Stagecoach - Stagecoaches in Great Britain

Stagecoaches in Great Britain

Familiar images of the stagecoach in Great Britain are that of a Royal Mail coach passing through a turnpike gate, a Dickensian passenger coach covered in snow pulling up at a coaching inn, and a highwayman demanding a coach to "stand and deliver". The yard of ale drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.

The first crude depiction of a coach, not necessarily a stagecoach, was in an English manuscript from the 13th century. The stagecoach was first developed in Great Britain during the 16th century and continued in use up to the early 1910s. Coaching inns opened up throughout Europe to accommodate stagecoach passengers. Shakespeare's first plays were staged at coaching inns such as The George Inn, Southwark. The Royal Mail stagecoach, a mail coach introduced in 1784, hastened the improvement of the road system in the British Isles through the turnpike trust system.

In 1784, a mail stage did the 120-mile journey from London to Bristol in 17 hours.