The postcard below shows Water Street, Cranborne, being sent in August 1911 to Salisbury. Before around 1840 Cranborne was a Post Town before losing out to Woodyates Inn a few miles to the west when a turnpike road was not built from Cranborne to Salisbury. Water Street depicted below is where the turnpike would have had to go to go direct to Salisbury.
Here are a few more items associated with stagecoaches starting with a letter from 1820 talking about getting a seat in the Mail and having correspondence directed to Batson's Coffee House, which was opposite the Royal Exchange in Cornhill.
Private coaches had to be licenced as shown by the licence below for a Carriage with less than four wheels dated April 1924.
Travelling by road was not free, one had to pay for Turnpike roads. Here is a ticket for the Highgate Archway turnpike in London (though outside London when this was in use). It is not clear what the hieroglyphics on the ticket mean, it could relate to the date or to the class of ticket (or both).
Landowners had a statutory duty to provide labour to repair roads, as evidenced by the summons below from May 1811. It also has some notes on the reverse dated 1816 relating to repairs, including a reference to paying for 13 pints of Ale.
The map below shows the road from Bristol to Worcester, and is possibly by Kitchins in c.1780.
It appears that by the time the Bristol Fifth Clause post started to Thornbury that the road had moved to the west, probably close to where the current A38 runs.
The entire below is a receipted invoice for Printing associated with the Cullompton Turnpike Trust, sent on 12th August 1837. The invoice is for the printing of two notices, one for paying two years interest and the second for lifting Tolls (probably increasing them). The Invoice came from the "Taunton Courier and General Printing-Office".
Here is an image of the contents:
