Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries (Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture) 3031126831, 9783031126833

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STUDIES IN MOBILITIES, LITERATURE, AND CULTURE

Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenthand Twentieth-Century British Diaries Colin G. Pooley Marilyn E. Pooley

Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture Series Editors

Marian Aguiar Department of English Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA, USA Charlotte Mathieson University of Surrey Guildford, UK Lynne Pearce English Literature & Creative Writing Lancaster University Lancaster, UK

This series represents an exciting new publishing opportunity for scholars working at the intersection of literary, cultural, and mobilities research. The editors welcome proposals that engage with movement of all kinds – ranging from the global and transnational to the local and the everyday. The series is particularly concerned with examining the material means and structures of movement, as well as the infrastructures that surround such movement, with a focus on transport, travel, postcolonialism, and/ or embodiment. While we expect many titles from literary scholars who draw upon research originating in cultural geography and/or sociology in order to gain valuable new insights into literary and cultural texts, proposals are equally welcome from scholars working in the social sciences who make use of literary and cultural texts in their theorizing. The series invites monographs that engage with textual materials of all kinds  – i.e., film, photography, digital media, and the visual arts, as well as fiction, poetry, and other literary forms – and projects engaging with non-western literatures and cultures are especially welcome.

Colin G. Pooley • Marilyn E. Pooley

Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries

Colin G. Pooley Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster, UK

Marilyn E. Pooley Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster, UK

Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture ISBN 978-3-031-12683-3    ISBN 978-3-031-12684-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: mikroman6 / Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

Our motives for writing this book are simple. We have a long-standing interest in the study of migration and mobility in the past, but have been frustrated by the difficulty of gaining any significant information about the most common but mundane everyday mobilities that people undertook as they went about their daily lives. We have also both worked with personal diaries in previous research, and have come to recognise the immense value of diaries in revealing aspects of everyday life that otherwise remain concealed. This book brings together our studies of personal diaries, carried out over many years, and uses these data to explore some of the key characteristics and experiences of everyday travel in nineteenth- and twentieth-­century Britain. Diaries are, of course, not perfect, and the limitations and difficulties of using personal diaries as a source to study mobility are discussed in full in this book. However, we do believe that the use of diaries, with all their faults, can provide a window on past mobilities that is not readily available from any other source. In particular, the use of personal diaries to study everyday mobility enables us to take key themes from contemporary mobilities theories and to apply them to past mobilities in ways that have not been done previously. We hope that the book not only enriches our historical understanding of travel and mobility in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain, but also that it demonstrates the ways in which many of the dimensions of contemporary mobility were equally relevant in the past. Our intellectual journey to the production of this book has been shaped by many influences. Undergraduate and postgraduate study in Geography at the University of Liverpool exposed us to a wide range of research on v

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PREFACE

migration and mobility both historical and contemporary. The vibrant interdisciplinary research environment at Lancaster University has further enriched our understanding of mobility, particularly through the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe), founded in 2003 by John Urry and Mimi Sheller. We have gained enormously from our interactions with the colleagues and events associated with CeMoRe over many years, all of which have helped us to develop and refine our ideas about past mobilities. Most recently, the role of Lynne Pearce, also at Lancaster, in developing interest in mobilities and the humanities has been of especial importance. We have also benefited immensely from our interactions with migration and mobility scholars from around the world at conferences organised through the American Social Sciences History Association and the European Social Science History Association. These have broadened our horizons and exposed us to many fresh ideas. Diaries can be found in many places, and we have made use of a number of different archives to read the unpublished diaries on which this research is based. The large collection of diaries amassed through the Great Diary Project and curated by the Bishopsgate Institute Archive in London has been of especial importance with more than one-third of the diaries studied coming from this archive. Also important for us was the Edward Hall diary collection held by Wigan Archives in Leigh (Greater Manchester). Other diaries were located in various county and city archives, or have been given to us with permission to use through a combination of personal contacts and previous research projects. We are extremely grateful to all the archivists and other individuals who have assisted us in our journey to discover and read personal diaries. All these sources are fully acknowledged throughout the book. We also gratefully acknowledge the support and help provided by all those at Palgrave who have provided advice, answered our queries and seen the book through its various stages of production. Finally, none of this work could have been completed without the diarists themselves and, in many cases, their descendants and others, who have not only refrained from destroying this material but also have preserved it and have made it available for study. We have only met in person with two of the diarists we have studied, but we feel that we have become close friends with many of the others as their daily diaries revealed the twists and turns of their fascinating everyday lives. Lancaster, UK March  2022

Colin G. Pooley Marilyn E. Pooley

Contents

1 Introduction  1 1.1 Setting the Scene  1 1.2 The Significance of the Mundane  3 1.3 The Significance of Travel and Transport  6 1.4 Identifying Sources  8 1.5 The Aims and Organisation of the Book 11 References 13 2 The  Value of Diary Writing 21 2.1 What Is a Diary? 21 2.2 What Can Diaries Contribute to Mobility Studies? 28 2.3 Selecting and Analysing the Diaries 31 References 49 3 Mobility  Change over Time 55 3.1 How Can Diaries Illuminate Mobility Change over Time? 55 3.2 The Impact of Technological Change 58 3.3 The Persistence of Older Technologies 67 References 76 4 Location Matters 81 4.1 Introduction: Space, Place, and Mobility 81 4.2 Residential Change and Mobility Change 87 4.3 The Exceptionalism of London 94 References100 vii

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Contents

5 Mobility,  Family, and the Life Course103 5.1 Introduction103 5.2 Dependent Mobilities106 5.3 Mobility Whilst Caring110 5.4 Independent Mobilities114 5.5 Disrupted Mobilities119 References123 6 Gendered  Mobilities: The Female Experience127 6.1 Introduction127 6.2 Women Walking130 6.3 Female Experiences of Public Transport142 6.4 Travelling Privately146 References150 7 Money Matters155 7.1 Introduction155 7.2 The Constraints of Poverty157 7.3 Those Who Just Managed160 7.4 What Mobilities Does Money Buy?162 References172 8 The  Significance of Journey Purpose175 8.1 Introduction175 8.2 Routine and Required Journeys178 8.3 Discretionary Travel184 References192 9 Immobility195 9.1 Introduction: Approaches to Immobility195 9.2 Immobility Whilst Travelling197 9.3 Immobility that Prevents Travel202 References212

