1819 ONWARDS.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INTERVENES IN MAIL AFFAIRS. OLD MAIL GUARDS.
A new coach, from "The Bush Hotel" to Exeter, was put on the road on the
6th of April, 1819, the time allowed for the journey--74-3/4
miles--being fourteen hours--less than 5-1/2 miles an hour. In June,
1820 a new coach started for Manchester, performing the journey in two
days, the intervening night being spent at Birmingham. To accomplish the
first half of the task, the vehicle left Bristol at half-past 8 in the
morning and reached Birmingham--85-1/2 miles--in thirteen hours. An
advertisement, published in December, 1821, headed "Speed Increased,"
informed the public that the "Regulator" coach left London daily at 5
a.m. and arrived at the "White Hart," Bristol, at five minutes before 9
at night, the speed being barely seven miles an hour.
No fewer than twenty-two coaches were by this time utilised daily
between this city and London. The start of the West Country mail coaches
from Piccadilly at this period was an interesting sight. The continued
wretched condition of the highways was not conducive to quick
travelling; but in about 1825 matters were improved in that respect in
our district by Mr. John Loudon MacAdam, who studied and practised
road-making. Mr. MacAdam was general surveyor of Bristol turnpike roads,
and although he found the trustees' funds only one remove from
bankruptcy and their roads almost impassable, he succeeded so well that
the finances flourished, and his highways became an object lesson to the
world. Mr. Latimer, the Bristol historian, mentions that although
MacAdam was shabbily treated by members of the old unreformed
Corporation, and had many opponents, Bristol deserves the credit of
being the first to appreciate the value of his labours, which were
recognised later by a Parliamentary grant. He left Bristol for London,
and died in 1836; but his son became surveyor of the Bristol roads, and
continued to hold the appointment till his death in 1857.
[Illustration: THE WEST COUNTRY MAIL COACHES ABOUT TO LEAVE PICCADILLY
WITH "GO CART," BRINGING UP LATE MAILS FROM THE G.P.O.]
The _Gentlemen's Magazine_, November, 1827, announced: "A Steam Coach
Company are now making arrangements for stopping places on the line of
road, between London, Bath and Bristol, which will occur every six or
seven miles, where fresh fuel and water are to be supplied. There are
fifteen coaches built." The Turnpike Trustees, who imposed extraordinary
tolls on steam carriages, frustrated this scheme; but the threatened
competition stirred up the coach proprietors, who increased the speed of
their vehicles from the jog-trot of six or seven miles an hour, although
not to such an extent as desired by the Bristol Chamber of Commerce,
which in this year made a suggestion to the Post Office for bringing the
London mail to the city in twelve hours. The Postmaster-General was also
memorialised to accelerate the arrival of the West mail, so as to effect
its delivery before the departure of the London mail,--a convenience of
no little moment to the West India trade of the port, since it was
thought that it would save one day in the conduct of business with the
metropolis. At a general meeting in January, 1828, it was announced that
the president had a conference on the subject with the leading officer
of the Post Office Department, with the result that the latter proposed
alterations which were carried out, and were held to be proofs of the
Postmaster-General's disposition to consult the accommodation of the
Bristol public. The former proposal was not adopted at the time, for at
the Accession of his late Majesty King William IV. (1830) the London
mail coach took 13 hours 37 minutes on its journey _via_ Reading. It
departed at 8 p.m., reached Bath 8.11 a.m., and arrived in Bristol at
9.37 a.m., leaving again at 5.50 p.m. for the G.P.O. The Bristol and
Brighton coach (138 miles) was bound to a speed of 10.4 miles per hour.
In January, 1830, there were further Post Office matters on the agenda
of the Chamber of Commerce, for it was resolved--"That this meeting
recommends to the Board the instituting an enquiry into the exact
distance between the Post Office of London and Bristol, with a view to
ascertain whether the rate of postage at present demanded is correct."
