OLD COACHING DAYS--STAGE WAGONS AND STAGE COACHES.
Many readers, whose lives carry them back before the "forties," taking
their stand beneath the broad gateway or pebbled court-yard of our old
inns--the Red Lion, the Bull, or the Crown--would require a very slight
effort of memory to recall the exhilarating spectacle of the arrival
and departure of the stage coach of fifty or sixty years ago. Such a
person will once more hear in imagination the cheery coach horn at the
town's end; and, watching for only a minute, he knows what to
expect--yes, there around that critical corner at the Cross, come the
steaming leaders, then a handful of reins, the portly form of the
coachman, and then the huge embodiment of civilization itself comes
{143} swinging round the corner like a thing of life! Clattering up
the High Street! the driver pulls them up promptly at the Lion, or the
Bull, and performs that classic feat of swinging his lusty eighteen
stone from the box seat with an easy grace which is the envy of every
stable boy in the town! He sees once more the busy scene of bustle and
animation as the steaming horses are replaced by other sleek animals
fresh from the stables, and the old coach rolls on for another stage of
the journey.
This, the ideal view of locomotion in the palmy days of stage-coaching,
was really an evolution from something much less smart and efficient.
Of that interesting evolution of the older locomotion, our old town, by
the necessity of the route, saw most of the varied phases, for during
many years of the century coaches rattled through our streets with
kings, queens and princes, duellists and prize-fighters, daring
highwaymen and Bow Street runners, romantic lovers off to Gretna Green,
and School boys--poor little Nicklebies off to a Squeers'
Academy--jostling inside the body of the lumbering coach, or dangling
their legs from the roof as outsiders!
In glancing at the salient points of this evolution as it passed before
the eyes of our grandfathers, it may be necessary to go back to the
"composite" order of locomotion with the mixture of goods and passenger
traffic.
A journey to London, or a distant town, for the purpose of trade or a
visit, was a tedious experience full of discomfort. Following the
sturdy caravan of pack-horses, the lumbering coaches, and broad-wheeled
wagons of last century came the "fly wagons" in the early years of this
century, and with them the possibility of poor people once in a life
time getting a few miles from home, in case of absolute necessity. The
old tilted fly-wagon was used not only for taking up and delivering
goods too heavy to go by coach, but persons who could not afford the
coach fare of 3d. a mile or thereabouts, would find a place wedged in
among the goods at the back of the tilted wagon, sometimes packed away
in straw to keep warm. In this way, a whole family, placed under the
necessity of moving to a distant part, a comparatively rare occurrence
though, have had to remain doubled up in a cramped position day and
night, while the slow-going wagon creaked along its ponderous way, till
the younger members of the family party peeped out of their hole and
caught sight of the splendours of "the lights of London," in the long
rows of oil lamps which then illuminated Kingsland Road, by which
London from the north was entered, and anon the rendezvous at the
"Vine," or "Four Swans," in Bishopsgate, was reached, to the intense
relief of all!
In this primitive style, many a small tradesman has journeyed up to
London, and, having transacted his business, has returned in the same
manner two or three days afterwards.
{144}
Fly-wagons and vans travelled from London daily for Buntingford,
Royston, Cambridge, Fakenham, Boston, Stamford, York and Edinburgh.
Nearly all wagons on this road made their point of arrival and
departure in London at Bishopsgate Street--the Four Swans, the Vine,
and the Catherine Wheel being the usual inns.
The amount of goods traffic from Royston by these wagons was very
considerable, especially by the Wakefield wagons which conveyed the
wool from the combers in Royston to the Yorkshire Mills.
[Illustration: THIRD-CLASS TO LONDON.]
