How did people in Britain get about before 1820?

[BumbleB]

On the Yorkshire Indexers' website www.yorkshireindexers.co.uk  under the banner "Forum" there is a section entitled Leodis Leeds, a tribute to Keith Feeney.  In this section there is a post entitled "A Shopping Trip to Leeds" detailing how people would travel to Leeds from Hull.

BumbleB

[mkirkmad]

I may be way behind the postings here, didn't notice the dates, just the content.

Some of my ancestors walked up what is now the A49, well that is what we deduced it being a direct way, around 1811 From Tintern Abbey to Warrington, when the wire works was quietening down there and the industrial north was becoming, 'industrial.

 My gt gt grandfather followed with his family in 1870. The train had not yet reached Tintern, that came in 1871. Did they walk?  The river Wye was very busy, did they go by boat round Wales and down the Mersey, or did they go from tintern to Chepstow, ferry over to Bristol area and catch the train there.  Who knows but it is fun trying to weave stories round the journey.

M

[Nick29]

People were more mobile than we seem to think they were.

You bet !   When I was researching the GRIFFIN line in my tree, I wasn't too surprised to see that my maternal 6th great grandfather ANDREW GRIFFIN, who was born in Somerset, had died in the Isle of Wight, until I noticed that it was the Isle of Wight, Virginia, USA ! What's more, his father was born in the Isle of Wight, Virginia, in  1644.  They must have been one of the early settlers/traders in the Virginia settlement, and the GRIFFIN family are mentioned in the records of the early settlers.

[Heather24Anne]

This is a topic that has interested me.  I also wonder how people met their spouse, given people did not necessarily marry partners from the same town or village.

I think that people travelled by boat using the rivers, canals and sea.

I have found a couple of ancestors one from Weymouth the other from Bridport.  I think they are more likley to travel by sea between these two locations than on foot.

[genjen]

My best example of long distance courtships is that of my great grandparents. Great grandfather was born and grew up in Brightlingsea, Essex, his wife in Nairn in the North of Scotland - a distance by road of around six hundred miles. But he was a merchant sailor and so could have met a future wife almost anywhere around the coast of the UK.

I also have a set of 2 x greats who were born in Surrey and Staffordshire but who were presumably brought together by his moving around the country to find work. Most of their offspring grew up in the North East. I wish I could have some idea of their various accents!

[coombs]

I have a couple born 100 miles apart in Foulness, Essex and Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire. They met in London in about 1864 and wed at St Mary, Lambeth in February 1866. He took her back to Foulness. John Wallaker and Sarah Brain. Born 26 April 1842 and 25 Novem,ber 1842.

[Nick29]

I suppose it can be argued that young women were more mobile than men in the 1800's, because so many women travelled hundreds of miles to big towns to work in domestic service ?

[Marmalady]

I suppose it can be argued that young women were more mobile than men in the 1800's, because so many women travelled hundreds of miles to big towns to work in domestic service ?

there was probably nearly as many men in service as women -- grooms, gardeners, footmen etc

[coombs]

In about 1908 my great gran moved from Oxford to Bexhill. But transport was much more advanced than in 1820.

I have a William Inkpen who wed in Oxford in 1765. Inkpen is a rare surname in Oxon and many came from Dorset, Kent or Sussex. There is a village in Berkshire called Inkpen which may have connections to the surname. My William would have been born about 1740ish. Perhaps Dorset?? Sussex?? Oxon???