Agricultural History Review, Volume 54 Part 2 (2006), p. 349

For a number of years Dorian Gerhold has been producing thoughtful and exhaustively researched publications dealing with various aspects of travel and transport in early modern England and in so doing has significantly revised our views of that subject. Those brought up on Defoe, Thoresby and Celia Fiennes whose dramatic and even ghoulish descriptions of the horrors and pitfalls of road transport coloured the perceptions of many a schoolboy a generation or so ago, are offered a convincing corrective in his present book. Marshalling a wide and catholic range of sources, from Chancery and Exchequer records, probate inventories and diaries to newspapers, letters and handbills, Gerhold demonstrates the existence of a dense connection of carrying services around London long before the development of the early turnpikes. These apart, burgeoning regional and local services helped extend industrial and cultural links with the capital and ultimately with the increasingly integrated world economy. In this respect the carriers and coachmen forming Gerhold’s dramatis personae were of fundamental and increasing importance throughout the century after 1650.

In describing the development, organization and logistics of the carrying trade and the early stage coach network, the author takes us into a frenetic world of ostlers, innkeepers, warehousemen, drivers, bookkeepers, petty thieves and highwaymen all of whom waxed and waned as the transport economy grew. As two-wheeled carts were increasingly replaced by four-wheeled wagons (introduced from Flanders) in the seventeenth century, and slowly but surely the draught capacity of horses improved, so road transport became increasingly regular and reliable. True, some goods continued to be conveyed by water, via river or coastal systems, but the bulk of transport flows had been transferred to the roads by 1700, and as the years went by a variety of improvements both in the quality of road surfaces and the technicalities of wagon and stage construction meant that unit costs of transport began to decline. It is important, however, not to fall into the error of over-estimating the degree of improvement of road surfaces before the mid-eighteenth century. As Gerhold is at pains to point out, the persistence of the packhorse train, capable of travelling thirty or even forty miles per day, arose from the relatively rough surfaces of the earlier roads which, in effect, made the packhorse economic. In considering the detailed mi nutiae of packhorse, wagon and stagecoach operational costs, Gerhold maintains that the packhorse was substantially displaced as roads improved in the eighteenth century. Perhaps; but not so in Wales (and, I suspect, other upland areas of Britain) where packhorses were regularly in use in the late nineteenth century, in some cases providing a means of transport for young sprigs of the gentry en route for Shrewsbury School. Incidentally, Gerhold’s narrative largely ignores Wales, counties to the west of Offa’s Dyke appearing as blanks on his maps. Perhaps I have a bit of an axe to grind here, but I can’t help wondering why it is that despite obvious cultural differences, Wales is treated as an almost totally foreign land when it comes to essays on economic history!

Unless readers should think that this book is solely about matters technical and economic (and there is plenty of this, with massively detailed appendices dealing with costs, fares, timetables and the like), Gerhold colours his tale with accounts of the sort of people who travelled, of the personal wealth of the carriers and coachmen and of the enormous range of materials which were being hauled around the country. Particularly fascinating is his coverage of the minor irritations of travel in his period. As a frequent user of the train and the bus, I feel for those fastidious unfortunates who, unable to hire a complete coach, were obliged to share with others whose habits and personal hygiene left much to be desired. I shall reflect upon his work the next time I seethe in a railway carriage at the ring tones, I-pods and laptop computers which seem to be necessary impedimenta of today’s travellers.

This book probably represents the most comprehensive account of travel and transport in early modern England which has been written to date. It is by no means an ‘easy read’ and perhaps a little judicious editing would have led to examples being used a shade more selectively and to some of the occasionally heavy-handed writing being eliminated. But this is carping criticism of a masterly piece of research which brings the subject up to date and lays the platform for all future studies in the genre.