The coaching traffic at the beginning of the present century,
corresponded pretty much with express and stopping trains of the
present day. There were what may be called "main line" coaches from
London, through Royston to Edinburgh by the North Road (as well as by
other great roads through the Kingdom), and the "branch line" coaches,
such as those from London to Cambridge, Norwich, Fakenham, &c., and
from London to Ipswich, a route that figured so prominently in the
memorable adventures of Mr. Pickwick. The North Road through-coaches
did not change horses at Royston, but at Arlington, at the Hardwicke
Arms, and again at Buckland at the first farm house (now Mr.
Kestell's). The coaches were horsed at Arrington by Mr. Meyer, then
the landlord of the Hardwicke Arms, who also supplied horses for the
stage from Arrington to Caxton.
As to the time occupied on the road, every age has its own standard of
enterprise and progress. Thus in 1806 a writer in an old {145}
magazine breaks out into the following eloquent strain over the
smartness of those times:--"Who would have conceived it possible fifty
years ago that a coach would regularly travel betwixt London and
Edinburgh, near 400 miles, in less than three days!" From our
standpoint one is tempted to rejoin "who would have conceived it
possible 80 years ago that an express train would travel regularly
between London and Edinburgh in 8 1/2 hours!" but perhaps the future
may laugh at such a boast! Still, that three days' journey by the old
coaches was in reality a great thing, and one to be proud of, and as
these "main line" coaches rattled through the pebbled streets of our
old town they were looked upon with pride as a part of our national
institutions.
With regard to what may be called the branch line system of the
coaching traffic, we are too apt to think of coaching as a means of
through communication by the great routes mentioned to appreciate, at
this distance of time, the vast amount of enterprise, and of horse
flesh and vehicles brought into the coaching and posting service, to
connect places lying off the main routes--places which were served,
down to very many of the villages, either by a coach under the
management of local persons, or by the system of fly-wagons and van
traffic, which brought goods and passengers from distant places at such
intervals as could be arranged and worked at a profit.
At the end of the reign of George III. the coaches passing through or
near Royston were:--"The Royston Mail," "The Cambridge Auxiliary Mail,"
"The Cambridge New Royal and Patent Mail," "Cambridge Union Coach,"
"Safety," "Tally-ho"; "Telegraph" and "Lynn Union" (both through
Barkway); "Lord Nelson" (Lynn), "Edinburgh and Newcastle Mail," "York
and Edinburgh Mail," "The Lord Wellington," "The High Flyer," "The
Fakenham Mail," "The Fakenham Patriot," and the "Stamford Coach." The
Cambridge coaches changed horses at Royston (or Barkway, according to
the route taken) and Buntingford. Mr. Ekin, of Cambridge, horsed the
coaches from Cambridge to Royston, and the other distance from Royston
to London was horsed by London men.
From the foregoing list the reader will see that the old coaching days
meant no small amount of life and animation, and, for certain trades,
money and business, to towns situated as Royston was.
For the palmy days of stage-coaching we must travel a little beyond the
era of the Georges, even of the last of them; for at the time when the
railway came the coaching traffic of this country had reached a pitch
of perfection which was unknown at any previous period in its history,
and for smartness and efficiency and for the vast extent of its
operations it was an institution of which the English people had every
reason to be proud.
{146}
A parliamentary return for 1836 shows the highest speed attained by
mail coaches in England to have been 10 5/8 miles per hour, in Scotland
10 1/2, and in Ireland 9 1/8. That there were still some terribly bad
roads for some of the cross-country mail coaches is shown by the fact
that the slowest speed was 6 miles in England, 7 in Scotland, and 6 7/8
in Ireland.
Royston saw some of the smartest coach-driving on the road. Six or
seven coaches and three mails passed through the town up and down every
day. Posting business was conducted with great spirit by the two rival
inns--the young Bull and the older Red Lion, each having half a score
of post horses in their stables, and one pair always standing harnessed
ready to take "first turn out." These demands upon the principal inns
made it impossible for the coach-horses to be stabled there and they
occupied stables at various places in the town, but were brought up
generally at the Red Lion or the Bull for the changes.
