The Hope Post-coach travelling between Stamford and Doncaster had been established in 1826 and operated from Standwell’s Hotel, Stamford. When a competitor began operating from Doncaster in 1827, the proprietors of the Hope post-coach felt it their duty to take action to enable them “to withstand an unnecessary and monopolizing opposition”. Clearly, coach travel was a precarious but lucrative business.
“NO FEES TO COACHMEN ! DONCASTER and STAMFORD HOPE POST-COACH.
The proprietors of the above Coach have with surprise observed an advertisement in the Doncaster Gazette, which states that Messrs. Wood, Dunhill, Whincup, Horner, and Company, having discovered “that the towns of Doncaster and Stamford, and the intermediate places, are not well accommodated,” intend to set out a coach to run betwixt those places, to start at eight o’clock every morning, and to be called The Times,- which announcement seems intended to insinuate that the public on that line of road had been hitherto unaccommodated with a Day Coach running at the same hours,- whereas the truth is, that a Coach called The Hope was established nearly twelve months ago, on the same principle as the London and Bath Coaches, viz. the Company paying their own Coachmen, who are not allowed to ask passengers for any fee, and still continues to run, leaving the RED LION INN, DONCASTER, and STANDWELL’S HOTEL, STAMFORD, every Morning at Eight o’clock, and arriving at those places respectively at half past Six in the Evening.
The Proprietors feel it a duty due to their friends and the public to thank them for the support which The Hope has hitherto received, and trust that, by adhering to their original determination to keep one steady regular pace, they shall continue to receive such support as will enable them to withstand an unnecessary and monopolizing opposition. THOs, STANDWELL & Co.
Stamford, May 16th, 1827.”
Stamford Mercury, May 18th, 1827.