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10 Conclusions215 10.1 The End of a Journey215 References225 Appendix: The Diarists227 Index235

About the Authors

Colin G. Pooley  is Professor Emeritus, Social and Historical Geography in the Environment Centre and the Centre for Mobilities Studies (CeMoRe), Lancaster University, UK. His research focuses on the social geography of Britain and continental Europe since circa 1800, with recent projects focused on residential migration, travel to work, everyday mobilities and sustainable transport. Current and recent research include the use of personal diaries and other life writing to study past mobilities, and the analysis of court records to study urban walking. Marilyn  E.  Pooley is a Historical Geographer. She was formerly a Teaching Associate in the Environment Centre at Lancaster University, UK, and in retirement is researching (with Colin G.  Pooley) everyday mobility in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain using life writing.

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Abbreviations

BIA WA

Bishopsgate Institute archive, Bishopsgate, London (Great Diary Project) Wigan Archives, Leigh, Greater Manchester (Edward Hall collection)

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List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 2.3 Fig. 2.4 Fig. 2.5 Fig. 2.6 Fig. 2.7

Fig. 2.8 Fig. 2.9

The diary of Elizabeth Lee, July 1889. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Joyce Roberts, reproduced with permission) The Lee family, 1892. John Lee, seated, centre; Elizabeth Lee, standing, centre back. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Joyce Roberts, reproduced with permission) Elizabeth Lee, February 1890. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Joyce Roberts, reproduced with permission) The diary of Freda Smith, December 1908. (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/99). Reproduced with permission of the archive) The diary of Annie Rudolf (Rudoff), December 1923. (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/31). Reproduced with permission of the archive) Annie Rudolph (Rudoff), undated (c.1920). (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/31). Reproduced with permission of the archive) Annie Rudolph (Rudoff) with her father and brother outside their shop, undated (c.1920). (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/31). Reproduced with permission of the archive) The diary of Betty Charnley, July 1983. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Julia Bland, reproduced with permission) Betty Charnley, 1945. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Julia Bland, reproduced with permission)

38 39 40 41 42 43

44 45 46

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List of Figures

Fig. 2.10 Betty Charnley, 1970. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Julia Bland, reproduced with permission) Fig. 2.11 Map of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, showing key locations referred to in the text. Cartography by Kirsty Forber, Lancaster Environment Centre

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

1.1   Setting the Scene On Sunday February 26,1905, 20-year-old Ida Berry left the evening chapel service that she attended most weeks, and walked slowly back to her home in south Manchester (UK) accompanied by a young man she had been friends with for some time. Later that evening she wrote the entries for her daily diary and specifically noted this short walk with the following words: It was a beautiful ‘starlight’ night and Norman took me for a walk through Spath Road etc and behind the ‘Park’. As we were coming down Northen Grove we saw a large ‘Comet’ fall from the sky, it looked lovely, just like a large rocket.1

There was nothing remotely unusual about her activities that evening, but the entry in her diary suggests that the combination of her companion, the fine evening weather and the starlit night sky gave this short walk particular significance and meaning. Not all the entries in Ida’s diary were as effusive as this. Some were a simple factual account of her daily 1   Diary of Ida Berry, Sunday February 26, 1905. Bishopsgate Institute Archives (BIA) GDP/28.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_1

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activities, but writing that demonstrated the feelings and emotions that were generated by her daily mobility were not at all uncommon. Ida travelled widely around her local area, using a variety of forms of transport, but one of her main passions was cycling. During the summer months she would go for a cycle ride several times each week, usually with her sister or other (mainly male) friends. Her diary entry for Saturday 27th May 1905 recorded one such ride: Six of us went for a ride to ‘Arley’, it was grand. We had a beautiful tea and walked round the ‘Meres’, coming home we saw the most beautiful sunset we had ever seen, the sun looked like a jewel so bright, and the sky was blazing with red and gold.2

The travel that Ida undertook not only enabled her to fulfil everyday tasks and commitments, and to maintain contact with friends and family, but also gave her pleasure and provided added meaning to her life. None of this is surprising. Most people take pleasure from travel and engagement with nature, and the value of everyday mobility is placed in even sharper focus when the ability to travel is limited. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/21 placed most parts of the world in lockdown for at least part of the time, with severe restrictions on the amount and distance of daily travel. In consequence, people placed more value on the daily local exercise that was allowed in England, with extensive accounts in social media of the pleasure that people took from outdoor travel, and the ways in which it could lessen the stress of living with the pandemic (Harris 2020; Warren 2020). The value of exercise and contact with nature for mental as well as physical health has also been increasingly recognised in academic research (Lee and Buchner 2008; Morris and Hardman 1997; Pouso et  al. 2021; Venter et  al. 2020). The fact that travel was limited made the significance and meaning of the usually taken-for-granted everyday acts of spatial mobility more explicit. The ease of instant communication and the availability of social media, together with a plethora of academic research on mobility and related topics, mean that contemporary data on the ways in which people engage with everyday travel are easy to come by (Adey 2017; Merriman 2012; Urry 2016). For the past this is much more difficult. There is no shortage of travel writing from the past, but those accounts almost always focused on 2

 Ibid., Saturday May 27, 1905.

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expeditions to far-away places, often entailing some element of novelty, risk and adventure (Das and Youngs 2019). The journeys described were a world away from the everyday mobilities that most people undertook: they were almost always written by travellers who had lived a privileged life, often with a public profile and, with a few notable exceptions, the authors were male. However, personal diaries have also been written by people with no public profile and no unusual travels to relate. In this book, we focus on the everyday mobility of ordinary people who lived in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, using the relatively neglected medium of diary writing to illuminate both the extent and nature of everyday travel, and to recover some of the feelings and emotions that were generated by the routine and unexceptional journeys that were taken every day. In doing so, we also assess the value and significance of diary writing as a historical literary source, and we emphasise the importance of situating historical studies of mobility within the broader context of contemporary mobility theories.

