ROAD rage may be a modern day scourge but even in the nineteenth century, Southend had its share of boy racers and driver aggression.

In 1827 the courts had to deal with a case of “furious driving” involving a stagecoach.

The owner and driver of one of Southend’s stagecoaches, James Palmer, was fined £5 after driving his coach at the rate of 16 miles an hour. At the time he was trying to overtake another Southend stagecoach on the Whitechapel Road.

Back then the Stagecoach business could be cut-throat. Competition was tough and drivers were out to surpass one another. Speed was everything.

By the 1820s, a journey from Cambridge to London could be done in seven hours, compared with the two days it took 70 years earlier.

By 1844, Southend had become home to a number of stagecoach businesses.

The heavy vehicles were pulled by four to six horses, and travelled at around eight miles per hour. Inside the coach were two cushioned seats for up to six passengers who had the means to pay.

Outside passengers travelled at a cheaper rate and had to sit in the luggage basket or on the roof, clinging to the baggage for dear life.

An article in an 1844 edition of the Essex Herald newspaper outlined the growing tension amongst local drivers: “South End has attracted the attention of the stage coach speculators, and a spirit of opposition has sprung up..

“There are now no less than six coaches to and from London daily- two Dispatches, two Rivals and two Wonders. As they all profess to furnish very fast and very cheap travelling we should not wonder if these rivals will soon dispatch each others.”

One of Southend’s most popular routes for stagecoach travel was from Southend to Shoebury.

There would be no railway serving this stretch until 1884. William Gill used to drive stagecoaches on this route in the late 1800s.

In the 1920s he reminisced about his job in an interview with the Southend Standard.

He recalled: “There used to be a whole fleet of pony shays plying for hire to and from the Ship Hotel.

“A man called Tom Sharp used to run his donkey up and down Marine Parade which was must smaller in those days.”

Mr Gill would pick up many a passenger from the Royal Hotel on the seafront in Southend.

He confessed he regularly ferried ‘Japanese princes, Lord of Admiralty and well known men from London’ to and from the hotel’.

Stagecoaches were dangerous vehicles. Crashes could result in passengers being crushed to death or having to have limbs removed.

In April 1844 a Southend stagecoach was travelling from Rayleigh to Rochford when it hit a cart.

The driver of the coach was badly bruised but the passenger sitting on the top of the coach was thrown off and broke his arm.

Racing about the town, stagecoach drivers got to see everything. William Gill admitted one of the most memorable days in his career as a driver was when he saw a “large and motley crowd’ of people” gathered at the Lobster Smack on Canvey.

Many had come all the way from London to see Bob Travers, aka ‘the Black Wonder’ take on Harry Crutchley in a bare knuckle fight at the pub.

“Travers knocked out Crutchley just before the police arrived to put a stop to the fight,” he recalled.

“A number of enthusiasts had come from London in a small steamboat to see the sport.”