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.) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf And every day in Britain, 33 properties are sold for around that price [a million pounds or so]. - Jane Rackham, RT 2015/4/11-17