1.2  The Significance of the Mundane There is a natural tendency to place most emphasis on events and experiences that are novel and exciting. Editorial decisions in many forms of media not only promote the ideological stance of the proprietor, but also tend to foreground those stories that will most readily capture the attention of readers (Deuze 2005; Messing and Westwood 2014; Smith 2005). Such headlines usually focus on unusual events, controversial issues, prominent celebrities or salacious stories about public figures or institutions. In addition, on-line media may use algorithms to shape the news feeds that users receive and to reinforce their existing views (Carlson 2018; Min 2019). While satisfying readers’ appetites for engaging news, such stories usually bear little resemblance to the everyday experiences of most people. Both fiction and non-fiction writing also tend to focus on stories that are unusual and exciting, and which take the reader away from their usual milieu. Traditional history books mostly focus on key events of national or international importance, with only scant regard for the everyday. Even social history writing, which does foreground ‘history from below’, is more likely to examine major disruptions, such as epidemic disease or extreme poverty, rather than the mundane activities of everyday life

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(Lyons 2010).3 For the most part, day-to-day experiences are uniformly routine, predictable, and unexciting. They may consist of school or work, cleaning, washing, a trip to shops, a walk in the park, a game of football or a visit to friends. Such events usually occur in a predictable pattern and are a world away from many of the experiences and attitudes foregrounded in much of the media and other writing. The routine of daily life may not make an exciting story for a publisher or editor, but it is the experience of most people for most of the time. In common with some other authors, we argue that the mundane nature of everyday life deserves more attention (Enloe 2011; Kane 2001; Newman and Dale 2009). Mobility, in all its forms, is one of the most significant of everyday activities. Almost everyone will move many times during a typical day, but some forms of mobility are usually deemed to be more significant than others. Residential migration, especially international movements, has received by far the most attention in historical and contemporary studies. Migration is often viewed as disruptive, both to the places of origin and destination and to the individuals involved, and thus deserving of attention. It also tends to be relatively well-documented and therefore easier to study in both the past and the present than some other forms of mobility (Gatrell 2019; Hoerder 2002; Miller and Castles 2009; Moch 2003; Pooley and Turnbull 1998). The daily journeys that have received most attention tend to be those that are deemed to place the greatest demands upon transport infrastructures, especially travel to work and to school. These can be seen to be disruptive of traffic flows, causing congestion at peak times, environmental pollution, and personal stress, and thus they need to be measured and planned for by civic authorities (Black et  al. 2001; Lawton 1968; Pooley and Turnbull 1999; Pooley et  al. 2005a, 2010). Other everyday mobility, such as travel to shop, to visit friends or for local leisure, is much less often studied, especially in a historical context (Pooley et al. 2005a, b, c). Although these movements are usually over short distances, and are highly varied in their purpose, timing and transport mode, such travel can be of great importance to an individual, and can in turn place demands upon the urban environment (Cass and Faulconbridge 2017; Fobker and Grotz 2006; Peters et  al. 2010). The really short-distance movements that take place around the home and 3

 See also various issues of the History Workshop Journal.

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garden are even less frequently studied, but can be no less significant for an individual. This is especially likely to be the case for anyone who is housebound by illness or incapacity (Seamon 1979). In this book, we do not examine residential migration, but rather focus on all the other aspects of mobility that people undertake in their daily lives, as recorded by a wide range of diarists who lived in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Not all diaries record all the most mundane activities that were undertaken, but most provide some information. The diary of Betty Charnley, who lived in north Lancashire during much of the twentieth century, provides an unusually detailed example. Her entry for Friday August 2, 1996, written when she was 68 years of age, is typical of her routine diary record: Up at 7.30am Painted the bathroom window and door at both sides in Magnolia Non drip Gloss Paint. Anne came. Dusted and hovered [sic] round my bedroom, moving things and the small chest of drawers back into the front bedroom, dusted and hovered [sic] the stairs, dusted the living room. Picked up Winnie H in St Michaels at 2.45pm, took her into Great Eccleston, she went to the hairdressers, I had a look round, then we went to see Tom in Leckonby Nursing Home, picked up the papers. Home 5pm. Washed my hair. Worked on John and Annie’s sampler, Bed 10pm. Damp, showers, got out sunny and light breeze. Lovely afternoon and evening.4

There is nothing remotely unusual in this account apart from its comprehensiveness, and the activities described were probably typical of many single women of her age, but Betty’s day did incorporate multiple mobilities around her home and by car to visit nearby friends. All these relatively small movements required Betty to choose between different possible actions, to weigh up the positive and negative attributes of each, and to consider how they fitted together into her daily schedule. Because of the repetitive nature of such actions, the decision-making process may not have been explicit, but it nonetheless must have taken place. These are the types of mobility and experience that we concentrate on in this volume, setting each within a particular context of everyday life.

4

 Diary of Betty Charnley, Friday August 2, 1996 (authors’ collection).

