Genealogy Forum UK

I have been interested in how some of my ancestors have moved about, from place to place. I think this is probably mostly due to 'tied' cottages and rented accommodation, but my interest then moved on to an interest in what sorts of transport were available to them. One young woman (18 years old) moved from Kirby Moorside, Helmsley to Horsley Vicarage, near Otterburn to look after two very young children of the vicar. According to AA the distance is about 115 miles. I wonder how she did this journey in 1891 - were there coaches? trains for part of the journey? horse drawn vehicles? How long would it take and how bad were the roads?

And how did she meet her future husband who lived and worked in Newcastle when her home was in Yorkshire and she lived-in near Otterburn? I suppose I'll never know, but I can help wondering.

Other whole families moved from Glasgow to Newcastle, London to Newcastle and Cumberland to the wilds of Allandale, Weardale. They all seemed to be just as mobile as we are!

Has anyone else wondered about this and found more about transport in the 1800s?

It is amazing how some zoomed around the country.
Did you ever watch Tess of the d'Urbervilles? That is just that period, 1880s-1890s but in the South-west of England. I think she travels by walking and farm carts but later in the film by railway. In the earlier part of the 19th century the mail coach routes included the Great North Road which became the A1 more or less. Then the railways took over the long distance mail service but I would image local services still used horses?

Yes, I have seen Tess, but a long time ago. I notice that the vicar also had a groom/domestic servant as well as the 18 year old nursemaid, so he must have had a horse and relied on that for transport, probably both riding and pulling a trap. There might well have been a mail coach to Otterburn as it's on the A68 which is one of the three major routes from England to Scotland. It must have been a big adventure.

Goods were moved around the country by cart and canal and their owners would occasionally take passengers, sometimes for free sometimes for a modest fee.
More detail can be found here.
As the railways took hold there were a surprising number of small branch lines, that linked villages to the main lines, that would carry goods and passengers. For instance a line ran from Hove on the South Coast to the Devil's Dyke, a local pleasure centre up on the South Downs.
There's plenty of info knocking around the net. Try googling 'transport 19th century England'.

By the way gardener, Tess was set in the S.W. of England, as are most of Hardy's novels, although I think some of the film was actually shot in Sussex. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/tess/locations.html

SRD wrote:
By the way gardener, Tess was set in the S.W. of England, as are most of Hardy's novels, although I think some of the film was actually shot in Sussex. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/tess/locations.html

I knew that It was a typo. I woke up at 6:30 this morning and it was the first thought to pop into what passes for my mind!
Of course Polanski's Tess was filmed largely in Brittany wasn't it?

Thanks for those links, SRD - very useful to get a clearer picture of transport at the end of 19C. Apparently there was a turnpike built from Newcastle to Jedburgh at the end of 18C, probably on the routes of present day A696 and A68. I still haven't found out if the railway reached Otterburn by 1891 but I'll keep searching.

I've found a useful guide to disused railways - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:D ... humberland

Ada could have got within about 20 miles of her destination at Horsley Vicarage by train. Not such a monumental journey as I originally thought!