Travelling for pleasure is something that we all understand. But our forefathers a few centuries ago would have thought a person mad if he had said he was going to take a journey for pleasure. Merchants had to travel, and so had messengers; but ordinary folk stayed at home, unless the burden of their sins moved them to undertake a pilgrimage to some far-off shrine. Such journeys were performed on horseback or afoot, but invalid women and infirm old men might use a horse-litter.

Until the reign of Queen Mary I. there was in England no such thing as a coach. The lumbering stage waggon with wheels ten or twelve inches wide, and drawn by eight or ten horses attended by a driver who rode on the back of a pony, came into use during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Its successor, the stage coach, was not invented till the time when King Charles paid his first visit to Hull.

Two years before the accession of Charles II., a regular coach service from London to York was announced, the coaches to make the journey three times a week in the advertised time of four days. But this time was largely exceeded as a rule, and at nearly the close of the century we find the coach taking six days to reach London from York.

The development of road travel may be said to date from the year 1662, when an Act of Parliament was passed for improving the condition of the main roads, permission being granted to those local authorities that desired it, to erect toll bars and charge travellers for the privilege of using the roads when put into repair. Yorkshire roads in particular were notoriously bad, as the letter written to Thomas Cromwell in 1538 shows.^[60]

But few local authorities stirred themselves in the matter of road improvement, and an old coach bill still preserved at the Black Swan in Coney Street, York, has a very significant reminder of the dangers attending the journey to London in 1706:—

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.

The old coaching roads of the East Riding are shown on the map given on the opposite page. Most frequented of all was that from Hull to York—in part the Roman road over Barmby Moor. From Beverley to Bridlington there were alternative routes used by rival coach proprietors. The announcement of one of these reads as follows:—

The BRITISH QUEEN leaves the Stirling Castle, Bridlington Quay, at Seven every morning (Sundays excepted), by way of Brandsburton and Beverley, and arrives at the Kingston and Vittoria Hotels, the George and Bull and Sun Inns, Hull, at Eleven in the Forenoon. The Coach returns in the afternoon, at four, by the same route, after the arrival of the Barton Packet with the Express Passengers from London, and arrives at the Stirling Castle, Bridlington Quay, at Eight o’clock in the evening.

The BRITISH QUEEN will be found a delightful conveyance to Bridlington Quay, on account of the Road for the last Six Miles being close to the Sea Side, and passing through a most beautiful part of the country.

So say the proprietors of the British Queen. But what have those of the rival coach to tell us?

The Public are respectfully informed that the WELLINGTON leaves the Cross Keys General Coach Office, Hull, every morning, at Six, to Beverley, Driffield, Bridlington and Quay, Hunmanby, and Filey, and arrives at the Bell Inn and Blacksmith’s Arms, Scarbro’, at Twelve; proceeds at Four to Whitby, Guisbro, Stockton, Sunderland, Shields, Durham, Newcastle, and Edinbro’. Seats secured at any time.

The Road by Driffield is so well known as to be universally recommended. The Sea having made such dreadful havoc of the Brandsburton Road during the last few years as to render it dangerous travelling that way, being, for five or six miles, quite at the edge of the cliff.

Both these advertisements appeared in the columns of the Hull Packet in 1833; and timorous old ladies who wished to journey from Hull to Bridlington in that year were no doubt very thankful to the proprietors of the Wellington for making so clear the dangers of the road traversed by that ‘delightful conveyance,’ the British Queen.

Still standing by the side of what is now Cardigan Road at Bridlington, there is a mile stone informing all who desire the information that Beverley is distant 22 miles. It is on the old coaching road once traversed daily by the British Queen. But a few hundred yards past this relic of the old coaching days the road now reaches the sea-shore, and the remaining portion as far as Barmston has long since disappeared under the waves of the North Sea.

Very pleasant it must have been in the ‘Thirties’ to travel by a well-appointed stage coach—say the Rockingham, Rodney, Trafalgar, Wellington, True Briton, Express, Telegraph, King William, or Queen Adelaide, all of which coaches were running from Hull in 1832.

But this would be, of course, provided the weather were fine, and one could afford to travel ‘first class.’ It would not be pleasant to have to get out and walk uphill as the ‘second class’ passengers were expected to do in the case of a coach running from North Cave to Hull through Brantingham and Hessle; and it would be decidedly unpleasant to have to get out and push behind, as was demanded of the ‘third class’ passengers by this coach.

But there was always the danger of highwaymen to be faced, and the Royal Mail travelled ‘with a guard well armed,’ as the coaching bill reproduced on page 241 shows.

And what of winter travelling, with the thermometer down below freezing-point and the risk every minute of the coach’s being stuck fast in a snow-drift on a part of the road ‘five miles from anywhere’? Here are two local records which testify to the existence of such discomforts:—

1839. Jan. 7. A dreadful storm visited the country.... For an hour and a half the Scarbro’ mail coach horses could not contendcould not contend against the wind. The inside passengers of the Beverley coach had to get out and support the vehicle from being overturned.

1846. Dec. 15. Turnpike roads impassable with snow. Scarborough mail coach unable to proceed beyond Bridlington. Narrow escape of several persons from being frozen to death on the highways.

Ten years before stage coaches reached the height of their prosperity, a new era had begun—the era of the Railway. The first railway to be used for passenger traffic was one between Stockton and Darlington, and in the year of its opening another from Leeds to Selby was being planned by the great engineer, George Stephenson.

This, as originally planned, was to be of a length of 20 miles. Near Leeds there were to be three inclines, up each of which the train was to be hauled by a fixed engine stationed at the summit. The rest of the line was to be worked either by a travelling engine or by a horse.