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1.3  The Significance of Travel and Transport Some degree of mobility is required to engage with most aspects of everyday life, and this was no less true in the past than in the present. Mobility also requires some form of transport, be it feet and legs, a horse or carriage, a mobility device, a bicycle, a scooter, any one of multiple forms of public transport, or a car, van, motorbike, or other form of motorised private transport. Transport and mobility are thus inextricably intertwined, but until relatively recently they tend to have been studied from rather different perspectives. Although the form and convenience of transport available has changed and been extended since the early nineteenth century, all travel, over any distance, requires a decision about the type of transport to be used. In some situations, there may be little choice: mobility around the home must be on foot or using a mobility device suitable for indoor use. In contrast, there is likely to be more than one possible option for all forms of travel beyond the home, no matter how short. In this section, we first examine the different ways in which mobility and transport in the past and present have been studied and, second, briefly outline the main ways in which mobility and transport options have changed since the early nineteenth century, and their impacts upon travellers. This theme is developed in more detail in Chap. 3. Transport history has for the most part focused on the transport itself rather than on the people who travel. There is an extensive literature on the development of transport infrastructure, and on advancements in vehicle technologies, in financing and economic impacts of transport, timetabling, and running transport systems, and in passenger loadings and modal shifts (Mom 2003).5 However, much less attention has been paid to the experiences of the travellers themselves, how they chose between different transport options, the feelings that different forms of mobility evoked, or to the inequalities that existed in access to transport in the past. It is only relatively recently that the focus has begun to shift from infrastructure, vehicles and finance to people as sentient travellers with feelings and preferences (Divall 2011, 2014; Divall and Revill 2005; Merriman and Pearce 2017; Mom 2015; Moraglio et al. 2020; Pooley 2017a, b; Shaw and Hesse 2010). This shift has largely occurred as transport historians have begun to engage much more fully with social scientists working in 5  Excellent examples of this genre of transport history can be found in past volumes of The Journal of Transport History: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jth

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the field broadly defined as mobility studies. Although there is a long history of studying migration and mobility, especially in human geography and sociology (Brown and Moore 1970; Simmons 1968; Wolpert 1965; Zelinsky 1971), contemporary mobility studies have been increasingly influenced by the pioneering work of Mimi Sheller and John Urry (2006) in the first decade of the twenty-first century (Hannam et al. 2006; Vannini 2010). The ‘New Mobilities Paradigm’ argues for the centrality of all forms of mobility to social life and focuses on both the traveller and the experience of movement itself. Although the spaces and technologies of transport are also important, they are viewed principally as part of a system of mobilities that includes people as well as transport modes, and not only as a means of moving people or goods from place to place. Over the past two decades, a substantial literature on all aspects of mobilities studies has been created, which has refined and developed the position advanced by Sheller and Urry (Adey et al. 2014; Adey 2016; Cresswell and Merriman 2011; Faulconbridge and Hui 2016; Sheller and Urry 2016). For example, in response to recent global events, disrupted mobilities and immobility have been extensively researched (Birtchnell and Büscher 2011; Sheller 2018, 2020; Adey et al. 2021). However, with a few notable exceptions (Cresswell 2006, 2011; Merriman 2006, 2009a, b; Pearce 2016, 2017), mobilities research has been focused on contemporary mobilities with only limited, and sometimes superficial, attention paid to historical mobilities. Previous work by the authors (and their collaborators) has also sought to provide a historical perspective to mobilities studies (Pooley 2017a, b, c; Pooley et al. 2005b, c; Pooley and Pooley 2015, 2021). This volume adds to the literature on historical mobilities by focusing on the testimonies of a large number of nineteenth- and twentieth-­century diarists. One form of transport that has been particularly neglected is walking. Indeed, in much of the literature on transport policy and planning, travel on foot has barely been considered a form of transport at all, yet for most of human history walking has been the main (and often only) means of travel available to a majority of the population. Although transport options widened substantially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, walking has continued to be an important form of mobility, especially for short journeys, and in 2019, 26 per cent of all trips undertaken in England were on foot (Department for Transport 2021). Travel on foot can also bring the traveller into closer contact with both the environment and with other people. It may thus generate stronger feelings and emotions about a journey than transport modes which cocoon a traveller within a carriage or

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other vehicle. Because walking is usually considered to be an informal means of travel, and is often assumed (wrongly) to be mainly for leisure purposes, data on pedestrian travel in the past were not collected in the way that passenger transport companies such as those running bus, tram and rail services tended to monitor passenger loadings. Although some research on past walking practices has been conducted (Errázuriz 2011; Männistö-Funk 2021; Norton 2021; Pooley 2021a, b; Pooley et al. 2021; Schmucki 2012a, b), personal diaries can provide valuable additional insights into past pedestrianism. At all times in the past, access to transport and mobility has been unequal. Those with access to the fewest personal or societal resources usually travelled more slowly, and in less comfort, than those who could access a wider range of transport options. In the early nineteenth century, access to a horse or private carriage was reserved for the relatively wealthy; others walked, travelled on a carter’s waggon or (if it could be afforded) on a public stagecoach. As transport options widened with the development of inter-city train services, urban trams, bicycles, motor buses and private cars, inequalities in mobility options increased to some extent because newer, faster and more comfortable forms of transport also tended to be the most expensive (see, for instance, Pooley et  al. 2006; Pooley 2016). Moreover, as the private car has come to dominate personal travel, and public transport services have shrunk, those who do not have access to a motor vehicle may become even more excluded from some aspects of daily life that require mobility. This is especially the case for those living in rural areas and small towns which, in general, have poorer public transport networks than large cities, and where travel distances to access services may be greater (Camarero and Oliva 2019; Clifton and Lucas 2004; Mattioli 2014, 2017; Nutley 1996).

1.4  Identifying Sources Information on past mobilities is limited, apart from aggregate data on the numbers of people using specific public transport routes and services, or on the growth of vehicle ownership as demonstrated by driver and vehicle licensing statistics. In Britain data on most forms of mobility has only been collected regularly since 1965, through a National Travel Survey that publishes aggregate information from a sample survey of the population (Department for Transport 2021), although limited data on travel to work statistics have been collected in some UK censuses since 1921 (Office for

