Using trade directories: Answers to source questions
- Question: How many coach services, other than the Prince of Orange, left Ellesmere in 1822?
- Answer: There were two other services to Shrewsbury, the 'Highflyer' and coach number 01. These both left Ellesmere at 4.00pm.
- Question: How many coaches left from Ellesmere to Shrewsbury in 1842? What were their names and when did they leave?
- Answer: There were two coaches leaving from Ellesmere to Shrewsbury. These were the Royal Mail, which left at 10:00 in the evening, and l'Hirondelle, which left every midday except Sunday.
- Question: How many times a day did coaches leave Ellesmere in this year? Where did they go to? Were there more or fewer trips done by coaches in 1856, compared to 1822? What other forms of transport were around in 1856?
- Answer: The only coach service to leave Ellesmere in 1856 headed to Whittington. It left either once or twice a day, depending on the trains. It was because of the trains that fewer trips were done in 1856. Although trains were the principal form of travel for people, for conveying goods people could either use the Shropshire Union Canal or the carrier service.
- Question: How many coach services ran from Whitchurch in 1822, 1842 and 1856? Over the period, were there more or fewer coaches serving distant parts of the country such as Manchester, Birmingham or Liverpool? Can you think of why this might be?
- Answer: Over the thirty-four year period between 1822 and 1856 there were progressively fewer services: 6 in 1822, 5 in 1842 and just 2 in 1856. In this final year, one of the two coaches is running to Crewe railway. From here passengers could travel quickly to Birmingham or Manchester, two cities which had been served by coaches in 1822.
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