Since 1784 the Post Office has been spurred on to deliver the mail faster and faster but prior to that date there was absolutely no real need, or desire, to change methods that had been employed for about 2500 years, that is by foot and horse or animal of the country concerned. In 500 BC Xerxes, King of Persia needed to keep in touch with his governors of the various provinces from “India . unto Ethiopia” so had foot and camel messengers – called “posts”. We know because in the Old Testament the Book of Esther chapters 3 and 8 tell us so.

Within Britain, up until 1635, ‘The Post’ was a Royal Prerogative, which did not matter very much in a country with a population of about 4,999,999. The majority of people were illiterate and few travelled outside their own villages. However, in 1635 Charles I issued a proclamation passing the Crown Post to the public and a man – Thomas Witherings – who was made Chief Postmaster of England. In 1677 he established the Six Great Post Roads radiating from London to Edinburgh, Dover, Plymouth, Bristol, Chester and Yarmouth. These roads were known as the Horse Post Roads and Witherings organised what were called ‘By Posts’ to and from main towns near these roads where the mail was carried by Footpost Boys.

The postal rates (nothing is done for nothing) were all based on the miles travelled and the ‘postage due’ was collected from the recipient. Good in theory but in practice it was easy to bend the rules. Collusion between family members, say when a young girl went into service away from home, became commonplace. The girl would perhaps write to her parents, anything, but when the letter was delivered and the charge demanded the parents would deny it was for them and refused to pay – send it back from whence it came – but they knew that their daughter was alright. Because the recipient was required to pay people were reluctant to receive mail - and were happier off without it, hence the expression "No news is good news"!

It goes on today when people say, “I’ll ring three times when we get back home” – no one answers but the message is imparted ‘for free’! However, the developing postal system was under way and the general public could communicate with others further afield, if they were able.

So, up to 1784 the system ‘plodded’ along with the average speed of the Horsepost boy being 6 mph and the Footpost boy considerably slower… The Postboys were poorly paid, not very bright and would not travel in the dark for fear of footpads and highwaymen. Furthermore those on horseback were provided with very sub-standard nags. Bad weather soon sent them into the nearest tavern, the drink from which had to be slept off!

In 1731 the first ‘stage coaches’ were introduced by Nicholas Rothwell. These were crudely constructed having a wooden body covered in stout leather, without doors or windows, just heavy curtains. The body was suspended on leather braces which allowed the coach to rock violently. The coachman and his guard sat on an unsprung seat! But with development windows and doors were fitted as standard.

Rothwell’s coach of 1731 travelled from Birmingham to London. It cost one guinea and took 2½ days running during the summer only and during the hours of daylight with a proviso “……if God permits”. Because of the state of the roads the average speed was bout 5 mph., however by the early 1800’s this had increased to about 11 mph. Initially all passengers travelled inside but by 1760 outside passengers were being carried on the roof of the coaches. In 1775 there were in excess of 400 public coaches, of varying descriptions most of which were covering up to 60 miles per day, representing about 2½ of all road transport at the time.

It is interesting to note that travel was such that “Passengers used to breakfast at Knightsbridge, dine at Hounslow and after a prodigious exertion, sup at Staines”.

The General Post Office, at this time, was quite content to carry on with their foot and horse post services, as we have seen, slow, unreliable and subject to the risk of highway robbery. People sending banknotes by mail were encouraged to cut them in half and send them as two separate letters and at different times.

One man, in 1782, was getting fed up with the services provided and started planning the reform of the postal systems. His name was John Palmer, a theatre impresario of London, Bath and Bristol, who had a wide knowledge of the English road systems and also about the horsed passenger transport that used those roads. He also knew that, whilst it was against the law, letters sent unofficially on stage coaches that were posted in Bath at 5p.m on Monday arrived in London at 10a.m. next day.

He prepared his scheme and getting rid of his theatrical interests, moved to London where he lobbied influential friends enabling him eventually to get an audience with William Pitt who liked his ideas. Pitt put the proposal to the Postmaster General but in 1783 the Post Office put three volumes of arguments against the plans as ‘being absolutely impracticable and prejudicial to revenue and commerce’. Palmer retaliated by suggesting that a trial of his ideas would be worth trying. Pitt overruled the Post Office objections and the trial was set for 2nd August 1784.

The trial, to last nine days, was to prove that a Mail coach leaving Bristol at 4 p.m. and calling at Bath at 6 p.m. would arrive safely in London at 9 a.m. the following day. The coach left Bristol loaded with mail and carrying four inside passengers but no outside passengers. It ran through the night and reached the General Post office at Lombard Street at about nine o’clock the next morning. Palmers own coach was used for the trials, which were repeated for a week when it was accepted that it was a success. The first effective major reform of the postal system was underway.

Palmer, with the help of Ralph Allen, Postmaster at Bath, organised five inn holders on the route who agreed to horse the Mail coaches which were provided by both Wilson & Co of London and Williams & Co of Bath. The early Royal Mail Coaches were similar to ordinary family coaches but with Post Office livery.

