Further items associated with Coaching

Here are a few more items associated with Coaching, starting with a receipt from 1827 for the carriage of a parcel from Alnwick to London by the Mail Coach.

One person who ran many coaches was Joseph Hearn.  Here is an undated receipt (c.1828) for carriage and porterage.  There was a hierarchy of coaches from Royal Mails (fastest), Post Coaches (the post meant that it changed horses), Caravans, and Fly and Slow waggons (which would have gone at around walking pace).

Here is a picture from c.1832 of a Waggon (probably a Fly Waggon).

If you had a private Carriage you needed a Carriage licence, which in the early 1900s also covered  motor-cars.  The licence below from 1923 was for a carriage with less than four wheels and was issued in Ilminster to a farmer.