One of the chief characteristics of the old coaching days was the close
association of coaches and coachmen with, and keen interest taken in
them by, the inhabitants of the towns through which the principal coach
routes passed. Royston had its full share of such associations, the
institution coloured all our local life, from the pauper or cripple who
begged of the coach passengers, to the local gentry who were expecting
their newspaper. There was thus always something exhilarating and
stirring about the arrival of the stage coach. It had within it so
many possibilities. It might contain some great "Parliament man,"
runaway lovers, or stealers of bank notes, and it always brought some
news. Intimately associated with the life and habits of the
townspeople were the coaches travelling between London, Royston and
Cambridge, the persons in charge of which, and many of the passengers
using them, being known to the townspeople, whilst the names and merits
of the rival coaches were known to the smallest boy in the parish.
[Illustration: A CAMBRIDGE ELECTION PARTY.]
It seems strange in these days that there should have been so much
interest centred in these flying channels of civilization. I have
mentioned the "Safety" and "Tally-ho," two coaches driven through
Royston from Cambridge to London and back. These were well-known as
rival coaches--rivals in time, for each went up in the morning and back
in the evening, and, what is more interesting, they were also rivals
in, and between them there was a keen competition for, popular favour;
so much so that one might almost describe them as the aristocratic and
democratic coaches. There is sufficient reason for making this
distinction between them in the fact that the Royston people of those
days (1820-25) did, in the absence of anything more exciting to divide
their thoughts and preferences in the quiet daily round of their lives,
manage to set up a sort of party-distinction, not {148} exactly on the
lines of Whig and Tory, but, strange as it may seem, by the names of
"Tally-ho," and "Safety." From the smallest boy to the oldest man in
Royston and the district, the inhabitants showed sufficient leanings
one way or the other to be classed as "Tally-ho" men or "Safety" men.
By these rival coaches men swore, pledged themselves, and regulated
their watches--those who had any. But the "Tally-ho" and "Safety"
party-cries came out more especially amongst the boys, for when
"Tally-ho" and "Safety" boys met, it was a case of "when Greek meets
Greek," with frequent fights! The two rival coaches thus became the
means of sharply dividing popular sentiment, with many who had never
enjoyed a seat on either of the champion coaches!
About 1825 the rivalry between "Tally-ho" and "Safety" was at its
merriest, and ten years later other coaches had appeared upon the
scene. Thus in 1839 the following were the coaches, and their places
of call, passing through Royston:--The "Star," from Cambridge, daily,
calling at the Red Lion, Royston, and destined for Belle Sauvage,
London; the Cambridge "Beehive," up and down alternate days, the Bull,
Royston, and the Catherine Wheel, Bishopsgate Street, and White Bear,
Piccadilly; the Cambridge "Telegraph," daily, the Red Lion, Royston,
and the White Horse, Fetter Lane; the "Rocket," daily, the Bull,
Royston, and White Horse, Fetter Lane; the "Wisbeach," daily, the Bull
Hotel, Royston, and Belle Sauvage and Golden Cross, London; the
"Stamford," up and down alternate days, the Crown, Royston, and the
Bell and Crown, Holborn; the "Wellington," from York, the Queen
Victoria, Royston (now the Coffee Tavern), and the Bull and Mouth,
London; the "Rapid," daily (including Sunday), the Red Lion, Royston;
Edinburgh and York mail and the Cambridge mail, daily, the Red Lion,
Royston, for the General Post Office, London.
The times at which these coaches arrived at Royston followed in fairly
consecutive order like a railway time table--thus of the up coaches the
"Star," 8.20 a.m., "Beehive," 11.30, and so on up to the "Rocket," at
4.30, while the Edinburgh and Cambridge Mails passed through at 1 and 2
in the morning; the return journeys were of course chiefly towards the
evening. The usual time from Royston to London was 44 hours, excepting
the York mail, in the night time, which reached the General Post Office
within four hours after leaving the Red Lion, at Royston.