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National Statistics 2021). Although these data provide a valuable overview of mobility trends during the twentieth century, they tell us nothing about the travellers’ experiences of, and motivations for, a journey. Information for earlier time periods is even more limited. By piecing together information from a variety of sources such as directories, newspapers and other contemporary writing, scholars have reconstructed a history of the development of the turnpike road system and the public stagecoach network in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain (Austen 1981; Chartres 1992; Dickinson 1959; Freeman 1975), but for impressions of what it was like to travel we must rely mainly on contemporary literature (Livesey 2011, 2016). More detailed and comprehensive data on the operations of railway companies have survived, and these provide extensive information on such features as network development, timetables, finance and passenger loadings (Casson 2009; Evans and Gough 2017; Revill 2013; Turnock 2016; Wolmar 2009a, b). For instance, such information has been used to good effect to examine the role of London’s suburban rail network in the development of the city and the rise of commuting from increasingly distant suburbs during the second half of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century (Abernethy 2015; Dyos 1953; Gager 2021; Galviz-Lopez 2019; Wolmar 2009a, b). The railways brought new travelling experiences to the commuter and the ways in which passengers reacted to railway travel has also been explored using a wide range of contemporary sources (Löfgren 2008; Schivelbusch 1977). The seemingly inexorable increase in the use of private motor vehicles during the twentieth century, and the ways in which both individuals and society engaged with motoring as a new form of everyday travel, have been extensively researched (Dant and Martin 2001; Gunn 2013; Mom 2014; O’Connell 1998, 2007; Pearce 2016, 2017; Sheller 2004; Urry 2006). The age of automobility has been well-documented (Beckmann 2001; Edensor 2004; Merriman 2009a, b; Urry 2004), together with substantial critiques of its impacts on society and environment (Conley 2016; Dennis and Urry 2009). The late twentieth century has been characterised as the beginning of an age of hypermobility (Adams 1999), with the development of low-cost air travel from the 1980s adding significantly to the extent and impacts of population movements (Lyth 2016; Shaw and Thomas 2006). There is, thus, no shortage of research that charts the general development of mobility trends in Britain and elsewhere around the globe over the past two centuries (Dyos and Aldcroft 1969; Freeman and Aldcroft 1991; Ville and Kearney 1990), but much less attention has been paid to the voices of past

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travellers themselves. In this volume, we seek to fill this gap by using personal accounts to reveal more about mobility in the past. Life writing can take many different forms. Probably the most common, and certainly the most readily available, is the autobiography or life history. These were usually written in older age, looking back over a lifetime, and with the intention of not only documenting a life history but also in many cases of setting the record straight from the point of view of the author. Men were much more likely to write their life history than women—possibly because they believed that their lives had been more significant and important. This was especially the case for men who had been at all prominent in public life (Hewitt 2006; Naussbaum Olney 1988; Sherman 2005; Smyth 2016). Many such autobiographies have been published and are thus readily available to researchers (Burnett 1994; Burnett and Burnett 2013; Burnett et  al. 1984; Falke 2013; Vincent 1981). They have been used in a wide range of historical studies (Delap 2011; Griffin 2013; Humphries 2010), but are of only limited use for the study of mobility because, by their nature, they tend to deal with the larger themes of a life and pay little attention to day-to-day activities such as routine travel. It is also likely that memories of seemingly trivial everyday mobilities would have faded by the time a life history was written late in life. What is needed are collections of material that document everyday life as it happened. Such sources are much more likely to record the mundane events, including daily travel, that are most likely to be forgotten or overlooked in a document written later in life. Letters can provide such information, although they are much less likely to survive or to be readily available than other forms of life writing, and it is also rare to be able to see both sides of a correspondence. However, where they do survive, they can provide insights into many aspects of everyday life (Barton and Hall 2000; Cancian 2021; Damiano 2017; Laxton 2000). By far the most detailed accounts of everyday travel are likely to be provided by personal diaries that were written up daily (or at least regularly). These form the basis of most of the analysis presented in this volume, and the nature of the diary in all its forms is considered in detail in Chap. 2. For the more recent past, oral history is the other source that can be used to probe a wide range of aspects of everyday life. However, unlike diaries, oral histories will always be dependent on both the memory of the respondent and the skills of the interviewer. In particular, and as with autobiographies, it is likely that at least some of the less memorable everyday activities are forgotten.

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There is also a risk that memories become coloured and shaped by later experiences and information. There is a substantial literature on the strengths and weaknesses of oral history (Perks 1995; Ritchie 2015; Thompson 2017), and some excellent examples of the use of oral history techniques to explore different aspects of everyday life (Dorfman et  al. 2009; Roberts 1984; Summerfield 1998; Winstanley 1978).

1.5  The Aims and Organisation of the Book The principal aims of this volume are to use personal diary writing to understand more about the extent, nature and experience of individual mobility in the past. It will examine change over time including analysis of the ways in which travellers engaged with evolving technologies, and will assess variations in transport use and mobility experiences between different groups within society, placing key emphasis on factors of gender, location, class, life cycle and journey purpose. All the diarists lived in Britain in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, none had a public profile during the span of their diary, and none of the diaries used were intended for publication at the time they were written. By focusing on the words of past travellers, we can explore the day-to-day experiences of travel in much more depth than is possible from the use of other historical sources. Following this introductory chapter, we provide a detailed evaluation of diaries as a historical source, noting their strengths and limitations, especially with regard to the study of mobility and the development of mobility theories. We also explain the ways in which we accessed and selected diaries to use, and we provide examples of the range of diaries studied and the variations of style and detail that they contained. A full list of diarists, with brief biographies, is provided in an appendix. There are many ways in which a book such as this can be organised. Conventionally, perhaps, we would approach the topic by examining change over time or by different transport modes. In contrast, after a brief evaluation of changes in mobility and the limitations of diaries for this approach, we have chosen to tackle the material thematically, in order to focus on the different factors that structured mobility and the ways in which it was incorporated in and contributed to everyday life. Our discussion of longitudinal change (Chap. 3) focuses on the difficulties of making such comparisons using diary sources, and the ways in which changes in technology, society, economy and personal norms or preferences shifted and influenced everyday mobility. This provides