The enquiry was prosecuted with vigour, for at the January annual
meeting in the following year reference was made to the Turnpike
Commissioners for the several districts on the line of road between
London and Bristol having supplied a statement of the precise extent of
ground over which the mail coach travelled, comprised in their
respective trusts. In several instances measurements were expressly
made. In the result it appeared that the route exceeded in distance 120
miles, and the Post Office Department was therefore entitled legally to
obtain the rate of 10d. per letter as the amount fixed by the provisions
of the Act of Parliament. It was thought by taking the route from
Chippenham through Marshfield instead of Bath the distance would be
considerably shorter, and consequently bring about a reduced rate of
postage. It was reported in the next year (January, 1832) that the
requisition for changing the route had been pursued, and the president
held a conference with Sir F. Freeling on the subject; but though every
due consideration was promised, the alteration had not yet been acceded
to. There was the significant addition that the application would
nevertheless be renewed. A new royal mail direct from Bristol to
Liverpool was established in 1831, leaving the "White Lion," Broad
Street, Bristol, at 5.0 p.m., reaching Liverpool at twenty minutes past
12 a.m. The new service was notified to Mr. Samuel Harford, the
President of the Commerce Chamber, by Sir Francis Freeling, in the
following terms:--
"G.P.O., _27th August, 1831_.
"SIR,--Having brought under consideration the memorial from the Board of
Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Bristol, and from the bankers,
merchants, and other inhabitants of Liverpool, transmitted in your
letter of the 2nd May last, I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that
His Grace the Postmaster General (Duke of Richmond) has consented to try
the experiment of a mail coach between those towns, through Chepstow,
Hereford, and Monmouth, and I flatter myself that it may commence about
the middle of next month.
"I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
F. FREELING, Secretary.
"Samuel Harford, Esq."
* * * * *
In the next year the Chamber learnt with satisfaction that the direct
Liverpool mail through Chepstow, Monmouth, Hereford, Shrewsbury and
Chester, which was started as an experiment, had been continued, to the
decided advantage of the public, particularly to all connected with the
line of country through which it passed. As compared with the former
route, the saving of time was equal to one day; the rate of postage was
likewise reduced. The starting and arriving were at the most convenient
hours the distance and circumstances, with reference to the passage of
the two rivers, Severn and Medway, would permit. The coach had to run
over the flat parts of the ground at a great pace, to make up for time
lost at the hills. The contract time was 9 miles 2 furlongs in the hour.
One of the chief mail coaches in the kingdom in 1837 was the Bristol,
Carmarthen and Milford (150 miles _via_ Passage, one hour allowed for
ferry), Cardiff and Swansea. Its down journey occupied 19 hours 38
minutes, and its up journey 20 hours.
The Liverpool and Milford mails were conveyed across the Severn at Aust
Passage, where the ferry had been located since the Lord Protector's
time. A moderate expenditure on the piers at Aust Passage, though little
regarded by the citizens at the time the work was in progress, with the
introduction there of a steam vessel, was one of the principal means of
bringing about the establishment of the additional communication with
the districts over the Severn, the uncertainty and inconvenience of
crossing its estuary being then to a large extent removed.
Mr. Oliver Norris, now nearly 80 years of age, and who has lived in the
district adjoining the Severn Tunnel from his boyhood, can call to mind
the time when the Liverpool and Milford coaches were running. They had
to make their way from Pilning through Northwick, up to the Old Passage
at Aust, and in rough weather the passengers must have had a cold ride
on the bleak river banks over which they had to journey. When the
Bristol and South Wales Railway was opened in 1863, the Aust Passage was
abandoned, and the ferry steamers commenced to cross from the revived
New (or Pilning) Passage, to connect with the new train services at
Portskewet. When the penny post was introduced, Mr. Morris says that as
the coaches passed through the villages the inhabitants in his district
adopted a primitive way of posting their letters, which was to place
the letter and penny in a cleft stick, and so hand up to the mail guard
as the coach was driven by, and who, if the penny was not forthcoming,
promptly threw the letter to the ground.
The mail coach system was attended with many adventures. Mr. Moses James
Nobbs, the last of the mail coach guards, recounted in the history of
his career how, in the winter of 1836, when guard of the Bristol to
Portsmouth coach, there were terrible snow-storms towards Christmas
time, and many parts of the country were completely blocked. After
leaving Bristol one night at 7 p.m. all went well until the coach was
nearing Salisbury, at about midnight. Snow had been falling gently for
some time before, but after leaving Salisbury it came down so thick and
lay so deep that the coach had to be brought to a standstill, and could
proceed no further. Consequently Nobbs had to leave the coach and go on
horseback to the next changing place, where he took a fresh horse and
started for Southampton. There he procured a chaise and pair, and
continued his journey to Portsmouth, arriving there about 6 p.m. the
next day. He was then ordered to go back to Bristol. On reaching
Southampton on his return journey the snow had got much deeper, and at
Salisbury he found that the London mails had arrived, but could not go
any further, the snow being so very deep. Not to be beaten, he took a
horse out of the stable, slung the mail bags over his back, and pushed
on for Bristol, where he arrived next day, after much wandering through
fields, up and down lanes, and across country--all one dreary expanse of
snow. By this time he was about ready for a rest. But there was no rest
for him in Bristol, for he was ordered by the mail inspector to take the
mails on to Birmingham, as there was no other mail guard available. At
last he arrived at Birmingham, having been on duty for two nights and
days continuously without taking his clothes off. For his exertions and
perseverance in getting the mails through Mr. Nobbs received a special
commendation from the Postmaster-General.
