A stagecoach is a four-wheeled
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by
four horses although some versions are drawn by six horses.
Commonly used before
steam-powered rail transport was available, a stagecoach made long scheduled trips using
''stage stations'' or posts where the stagecoach's horses would be replaced by fresh horses. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging.
Some familiar images of the stagecoach are that of a
Royal Mail coach passing through a
turnpike
Turnpike often refers to:
* A type of gate, another word for a turnstile
* In the United States, a toll road
Turnpike may also refer to:
Roads United Kingdom
* A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...
gate, a
Dickensian
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
passenger coach covered in snow pulling up at a
coaching inn
The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...
, a
highwayman
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footp ...
demanding a coach to "stand and deliver" and a
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
stagecoach arriving at or leaving a
Wild West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
town. The
yard of ale
A yard of ale or yard glass is a very tall beer glass used for drinking around of beer, depending upon the diameter.
The glass is approximately long, shaped with a bulb at the bottom, and a widening shaft, which constitutes most of the height ...
drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.
Description
The stagecoach was a closed four-wheeled
vehicle
A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...
drawn by
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...
s or hard-going
mule
The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...
s. It was regularly used as a public conveyance on an established route usually to a regular schedule. Spent horses were replaced with fresh horses at
stage station
A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a place where exhausted horses could be replaced by fresh animals, since a long journey was much faster without delays when horses needed rest ...
s, posts, or relays.
In addition to the stage driver or coachman who guided the vehicle, a
shotgun messenger
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a shotgun messenger was a private "express messenger" and guard, especially on a stagecoach but also on a train, in charge of overseeing and guarding a valuable private shipment, such as particularly the ...
armed with a
coach gun
A coach gun is a modern term, coined by gun collectors, for a double-barreled shotgun, generally with barrels from in length, placed side-by-side. These weapons were known as "cut-down shotguns" or "messenger's guns" from the use of such shot ...
might travel as a guard beside him. From here comes the origin of the phrase "
riding shotgun
"Riding shotgun" was a phrase used to describe the bodyguard who rides alongside a stagecoach driver, typically armed with a break-action shotgun, called a coach gun, to ward off bandits or hostile Native Americans. In modern use, it refers ...
".
![Wells Fargo (6079160244)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Wells_Fargo_%286079160244%29.jpg)
A simplified and lightened vehicle known as a
stage wagon
Stage wagons are light horse-drawn or mule-drawn public passenger vehicles often referred to as stagecoaches. Like stagecoaches they made long scheduled trips using stage stations or posts where the horses would be replaced by fresh horses. Sta ...
, mud-coach, or mud-wagon, was used in the United States under difficult conditions. A canvas-topped wagon had a lower center of gravity, and it could not be loaded on the roof with heavy freight or passengers as an enclosed coach so often was. It was a similar style of passenger conveyance to the
Berline coach.
Speed
Up until the late 18th century, a stagecoach traveled at an average speed of about , with the average daily mileage covered being around , but with improvements to the roads and the development of steel springs, the speed increased, so that by 1836 the scheduled coach left London at 19:30, travelled through the night (without lights) and arrived in Liverpool at 16:50 the next day, a distance of about , doubling the overall average speed to about , including stops to change horses.
History
Origins
The first crude depiction of a coach was in an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
manuscript from the 13th century. The first recorded stagecoach route in Britain started in 1610 and ran from
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
to
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
. This was followed by a steady proliferation of other routes around the island.
By the mid 17th century, a basic stagecoach infrastructure had been put in place. A string of
coaching inn
The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...
s operated as stopping points for travellers on the route between
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. The stagecoach would depart every Monday and Thursday and took roughly ten days to make the journey during the summer months. Stagecoaches also became widely adopted for travel in and around London by mid-century and generally travelled at a few miles per hour.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's first plays were performed at coaching inns such as
The George Inn, Southwark
The George Inn, or The George, is a public house established in the medieval period on Borough High Street in Southwark, London, owned and leased by the National Trust. It is located about from the south side of the River Thames near London Br ...
.
By the end of the 17th century stagecoach routes ran up and down the three main roads in England.
The London-York route was advertised in 1698:
The novelty of this method of transport excited much controversy at the time. One pamphleteer denounced the stagecoach as a "great evil
..mischievous to trade and destructive to the public health".