One of the coaches in the above list, the "Star," naturally leads one
from coaches to coachmen. I am not aware who was the driver of the
"Tally-ho," but of the rival coach, the "Safety," the driver was Joe
Walton, the driver of the "Star" at the later date mentioned above, a
famous coachman in his day who lived to see, and curse from {149} his
box that "iron horse," which was destined to break up the traditions of
the road.
It was the general testimony of those who had ridden behind him, or
beside him on the box, that Joe Walton had few superiors on the road as
a driver of a stage coach, especially for the manner in which he would
handle his "cattle," and pull his coach through the streets of the
Metropolis. He was, however, daring to a fault, but a strong will and
an iron nerve could only have enabled him to carry that heavy handful
of reins for ten hours at a stretch--fifty miles up and fifty miles
back on the same day, all through the season. This was no child's play!
He was a driver who was not easily turned aside by difficulties or
obstacles in the way, and has been known to conduct his coach across
"hedges and ditches" when snow blocked up the highways. The firm grip
of his position was sometimes apparent to those who encountered him on
the road. Woe-betide any inefficient or sleepy driver whom Joe had to
pass on the road, for a heavy smack from his whip was often as
effectual a cure as the modern roundabout process of dragging the
sleepy teamster before the magistrates and extracting a few shillings
from his earnings!
At a recent dinner at Cambridge, Professor Humphry, who came to
Cambridge to commence what has been a brilliant career by a journey on
the "Star" coach, lightly hit off Joe Walton, the driver of the "Star,"
as a man who "used to swear like a trooper and go regularly to Church."
Joe Walton was also a man who could show off his powers on the box, and
did not like to be beaten. In 1827, finding, just as he was leaving
Buntingford with the "Star" coach, that the "Defiance" was cutting out
the pace in front of him, he put his "cattle" to it with a view to pass
the "Defiance;" but by one of the horses shying at the lamp of the
coach in front, Walton's coach was overturned and he and a passenger
were injured. Again in 1834, Joe overthrew the "Star" coach not far
from Royston, on the 2nd September, but it would almost seem that the
fault was as much in the "Star" as in Joe's daring style of driving,
for again on the 30th September it was overthrown on the Buntingford
and Royston road, when it was being driven by Sir Vincent Cotton.
Every inch a coachman, Joe Walton felt the bitter slight upon his high
calling, when at last, with the introduction of the railway, his
journeys were curtailed to the miserable make-shift of driving only as
far as Broxbourne to meet the iron horse, whose approach Walton would
hail with a memorable emphasis, and a more forcible than polite "Here
comes old Hell-in-harness!"
Other men on the North Road, though having less of Walton's rough grip
of their calling, were noted for their urbanity and general {150}
intelligence. A place of honour among these was well deserved by
Valentine Carter, the son of a Hertford coach-proprietor, the driver of
the "Rocket," already referred to, and of the "Royston Coach" from
Cambridge to Ware, as a connection with the Great Eastern Railway
(1845-50), and in after life known as the genial landlord of the George
Hotel, Buntingford. At the time of his death he had reached his 85th
year, and when his remains were interred in the Layston Churchyard only
a few years ago it was well said of him that "a more upright, truthful,
and honourable man never lived."
Another man of some note on the London and Barkway road was Thomas
Cross, the driver of the Lynn coach, to whose interesting volumes, "The
Autobiography of a Stage Coachman," I have previously referred. The
Cambridge "Telegraph" was, at one time, driven by a type of man whose
character found expression in the soubriquet of "Quaker Will."
The difference between the risk of accidents on a coach and in a
railway train has been well put by the old stager who asked the
question--"If you meet with an accident by a coach and get thrown into
a ditch, why there you are! but if you meet with an accident when
riding by train--where are you?"
A few coaching adventures may be worth mentioning. Thus in 1803 it is
recorded that--
On Saturday morning, early, the Wisbeach Mail from London coming down
Reed Hill, between Buckland and Royston, was overthrown by the horses
taking fright, by which accident one woman was killed on the spot and
some other passengers slightly hurt.
