Thank you to all my lovely friends, family and fellow researchers for helping me solve my details of historical and journeying in the 1830's. I know I have artistic licence to do as I wish when I write my book, however as Mel said it is a nicer read if it is based on factual information.
A solo horse rider from London to Gloucester would take more than half a day, even with an Arabian. When I first wrote my "Crosswick" draft I just wrote and didn't overly think on some of the major details at the time. Now is the time to fill in those details and one of the major ones is of course the Horse and Rider episodes. There will be quite a large re-write due to the fact that a horse and rider would have an over night stop on the way for rest and recuperation.
Well like in my last post I have the horse timing is all sorted now, the next part was where in his journey to stop over night. The question went to my family, friends and researchers I know and some I don't know. The information was wonderful.
I have decided to stop at Newbury (thanks bro) in Berkshire for one trip. A lovely gentleman from Rootschat Website gave me a heap of information about Newbury for 1835 and beyond. Newburychap told me about the trains and the coaching inns. The one I had chosen to use was not actually a place a gentleman would stay (another thing i'd not thought about), he advised me to use the Pelican instead of the Bacon Arms. He also told me who was in charge of the inn during the time my rider stays overnight, including that Charles Dickens staying there the same year. It wasn't until 1847 when the trains finally took over from the coaching inns to the extent many inn's ended up closing down. I never realised how big these places were either, some had stables which housed 300 horses. WOW
It is going to make a good read with this extra info, I am now looking forward to working out Gregory's overnight visit to Oxford.
Thank you Mel, Keith, Mark, Keeley and everyone else who made suggestions and gave me factual information. x
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