Another writer, however, argued that:
The speed of travel remained constant until the mid-18th century. Reforms of the
turnpike trusts
Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the peak, in the 1830s, o ...
, new methods of
road building
A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation.
There are many types of ...
and the improved construction of coaches led to a sustained rise in the comfort and speed of the average journey - from an average journey length of 2 days for the
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
-London route in 1750 to a length of under 7 hours in 1820.
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...
helped in the construction of some of the first spring-suspended coaches in the 1660s and spoked wheels with iron rim brakes were introduced, improving the characteristics of the coach.
![John Charles Maggs - The Mail Coach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/John_Charles_Maggs_-_The_Mail_Coach.jpg)
In 1754, a
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
-based company began a new service called the "Flying Coach". It was
advertised
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
with the following announcement - "However incredible it may appear, this coach will actually (barring accidents) arrive in London in four days and a half after leaving Manchester." A similar service was begun from Liverpool three years later, using coaches with steel spring suspension. This coach took an unprecedented three days to reach London with an average speed of
.
Royal Mail stagecoaches
![The Public are Respectfully Informed that a neat and convenient stage coach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/The_Public_are_Respectfully_Informed_that_a_neat_and_convenient_stage_coach..1831.jpg)
Even more dramatic improvements were made by
John Palmer John Palmer may refer to:
People
Politicians
* John Palmer (fl. 1377–1394), English politician
*Sir John Palmer, 5th Baronet (1735–1817), British politician
*John Palmer (1785–1840), U.S. congressman from New York
*John Palmer (1842–1905) ...
at the
British Post Office. The postal delivery service in Britain had existed in the same form for about 150 years—from its introduction in 1635, mounted carriers had ridden between "posts" where the postmaster would remove the letters for the local area before handing the remaining letters and any additions to the next rider. The riders were frequent targets for robbers, and the system was inefficient.
Palmer made much use of the "flying" stagecoach services between cities in the course of his business, and noted that it seemed far more efficient than the system of mail delivery then in operation. His travel from Bath to London took a single day to the mail's three days. It occurred to him that this stagecoach service could be developed into a national mail delivery service, so in 1782 he suggested to the
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
in London that they take up the idea. He met resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
,
William Pitt, allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The stagecoach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4 pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later.
Impressed by the trial run, Pitt authorised the creation of new routes. Within the month the service had been extended from London to
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
,
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
, Liverpool and
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, and by the end of 1785 services to the following major towns and cities of England and Wales had also been linked:
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
,
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
,
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
,
Poole
Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...
,
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
,
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
,
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Englan ...
,
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
and
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...
. A service to
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
was added the next year, and Palmer was rewarded by being made Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office.
By 1797 there were forty-two routes.
Improved coach design
The period from 1800 to 1830 saw great improvements in the design of coaches, most notably by John Besant in 1792 and 1795. His coach had a greatly improved turning capacity and
braking system
A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction.
Background ...
, and a novel feature that prevented the wheels from falling off while the coach was in motion. Besant, with his partner John Vidler, enjoyed a monopoly on the supply of stagecoaches to the Royal Mail and a virtual monopoly on their upkeep and servicing for the following few decades.
Steel springs had been used in suspensions for vehicles since 1695. Coachbuilder Obadiah Elliott obtained a patent covering the use of
elliptic spring
A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, elliptical spring, or cart spring, it ...
s - which were not his invention. His patent lasted 14 years delaying development because Elliott allowed no others to license and use his patent. Elliott mounted each wheel with two durable elliptic steel leaf springs on each side and the body of the carriage was fixed directly to the springs attached to the
axle
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...
s. After the expiry of his patent most British horse carriages were equipped with elliptic springs; wooden springs in the case of light one-horse vehicles to avoid taxation, and steel springs in larger vehicles.
Improved roads
Steady improvements in road construction were also made at this time, most importantly the widespread implementation of
Macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...
roads up and down the country. The speed of coaches in this period rose from around (including stops for provisioning) to and greatly increased the level of mobility in the country, both for people and for
mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...
. Each route had an average of four coaches operating on it at one time - two for both directions and a further two spares in case of a breakdown en route. Joseph Ballard described the stagecoach service between Manchester and Liverpool in 1815 as having price competition between coaches, with timely service and clean accommodations at inns.
