Coach Travel in Blacktown
Horses were the main means of transport for a long
time in the Blacktown area. By the time the railway reached Blacktown in 1860,
stage coaches had been operating in the area for more than 30 years. Regular
coach services were run between Sydney and Penrith by the 1820s. Early attempts
to introduce a service to Windsor failed because of the road's deplorable
condition.
However, by 1831, a daily mail service was
operating between Windsor and Sydney, with four changes of horses being made
including one at John Booth's Rouse Hill Hotel. The following year a new
"patent safety coach with accommodation for 15 passengers who are much
sheltered from the weather" began operations.
Extension of the railway to Richmond in 1864
brought an end to the service because the trip was reduced from five to two
hours.
Rivalry between coach services was intense. Writing
for the Cumberland Argus in 1911 historian William Freame recalled an incident
when two rival coaches left the Fox Under the Hill staging post and inn at
Prospect at the same time and a race quickly developed.
"Down they came, full gallop,
the horses urged on by the drivers' whips and the cries of their passengers who
were yelling out their cries of derision. The coaches were seen swaying from
side to side when Kendall's driver began to press the other fellow over toward
the edge". Fortunately, a terrible accident was narrowly averted.
When the coaches pulled up at
Fullagar's Hotel, the dastardly coward who tried to wreck his rival was
buffeted and had his nose pulled in the presence or 40 people who gave him
fits".
Although
motor vehicles gradually replaced the horse in urban areas, Blacktown still had
a blacksmith. Horse and cart deliveries were made for milk, bread and meat.
Although the old butchers' carts ceased operations around 1940, bread carts
were still used until the early 1960s.
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| Family outing 1920s |
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| Butcher's cart, 1916 |
