Defiance Coach Cash Box
AssociatedAssociated with
Defiance
(19th Century Stage Coach)
DateEarly 19th Century
Object NameBox
Mediummahogany, satinwood
ClassificationsTransport
Dimensions13.5 x 39.3 x 25.3cm
AcquisitionPresented in 1964 by Mr William Proctor.
Object numberABDMS001366
About MeThis box is from the coach "Defiance" which ran between Aberdeen and Inverness from 1831.Coaches such as this were capable of carrying four passengers inside and as many as twelve outside. Speed could be in the region of eight to ten miles an hour. The Aberdeen to Inverness run would normally take something like twelve hours in good conditions. In 1854 the Defiance was running between Aberdeen and Huntly, leaving the city at 11 in the morning, arriving Huntly at 8 in the evening.
In the year that the railway first reached Aberdeen, 1850, there were 10 stage coaches and 8 mail coaches and gigs listed in Aberdeen Almanack as running out of the city. Ten years later this had reduced to 7 coaches and 4 gigs. Goods and passengers could be carried at a more leisurely pace and certainly cheaper using one of the hundreds of carriers in the area. The railway did largely kill off the longer carrier runs but in areas which sat between lines carriers were able to continue and even expand their businesses. Mail was carried by the GNSR from the earliest days and in 1859 the Post Office went so far as to put a sorter on the Aberdeen-Keith train.
1880s?
C. 1910
