[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Tealeaf

Err....I've alway's understood a Coaching Inn to be a place for a horse change, refreshment and possibly an overnight stop over. I'm not aware of any regular scheduled coach services running North/South or East/West in the 1600's. The pub was certainly there from the 1600's (and probably before) but other than that it's use would have been as a general boozer and occaisional stopover for any toffs travelling north/south (east-west would have gone Burnley-Clayton-Blackburn or Haslingden-Blackburn). I can't see exactly how it can be described as a coaching house for any regular service.

Certainly, the White Swan & the Red Lion could be described as coaching houses in the first few decades of the 19th century.

Just because you have'nt found a regular coach run in the 1660's, doesn't mean that coaches didn't use it as such. There were 30 families paying taxes in the Old Hold of Accrington that year, I don't think the income from them, would have kept it running just as an ale house.
In those days a lot of people brewed there own ale, it would have been healthier than the local water supplies at the time.
The Red Lion didn't apppear until 1820's, the owner being Jacob Lang, the ratable value of the Red Lion was 56-5s-0d in 1828.
Retlaw.