The latter could, it was calculated, be very profitably employed. For his work would only be needed on the flat and up the slight inclines; and for six or seven miles on the journey from Leeds to Selby he could be ‘thrown off’ and could ride ‘in his own carriage behind the train of waggons,’ until his services were again required. Such was Railway Engineering in its infancy.

The Leeds and Selby Railway Company having been formed, work was proceeded with on plans drawn up by another engineer, Mr. James Walker, and the line was declared open for traffic in 1834.

In the following year a new Company, known as the Hull and Selby Railway Company, was formed, with Mr. Henry Broadley as Chairman. An Act of Parliament ‘for making a Railway from Kingston-upon-Hull to Selby’ was then obtained, and the work of constructing the new railway was pushed forward rapidly.

This, the first terminal railway to be constructed in the Riding, was expected to bring with it great advantages. By it Hull would be linked to Manchester, and Manchester was already linked to Liverpool. Thus there would be direct railway communication across England from the North Sea to the Irish Sea.

But, for all this, the scheme met with great opposition. Hull and Selby were already served by steam packets travelling along the Humber and the Ouse, and this service was deemed so satisfactory that there was little chance of the new railway’s proving a commercial success.

Objections were also raised by some of the large landowners, who feared that the introduction of the railway would very largely decrease the value of their properties along its route. Such objectors had, of course, to be conciliated—as was Mr. Raikes of Welton, by a gift of £10,000 and an undertaking to build a station at Brough instead of at Welton.

July 2nd, 1840, saw the opening of the first terminal railway in our Riding, amid scenes of wild enthusiasm at both Selby and Hull, as well as at the various stations along the line. The first train from Hull to Selby—as reported in the Hull Packet—‘started about a quarter past twelve, and was nearly two hours in going to Selby. In returning, however, the Prince performed the trip, 31 miles, in one hour and five minutes.’^[62]

The first East Riding time-table was a very modest affair, as will be seen from the reproduction overleaf. The order of arrangement of the train is seen to be:—Engine and tender, goods waggon, second-class carriage, first-class carriage, and third-class carriage; but the last-named is on this occasion occupied by four-legged passengers. It is recorded that when the passengers in this were two-legged cattle, ‘a great number of hats were lost’ and many ‘colds and inconveniences’ were caught—facts at which we shall probably not be surprised.

Several of the regulations of the Hull and Selby Railway seem very quaint. It was the duty of a station-keeper ‘to conduct himself civilly,’ and ‘to enter on a waybill the number, class, and destination of the passengers sent by each train.’

The guard’s duties were very numerous. Among them—

He shall not allow any of the passengers to smoke in the trains, nor in any manner to endanger themselves by imprudent exposure. No passenger shall be allowed to ride on the outside of a carriage without leave from the general superintendent. In the event of any passenger being intoxicated, or disorderly, so as to annoy other passengers, the guard shall use all gentle means to stop the annoyance, and if he does not succeed, he shall set him down at the next or most convenient station, and report the circumstance.

The new method of travelling proved very popular. In 1841 the number of passengers carried by the Hull and Selby Railway amounted to 212,000, ‘without the slightest accident to any of them.’ This was the beginning of the days of the ‘cheap tripper,’ and it is recorded that on August 22nd, 1844—

A pleasure train from Hebden Bridge and Luddington Foot brought 3,200 persons [to Hull] in 82 carriages; being the longest train that ever visited the town.

In many cases the railway train, steam packet, and stage coach ran in conjunction. Thus the journey from Hull to Knaresborough was completed in the following three stages:—

The fares for this journey were ‘6s. 6d. outside and fore-cabin,’ and ‘10s. 6d. inside and best cabin.’ Certainly the traveller could not complain that he did not get plenty of variety for his money.

As an instance of the success of the new Railway in transporting ‘live stock’ may be given another extract from the Hull Directory:—

1842. December 9. A cow, which arrived here by the same steamer as the Post Office bags, outstripped those bags, 14 hours in her arrival at Manchester.

It is to be presumed that the cow travelled from Hull to Manchester by train, while the Post Office bags went by mail coach. But this is left to the imagination of the readers of the Directory.

In 1845 the Hull and Selby Railway was leased to the York and North Midland Company, a powerful company under the control of Mr. George Hudson, the ‘Railway King.’

This year and the next saw what was called the ‘Railway Mania,’ when promoters vied with one another in preparing schemes for new railways which people with money to invest were only too anxious to support. Two hundred and seventy-two Acts of Parliament authorizing new railways were obtained during the ‘boom;’ and when the ‘crash’ came, many lost the whole of the money they had so rashly invested.

The Hull and Bridlington Branch Railway was opened in 1846, and continued to Scarborough the following year. In 1847, also, the York and Market Weighton Branch Railway was opened; and the following year saw the opening of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway ferry from Hull to New Holland. Hull and Withernsea were joined by the Hull and Holderness Railway in 1854.

Among the projected railways not carried out were the Hull and Market Weighton Railway, via Brough, and the Hull, South and West Junction Railway. One of the objectors to the former was the Vicar of South Cave, whose objection was that if there were a station at South Cave, ‘the scum of Hull would make it one place for their Sunday revels.’ His summary of the results of the introduction of railways was that—

The country youths go to some neighbouring town for a ‘lark,’ and the tag-rag-and-bob-tail of towns come into the country, not for sober enjoyment, but for Sunday dissipation.

Although this line of railway was not built, an alternative route from Hull to Market Weighton has long been provided. But the Hull, South and West Junction Railway, which was to cross the Humber by a tunnel at Hessle nearly forty years ago, remains as a project which will some day be successfully carried out.