Quote:
Originally Posted by Retlaw
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.
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But that's just it, Walter. I have alway's understood the term 'Coaching Inn' to refer to an Inn which offered a regular coach service by some timetable (however loose). I have no doubt that the country gentry would have used the pub as a stop over, but until we can see documentary evidence that this was used as a regular route stop by a public coach service, then I can't see how this can be referred to as a Coaching Inn.
But you've probably got it right about the number of tax paying families and those brewing their own ale. 'Small Ale' was the stuff that people drank in place of water - certainly before coffee and tea - but not everyone brewed it - many bought it. I suspect the Bull - a pub I hold dearly - would have had a multi-function 400 years ago, of which feeding passing horses and their cargo was only a small part