Decline and evolution
The
development of railways in the 1830s spelled the end for stagecoaches and
mail coach
A mail coach is a stagecoach that is used to deliver mail. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, they were built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. M ...
es. The first rail delivery between Liverpool and Manchester took place on 11 November 1830. By the early 1840s most London-based coaches had been withdrawn from service.
Some stagecoaches remained in use for commercial or recreational purposes. They came to be known as road coaches and were used by their enterprising (or nostalgic) owners to provide scheduled passenger services where rail had not yet reached and also on certain routes at certain times of the year for the pleasure of an (often amateur) coachman and his daring passengers.
Competitive display and sport
![Brewster park drag 1887](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Brewster_park_drag_1887.jpg)
While stagecoaches vanished as rail penetrated the countryside the 1860s did see the start of a coaching revival spurred on by the popularity of
Four-in-hand
The four-in-hand knot is a method of tying a necktie. It is also known as a simple knot or schoolboy knot, due to its simplicity and style. Some reports state that carriage drivers tied their reins with a four-in-hand knot, while others claim th ...
driving as a sporting pursuit (the
Four-In-Hand Driving Club In the 19th century, a driving club was a membership club for the recreational practice of driving (horse), carriage driving.
Early British driving clubs
The B.D.C.
One of the first driving clubs was the Bensington Driving Club, founded in Feb ...
was founded in 1856 and the Coaching Club in 1871).
New stagecoaches often known as
Park Drag
A coach is a large, closed, four-wheeled, passenger-carrying vehicle or carriage usually drawn by two or more horses controlled by a coachman, a postilion, or both. A coach has doors in its sides and a front and a back seat inside. The driver has ...
s began to be built to order. Some owners would parade their vehicles and magnificently dressed passengers in fashionable locations. Other owners would take more enthusiastic suitably-dressed passengers and indulge in competitive driving. Very similar in design to stagecoaches their vehicles were lighter and sportier.
These owners were (often very expert) amateur gentlemen-coachmen, occasionally gentlewomen.
[On Women
:More than one steed must Delia’s empire feel,
:Who sits triumphant o’er the flying wheel;
:And, as she guides it through th’ admiring throng,
:With what air she smacks the silken thong;
:Graceful as John she moderates the reins,
:and whistles her sweet diuretic strains.
:Sesostris like, such charioteers as these
:May drive six harnessed monarchs, if they please.
:They drive, row, run, with love of glory smit;
:Leap, swim, shoot flying, and pronounce on wit.
::'']Edward Young
Edward Young (c. 3 July 1683 – 5 April 1765) was an English poet, best remembered for ''Night-Thoughts'', a series of philosophical writings in blank verse, reflecting his state of mind following several bereavements. It was one of the mos ...
'' A professional coachman might accompany them to avert disaster. Professionals called these vehicles 'butterflies'. They only appeared in summer.
Spread elsewhere
Australia
Cobb & Co
Cobb & Co was the name used by many successful sometimes quite independent Australian coaching businesses. The first was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name Cobb & Co grew to great prominence in the late 19th ...
was established in Melbourne in 1853 and grew to service Australia's mainland eastern states and South Australia.
Continental Europe
![Maschine zum Übersetzen der Diligencen auf Eisenbahnwaggons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Maschine_zum_%C3%9Cbersetzen_der_Diligencen_auf_Eisenbahnwaggons.JPG)
The ''diligence'', a solidly built stagecoach with four or more horses, was the French vehicle for public conveyance with minor varieties in Germany such as the ''Stellwagen'' and ''Eilwagen''. The ''diligence'' from Le Havre to Paris was described by a fastidious English visitor of 1803 with a thoroughness that distinguished it from its English contemporary, the ''stage coach''.
A more uncouth clumsy machine can scarcely be imagined. In the front is a cabriolet fixed to the body of the coach, for the accommodation of three passengers, who are protected from the rain above, by the projecting roof of the coach, and in front by two heavy curtains of leather, well oiled, and smelling somewhat offensively, fastened to the roof. The inside, which is capacious, and lofty, and will hold six people in great comfort is lined with leather padded, and surrounded with little pockets, in which travellers deposit their bread, snuff, night caps, and pocket handkerchiefs, which generally enjoy each others company, in the same delicate depository. From the roof depends a large net work which is generally crouded with hats, swords, and band boxes, the whole is convenient, and when all parties are seated and arranged, the accommodations are by no means unpleasant.
