Stagecoaches and Coaching Inns

In the 1830s, two mainline stagecoach services, the Red Rover and the Royal Express, that ran between London and Liverpool, passed through Tunstall.

The coaches stopped at the town’s two coaching inns, the Swan Inn on High Street and the Sneyd Arms in the Market Place (Tower Square).

When they left Tunstall, southbound Red Rover coaches went to Burslem, Hanley, Shelton, Stoke, Fenton, Longton, Uttoxeter and Burton on Trent before journeying to London via towns and cities in the East Midlands. After leaving Tunstall, northbound coaches to Liverpool passed through Sandbach, Middlewich and Warrington.

Royal Express ran one northbound and one southbound coach daily on its London/Liverpool service. Their route was through Warrington, Knutsford, the Potteries, Stone, Rugeley, Lichfield, Birmingham and Warwick.

Two local stagecoach services, the Hark Forward and the Independent Potter, stopped at Tunstall’s coaching inns. The Hark Forward was a one-coach daily return service between the Potteries and Birmingham via Stone, Stafford and Wolverhampton. Like the Hark Forward, the Independent Potter was a one-coach daily return se vice. The coach linked the Potteries with Manchester via Congleton, Macclesfield and Stockport.

Stagecoaches were pulled by teams of four or six horses. They could travel at a speed of eight to ten miles an hour. Travelling by stagecoach was expensive, and tickets had to be booked in advance. The coaches carried first and second-class passe gers. First-class passengers travelled inside the coach. Second-class passengers made the journey sitting on wooden benches on the roof.

The cost of the journey depended on its length. First class passengers were charged threepence per mile. Second-class class passengers paid one and a half pence per mile.