On 27/10/2015 13:19, johnfhhgen via wrote: > 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. > Not to mention stones from South Wales to Salisbury Plain. -- Graeme Wall This account not read, substitute trains for rail.