Upon the roof, on the outside, is the imperial, which is generally filled with six or seven persons more, and a heap of luggage, which latter also occupies the basket, and generally presents a pile, half as high again as the coach, which is secured by ropes and chains, tightened by a large iron windlass, which also constitutes another appendage of this moving mass. The body of the carriage rests upon large thongs of leather, fastened to heavy blocks of wood, instead of springs, and the whole is drawn by seven horses.
The English visitor noted the small, sturdy Norman horses "running away with our cumbrous machine, at the rate of six or seven miles an hour". At this speed stagecoaches could compete with
canal boats
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
, but they were rendered obsolete in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
wherever the
rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
network expanded in the 19th century. Where the rail network did not reach, the ''diligence'' was not fully superseded until the arrival of the
autobus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for ...
.
In France, between 1765 and 1780, the ''turgotines'', big mail coaches named for their originator, Louis XVI's economist minister
Turgot Turgot may refer to:
* Turgot of Durham ( – 1115), Prior of Durham and Bishop of St Andrews
* Michel-Étienne Turgot (1690–1751), mayor of Paris
* Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727–1781), French economist and statesman
* Louis Félix Étienn ...
, and improved roads, where a coach could travel at full gallop across levels, combined with more staging posts at shorter intervals, cut the time required to travel across the country sometimes by half.
New Zealand
A Cobb & Co (Australia) proprietor arrived in New Zealand on 4 October 1861, thus beginning
Cobb & Co. (New Zealand) stagecoach operation.
United States
Beginning in the 18th century crude wagons began to be used to carry passengers between cities and towns, first within
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
by 1744, then between
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
by 1756. Travel time was reduced on this later run from three days to two in 1766 with an improved coach called the ''Flying Machine''. The first mail coaches appeared in the later 18th century carrying passengers and the mails, replacing the earlier post riders on the main roads. Coachmen carried letters, packages, and money, often transacting business or delivering messages for their customers. By 1829
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
was the hub of 77 stagecoach lines; by 1832 there were 106. Coaches with iron or steel springs were uncomfortable and had short useful lives.
Two men in
Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, developed what became a popular solution. They built their first
Concord stagecoach
The Concord coach is a type of horse-drawn Coach (carriage), coach, often used as stagecoaches, mailcoaches, and hotel coaches. The term was first used for the coaches built by coach-builder J. Stephen Abbot and wheelwright Lewis Downing of the A ...
in 1827 employing long leather straps under their stagecoaches which gave a swinging motion.
![Kinnear Express stage 1880](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Kinnear_Express_stage_1880.jpg)
In his 1861 book ''
Roughing It
''Roughing It'' is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature by Mark Twain. It was written in 1870–71 and published in 1872, as a prequel to his first travel book ''The Innocents Abroad'' (1869). ''Roughing It'' is dedicated to Twa ...
'',
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
described the Concord stage's ride as like "a cradle on wheels". Around twenty years later in 1880 John Pleasant Gray recorded after travelling from
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
to
Tombstone on J.D. Kinnear's mail and express line: The horses were changed three times on the trip, normally completed in 17 hours.
The stagecoaches lines in the USA were operated by private companies. Their most profitable contracts were with
U.S. Mail
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...
and were hotly contested.
Pony Express
The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pik ...
, which began operations in 1860, is often called first fast mail service from the
Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, but the
Overland Mail Company
Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...
began a twice-weekly mail service from Missouri to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in September 1858. Transcontinental stage-coaching ended with the completion of the
transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
in 1869.
Southern Africa
The railway network in South Africa was extended from
Mafeking
Mafikeng, officially known as Mahikeng and previously Mafeking (, ), is the capital city of the North West province of South Africa.
Close to South Africa's border with Botswana, Mafikeng is northeast of Cape Town and west of Johannesburg. In ...
through
Bechuanaland and reached
Bulawayo
Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...
in 1897. Prior to its arrival, a network of stagecoach routes existed.
Ottoman Palestine
Stagecoaches, often known by the French name "Diligence" - a smaller model with room for six passengers and a bigger one for ten, drawn by two horses (in the city, on the plain or on a good road) or three (on intercity and elevated roads) - were the main means of public transportation in Ottoman Palestine between the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
The first stagecoaches were brought to Palestine by the German religious group known as the "
Templers
Templers may refer to:
* Templers, South Australia is a town in South Australia
* Templers (religious believers) are members of the Temple Society
See also
*Instituts-Templers, a district of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
*Templer, an English surn ...