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further context against which the remainder of the analysis can be set. Chapter 4 focuses on location. As well as when, where diarists lived mattered in terms of the types of transport network available and the need to travel daily. We examine what the diaries tell us about geographical variations from one part of the country to another, and how these affected the lives of diarists. However, the opportunity for, and need of, mobility can change quite markedly over a life course. Children and the very elderly usually have the most limited mobility, but many other factors such as family formation, work commitments and retirement can impact upon the modes and frequency of travel. Chapter 5 uses the diaries to explore such life course shifts in mobility. Importantly, men and women often have very different experiences of everyday travel. In a traditional male-dominated household structure it is likely that men would need to travel more for work and other activities, with most women confined closer to home. Women also may fear harassment or other inconveniences when travelling, thus influencing their mobility choices. Chapter 6 examines such issues through the words of selected female diarists. Travel costs money, and Chap. 7 uses diary evidence to assess the ways in which access to resources influenced the mobility choices and experiences of travellers. Inequalities in access to transport are of long standing and the evidence from diaries can provide a fresh historical perspective on this topic. How someone feels about a journey, and the transport modes that are chosen, frequently depend on a journey’s purpose. Chapter 8 explores these issues using diary evidence, for instance by comparing the mundane and routine daily trips to work or school with less frequent outings that may encompass an element of excitement or romance. However, not everyone is highly mobile, so in Chap. 9 we examine aspects of immobility. What were the reasons why people travelled little, or not at all, and how did this affect their everyday lives? Most often immobility is caused by illness or disability, but extensive commitments in the home or social control within a household can also restrict movement. Finally, in Chap. 10, we draw together the main themes of the book. We provide an overall assessment of diaries as a source for the study of historical mobility, and we consider the implications of our research findings for contemporary transport policy and mobility studies.

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References Abernethy, S. 2015. Opening up the suburbs: workmen’s trains in London 1860–1914. Urban History 42: 70–88. Adams, J. 1999. The social implications of hypermobility. In OECD workshop proceedings on the economic and social implications of sustainable transportation, 95–134. Paris: OECD. Adey, P. 2016. Emergency mobilities. Mobilities 11: 32–48. ———. 2017. Mobility. London: Taylor & Francis. Adey, P., D.  Bissell, K.  Hannam, P.  Merriman, and M.  Sheller, eds. 2014. The Routledge handbook of mobilities. London: Routledge. Adey, P., K. Hannam, M. Sheller, and D. Tyfield. 2021. Pandemic (Im)mobilities. Mobilities 16: 1–19. Austen, B. 1981. The impact of the mail coach on public coach Services in England and Wales, 1784–1840. The Journal of Transport History 2: 25–38. Barton, D., and N. Hall, eds. 2000. Letter writing as a social practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. Beckmann, J. 2001. Automobility—A social problem and theoretical concept. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 19: 593–607. Birtchnell, T., and M.  Büscher. 2011. Stranded: An eruption of disruption. Mobilities 6: 1–9. Black, C., A.  Collins, and M.  Snell. 2001. Encouraging walking: The case of journey-­to-school trips in compact urban areas. Urban Studies 38: 1121–1141. Brown, L., and E. Moore. 1970. The intra-urban migration process: A perspective. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 52: 1–13. Burnett, J., ed. 1994. Useful toil: Autobiographies of working people from the 1820s to the 1920s. London: Routledge. Burnett, P., and J.  Burnett. 2013. Destiny obscure: Autobiographies of childhood, education and family from the 1820s to the 1920s. London: Routledge. Burnett, J., D.  Vincent, and D.  Mayall. 1984. The autobiography of the working class: 1790–1900. Brighton: Harvester. Camarero, L., and J.  Oliva. 2019. Thinking in rural gap: Mobility and social inequalities. Palgrave Communications 5: 1–7. Cancian, S., ed. 2021. With your words in my hands. The letters of Antoinetta Petris and Loris Palma. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press. Carlson, M. 2018. Facebook in the news: Social media, journalism, and public responsibility following the 2016 trending topics controversy. Digital Journalism 6: 4–20. Cass, N., and J.  Faulconbridge. 2017. Satisfying everyday mobility. Mobilities 12: 97–115.

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Dorfman, L., E. Méndez, and J. Osterhaus. 2009. Stress and resilience in the oral histories of rural older women. Journal of Women & Aging 21: 303–316. Dyos, H.J. 1953. Workmen’s fares in South London, 1860–1914. The Journal of Transport History 1: 3–19. Dyos, H.J., and D. Aldcroft. 1969. British transport: An economic survey from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. Leicester: Leicester University Press. Edensor, T. 2004. Automobility and national identity: Representation, geography and driving practice. Theory, Culture & Society 21: 101–120. Enloe, C. 2011. The mundane matters. International Political Sociology 5: 447–450. Errázuriz, T. 2011. When walking became serious: Reshaping the role of pedestrians in Santiago, 1900–1931. The Journal of Transport History 32: 39–65. Evans, A., and J.  Gough. 2017. The impact of the railway on society in Britain: Essays in honour of Jack Simmons. London: Routledge. Falke, C. 2013. Literature by the working class. English autobiographies, 1820–1848. Amherst: Cambria Press. Faulconbridge, J., and A. Hui. 2016. Traces of a mobile field: Ten years of mobilities research. Mobilities 11: 1–14. Fobker, S., and R. Grotz. 2006. Everyday mobility of elderly people in different urban settings: The example of the city of Bonn, Germany. Urban Studies 43: 99–118. Freeman, M. 1975. The stage-coach system of South Hampshire, 1775–1851. Journal of Historical Geography 1: 259–281. Freeman, M., and D.  Aldcroft, eds. 1991. Transport in Victorian Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Gager, D. 2021. Trains, lanes and spatial planes: The evolution of railway commuting into London 1840–1914. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of London. Galviz-Lopez, C. 2019. Cities, railways, modernities: London, Paris, and the nineteenth century. London: Routledge. Gatrell, P. 2019. The unsettling of Europe: The great migration, 1945 to the present. London: Allen Lane. Griffin, E. 2013. Liberty’s dawn: A people’s history of the industrial revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press. Gunn, S. 2013. People and the car: The expansion of automobility in urban Britain, c. 1955–70. Social History 38: 220–237. Hannam, K., M. Sheller, and J. Urry. 2006. Mobilities, immobilities and moorings. Mobilities 1: 1–22. Harris, S. 2020. This is the one exercise that’s getting me through the pandemic. Self. https://www.self.com/story/daily-­walk. Accessed 3 Mar 2021. Hewitt, M. 2006. Diary, autobiography and the practice of life history. In life writing and Victorian culture, ed. D. Amigoni, 21–39. London: Routledge.