On one occasion the Hertford coach met with a very alarming accident
when overloaded with 34 passengers, nearly all of whom were severely
hurt. A shocking accident, from top-loading, occurred in 1814 to the
Ipswich coach, on the top of which the Rev. Gaven Braithwaite, Fellow
of St. John's College, Cambridge, was crushed to death as the coach
entered the gateway of the Blue Boar Inn, in that town.
Sometimes a coach was overturned with ludicrous results. Thus the Lynn
coach, when being driven through Trumpington, on one occasion was
overturned against the wall of a cottage. It so happened that the good
house-wife was washing at the time; it further happened that her door
was standing wide open, and it also happened that the ladies on the
coach were pitched into the open doorway of the cottage, and one of
them was pitched into the tub of soapsuds! In 1834, as soon as the day
coach from Wisbeach to London, through Cambridge, arrived at the White
Hart Inn, Cambridge, it was seized by the Excise officers and taken to
the Rose and Crown, where it remained some days "in confinement," owing
to the interesting circumstance that smuggled brandy was "on board."
{151}
Of the personal adventures of those in charge of the coaches and their
hardships, the late Mr. James Richardson used to tell a graphic story
to the effect that one winter's day he was waiting at the Cross,
Royston, till the coach came in from the North. The townspeople were
more than usually interested owing to the severity of the weather.
This particular coach changed horses at the Old Crown, and when the
vehicle rattled up the street it was noticed that the horn did not
sound, and, on pulling up, the driver went sharply round to scold the
guard. Poor fellow! He was found frozen to death, fast on his perch!
Sometimes the passengers by coach found themselves in contact with
rough characters. In 1825, for instance, the Lynn coach contained
three men being taken up to London for trial on a charge of burglary.
When ascending Barkway hill the three men took advantage of the slower
pace of the coach and began to descend with a view to escape, but the
attendant immediately brought a pistol to their faces and one who had
actually got off the coach was "persuaded" to get up again by the
determination of their attendants to "have them in Newgate this night
either dead or alive." They got them there alive and they were
transported.
In the coaching days of this century the old highwaymen had for the
most part disappeared, but a notable instance was afforded in this
district in which the Mellishs, then residing at Hamels Park, were
concerned. There were really two incidents, one in which Colonel
Mellish fired at a highwayman and killed him, and in the other Captain
Mellish was robbed, and as the highwayman rode away, not satisfied with
his triumph, he turned and fire at the carriage, and the ball passed
through the window and killed Captain Mellish!
Mr. Cross, the driver of the Lynn coach, gives an instance of three
rival coaches on the road, of which he was driving one, and that a race
for the lead resulted in accomplishing one stage at the extraordinary
pace of 20 minutes and a few seconds for an _eight miles course_,
which, if timed correctly, was at the rate of _24 miles an hour_! But
three of his opponents' horses never came out of the stable again!
One of the most alarming stage coach accidents in England was that
between the Holyhead mail and the Chester mail near St. Albans in 1820.
There had been a race between the two coaches from just this side
Highgate, to near St. Albans. When going down a hill both
drivers--Perdy, of the Holyhead, and Butler, of the Chester coach--put
their horses into a furious galop, the velocity of the coaches
increasing at every step. There was plenty of room, but as Butler
found the Holyhead gaining a little upon him, it is said he wildly
threw his leaders in front of his rival's and the coaches were
immediately upset with a terrible collision. A man named William {152}
Hart was killed and others had their limbs shattered. The drivers were
put upon their trial at the Hertford Assizes before Baron Gurney, and
were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced each to one year's
imprisonment.
Railway passengers are at least tolerably free from the "begging
nuisance," but not so the passengers by stage coaches when the coach
pulled up for the change of horses, as the following entry in the
Royston committee book for 1815 will show:--
"Ordered that Notice be given to John T---- and J. B---- if they are
found begging in the street from the Coaches that their pay is to be
taken off."
