Stagecoaches gallop into Shrewsbury
The glorious and colourful age of the stagecoach era will be returning to Shrewsbury this week.
Wyle Cop will be closed to traffic on the afternoon on Friday 12 October 2012, when two replica stagecoaches will be arriving at The Lion Hotel at approximately 3.30pm.
A total of 24 guests plus six support staff will be travelling on The Monarch and The Nimrod, which both used to come to Shrewsbury regularly in the late 18th and early 19th century.
The party, who set out from The Manor House Hotel in Meriden, Warwickshire, yesterday (Monday 8 October 2012), have been following the original stagecoach route across the Midlands, calling in at many historic inns in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire along the way.
Crowds are expected to line Wyle Cop to watch the stagecoaches arrive in Shrewsbury, where they will be greeted by Shrewsbury Town Mayor, Councillor Keith Roberts, aided by Town Crier, Martin Wood, including Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for tourism and culture.
Maggie Love, who has helped organise the Shrewsbury welcome, said:
“It will be a spectacular event and a great boost for the town’s tourism.”
The party will be joined by another 30 guests, for an end of tour dinner in the historic 18th century Lion Ballroom.
There, the former editor of the Shrewsbury Chronicle, John Butterworth, will give a talk about the hotel and the stagecoach connection. After the dinner, Maggie Love and Paul Saunders, alias Wynndebagge, will entertain the guests with music and songs from that era.
Afterwards they will teach guests the Horse’s Branle, a popular dance from earlier times.
Barbara Stockton, who is proprietor of the Monarch and joint organiser of the charity trip, said:
“This is the first time we have done this historic Midlands stagecoach journey, and we and all the guests are really looking forward to it.”
Barbara helps organise one or two coaching tours for the public every year, with money going to Help the Heroes and the Household Cavalry Operational Casualties Fund.
Mike Owen said:
“It’s great that these historic stagecoaches will once again visit the town and I hope that lots of people to line the streets to welcome them.
“We have been working with the organisers of this event to ensure that they have a clear run through the town centre, enabling everyone to enjoy the spectacle fully. This is just one of the events we are working on with others, coupled with our ‘the original one off’ branding, to make Shrewsbury a nationally significant visitor destination in a bid to boost our local economy and create jobs.”
Andrew Bannerman, local Shropshire Councillor for Quarry and Coton Hill, added:
“This is just the sort of event to attract visitors and local people and show off one of Shrewsbury’s gems. The Lion Hotel and Wyle Cop are both historic and beautiful – with the traffic mercifully suspended for the coaches’ arrival, it should be a splendid scene, which everyone can enjoy.”
The Monarch used to run between Birmingham and Shrewsbury, while the Nimrod was also a regular visitor to The Lion. By the early 19th century 23 coaches a day left Shrewsbury, including 15 from The Lion, for destinations all over the UK.
But the advent of the railways led to the end of the golden age of stagecoaches, which culminated in a sale of coaches and horses at The Lion on 27 July 27 1861.
The most famous driver was Sam Hayward, who was the only one who would drive up Wyle Cop and complete a semi circle at the top to steer the stagecoach into the back of the hotel parking area without stopping.
Fortunately for the guests arriving this Friday, the drivers won’t be attempting a similar feat as The Monarch replica is slightly bigger than the original one and won’t fit under the archway.
