The story of the first Glasgow to Greenock stagecoaches

In this week's column from Glasgow City Archives, archivist Barbara McLean reveals the history of the routes and the companies who ran them.

On June 26, 1763, the first stagecoach service between Glasgow and Greenock was introduced.

Stagecoaches were so-called because they delivered and picked up passengers at designated locations or stages throughout their journey.

In the days before railways, roads linking commercially important places such as Glasgow and Greenock were vital in maintaining communication and encouraging trade.   

The service departed from Glasgow at 6am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and from Greenock at 3pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Tickets could be bought in advance at a cost of five shillings for inside passengers and two shillings six pence for passengers behind.

Each passenger was allowed 10 pounds of baggage weight. Although the stagecoach has been consigned to history, Glasgow City Archives holds a number of records which tell the story of both the stagecoach and the roads they travelled on. 

Among these records is Taylor and Skinner’s Survey and Maps of the Roads of North Britain or Scotland of 1776.

This survey includes a list of the stages on the Great Roads of Scotland, detailing distances between each stage and also the total distance from Edinburgh. On the almost 23-mile stretch of roads between Glasgow and Greenock, there were two additional stages: Renfrew and Port Glasgow.

Also included are the maps of the roads between Glasgow and Greenock and this detailed image shows the roads running between them.

Key features include the homes of local landowners and the locations of tolls along the roads. The image shows the home of the Stuart family, one of the local landowners for Greenock. This family later became known as the Shaw-Stuarts of Ardgowan and Glasgow City Archives holds their estate papers.

), County of Renfrew, Commissioners of Supply minute book, 30 April 1766 (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

Among the archives of the Shaw-Stuarts, we hold an 1818 Plan of Greenock and its Environs with the Intended Improvements by David Reid. It shows the junction of Hamilton Street with Cathcart Street at the Square. On the north-east side of the Square is a building marked N – this is the coaching inn where the stagecoaches would have stopped.

In 1763, at the time when the first stagecoach service between Glasgow and Greenock was introduced, the construction and maintenance of roads were the responsibility of private landowners and officials known as Commissioners of Supply.

We hold the Renfrew County Council archives which include a run of minutes of the Commissioners of Supply although the first volume post-dates when the new stagecoach service was introduced.

An extract from April 1766 notes that the commissioners paid to “Alexander Houstoun of Jordanhill Esqre eight pounds sterling for repairing the road from Blawerthill Ferry to the toll road leading by Scotstoun to Kilpatrick.”

Toll roads were in operation from the 17th century and continued until the 19th. A toll was paid by each road user at a gate and tollhouse along the road. The total cost of the toll was dependent on many factors including length of the vehicle, its cargo and the number of passengers it was carrying. The money raised was used to pay for road repairs and mileposts.

Many toll roads were operated by turnpike trusts and Glasgow City Archives holds records of several of these trusts for both Glasgow and western counties including Dunbartonshire and Lanarkshire.

Although the popularity and use of stagecoaches had dwindled throughout the 20th century, the term still remained in use by Glasgow Corporation.

Bye-laws made by magistrates for the regulation of Stage Coaches, 1925 (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

In bye-laws prepared by the Magistrates Committee, the corporation sets out rules for Stage Coaches (also known as omnibuses or buses).

Photograph of Coach Inn at Holm Street from Blythswood St, c1970 (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

These include assigning dedicated portions of particular streets for use as stands; confirming that no coaches should remain at a stand for longer than 15 minutes and that each company operating a coach should submit a timetable for reference to the corporation.  

Stagecoaches are no longer used as a method of transport but their memory has been preserved through the names of buildings in various parts of Glasgow.

This image from around 1970 has been taken from the photographic collection of Glasgow Corporation’s Planning Department and shows a pub called the Coach Inn which was based at Holm Street.