One curious indication that the end of the coaching era was approaching
was afforded by the invention of steam coaches. Thus we find in 1839
that "Hancock's steam coach" came through Royston for the first time,
being seven hours coming from London, including stoppages. Rather a
slow rate from the agency which was to annihilate horse coaches!
One of the arguments against railways was that there would no longer be
employment for horses, and yet just before railways were heard of one
man stood at the Old Tyburn Turnpike and received the toll and issued
tickets for the whole of the Oxford Street traffic! What a picture
that old Tyburn turnpike man would form now, standing there in his
white apron with its two pockets, "one for half-pence and one for
tickets," and assessing the great volume of Oxford Street traffic of
to-day! Yet the disappearance of coaches from our highways did make a
very considerable difference to old towns like Royston, where, next to
malting, the posting business was the most important in the town. As
to the effect of the decay of coaching upon towns on the great coach
roads, it is said that the town of Barnet had been accustomed to keep
upwards of 1,000 horses in its stables, and Hounslow, on the Great
Western Road, 2,500 horses!
Coaches and coach horses are not the only things which have disappeared
from our high roads. One of the things to be met with on the roads in
1800-20 was the velocipede. It was not unlike in form the "Safety"
bicycle which is so universally met with on our roads to-day, with a
trifling difference which made long and rapid journeys out of the
question. The fact is the mechanical genius of Englishmen, which has
made such enormous strides during the century, had not then found out
that it was possible to use the solid earth as a fulcrum and at the
same time to leave the feet and legs free. A horse used its feet to
draw a coach and why not a man! So the velocipede was constructed for
the rider's feet to just reach the ground, and by pressing first one
foot on the ground and then the other he managed in this undignified
attitude, to propel the thing along!
{153}
Another characteristic thing about the old locomotion was the dog
cart--small carts used by pedlars and others drawn along the high roads
by a dog or dogs. Sometimes these old pedlars would drive to Royston
market with their "carriage and pair" of dogs in rattling style! This
sight was very common during the last century and lingered to about the
end of the coaching days. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_, for 1795, a
writer says: "I have sometimes seen two dogs yoked one on each side of
a barrow drawing regularly and well, similar to ploughing. Their feet
being tender, to prevent their being foot-sore, they should have some
sort of shoeing; perhaps leather would be properest."
So well established had the use of dogs for drawing carts become that
the subject came before Parliament about fifty years ago. An old
magazine of this date gives a kind of petition to Parliament, drawn up
by a village schoolmaster and signed by three small hucksters, setting
forth, like the three historic tailors of Tooley Street, the injured
sense of the "people of England" at the prospect of an interference
with the use of dogs, and praying for the suppression of horses and the
protection of the small trader's dog, "because the dog carts of poor
people were continually, almost, and sometimes quite, run over by these
rough beasts [horses], and that this tyranny and wilfulness is very
difficult for the poor man to bear, who may have as good a spirit as
any coachman, although he is not so high up"!
From as late as about 1855 there comes to the writer a vision of a
pedlar, muddled with drink, riding home in his little square box cart
and the faithful dog drawing the cart and the man as well, and also a
faint echo of "shame" from some bystanders. Verily the fable must in
those days have been true, that when the goddess Fidelity was lost
among men, after long searching, she was found in a dog-kennel!
A picturesque part of the old system of locomotion was, of course, the
turnpike. The keepers of toll-gates found their principal customers in
the numerous coaches and the wagons which travelled up and down the
main roads, for the farmers could, and frequently did, by a little
mutual contriving, manage a cross-cut by their field-ways on to the
main road on the town side of a toll-gate, as in the case of
Bassingbourn and the Baldock Road into Royston. For the wagon traffic,
which conveyed much heavy merchandise, the older toll-gates had a
weigh-bridge attached to them so that the weight might be ascertained
and charged according to their scale. In later times the regular
coaches generally ran through without being stopped, and paid the toll
periodically.