[Illustration: MOSES NOBBS.
THE LAST OF THE MAIL GUARDS.]
Mr. Nobbs tells that one night when the Bristol coach was between Bath
and Warminster, two men jumped out of the hedge; one caught hold of the
leaders, and the other the wheelers, and tried to stop the coach. The
coachman, immediately whipped up the horses, and called out, "Look out!
we are going to be robbed!" Mr. Nobbs took the blunderbuss out of the
arms case (which was a box just in front of the guard's seat); but, just
as he did so, he saw the fellows making towards the hedge, and then lost
sight of them altogether. To let them know that he was prepared, he
fired off into the hedge. He didn't know whether he hit anything, but he
heard no cries or groans. The recoil of the blunderbuss, however, nearly
knocked him off his seat. The blunderbuss, he said, kicked like a mule.
It had no doubt been loaded to the muzzle, as was usual with those
weapons. In the memorable storm of Christmas, 1836, alluded to by Mr.
Nobbs, the Bath and Bristol mail coach, due in London on Tuesday
morning, was abandoned eighty miles from the metropolis, and the mails
taken up in a post-chaise and four by the two guards, who reached St.
Martin's-le-Grand at 6.0 on the Wednesday morning. For seventeen miles
of the distance the guards had from time to time to go across the fields
to get past the deep snowdrifts.
In the annual procession of mail coaches round London, at the head
thereof was "the oldest established mail,"--the Bristol mail, probably
with Guard Nobbs in charge. Some twenty-seven to thirty coaches took
part in the procession thus headed. The old mail guards had a literature
of their own. As an example, one report on a guard's way-bill ran as
follows (it was a note to account for loss of time on North Road):--"As
we wos comin' over Brumsgroove Lickey won of the leaders fell, and wen
we com to him he was ded."
One old fellow used to laugh, as the men said, down in his boots, or
like a pump losing its water. Another used facetiously to say that he
had better than a dozen children. "Oh, Mr. ----," said a barmaid to him
one day, "what can you do with so many?" "Well, my dear," he replied,
"you see I've got but two, and they be, you must confess, a good deal
better than a dozen."
It is said that, with the exception of a single instance, no guard was
ever convicted of a breach of trust while performing his duties.
In the year of Her Majesty's accession (1837) there were no fewer than
twenty-seven coaches running daily between Bristol and London, and
twenty-seven others passed between this city and Bath every twenty-four
hours. The times of the London coach were as follow: London depart 8.0
p.m., Bath 7.21 a.m., Bristol arrive 8.43 a.m., depart 6.15 p.m., arrive
G.P.O. 6.58 a.m.,--a slight acceleration over 1830.
Where now is the fashionable roadside "Ostrich Inn" on Durdham Down of a
century ago, approached by a rough and winding track from Black Boy
Hill? At this inn the coaches called on their way to the Passage. Where
now are the old four-horsed coaches rattling up to "The Bush," "White
Hart," and "White Lion" hostelries, and the old jolly dozen-caped
coachmen and scarlet-liveried mail guards, with blunderbuss and horn?
Where now the Bath and Bristol mail pulling up at the roadside "King's
Head Inn"? The inns are gone, the coaches gone, the jolly guards all
gone too. What happiness their smiling faces brought to many who watched
for their arrival by the mail coach from the West of England, and how
gladdening the sight of their colonial mail bags to the merchants of the
city and to the sailors' wives looking out anxiously for the monthly
mail of those days! Though single-sheet letters cost 2s. 1d. each, what
of that? Did they not contain accounts of sugar and rum cargoes, and of
good news from absent ones. Letters were letters in those days, and not
the notes and cards and "flimsies" of to-day.
[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF THE BATH AND BRISTOL MAIL COACH AT A ROADSIDE
INN.]