Mail and stage coaches, local coaches, fly waggons: all provided a passenger and parcel service before the advent of the railways, and before the British Post Office provided a parcel service from 1883.
This first item is a receipt from a coaching inn in April 1820. It totals £5-11-6d, equivalent to about £585 today, and has a note of tips given to the Butler, Waiter, Chamber Maid and Boot along with a note about the "Post paid by Turnpike" which may be the Postillion.
The Bull and Mouth was a famous London coaching inn, from where a number of coaches set off - including the North Devon coach to Taunton, Tiverton and Barnstaple. Below are receipts from 1829 and 1830.
Fly Waggons (now commonly spelled Wagons) were slower and generally used for freight. Below is a receipt from 1835 for the carriage of "Carpet, Pictures (canalettos) & Portmanteau" from Cheltenham to Exeter. The "Fly" meant that the horses were changed.
Here is a receipt for another waggon service from 1835, for the carriage of "1 Large Case Goods" from Nottingham to Teignmouth.
Another receipt, this time for one Basket in 1838.
... Carriage of "1 Iron Bedstead as per Agm" in October 1841.
Below is a booklet advertising "The Rocket" London to Portsmouth Coach from 21st April 1877. This is very late as the Railways took most of the coaching business from the 1840s with a lot of coaches stopping running.
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