Mike Loades climbs aboard a high-speed transport revolution. 250 years ago the Mail Coach was a sensation, the fastest vehicle on the road - carrying with it the promise of news from afar.
It was the symbol of a modern, more connected world - at the vanguard of a social revolution.
For the first time, letters could be sent from one end of the country to the other by return of post – instead of taking days, weeks , or even months. Newspapers published in London could be read in distant towns the following morning.
Mike makes a hands-on exploration into how this fabulous machine changed so many things that made the modern world possible, from communication and the spread of news, to the very roads we travel on today.
All aboard for a spectacular journey into history!
Up Next in Revolutions
-
Total Victory: The Battle of Trafalgar
Victory was total. An enemy fleet obliterated. The course of a great war determined. A hero struck down and a legend born. In October 1805 the British Royal Navy defeated the combined battle fleets of the French and Spanish empires 20 miles northwest of a promontory of rock and sand in southern S...
-
George Washington: The First Battle
Dan Snow goes to Pittsburgh to explore the extraordinary story of how an over-ambitious young George Washington fought for the British and helped to fire the shots that started the Seven Years War, the world’s first global conflict.
-
Inside Windsor Castle: The State Rooms
Windsor Castle has a legendary connection to the British monarchy: the longest-serving royal palace in the whole of Europe. Ever since the days of William the Conqueror, the Castle has dominated this strategic point on the banks of the Thames, overlooking west London. Over the next 1,000 years ki...
15 Comments