The first lecture of the 2012-13 season was given by Julian Hunt on Tuesday 18th September. His title, 'Bromsgrove: a Town on the Road', reflected the importance of Bromsgrove as a stopping off point on the road from Birmingham to Bristol, especially in the era of the stage coach.
Julian included images from Ogilby's Road Maps of 1675, showing the road from London to Bridgnorth entering the town via the Stratford Road and leaving via the Kidderminster Road; and the Hereford to Leicester Road, entering via Worcester Street and leaving via Burcott and Alvechurch. Most of the roads leading to Bromsgrove were turnpiked in the mid-18th century. Chief amongst these was the road from Worcester to Bromsgrove, turnpiked in 1726 and the roads from Bromsgrove to Dudley and Birmingham, turnpiked in 1727. He showed how the road to Birmingham over the Lickeys was changed by the turnpike trustees as late as 1832 when the route through Rubery to Longbridge was improved.
Julian then described Bromsgrove's principal coaching inns. He began with the George Inn, not the building which once stood on the corner of St John's Street, but an even earlier inn occupying the premises now held by Holland and Barratt. The present Clegg's Entry was in fact the coach entrance to the George Inn. The inn had closed by 1700 when the premises were occupied by Richard Sanders, a haberdasher, and then by his son, Richard Sanders, the bell founder. The Crown Inn was in business in 1616 when the tenant was John Cookes, who ran a wagon service to London. Julian showed a 1735 inventory of the goods of Nicholas Horniblow of the Crown Inn. He had a huge stock of beer, wine and spirits in the various cellars under the inn. In 1828, 14 coaches a day changed at the Crown Inn, including the Royal Mail coaches from Birmingham to Bristol. The inn closed in 1860 when the premises were taken over by the Literary and Scientific Institute. When the Institute moved to New Road, the building was taken over by the Bromsgrove Messenger. The Golden Cross was rebuilt in the 1770s and outlived the other two inns. Eight coaches a day stopped here in 1828, including the Britannia, running from London to Kidderminster, and the Traveller, running from Birmingham to Bristol. The Golden Cross was again rebuilt in 1932 and included an elegant assembly room.
Julian finished by describing the business of the Bromsgrove carrier, John Ashmore, whose wagons ran from Birmingham to Bristol, and to Manchester and Leeds. This huge concern was based at premises which later became the Coach and Horses Inn, near the corner of the High Street and the Stratford Road. Ashmore died in 1820 leaving his business to his sons John and William Ashmore. By 1830, John and William Ashmore employed over 70 horses pulling 14 wagons. The largest of these wagons had wheels nine inches in width to spread the load, and used eight horses to pull one ton, 14 hundredweight of goods. John Ashmore lived in Bromsgrove, but his brother William ran the Birmingham warehouse. William Ashmore went bankrupt in 1847, as did so many carriers in the face of railway competition.