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Hoerder, D. 2002. Cultures in contact: World migrations in the second millennium. New York: Duke University Press. Humphries, J. 2010. Childhood and child labour in the British industrial revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kane, H. 2001. Triumph of the mundane: The unseen trends that shape our lives and environment. Washington, DC: Island Press. Lawton, R. 1968. The journey to work in Britain: Some trends and problems. Regional Studies 2: 27–40. Laxton, P. 2000. Fighting for public health: Dr Duncan and his adversaries, 1847–63. In Body and city: Histories of public health, ed. S. Sheard and H. Power, 59–88. Abingdon: Routledge. Lee, I., and D.  Buchner. 2008. The importance of walking to public health. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 40: S512–S518. Livesey, R. 2011. Communicating with Jane Eyre: Stagecoach, mail, and the Tory nation. Victorian Studies 53: 615–638. ———. 2016. Writing the stagecoach nation: Locality on the move in nineteenth-­ century British literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Löfgren, O. 2008. Motion and emotion: Learning to be a railway traveller. Mobilities 3: 331–351. Lyons, M. 2010. A new history from below? The writing culture of ordinary people in Europe. History Australia 7: 591–599. Lyth, P. 2016. Plane crazy Brits: Aeromobility, climate change and the British traveller. In Transport policy: Learning lessons from history, ed. C. Divall, J. Hine, and C. Pooley, 171–184. London: Routledge. Männistö-Funk, T. 2021. The gender of walking: Female pedestrians in street photographs 1890–1989. Urban History 48: 227–247. Mattioli, G. 2014. Where sustainable transport and social exclusion meet: Households without cars and car dependence in Great Britain. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 16: 379–400. ———. 2017. “Forced car ownership” in the UK and Germany: Socio-spatial patterns and potential economic stress impacts. Social Inclusion 5: 147–160. Merriman, P. 2006. ‘Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre’: Assembling and governing the motorway driver in late 1950s Britain. The Sociological Review 54: 75–92. ———. 2009a. Driving spaces: A cultural-historical geography of England’s M1 motorway. Oxford: Blackwell. ———. 2009b. Automobility and the geographies of the car. Geography Compass 3: 586–599. ———. 2012. Mobility, space and culture. London: Routledge. Merriman, P., and L.  Pearce. 2017. Mobility and the humanities. Mobilities 12: 493–508.

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Messing, S., and S. Westwood. 2014. Selective exposure in the age of social media: Endorsements trump partisan source affiliation when selecting news online. Communication Research 41: 1042–1063. Miller, M., and S. Castles. 2009. The age of migration: International population movements in the modern world. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Min, S. 2019. From algorithmic disengagement to algorithmic activism: Charting social media users’ responses to news filtering algorithms. Telematics and Informatics 43: 101251. Moch, L. 2003. Moving Europeans: Migration in western Europe since 1650. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Mom, G. 2003. What kind of transport history did we get? Half a century of JTH and the future of the field. The Journal of Transport History 24: 121–138. ———. 2014. Atlantic automobilism: Emergence and persistence of the car, 1895–1940. New York: Berghahn Books. ———. 2015. The crisis of transport history: A critique, and a vista. Mobility in History 6: 7–19. Moraglio, M., M. Bess, G. De Block, M. Esbester, V. Fava, and D. Zunino Singh. 2020. More theory, please: Call for papers “Building Transport History Ontologies”. The Journal of Transport History 41: 131–133. Morris, J., and A. Hardman. 1997. Walking to health. Sports Medicine 23: 306–332. Naussbaum, F., and J. Olney, eds. 1988. Studies in autobiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Newman, L., and A. Dale. 2009. In praise of mundane nature: The unsung nature in alleyways and backyards plays an important--and undervalued--role in urban lives. Alternatives Journal 35: 32–36. Norton, P. 2021. Persistent pedestrianism: Urban walking in motor age America, 1920s–1960s. Urban History 48: 266–289. Nutley, S. 1996. Rural transport problems and non-car populations in the USA: A UK perspective. Journal of Transport Geography 4: 93–106. O’Connell, S. 1998. The car and British society: Class, gender and motoring, 1896–1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ———. 2007. Motoring and modernity. In Twentieth century Britain. Economic, cultural and social change, ed. F.  Carnevali and J.-M.  Strange, 111–126. Harlow: Pearson. Office for National Statistics. 2021. Census. https://www.ons.gov.uk/census. Accessed 2 Nov 2021. Pearce, L. 2016. Drivetime: Literary excursions in automotive consciousness. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ———. 2017. ‘Driving-as-Event’: Re-thinking the car journey. Mobilities 12: 585–597. Perks, R. 1995. Oral history: Talking about the past. London: Historical Association.

