Stevenage Inns and the Great North Road
It was in 1281 that Edward I granted Stevenage the right to hold a weekly market and a yearly fair for all time. That market was held alongside the Great North Road, switching the focus of the town away from its Anglo-Saxon origins, demanding a broad High Street, and prompting the need for inns to cater for both local and longer distance travellers.
Hostelries of all kinds developed to meet the diverse needs of the increasingly mobile population. Some catered for drovers and farmers taking their livestock to market in Stevenage or London. Some specialised in “posting”, providing horses to take wealthier travellers to their next stop. Others became well known coaching inns catering for regular services to Stamford, York and beyond. One or two took on the role of post office for the Mail Coaches.
As early as the 16th century Stevenage was becoming noted as a staging post: the Swan Inn is first recorded in 1530. The Stevenage and Biggleswade Turnpike Trust Act in 1720 marked an important step in improving the road north of the town. The first scheduled coach service for passengers was the Perseverance which began in Smithfield and headed on to Hitchin. The town went on to service nationally famous coaches such as The Rockingham, The York Flyer, The York Express and The Stamford Regent. Twenty-one coaches passed through Stevenage each day in 1800 with services to Edinburgh, Carlisle and Glasgow.
Many 17th-century timber and plaster buildings remain along Stevenage High Street, though a fire in 1807 wreaked significant destruction and encouraged new brick facades in the early 19th century. [The 1807 fire is alleged to have been started when a young girl employed as a chambermaid at one of the coaching inns emptied embers from the fireplace into the street.]
The coaching era came to an end following the construction of the Great Northern Railway. In 1861 Dickens commented:
“The village street was like most other village streets: wide for its height, silent for its size, and drowsy in the dullest degree. The quietest little dwellings with the largest of window-shutters to shut up nothing as if it were the Mint or the Bank of England.”
About Stevenage Inns
The Swan
The Swan / The Grange Image Credit – AnemoneProjectors CC BY-SA 3.0
As well as being the oldest of the Stevenage posting inns, The Swan was deemed a relatively upmarket option. Harper says that it was kept by a postmaster “named Cass who did not condescend to the ordinary coach-traveller. Cass kept post-horses only, and his customers ranged from princes and dukes down to baronets and wealthy knights.”
Samuel Pepys recorded a Stevenage stay in 1667 which is said to refer to The Swan.
at Stevenage we come well before night, and all sat, and there with great care I got the gold up to the chamber, my wife carrying one bag, and the girl another, and W. Hewer the rest in the basket, and set it all under a bed in our chamber; and then sat down to talk, and were very pleasant, satisfying myself, among other things, from John Bowles, in some terms of hunting, and about deere, bucks, and does. And so anon to supper, and very merry we were, and a good supper, and after supper to bed.
The Swan was opposite the triangular “bowling green” where Hitchin Road branches from the Great North Road. [If you believe Wetherspoons, Pepys played bowls on the green though I have found no such reference in his diaries.]
In the 20th century the property went on to be used by the neighbouring Alleyne’s School, and as local government offices. In 1999 it was converted into eight town houses and six apartments set around a courtyard.
The White Lion
The White Lion, Stevenage High Street – Mabel Culley
The White Lion was founded in about 1653 though the original building has had a red brick front added.
There of course many stories told about it. These include it acting as the local fire station, and that its cellars were used to hold Napoleonic prisoners of war enroute to jail at Norman Cross.
The building still houses a pub and restaurant, trading since 2015 as The Mulberry Tree.
White Lion c1920 – Stevenage Museum
The Old Castle Inn
The Old Castle – Mabel Culley
Opposite the White Lion, the Old Castle occupied a fine property dating from the 17th century. Before it became a hostelry in 1774 it had been the home of a prosperous grocer, Henry Trigg. Obsessed with the risk of grave robbers, Trigg stipulated in his will that his body be laid to rest in a coffin to be placed in the rafters of his house. His fame multiplied many times after his death since this story was retold by landlords and coachmen to generations of travellers – many of whom paid to see the coffin or to take away a copy of the unusual will.
The building went on to house a bank in the 20th century (Westminster then NatWest). It has bucked the trend back towards the hospitality sector and is now the place to go for your dental implants.
The Red Lion
The Red Lion – Mabel Culley
To the south of the White Lion this was a smaller establishment. Again, the building dates to the 17th century but has been renewed in brick. In the yard there are the remains of a 16th century building with a projecting upper storey.
The Roebuck
The Roebuck Inn (pictured at top of page) is in Broadwater at the junction of the Great North Road and the road east to Hertford. Curiously, in Domesday the hundred of Broadwater included other local villages including Stevenage (the ranking is of course now reversed).
The timber framed, plastered building dates to the 15th century, with 16th or early 17th century additions.
And Many More!
The Coach & Horses
The Yorkshire Grey
The White Hart
The Marquis of Lorne
The Cromwell Hotel assumes a prominent position within Stevenage High Street and might be taken for a coaching inn. The site has a long history and once belonged to Oliver Cromwell’s secretary of state, John Thurloe. The central part of the building dates to the mid-18th century. It has been used for many purposes, became The Cromwell in 1925 and soon became popular with generations of 20th century motorists travelling the newly named A1.
More Information about Stevenage Coaching Inns
Top of page image – The Roebuck Inn, Broadwater, 1900-05. Credit – Hertford Museum