Painted coach panel, c.1700-1850
This painted wooden panel was once part of the door of a horse drawn coach. Coaches were a popular way to travel around Britain before railways were built in the mid-1800s.
The shield has been hand painted with great skill. It shows a lion and three herons. The word âCaveâ below the shield tells us that the coach passed through South Cave or North Cave on its journey. South and North Cave are villages to the west of Hull.
Before the railways were built, a national network of horse drawn coaches linked towns and cities. Hull had a direct coach service to York. Coaches from York travelled towards Newcastle, Sunderland, Whitby, Scarborough and London.
A shorter way of getting from Hull to London was to take the ferry across the River Humber to Barton. Coaches for London were timetabled to meet passengers arriving from Hull by ferry.
There were two main coach networks: stage coaches and mail coaches. Stage coaches were introduced to meet the travel needs of the middle classes. They were aimed at people who couldnât afford their own coaches.
Stage coaches travelled between roadside inns, which functioned 24 hours a day. The inns were often owned by coach proprietors. The inns were where horses were changed and passengers ate and rested. Mail coaches carried post between inns, and also took passengers. They offered the fastest and safest means of transport.
Stage coaches were operated by many different companies. Competition between companies encouraged the development of beautifully built and decorated coaches. Their magnificent exteriors were painted gold, blue, white and crimson. The name of the proprietor and coach and the towns and inns where it called were painted on the panelling. The decoration on this panel was probably just a small part of a richly decorated coach.
