History Topics About Tewkesbury

Gloucester Journal

An Accident on Holm Hill - Wednesday 14 December 1825

An accident, which had nearly proved of the most serious consequence, happened at Tewkesbury on Wednesday afternoon. As one of the Bath coaches, on its way to Worcester, was descending the hill near the House of industry. the splinter-bar broke, by which the horses (the best and most spirited upon the road) became no longer subject to the guidance and control of the coachman, and a most awful prospect presented itself to the unfortunate passengers. The Hermitage turnpike-gate is situated immediately at the bottom of the bill, and a narrow bridge over the river Swilgate is just beyond ; and, as the horses were Going at full speed, it seemed past the bounds of probability that they would steer clear both of the gate-posts and of the low rails of the bridge; they did, however, luckily avoid both ; but the vehicle came in contact with the railing on the causeway between the bridge and the church, and the coach, the horses—and, of course, the driver and passengers —were hurled together into the field beneath. But we are happy to say that the injury sustained was astonishingly trivial: the coachman and some of the outside passengers, and a lady who was inside, suffered a few bruises, but neither the horses nor coach sustained any material damage—although the meadow into which they rolled is at least six feet below the surface of the road. Had the coach gone over only a few yards nearer the turnpike, the consequences must have been dreadful, as the whole would then have been precipitated to a great depth into the midst of the river, which was at that time very much swollen from the recent rains—Gloucester Journal.

Accidents with stage coaches were quite frequent, the most common cause was either misjudgement by coachmen descending hills or a failure of the very rudimentary breaking system, as in this case