This is a follow up post to our entry on the Wyatt family who did so much to make coach travel faster for late 18th and early 19thc Marlow residents. Their service to London, run with a series of partners and finally alone, was known as The Original and then The Wyatts coach. You can read more here.
But there were others services and this is an overview of the main other ones.
The coaching trade boosted income for the innkeepers who provided a starting or finishing point for a journey. Coach building and maintenance for those owning their own private coach or carriage also provided work. We will mention Marlow resident Mr Lovegrove who advertised his coach painting services in 1770. He had he said, been "regularly bred to the profession in London" and would do the job in the best and most professional manner.
At first Marlow did not have a daily stagecoach service. In 1773 there were journeys made three times a week to London in the summer and twice weekly in winter.
In May 1788 a new daily post coach run by Saunders, Smith and Co started running from Mr Dixon's the Lower Crown. Sundays were of course excepted. It left at 7am and returned to Marlow on the same day at 2pm. It arrived at the bustling coach interchange known as The New White Horse Cellar Piccadilly. It's route went via Little Marlow, Wooburn and Taplow. The newspapers at this time carried advertisements for a coachman to serve this new route. So what qualities would a coach driver need? Mr Dixon was mindful of the reputation some drivers had for being drunk in charge and reckless with both coach and horses. So his ideal candidate should be steady and sober, and must have held a similar role for some time. Experience with driving in both London and country areas was essential as was a good temper. What especially dates the ad is a requirement for the successful candidate to be free of smallpox.
In 1790, the Lower Crown's London coach was leaving an hour earlier. It took an hour to get to Maidenhead, and 4 hours to reach London itself. Three years later, a "neat, new, elegant" London coach was run from the same Lower Crown by Minchener's [also occurs as Miltchener, this was Elizabeth of Colnbrook], later a partner of Wyatts. The first service set forth on the 8th April 1793, promising lower fares. The charge for travelling in the more expensive interior seats was 8s from Marlow to London in 1797, one shilling less if travelling from Maidenhead. There was also a special rate for small parcels at 4d. This coach went via Maidenhead (Swan Inn) to Piccadilly as before, but it also now advertised that it stopped at the New Inn, Old Bailey. It took longer to arrive in London than the previous coach, at 5 hours. But it was "safe, easy, and expeditious", at least if no highwayman were about. Sadly Minchener went bankrupt in 1806. A daily service departing from the King's Head, Old Change at 10am is also mentioned in 1793.
Moving on to 1798 a new Marlow coach to the capital was started from Mrs Chapman's Upper Crown. This went through Maidenhead and arrived at the Bolt and Ton, Fleet Street via the inevitable New White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly. If the thought of getting up early to catch this coach was off putting and you wanted the luxury of selecting your own departure time, then the proprietors would allow you to hire out the entire coach and it would then set out when you chose. That however was an expensive option. Around this time or a little later William Williams was running a post coach from the Lower Crown. William moved his post business to the Corporation Arms in High Wycombe in 1808, still promising to make travel as comfortable as possible for all those "pleased to honour him with their favours".
It was not just the two Crown Inns that were coach stops. In 1819 Robert Mossington (Mossenton) had recently taken over the Greyhound Inn in Spittal Street. He was keen for everyone to know he had spent a great deal of time and effort on fitting up the premises in the most modern manner. He would also be running a new service to London, known as The Accomodation coach - "All possible attention will be paid to safety, convenience and comfort of passengers". This took 5 hours so no real improvement had been made on earlier running times. Robert seems to have done very well at the parcel carrying part of his business, and so he also recruited the Two Brewers in St Peters Street to act as a parcel booking office. He offered a slightly later start from Marlow than his rivals at first - 8am with a return from the city at noon (later 2.30 pm) the following day. He did eventually bring his start time from Marlow back more in line with that of his rivals. The route was via Little Marlow, Maidenhead (the White Hart), Burnham and Slough to the Bull Inn, Holborn, the Belle Savage, Ludgate Hill and The Gloucester Coffee House. Fares were 12s for a hopefully more comfortable interior seat, and 7s for an outside one, to London. He obviously was doing something right as a little over a month after starting his coach, he decided to make it a daily rather than thrice weekly service. (Sundays excepted)
WS Williams and Co obviously thought there was demand for another London service and so they launched a new post coach from The Greyhound in 1820. I believe they may have already run to London via Little Marlow, Wooburn and Taplow as they tell us in the adverts launching the new service that the coach serving these places will run unchanged bar an earlier start time. They followed this by The Favourite in 1823 - more or less following the route and timings of Wyatt's the Original which was still going. The Favourite went via Bisham (the Bull), Pinkneys Green (the Golden Ball), Maidenhead (White Hart), and Taplow (The Dumb Bell Inn) to Gloucester Coffee House, Piccadilly, and the Belle Sauvage, Lydgate Hill London, daily, except Sundays. And why should you use Mr Williams service? He carried only 4 inside passengers in The Favourite, so was offering more leg room! He said his service had been timed not to interfere with existing services but this was only true on the return leg, which also took in Aldgate. Both the Favourite and The Original left Marlow at 9am (The first Williams coach left much earlier). The Favourite departed from the Greyhound, and also used The Two Brewers and The Bull Bisham as booking offices. Relations between the old and new service were naturally strained. When the two coaches met at the famous coaching stop the White Horse Cellar in London in September 1823, (before the timings had been moved further apart) Wyatt and his rival Marlow coachman, a Mr Bonus came to blows. Wyatt accused Bonus of assaulting him, by punching and kicking but Bonus said he was provoked and warned Wyatt he would do just so if he did not leave off annoying him. Witnesses agreed with Bonus who was therefore unpunished. The trigger for the squabble was the sight by Wyatt of a lady who had formerly been a regular passenger of his was now a customer of Bonus. Wyatt said he had merely approached her calmly and asked for her to consider using his coach again. At this, he claimed Bonus had approached him and attacked. Bonus said the lady was actually already inside his coach at the time and Wyatt had been standing on the coach step conversing with her and offering to undercut Bonus. A very competitive market! The Favourite deposited it's passengers, purloined or otherwise at Marlow at 7.30pm.
