The Holyhead Road: The Mail-coach Road to Dublin. Vol. 2

by Charles G. Harper

But if passengers were still scarce and not worth the provision of a coach, something could be done, and was done, to expedite the waggons, so that passengers and goods could be conveyed at once. Imagine, then, the stir created by the announcement on October 22nd, 1750, that the “Shrewsbury Flying Stage-waggon will begin to fly on Tuesday next, in five days, winter and summer.” They were, of course, only the poorer classes who were thus catered for——people who had no objection to being wedged in between the rolls of Welsh flannel, the butter and lard, and miscellaneous consignments being conveyed; or else we should not in the same year find a lady, anxious to reach London, riding twenty-two miles to Ivetsey Bank, across country, to catch the Chester and London stage-coach, which, taking six days over the whole journey, would not have brought her to town any sooner.

But times now began to move rapidly, and the close of 1750 saw a new conveyance on the road. This was the “Caravan,” an affair greatly resembling modern gipsy-vans, and fitted up inside with benches for eight, twelve, or even, at a pinch, eighteen persons. It was drawn by “six able horses,” and professed to reach London in four days, but often occupied the whole of five. If it had taken the direct way, instead of wandering off to the Chester road, this promise could have been kept, as it was in 1752, when the proper way was adopted, and Birmingham reached the first night. The fare to London by the “Caravan” was 15s.

The roads were then, under the operation of various Turnpike Acts and the General Highway Act of 1745, beginning to lay aside something of their pristine horrors, and Shrewsbury coaching enterprise was once more aroused to great issues. In April, 1753, the “Birmingham and Shrewsbury Long Coach, with six able horses, in four days,” started from the “Old Red Lion” (the “Lion,” Wyle Cop), and went to the “Bell,” Holborn. The fare was only 18s., not more than 5s. over and above the price of a third-class railway journey that nowadays takes you either way in something less than three hours and three-quarters. Competition began at Shrewsbury in less than three months after the establishment of the “Long Coach,” for in the following June Fowler’s “Shrewsbury Stage-coach in three and a half days” began to set out from the “Raven and Bell” to the “George and White Hart,” Aldersgate Street; fare one guinea, outside half-price. It is not on record how these rivals regarded one another, but they seem to have continued, each going to London once a week, for thirteen years before circumstances warranted the intrusion of a third.

In April, 1764, however, a “Machine” was started, to go three times a week and do the journey in two days, at a fare of 30s. The continually increasing fares up to this point were balanced by the lower hotel expenses on the shorter time taken, and so the “Machine” became popular in summer. But this celerity of motion could not be sustained during the winter, when the journey was extended to three days. In the spring of 1765, when it returned to its fine weather rapidity, it received the name of the “Flying Machine,” with the fare raised to 36s.; but in August, 1772, when its time was reduced to one and a half days, the price came down by a couple of shillings. The reason for this combined acceleration of pace and reduction of fare is instantly apparent—opposition was threatened. It came with the spring of the following year, but did not directly challenge the supremacy of the “Flying Machine,” for the “new Flying Machine,” as it was called, by John Payton, of Stratford-on-Avon, and Robert Lawrence, of the “Raven and Bell,” Shrewsbury, took the Stratford-on-Avon and Oxford route to London, was half a day longer on the journey, and charged 2s. more. The proprietors of the original “Flying Machine” must have felt relieved when those particulars were disclosed; but their nerves received a worse shock in the spring of 1774, for the confederates who had started the “new Flying Machine” re-named it the “London and Shrewsbury New Fly,” and announced several alterations and improvements. It was to perform the journey in a day and a half, to go three times a week, and, fitted “quite in the modern taste” and with steel springs, it offered decided advantages over the old favourite. In addition came the unkind announcement that, “notwithstanding the Fly sets out after the old coach, it will be in London as soon.” How sweet a sop for lazy travellers, none too eager to rise, and how bitter the taunt to the old firm!

It is not to be supposed that they tamely submitted to this impudence. Their reply was soon forthcoming. It stated that the proprietors of the “original London and Salop Machine,” in the modern taste, on steel springs (the Machine, not the proprietors) and bows on the top, called upon all travellers to observe “that the road through Coventry, being several miles nearer than through Oxford, will fully demonstrate the most speedy conveyance to London.” The “bows on the top” were seats for the outsides, who, if carried before, must have been accommodated in the “basket,” a wicker-work structure, hung on behind. Unfortunately for the “original,” it had very determined competitors to deal with. Its business suffered, just as, thirteen years before, it had come upon the scene and cut up the trade of the “Long Coach” and Fowler’s “Shrewsbury Stage.”

WYLE COP AND THE “LION”

The rivals even put on another conveyance, the “Diligence” they called it, conveying three passengers at the express speed of Shrewsbury to London in one day, at £1 11s. 6d. each. This startling innovation was announced to go three times a week.

There were thus in 1776 three modes of getting to London. Rivalry, however, had outrun custom, and discretion had far out-distanced both. The “Original” slipped back to a two days’ journey, twice a week, the “Fly” dropped one weekly journey during the winter, and the “Diligence” soon ceased to run at all.

But Robert Lawrence, the landlord of the “Raven and Bell,” and partner in the newer coaching enterprises with Payton, of Stratford-on-Avon, was a remarkable man. Given a wider sphere of action, there is no knowing to what greatness he might have developed. As it was, he did much for Shrewsbury in his time, and greatly influenced the traffic along the Holyhead Road, from end to end. The route had until then been invariably by way of Chester; but the casual inspection of any map will soon show that that city lies at a considerable distance to the north of a direct line drawn from London to Holyhead, and that Shrewsbury is placed much more centrally. It occurred to Lawrence that the difficulties and dangers of the route by what we now call the Holyhead Road, viâ Llangollen and Capel Curig, were much exaggerated, and that time might be saved and the dangerous ferry (as it then was) of Conway missed by avoiding Chester altogether. In that case Shrewsbury would regain much of the trade that belonged to it by virtue of its geographical position.