godfrey Collyer

THE earliest recorded coach journey in England is in a booklet of 1648 by John Taylor who described in rhyme a journey from London to Southampton. His journey took three days.

“With fiery speed the foaming bit, they champt on. And brought us to the Dolphin at Southampton.”

In 1675 John Ogilby published the first road atlas of England & Wales. The route on his map from Southampton to London passes through Portswood and Swaythling to Twyford and then via Alton to London.

Coaches needed good roads and these were provided by turnpikes or toll roads. The first turnpike road was opened in 1663 with many more over the next two hundred years. The Avenue in Southampton became a turnpike road in 1758.

The great days of coaching between 1750 and 1850 coincided with Southampton’s importance as a Spa Town. Coaches left Southampton for London with a journey time of ten hours and for Brighton and Bath and other destinations. They were operated commercially with fierce rivalry. The mail coaches were very fast, a blast on the post horn would ensure toll gates were opened in advance for fast passage.

The horses were changed every seven mile which required a network of coaching inns and hundreds of thousands of horses. Ten horses were needed for every ten miles a coach travelled. They were well fed as they pulled with their weight.

Coaches left from several inns in Southampton and were operated by different companies. Roger’s Coaches left from the Coach and Horses in the Above Bar and from the Vine in the High Street. Collyer’s Long Coach left every morning from the Star to Ludgate Hill.

Books and maps were published to enable travellers to plan their journeys and to follow the routes and landmarks.

Travel by coach was hazardous with many incidents of horses being startled and coachmen losing control. One passenger returning on the Southampton coach was accidentally shot in the back by the guard. At Stony Cross a coachman was killed by his overturned coach. Some coachmen operated a scam in which passengers would order refreshments at an inn and having paid the innkeeper the coachman would then hurry them straight back onto the coach before the food arrived. The food was never prepared and the coachman and innkeeper would share the spoils.

The arrival of the railway in 1839 led to the demise of the stagecoaches. The Red Rover still continued for a short time and coaches operated from Matcham’s office at the Royal Hotel to destinations in the main not served by the trains. The industry slowly disappeared and the horses sold. Harry Littler, coachman of the Southampton “Telegraph”, is reputed to have said “Hang up my old whip over the fireplace, I shan’t want it never no more “ and fell ill and died.