" who operated a public transportation service between their colonies in the country as early as 1867. Stagecoach development in Palestine was greatly facilitated by the 1869 visit of Austrian Emperor
Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...
. For this distinguished guest, the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem was greatly improved, making possible the passage of carriages. Stagecoaches were a great improvement over the earlier means of transport used in the country, such as riding horses, donkeys or camels, or light carts drawn by donkeys.
When the stagecoach ran into a difficult ascent or mud, the passengers were required to get off and help push the carriage. The trip between Jaffa and Jerusalem by stagecoach lasted about 14 hours spread over a day and a half, including a night stop at
Bab al-Wad
Sha'ar HaGai ( he, שער הגיא) in Hebrew, and Bab al-Wad or Bab al-Wadi in Arabic ( he, באב אל-ואד, ar, باب الواد or ), lit. ''Gate of the Valley'' in both languages, is a point on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, 23 km ...
(Shaar HaGai), the trip in the opposite, downhill direction took 12 hours.
The stagecoaches belonged to private owners, and the wagoners were mostly hired, although sometimes the wagoner was also the owner of the wagon. The license to operate the stagecoaches was granted by the government to private individuals in the cities and to the colony committees in the early Zionist colonies. The license holders paid a special tax for this right and could employ subcontractors and hired wagons.
The stagecoaches linked Jerusalem with Jaffa, Hebron and Nablus, the Zionist colonies with Jaffa, Haifa with Acre and Nazareth. They were also used for urban and suburban transportation in the Haifa region.
The colony of
Rehovot
Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
is known to have promulgated detailed regulations for stagecoach operation, soon after its foundation in 1890, which were greatly extended in 1911. Fares were fixed, ranging between 1.10
Grush for traveling to the nearby village of Wadi Hanin and 5.00
Grush for traveling from Rehovot to Jaffa. The stagecoach was required to work six times a week (except for the
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
) and to carry free of charge the mails and medicines of the Rehovot pharmacy.
While railways started being constructed in Palestine in the last years of the 19th Century, stagecoaches were still a major means of public transport until the outbreak of The First World War, and in peripheral areas were still used in the early years of British Mandatory rule.
In popular culture
Stories that prominently involve a stagecoach include:
* ''
Winds of the Wasteland
''Winds of the Wasteland'' is a 1936 Western film directed by Mack V. Wright and starring John Wayne and Phyllis Fraser. The film was released by Republic Pictures. The film was later released in a colorized version on home video/dvd under t ...
'', a 1936 film starring
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
* ''
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
'', a 1937 film starring
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he beca ...
* ''
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
'', a 1939 film starring
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
* ''
Arizona Bound'', a 1941 film starring
Buck Jones
Buck Jones (born Charles Frederick Gebhart; December 12, 1891 – November 30, 1942) was an American actor, known for his work in many popular Western movies. In his early film appearances, he was credited as Charles Jones.
Early life, milita ...
* ''
Stagecoach to Denver
''Stagecoach to Denver'' is a 1946 American Western film and one of the Republic Pictures Red Ryder film series directed by R. G. Springsteen.
Plot
Red is working as a stagecoach driver with one of his passengers being Dickie, a recently orphan ...
'', a 1946 film starring
Allan Lane
Allan "Rocky" Lane (born Harry Leonard Albershardt; September 22, 1909 – October 27, 1973) was an American studio leading man and the star of many cowboy B-movies in the 1940s and 1950s. He appeared in more than 125 films and TV shows in ...
* ''
Black Bart'', a 1948 film starring
Dan Duryea
Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and seconda ...
* ''
A Ticket to Tomahawk
''A Ticket to Tomahawk'' is a 1950 American Western film directed by Richard Sale and starring Dan Dailey and Anne Baxter. It was released by 20th Century Fox. Marilyn Monroe appeared in one of her earliest roles.
Plot
In 1876, Johnny Jameson ...
'', a 1950 musical comedy starring
Dan Dailey
Daniel James Dailey Jr. (December 14, 1915 – October 16, 1978) was an American dancer and actor. He is best remembered for a series of popular musicals he made at 20th Century Fox such as ''Mother Wore Tights'' (1947).
