All that are desirous to pass from London to York, or from York to London ... may be received in a Stage Coach every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which performs the whole Journey in Four Days (if God permits).
As an example of the Turnpike Acts which became numerous as the eighteenth century slipped away, may be taken the ‘Act for Repairing the Road between the Town of Kingston upon Hull, and the Town of Beverley in the East Riding of the County of York.’ This came into force on May 1st, 1744. By it Trustees were appointed
for the surveying, ordering, amending, and keeping in Repair, the said Road ... and they ... shall and may erect, or cause to be erected, a Gate or Gates, Turnpike or Turnpikes, in or cross any Part or Parts of the said Road, and also a Toll-house or Toll-houses in or upon the same; and shall receive and take the Tolls and Duties following, before any Horse, Mare, Gelding, Mule, Ass, Cattle, Coach, Chariot, Landau, Berlin, Chaise, Calash, Chair, Hearse, Litter, Waggon, Wain, or Cart, or other Carriage whatsoever, shall be permitted to pass through the same.
The tolls payable varied from one-and-sixpence for a six-horsed coach, or a waggon drawn by five or more oxen, to three half-pence for an ‘Ass, not drawing.’ A drove of oxen was charged tenpence, and one of swine or sheep fivepence, per score.
Thus the users of a road paid for its upkeep, the very necessary reservation being made that no tolls were to be demanded in the case of men and vehicles engaged in farming operations; nor for waggons carrying hay or straw to be laid in the houses of the people in the neighbouring parishes and townships;[[61]] nor from persons attending the funeral of a parishioner, or attending ‘Church, Chapel, or other Place of Religious Worship on Sundays’; nor from voters going to and returning from the poll.
As the result of such Turnpike Acts’ being enforced, stage coaching increased considerably; and the year 1760 saw the birth of Flying Machines on Steel Springs, that got through the journey from Leeds to London in the short space of three days. But the journey was still accomplished at some considerable amount of personal discomfort; for the ‘outside’ passengers had to stand all the time in a kind of huge basket slung behind the body of the coach.
From 1785, in which year the Royal Mails began to be conveyed by stage coach, travel increased by leaps and bounds; and stage coaching may be said to have reached the height of its prosperity about 1835.
