On 26/10/2015 10:41 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) via wrote: > In message <n0m5p6$bkv$2@dont-email.me>, Graeme Wall > <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> writes: >> On 26/10/2015 20:58, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: > [] >>> I'm not at all sure what sort of transport was available to the poor. >>> How would they undertake a large journey - not only the means of >>> transport (horse or on foot), but where they'd overnight (either mode of >>> transport - especially carrying all their goods and chattels, even if >>> they didn't have many - wouldn't cover many miles in a day) - isn't >>> clear to me. I'm _assuming_ stagecoach and the like was far beyond most >>> people. >> Walking for many of them, ox-cart for the lucky ones and those with >> large loads. Average speed of the latter would be 2mph if they were >> lucky. As for overnights, under a hedge or in a barn. Pilgrimage >> routes had shelters at appropriate intervals. There's one on the North >> Downs route to Canterbury that still exists near Maidstone. >> > So how did they feed themselves - let alone any animals - on a long > journey? A journey from, say, Norfolk to Northumberland would take > months at the above rate. (I have such in mine, a sudden widow with > about 9 children, but that was somewhere in 1882-1891, so probably > easier by then.) For Norfolk to Northumberland, sea passage was always a possibility. As well as fishing, for that particular route there was coal traffic from the 16th.century if not earlier (coals to Newcastle!) Sea passage was always a possibility for anywhere in reasonable reach of the coast. In earlier times places now thought of as "inland" were also ports - e.g. Norwich, Gloucester, and so on. From late 17th.cent increasing number of places linked by canal. Water was the transport of choice for goods from time immemorial - think of stone and timber for castles and cathedrals. The less affluent, if fit and healthy, could presumably 'work their passage'. Regards, John Henley