The turnpike-road to Caxton--or rather from Royston Cross to Wandesford
Bridge in the county of Huntingdon, of which the southern part from
Royston to Kisby's Hut formed one Trust, is said to have been the first
turnpike-road in England.
{154}
Certainly the various Acts of Parliament for its repair and maintenance
date back to the time of Queen Anne, if not earlier, and, after turning
up in Acts all through the reigns of the Georges, ended with the Act of
1822 under which the old Trust was managed in the times of the modern
coaching days. The traffic never was sufficient to maintain the road
without resorting to a rate upon the neighbouring lands, owing to the
diversion of a good deal of the coaching and wagon traffic at Royston
for Cambridge, and the Trustees were often in great straits, and on the
horns of a dilemma--if they charged enough toll to pay their way, the
traffic was driven off the roads; if they modulated their charges the
roads went to the bad.
Money was advanced by private individuals upon the security of the
tolls, and the road between Royston and Arrington was always in debt
and dirty. So bad was it that the mail coaches were delayed, the
Postmaster-General came down upon the trustees, and Mr. McAdam, the
surveyor to the trustees (at a salary of L50 per annum), whose hands
were full of surveying at that time in various parts of England,
reported that though the road was "not indictable at common law, it
certainly was not in a fit condition to travel upon, at the speed which
the excellent regulations of the Post Office require." "It required
fourteen hundred tons of material and one thousand pounds value in
labour to put it into a proper condition, at a cost of L7,500, or about
L500 a mile"!
That this state of insolvency was not due to tolls being too low is
evident from the fact that a petition was presented to the trustees,
setting forth that the tolls were so high as to drive the traffic off
the road. Eightpence per horse at both gates was a considerable sum
between Royston and Kisby's Hut. Again and again the bankrupt
condition of the road, both in solidity and finance, was submitted to
the Postmaster-General and the Treasury Authorities in the hope of
getting some relief from that quarter, and in 1833 the Trustees,
despairingly, stated that upon the success of their application for a
subsidy (including L1,500 to cut through Arrington Hill), depended the
question of keeping open "this most important line of general
communication."
Between 1790, when the Kneesworth toll bar produced about L5 a week,
and 1820, there was a considerable increase in the traffic on the
roads, and the highest figure reached was in 1828, when the amount
realized from the Kneesworth and Caxton toll gates was L1,367 for the
year. As coaching declined, the turnpike receipts fell off so much
that by 1847 the Kneesworth and Caxton toll-gate receipts had dwindled
down, in twenty years, from L1,367 to L282 a year! That the railway
did not knock all the horses off the road, but on the contrary brought
them on for other purposes, is evident from the fact that after the
establishment of a railway station at Royston the above toll-gate
receipts went up again in the next twenty years to L600 a year!
{155}
The Wadesmill Turnpike Trust (from Royston to Wadesmill) was a much
more profitable road, as it included some of the Cambridge as well as
the North Road traffic. Indeed, for three years before the London Road
hill was cut through, the tolls from Royston to Wadesmill were let to
Mr. Flay for L4,090 per annum, and in 1839 after the cutting was
finished, they were let for L4,350, the highest sum ever made under
this Trust.
With the disappearance of the last of the toll-gates the last relics of
the old coaching days vanish. Antiquated such an expedient may
seem--placing bars across the road--yet the system did enable some very
notable improvements to be carried out in cutting through high hills at
an expense which modern highway authorities would never dream of.
Then, they not only secured the desirable result that all who used the
roads should pay for them, but helped to preserve the balance of trade
between towns and villages, for, no sooner were gates abolished than
many heavy users of the roads got off almost scot free of contributing
to their maintenance, and the town tradesman could afford to send his
carts round and compete with, and, as a natural consequence, to
annihilate many small village shop-keepers who had flourished under the
old _régime_.