Biography Early life
Da ...
in which stagecoach interests try to stop establishment of rail service.
* ''
Riding Shotgun
"Riding shotgun" was a phrase used to describe the bodyguard who rides alongside a stagecoach driver, typically armed with a break-action shotgun, called a coach gun, to ward off bandits or hostile Native Americans. In modern use, it refers ...
'', a 1954 film starring
Randolph Scott
George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of ...
* ''
Dakota Incident
''Dakota Incident'' is a 1956 American Trucolor Western (genre), Western film directed by Lewis R. Foster and starring Linda Darnell, Dale Robertson, John Lund (actor), John Lund and Ward Bond.
Plot
On the run after a bank robbery, Rick Largo c ...
'', a 1956 film starring
Dale Robertson
Dayle Lymoine Robertson (July 14, 1923February 27, 2013) was an American actor best known for his starring roles on television. He played the roving investigator Jim Hardie in the television series '' Tales of Wells Fargo'' and railroad owner Be ...
* ''
Gunsight Ridge
''Gunsight Ridge'' is a 1957 American Western film directed by Francis D. Lyon and written by Talbot Jennings and Elisabeth Jennings. The film stars Joel McCrea, Mark Stevens, Joan Weldon, Addison Richards, Darlene Fields and Carolyn Craig. ...
'', a 1957 film starring
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he beca ...
* ''
The Tall T
''The Tall T'' is a 1957 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, and Maureen O'Sullivan. Adapted by Burt Kennedy from the 1955 short story "The Captives" by Elmore Leonard, the film is about ...
'', a 1957 film starring
Randolph Scott
George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of ...
* ''
Westbound'', 1959 film starring
Randolph Scott
George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of ...
* ''
The Magnificent Seven
''The Magnificent Seven'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay by William Roberts is a remake – in an Old West–style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film '' Seven Samurai'' (itself initially relea ...
'', a 1960 film starring
Yul Brynner
Yuliy Borisovich Briner (russian: link=no, Юлий Борисович Бринер; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the ...
* ''
Stage to Thunder Rock
''Stage to Thunder Rock'' is a 1964 American Western film directed by William F. Claxton, written by Charles A. Wallace, and featuring Barry Sullivan, Marilyn Maxwell, Scott Brady, Lon Chaney Jr., Keenan Wynn, Anne Seymour, John Agar, Wanda ...
'', a 1964 film starring
Barry Sullivan Barry Sullivan may refer to:
*Barry Sullivan (American actor) (1912–1994), US film and Broadway actor
*Barry Sullivan (stage actor) (1821–1891), Irish born stage actor active in Britain and Australia
*Barry Sullivan (lawyer), Chicago lawyer and ...
* ''
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
'', a 1966 film starring
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
* ''
Hombre'', a 1967 film starring
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...
*
The Stagecoach, a 1968 comic book by
Goscinny and
Morris
Morris may refer to:
Places
Australia
*St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia
Canada
* Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry
* Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba
** Morris, Manitob ...
* ''
Dusty's Trail
''Dusty's Trail'' is an American Western/comedy series starring Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker that aired in syndication from September 1973 to March 1974. The series is a western-themed reworking of Denver's previous series ''Gilligan's Island''.
...
'', a 1973 television series starring
Bob Denver
Robert Osbourne Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005) was an American comedic actor who portrayed Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television series ''Gilligan's Island'', and beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series ''The Ma ...
* ''
Five Mile Creek
''Five Mile Creek'' is a western television drama series adapted from Louis L'Amour's novel ''The Cherokee Trail'' and produced in Australia. It starred Liz Burch, Louise Caire Clark, Rod Mullinar, Jay Kerr, Michael Caton, Peter Carroll, Gus ...
'', a 1983-1985 television series featuring
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
* ''
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
'', a 1986 film starring
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are "Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Nig ...
* ''
Maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Bureau ...
'', a 1994 film starring
Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocaly ...
* ''
The Hateful Eight
''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, W ...
'', a 2015 film by
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
Part of the plot of ''
Doctor Dolittle's Circus
''Doctor Dolittle's Circus'', written by Hugh Lofting and published in 1924 by Frederick A. Stokes, is set in England sometime between the original story and the later voyages narrated by Stubbins. It was one of the novels in the series whic ...