From 1784 to 1836 all mail coaches were built and rented to the Post Office by the firm of Besant and Vidler whose factory was in Millbank. After Besant’s death John Vidler & Sons carried on the business. In the early 1830’s the Post Office decided that all mail coaches would be of a standard design that would be similar to a stagecoach but with a very rigid specification.. In 1833 Vidler rented more than 200 coaches to the Post Office, the horses and coachmen being provided, under contract, by a Mr Chaplin of London who was the biggest owner in the country with more than 1200 at his disposal. The guards were provided by the Post Office

The original design was very unstable because the perch – the wooden beam connecting the two axles – was straight and made the body too high off the ground. The perch was redesigned with a downward curve that accommodated the body at a much lower level, the centre of gravity improving the stability of the coach.

As the Royal Mail Coaches journeyed overnight they were fitted with large lamps. It must be remembered that there were no street lights or kerbstones but there were drainage ditches alongside the roads. To protect the lamps from damage by flying stones from other coaches during the day they could be reversed. There was another lamp fitted to the coachman’s footboard that threw a light onto the harness and the back of the horses. In the fog a ‘dimmer switch’, in the form of a piece of leather, could be moved to cover half of the lamp glass to reduce the amount of light that would be thrown back into the coachman’s eyes.

All Royal Mail Coaches had a Royal livery of scarlet, maroon and black with Queen Victoria’s cypher, the coaches number and Royal Mail with the Royal coat of arms on the side panels and doors respectively.

The major difference between Royal Mail Coaches and ordinary passenger carrying stagecoaches was that the outside passengers all faced forwards thus protecting the guard from any surprise attack by a passenger.

Until the standardisation of the coach design there were several coach-builders who produced their own concepts of what was required. In 1835 Peter Purcell, a Dublin based contractor produced a coach using elliptical springs which were used on many Irish roués. At the same time Sir Henry Parnell produced a design that evolved as the result of discussions with many of the country’s top coachmen and as a result contained many innovative features. Again in 1835 totally different types of coaches were built by George Shillibeer and William Bridges. Shillibeer proposed to carry mail in lightweight coaches drawn by two horses and with a mounted postillions while Bridges produced a really radical design having a front and rear section linked by two hinges. The front section carried the coachman and two ‘outside’ passengers and the rear section carried inside passengers and the guard. The mail was carried in boxes under each section.

Besant’s Patent Mail Coach had two very major advantages over the other supplier’s designs. Firstly his vehicles were considerably lighter and secondly they all had safety axle boxes. Standard coach wheels were secured by the use of linch-pins that could sheer off without warning often causing serious accidents by overturning.. Besant’s ‘Mail Wheels’ had metal plates that stopped the wheels from coming off.

The ‘Golden Era’ of the stage and Mail Coaches was between 1784 and 1848. Initially the General Post Office Headquarters was in Lombard Street but in 1829 it was transferred to St. Martins Le Grand.. The departures of some 28 Royal Mal Coaches took place every evening at about eight o’clock. Passengers were collected from various inns in the locality and then taken to St. Martins where the coaches were loaded with the mails. The Bristol – Bath coach traditionally departed first and the whole activity became a spectator pastime. By 1835 there were 700 mail coaches on the roads of Britain.

The coming of the railways was quite devastating to every area of the country that had depended on the coaching business, affecting chandlers, hostelries, stable owners and staff, farriers, wheelwrights, blacksmiths and coachbuilders. Particularly affected were the coachmen themselves. They had been highly respected people in their way and there was no equivalent jobs available to them.

Whilst the Post Office had strongly opposed the introduction of Mail Coaches they were not so reticent in jumping onto the railway ‘bandwagon’ and carried mail on the first public train service.

COACH MANUFACTURE AND NUMBERING.

The period of the "Royal Mail Coaches" that were horse-drawn, therefore, was from 2nd August 1784, when Palmer's trial took place between Bath and London, a journey of 16 hours, until 17th December 1845 when the London - Louth mail coach was loaded on a train at Peterborough and returned to London.

From the commencement, in 1784 until 1786, conventional stage coaches, and even privately owned coaches (as in the case of Palmer's first trials), were used. They were not numbered but probably carried the word "Mail" on the doors.

By 1786 one John Besant produced a specification patent No.1574 for a coach with a form of braking and with a wheel design that secured the wheel to the hub reducing the possibility of the coach shedding a wheel whilst moving, particularly over rough ground. What was quite amazing was that Besant negotiated a contract that meant the Post Office had to allow his company to maintain the coaches for a period of fourteen years. Bearing in mind the date period we are looking at, it was incredible that there was an agreeement to build 120 coaches a year.

It becomes obvious that once the Besant/Vidler coaches were being built the were allocated "serial Numbers". However, it would appear that there are no records which show where they were distributed. One thing is certain that as they were built they were sent to London for allocation to serve distinct routes all over the country, and possibly even to Ireland as well.

It is probable that there is a central register of serial numbers somewhere because when the manufacture was contracted to others than Vidler, one coachbbuilder, Dunn of Lancaster, built coaches for the Carlisle - Glasgow run which had the serial numbers 265; 270; 271; 272; 276 and 278. It has also been established that the serial numbering, serving various routes, went tup to 364.

The conclusion is that all coach serial numbers appear to be totally random. This makes sense since ten coaches for London - Bath would not have been built in one go but gradually, possibly four at a time.

From contemporary paintings and wood cuts, For the London - Bath run the following serial numbers have appeared : 102; 11; 125 and 50 (possibly 60).