The White Hart Inn, Bath

The White Hart Inn, Bath was Bath's oldest recorded inn, dating back to at least 1503.  Jane Austen used it as a location for characters in Persuasion, whilst Charles Dickens immortalised the landlord Moses Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers.  Moses Pickwick succeeded his uncle, Eleazar Pickwick "the most celebrated of Bath's landlords".

The White Hart was demolished in 1867 and replaced by the Grand Pump Room Hotel.  This in turn was demolished in 1959 and replaced by Arlington House, "a bland, collonaded Baldwin-style building".  The White Hart Inn was on the junction of Stall Street and Westgate Street.The flyer below, from 1828, advertises all the coaches running from there.

The advertisements below are undated but belong to the pre-railway era, both advertising coaches from the White Hart Inn, Bath.

By 1844 the coaches now link to the railways.

The postcard shows the "White Hart Inn" in the coaching era, along with the Guildhall, Bath.

Coaching Ephemera

The following are advertisements for Coaching Inns or timetables for Coaches, the first dated example being a post-coach timetable from the Castle and Ball, Bath in 1789.

Fly Waggons were a much slower type of coach, taking about 3 days to get from Bath to London.  Below is a coach ticket for three people, with an extra charge of 6d for porterage.

Below is an undated flyer for Nelson's Coaches used as a receipt.

Another undated flyer, this time for the Royal Mail and Coach Office, York House, Bath.  It's interesting from a personal perspective to see daily coaches from Bath to Warwick, Leamington & Coventry.

Turnpikes

One reason that James Palmer's mail coaches could improve on the previous times was that roads were slowly improving through private investment in Turnpike roads.  The investment was recovered by charging to use the roads, though Mail coaches were free, sounding their horn to get the gates opened so that they were not stopped.  The item below is a turnpike ticket for the Wells turnpike, from 1790.

The item below is a ticket for the Black Dog turnpike from the 1860s.

The Coaching Era

The Mail Coach era began when John Palmer's experimental mail coach journey went from Bristol to London on 2nd August 1784, reaching London in 16 hours (something that had previously taken 38 hours).  Other mail coach routes were then authorised by Pitt and by 1786 Palmer was made Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office.  Mail stopped going by coach with the advent of the Railways, the last mail coach running in 1846.

The Bath Chronicle of the period was filled with advertiesments for Coaches, as shown below.

 

The small map below shows the Bath to Bristol road, from Paterson's Direct Roads c. 1785.

Bath Ephemera - Property Tax, Armorial Bearings, Fire Insurance, Stuckey's Bank

A final burst of Bath-related ephemera starts with a receipt for Property Tax in 1813, with an impressed stamp for the receipt.

From 1886, here is a Licence to use Armorial Bearings (but not on a carriage) with a Charles St, Bath single ring handstamp.

From 1892 this next item is a receipt for the renewal of Fire Insurance.  "The use of a Steam Thrashing Machine on Farms is allowed, without extra charge."

And finally from 1904, a cleared cheque for £24-4-7 drawn on an account with Stuckey's Banking Company Ltd.

Bath - Undated Roller Cancel, Reply Coupons and Premium Bonds

Some slightly more mundane items this time, though this first sheet with two examples of an undated "BATH / SOMERSET" roller cancel used on envelope, one in black and one in red, is not common.

However these next items are much more widespread, examples of an International Reply Coupon and a Commonwealth Reply Coupon with "BATH / SOMERSET" single ring handstamps from 1965 and 1970 respectively.

This Premium Savings Bond has a "BATH   SOMERSET" single ring handstamp from 1970.  I've looked but I don't think it's won anything.

Bath - Insurance, Police, Bath Stone & Great Exhibition

A random collection this time with a postcard, for the Sun Insurance Office in October 1914, which was an acknowledgment of a communication from the previous day (postcards were the equivalent of today's email or text message).

This envelope has the seal of the Bath Police on the reverse (1879).

... Two postcards from Bath and Portland stone companies, from 1887 and 1911.

... and finally an address of the Bath local committee on the 1851 Great Exhibition to drum up subscriptions and to send Exhibition specimens.

Bath - Piano Tuning

In Victorian England a lot of middle class houses had a piano.  Duck, Son & Pinker Ltd had a music store in Bath.  The first item is a postcard saying that their piano tuner would be in the area in a few days time, from September 1928.

The receipt below, from September 1940, was for work to an organ.

Bath - Invoices/Receipts

This post has a number of items of ephemera associated with Bath shops and businesses, mostly with interesting letterheads, starting with a receipt for Davies, Green & Jameson, dispensing and family chemists (1853).

Next is a receipt for Samuel Evans, a linen draper, haberdasher, hosier, glover, laceman etc. (1860).

The top item below is an invoice for George Humphries' Flour Mills (1874) with an envelope for W.Bennet, dispensing and family chemists.

The final receipt is for H. Butler, ladies' & gentlemen's fashionable boot warehouse (1890)