Then there's the services that ran from Wycombe to Henley or Reading via Marlow. The coach and especially the numerous carrier services changed over time so this is just a summary. The Industry also known as Hone's Coach after it's operator, is probably the best known post coach. It started in 1828 and initially ran every day except Sundays. But within a few months, the service was reduced to running 3 times a week. (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, with Wednesday replacing Tuesday by 1830, left Reading at 4.45pm, later 3pm) However some services tweaked their timetable to reduce services over the winter when travel was less appealing, so the service was naturally changeable. The Industry is interesting because operator Hones & Co was a big concern in Reading and they timed their departures for Marlow and Wycombe for after the coaches from other major destinations had arrived, such as Bath, Brighton, Portsmouth and Bristol. So if your ancestor came to Marlow from further afield, this may well have been the route they took to arrive in town. In 1830 the mile stones between Marlow, Henley, and Reading were "newly painted and fitted up" so a traveller "has now a chance of knowing how far he is progressing". Those showing Marlow 1 mile must have elicited a silent cheer for the weary passengers. On the return from Henley, the coach pulled up at The Upper Crown at 7pm, but in the reverse direction passengers boarded at the Red Lion in West Street. Another service running from The Falcon, Wycombe to the White Hart Henley via the Three Tuns, Marlow was The Sociable by Thomas Hall, later known as "The Van", on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Van was afterwards ran by Lofting then Farley, from The Greyhound and the Tuns with the Halls operating a service from the Clayton Arms. Other carriers in this pre Victorian period include Thomas Wyatt's "Wagon" which went daily to London from The Horns, Chapel Street via Maidenhead and Salt Hill, Slough, and James Druce who ran to Wycombe on Fridays.
The Wonder omnibus with its beloved charismatic driver Charlie Burns went from the Crown (upper) to Maidenhead to meet the trains before the line came to Marlow. He will be the subject of his own post in the future.
Notes : In 1670 the carriers to London from Marlow came there every Tuesday, stopping at the Swanne in the Strand.
1842 - carriers to London - Johnson, goes to the Bell, Warwick Lane, returning to Marlow on Thursday at noon. Robinson, to the The Rose, Smithfield, returning from there Tues and Fri mornings, and Wyatt's to the King's Arms, Holborn and White Bear, Piccadilly, returning Tues and Sats. (In 1807 the stop is called the Black Bear)
Other later Victorian carriers include:
James Johnson of The Plough (to London once a week returning two days later), Charles and Tracey Wyatt (a man, Tracey was a male name then!) from the Horns Inn Yard to The New Inn, Old Bailey and Piccadilly twice weekly, returning the next day each time, Wyatts from the Horns to Maidenhead and Slough, Richard Robinson from the Greyhound to Wycombe twice weekly. And there was a coach service from The George and Dragon once a day each to Henley and Windsor in the 1880s. And an omnibus to Windsor from the Greyhound to meet the South Western trains once a day.
Related Posts
More transport related posts can be found in the listing here
All posts relating to an individual can be found under the A-Z person index on the top drop down menu.
Marlow highwayman Peter Rivers here
Marlow's toll gates here
For posts related to the inns mentioned, use the Pub Related option, yes also on the top drop down menu!
Researched and written by Kathryn Day.
SOURCES
Extract of the annual returns of the Great Marlow and Stokenchurch Turnpike Trust. Great Britain House of Commons. 1851, Vol 18
Kent's Directory for the year 1793 (Richard & Henry Causton, 1793)
. The Carriers’ Cosmography.
The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by , U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/CARR1.htm.
Reading Mercury 19 March 1770, 9 March 1773, 17 May 1780, 17 & 24 April 1788, 1 August 1789, 4 March 1793, 27 June 1796, 17 April 1797, 14 May 1798, 16 September 1811, all copies from The British Library.
Oxford Journal 28 July 1787, 4 August 1804, 30 April 1808. As above.
Windsor and Eton Express 05 September 1819, August 6 1820, 9 August 1823. As above.
Berks Chronicle 6 September & 15 November 1828, 21 August 1830. As above.
Bucks Gazette 19 February 1831, 31 March 1832, 24 October 1835 As above.
Pigots Directory 1830, 1831,1842, 1844
Bucks Herald 3rd October 1840, As above
Bucks Chronicle and Bucks Gazette 24 November 1849
Statesman, 4 Oct 1823.
Enrolment books, deposited with Clerk of the Peace, ref Q/RX 1835, Bucks Archives.
Robson's London Directory 1842.
Slaters Commercial Directory 1851
High Wycombe Directory and Handbook 1885
Crosby's Complete Pocket Gazette (B Crosby & Co, 1807, 1815)
Dutton, Allen and Co Directory and Gazetteer 1869
Kent's Directory for the Year 1793 (Richard and Henry Causton 1793)
©Marlow Ancestors
