Coaching inn

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about coaching inns in general. For individual inns, see Stagecoach Inn (disambiguation).

Painting of the first Cock Hotel in Sutton, Surrey by Thomas Rowlandson in 1789.[1]

The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the

roadhouses in other countries, although many survive, and some still offer overnight accommodation, in general coaching inns have lost their original function and now operate as ordinary pubs
.

Coaching inns stabled teams of horses for stagecoaches and mail coaches and replaced tired teams with fresh teams. In America, stage stations performed these functions. Traditionally English coaching inns were seven miles apart but this depended very much on the terrain. Some English towns had as many as ten such inns and rivalry between them was intense, not only for the income from the stagecoach operators but for the revenue for food and drink supplied to the passengers. Barnet, Hertfordshire still has an unusually high number of historic pubs along its high street due to its former position on the Great North Road from London to the North of England.

Historic coaching inns

The George Inn, Southwark is the only galleried coaching inn to survive in London[2]

The Black Lion in

better source needed] Other historic inns in Wales include the Black Boy Inn (built 1522) and the Groes Inn (1573).[4]

The Bear, Oxford, was founded in 1774 as 'The Jolly Trooper' from the house of the stableman to the coaching inn 'The Bear Inn', on High Street. It acquired the name The Bear, and the history of the coaching inn, when The Bear Inn was converted into a private house in 1801.[5]

There were many coaching inns in what is now

St Martin's in the Fields
recalls the Golden Cross, Charing Cross coaching inn.

Cock and Bull

A pair of coaching inns along

Aesop's fables, with their incredible talking animals.[8]

References

  1. ^ Charles Harper (1922), The Brighton Road, Cecil Palmer, pp. 158–159
  2. ^ "pubs.com - pubs Resources and Information". Pubs.com. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  3. ^ The Black Lion Hotel. Archived April 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Hotels in North Wales - Dog Friendly Conwy Hotels - The Groes Inn". The Groes Inn. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  5. ISBN 0-333-39917-X
    .
  6. ^ "George Inn". Archived from the original on 24 September 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  7. ^ "World Wide Words: Cock and bull story". World Wide Words. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  8. ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 24 October 2015.

Bibliography

  • Coaching Era, The: Stage and Mail Coach Travel in and Around Bath, Bristol and Somerset, Roy Gallop, Fiducia (2003),
    ISBN 1-85026-019-2

External links
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