'' is set in a stagecoach, where the animal-loving Doctor Dolittle is traveling along with a female seal, disguised as a woman, whom he is helping to escape from the circus. The Doctor is mistaken for a notorious highwayman...
See also
*
Carriage
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...
*
Celerity
*
Charabanc
A charabanc or "char-à-banc" (often pronounced "sharra-bang" in colloquial British English) is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It has "ben ...
*
Charley Parkhurst
Charley Darkey Parkhurst (born Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst; 1812 – December 18, 1879) also known as "One-Eyed Charley" or "Six-Horse Charley", was an American stagecoach driver, farmer and rancher in California. Raised female in New England, Pa ...
*
Coach (carriage)
A coach is a large, closed, four-wheeled, passenger-carrying vehicle or carriage usually drawn by two or more horses controlled by a coachman, a postilion, or both. A coach has doors in its sides and a front and a back seat inside. The driver has ...
*
Cobb and Co
Cobb & Co was the name used by many successful sometimes quite independent Australian coaching businesses. The first was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name Cobb & Co grew to great prominence in the late 19th ...
*
Cobb & Co. (New Zealand)
*
Horsebus
A horse-bus or horse-drawn omnibus was a large, enclosed, and sprung horse-drawn vehicle used for passenger transport before the introduction of motor vehicles. It was mainly used in the late 19th century in both the United States and Europe, a ...
*
Horse harness
Horse harness is a device that connects a horse to a vehicle or another type of load.
There are two main categories of horse harness: (1) the "breaststrap" or "breastcollar" design, and (2) the collar and hames design. For light work, such as ho ...
*
Jarbidge Stage Robbery
The Jarbidge Stage Robbery was the last stage robbery in the Old West. On December 5, 1916, the driver of a small two-horse mail wagon was ambushed as he was riding to the town of Jarbidge, Nevada. The driver was killed and $4,000 was stolen, ...
*
Mail robbery
Mail robbery is the robbery of mail usually when it is in the possession, custody, or control, of the delivering authority, which in most countries is the postal operator and can involve the theft of money or luxury goods.
History
In the UK s ...
*
Riding shotgun
"Riding shotgun" was a phrase used to describe the bodyguard who rides alongside a stagecoach driver, typically armed with a break-action shotgun, called a coach gun, to ward off bandits or hostile Native Americans. In modern use, it refers ...
*
Roman traveling carriage
*
Stage Coaches Act 1788
The Stage Coaches Act 1788 (28 Geo 3 c 57) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain to regulate the use of stagecoaches. It came into force from 1 November 1788. It stipulated that no more than six people were permitted to ride upon the roo ...
*
Stage Coaches Act 1790
The Stage Coaches Act 1790 (30 Geo. 3 c. 36) was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of Great Britain to regulate the use of stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages ...
*
Turnpike road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...
*
Wagonette
A wagonette (''little wagon'') is a small horse-drawn vehicle with springs, which has two benches along the right and left side of the platform, people facing each other. The driver sits on a separate, front-facing bench. A wagonette may be open ...
*
Wells Fargo & Co.
*
Wickenburg Massacre
The Wickenburg Massacre was the November 5, 1871, murder of six stagecoach passengers en route westbound from Wickenburg, Arizona Territory, headed for San Bernardino, California, on the La Paz road.
Massacre
Around mid-morning, about six mil ...
Notes
References
External links
:United States
Sherman & Smiths Railroad, Steam boat & Stage route map of New England, New-York, and Canada
*
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=yqEX1KdYQUQ Stagecoach Westward - Frontier Travel, Expansion, United StatesStagecoaches: TombstoneTimes.com
Felix Riesenberg, Jr., ''The Golden Road The Story Of Californias Spanish Mission Trail'', Mcgraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1962Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California Robert Glass Cleland, ''A history of California: the American period'', The Macmillan Company, New York, 1922 Chapter XXIV, The Overland Mail and the Pony Express, pp. 359-368
:United Kingdom
Anvil. Text based on ''Stagecoach'' by John Richards (1976).
:Australia
Cobb & Co Heritage Trail.
{{Authority control
Coaches (carriage)
Wagons
Animal-powered vehicles
History of road transport
Horse transportation
Public transport
Western (genre) staples and terminology