Then and Now: Owner of Blue Sheep in Grantham died in ‘prime of his life’ in 1813
In 1813 it was announced in the Stamford Mercury that John Clarke, the keeper of the Blue Sheep in Grantham and ‘lately guard on the York Mail’ had died ‘in the prime of his life’. The York mail took sixteen hours to reach London.
It left Grantham at 6pm and arrived at the Bull & Mouth Inn on Bull & Mouth Street, London at midday the next day. Seats inside the coach cost £1-16s and seats outside were 16s.
In 1816, it was reported in the same newspaper that ‘Early Sunday morning, the Highflyer coach upset on going down Gonerby-hill near Grantham; although it was heavily with passengers and luggage on the outside, no person was materially hurt’.
It had previously been thought that passengers disembarked to travel up and down Gonerby Hill and other steep hills, but this was not necessarily the case, because it was reported on several occasions that there had been accidents with over-laden coaches.