History
COACHING INNS Cindy Chant, Blue Badge Guide
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oaching inns were a vital part of the coaching era. All coaches usually started from an inn, their destination was to an inn and nearly all the coach stops en route, which were about every eight to ten miles as that was the maximum length the horses could travel, were inns. Nowadays, we use railway terminals, bus stations and motorway service areas for refreshments etc. The old coaching inns satisfy our nostalgia for romantic dreams: their friendly hosts, charming barmaids, log fires, mild ale, traditional English food, are all promoted by the tourist companies for those ‘get away breaks!’ These old inns had to be efficiently run. In a system which demanded a change of horses in less than a minute, there was no time for leisurely comings and goings like our modern hotels. So important was the inn to coaching that it is fair to say without it, coaching would not have developed in the way in which it did. A whole industry grew up around coaching. Each inn required its team of barmaids, chamber maids, cooks and waiters to attend to the travellers, while ostlers, grooms, stable lads and blacksmiths were on hand to attend to the horses. Furthermore, there were coach builders, wheelwrights and harness makers nearby, who were all employed to 48 | Sherborne Times | September 2020
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build and maintain the coaches. A good coaching inn would provide parlours, dining rooms and bedrooms for its guests. There would be cellars for the wine, a brewhouse, and then the stables, coach houses, and numerous outhouses all adjacent to the main building. As well as taking coach bookings, the inn might also serve as a venue for the local law courts, gatherings and balls, auctions, and other community activities. In some places, the landlord might trade in commodities such as coal, salt and bricks. At coach times, the inns became frenetic with travellers milling around, porters attending to the baggage, coachmen taking a quick ‘nip’ and post boys straightening their beaver hats and brushing their red or blue jackets in order to impress potential customers. As Sherborne was on a busy coaching route to and from London, there were several inns here in the town. The Angel, The Antelope and The George, all situated at the top of Greenhill. The Angel and The Antelope shared stabling for over 80 horses and The Angel still retains the impressive notice above its door ‘Licensed to let Post Horses.’ The Antelope was once originally called ‘The Horseshoe’ but in 1748, having been hugely developed with extra stabling, tack rooms and coach
