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| Linton
in Pictures |
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A History
of Linton
in Photographs
Available here |
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THE RED
LION - LINTON’s PREMIER COACHING INN
By the late 18th century there was a complex network of stage
coach routes across the country thanks to the improved road
surfaces brought about by local Turnpike Trusts. These privately
formed bodies agreed to maintain roads in return for the levying
of a charge collected at toll gates or bars.
In 1765 the Redcross Turnpike Trust was established to control
the sixteen mile route from Haverhill via Withersfield (the
old road not the present one), Horseheath, Linton, Abington
and Red Cross Lane near Addenbrookes. There were toll gates
or bars (barriers to block off side access routes) at all these
places except Linton and Horseheath.
By the early 19th century over 600 coaches a day left London
and there were twelve routes radiating from Cambridge, including
a service to Colchester and Harwich via Linton.
Numbers 26 and 28, High Street on the corner of Horn Lane had
been an inn called the Unicorn from the 16th century, and by
1685 was known as the Red Lion.
It was a huge establishment by the standards of that period.
There were seven principal bed chambers, four attics, separate
dining and traveller rooms, stables for twenty horses and four
carriages and a cellar with a capacity to store 700 gallons
of beer. There were also well arranged wine and liquor cellars
since this was an up market establishment. The stables and inn
yard ran sixty metres down Horn Lane, the area where the red
bricked cottages are today.
Linton was then a thriving market town with the third largest
corn market in Cambridgeshire so it was quite logical for stage
coaches to stop off there three times a week en route between
Cambridge and Colchester. At Long Melford passengers could change
for London, Bury St. Edmunds and Ipswich. Cary’s Itinerary
was the timetable bible of the coaching era where you can find
all the local coaching routes.
Coaches in those days were all given names, often of a famous
person or to denote their speed and comfort. The best known
Linton ones were the Marquis of Cornwallis (victorious in India),
the Accommodation and the Comet. In 1825 the Comet left the
Red Lion Inn at Cambridge (present day Lion Yard) at 8 am and
reached Colchester by 3.30 pm, a seven and a half hour journey
including stops. Linton was a stopping place for changing horses.
When the Red Lion at Linton was sold in 1825 it made £1,500
at a time when a local cottage cost a mere £50. The inn
was the centre of social and political activities. The local
magistrates met here as did the turnpike trustees, the poor
law overseers and the churchwardens. A notable social event
occurred in 1847 when the Ethiopian Serenaders performed here.
This American minstrel group had taken London theatres by storm
in 1846 and Linton middle class family groups packed out the
Red Lion that evening.
The arrival of the railway at Cambridge in 1845 ended the coaching
era and the Red Lion became a private dwelling in 1855.
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