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Peters, P., S.  Kloppenburg, and S.  Wyatt. 2010. Co-ordinating passages: Understanding the resources needed for everyday mobility. Mobilities 5: 349–368. Pooley, C. 2016. Mobility, transport and social inclusion: Lessons from history. Social Inclusion 4: 100–109. ———. 2017a. Connecting historical studies of transport, mobility and migration. The Journal of Transport History 38: 251–259. ———. 2017b. Mobility, migration and transport: Historical perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ———. 2017c. Travelling through the city: Using life writing to explore individual experiences of urban travel c1840–1940. Mobilities 12: 598–609. ———. 2021a. Walking spaces: Changing pedestrian practices in Britain since c. 1850. The Journal of Transport History 42: 227–246. ———. 2021b. On the street in nineteenth-century London. Urban History 48: 211–226. Pooley, C., and M. Pooley. 2015. “Mrs Harvey came home from Norwich ... Her pocket picked at the station and all her money stolen”: Using life writing to recover the experience of travel in the past. Journal of Migration History 1: 54–74. ———. 2021. Young women on the move: Britain c1880–1950. Social Science History 45: 495–517. Pooley, C., and J.  Turnbull. 1998. Migration and mobility in Britain since the eighteenth century. London: UCL Press. ———. 1999. The journey to work: A century of change. Area 31: 281–292. Pooley, C., J. Turnbull, and M. Adams. 2005a. The journey to school in Britain since the 1940s: Continuity and change. Area 37: 43–53. ———. 2005b. “...Everywhere she went I had to tag along beside her”: Family, life course and everyday mobility in England since the 1940s’. The History of the Family: An International Quarterly 10: 119–136. ———. 2005c. A mobile century? Changes in everyday mobility in Britain in the twentieth century. Aldershot: Ashgate. ———. 2006. The impact of new transport technologies on intra-urban mobility: A view from the past. Environment and Planning A 38: 253–267. Pooley, C., D. Whyatt, M. Walker, G. Davies, P. Coulton, and W. Bamford. 2010. Understanding the school journey: Integrating data on travel and environment. Environment and Planning A 42: 948–965. Pooley, C., M. Emanuel, T. Männistö-Funk, P. Norton, and P. 2021. Introduction: Historical perspectives on pedestrians and the city. Urban History 48: 204–210. Pouso, S., A. Borja, L. Fleming, E. Gómez-Baggethun, M. White, M. Uyarra, and M. 2021. Contact with blue-green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown beneficial for mental health. Science of the Total Environment 756: 143984. Revill, G. 2013. Railway. London: Reaktion Books.

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Ritchie, D. 2015. Doing oral history. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Roberts, E. 1984. A woman’s place: An oral history of working-class women 1890–1940. Oxford: Blackwell. Schivelbusch, W. 1977. The railway journey: The industrialisation of time and space in the nineteenth century. Leamington Spa: Berg. Schmucki, B. 2012a. Against “the Eviction of the Pedestrian” The Pedestrians’ Association and walking practices in Urban Britain after World War II. Radical History Review 2012: 113–138. ———. 2012b. “If I Walked on my Own at Night I Stuck to Well Lit Areas.” Gendered spaces and urban transport in 20th century Britain. Research in Transportation Economics 34: 74–85. Seamon, D. 1979. A geography of the lifeworld: Movement, rest and encounter. London: Croom Helm. Shaw, J., and M.  Hesse. 2010. Transport, geography and the ‘new’ mobilities. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35: 305–312. Shaw, S., and C. Thomas. 2006. Discussion note: Social and cultural dimensions of air travel demand: Hyper-mobility in the UK? Journal of Sustainable Tourism 14: 209–215. Sheller, M. 2004. Automotive emotions: Feeling the car. Theory, Culture & Society 21: 221–242. ———. 2018. Mobility justice: The politics of movement in an age of extremes. London: Verso. ———. 2020. Ten years of transfers: Mobility studies and social change during a pandemic. Transfers 10: 22–34. Sheller, M., and J. Urry. 2006. The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A 38: 207–226. ———. 2016. Mobilizing the new mobilities paradigm. Applied Mobilities 1: 10–25. Sherman, S. 2005. Diary and autobiography. In The Cambridge history of English literature, 1660–1780, ed. J. Richetti, 623–648. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Simmons, J. 1968. Changing residence in the city: A review of intraurban mobility. Geographical Review 58: 622–651. Smith, J. 2005. Dangerous news: Media decision making about climate change risk. Risk Analysis: An International Journal 25: 1471–1482. Smyth, A., ed. 2016. A history of English autobiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Summerfield, P. 1998. Reconstructing women’s wartime lives: Discourse and subjectivity in oral histories of the Second World War. Manchester University Press. Thompson, P. 2017. The voice of the past: Oral history. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Turnock, D. 2016. An historical geography of railways in Great Britain and Ireland. London: Routledge.

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CHAPTER 2

The Value of Diary Writing

2.1   What Is a Diary? There is a substantial literature on diaries and their use in historical research (Fothergill 1974; Hewitt 2006; Lejeune 2009; Moran 2015; Naussbaum 1988; Ponsonby 1923; Sherman 2005; Steinitz 2011). In this section we draw on this material, but mainly reflect on our own experience of working with a large collection of diaries. Diaries can take many forms and may be written for a variety of different purposes. The most common diary is a simple appointment diary, in which the diarist records basic facts about day-to-day engagements. We have probably all used such a diary. These are also likely to be the most ephemeral diaries, possibly discarded after a year or two, and they provide little relevant information for research. An entry that simply says ‘12.00 - See Jane’ is not very informative for anyone other than the author. Diaries may also be used to record only specialist information of relevance to the diarist. For instance, an athlete may keep a training diary to record a log of their training and competitive performances. Again, this is of use only to the athlete or, possibly, to a researcher examining the effectiveness of different training regimes. Yet another example of a specialist diary might be written by someone with a fluctuating chronic health condition (such as ME),1 where the diarist may  Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). See NHS: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-cfs/ 1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_2

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keep a daily record of how they feel, together with factors such as diet, exercise or weather which may influence the condition. Though diagnostically valuable, such a diary has only specialist uses. The most useful diaries for the historical researcher, and all those referred to in this volume, were written with a deliberate aim of recording at least some of the day-to-day events that the diarist encountered. However, even within this genre there are differences of approach and purpose, all of which affect the utility of a diary. Politicians and others in public life often keep a daily record of their activities with the intention of publishing at least extracts from their diaries at some point in their careers. There are many such examples in recent British political history, including those from Tony Benn (2013), Edwina Currie (2012), Richard Crossman (1979) and Barbara Castle (1980). Although such diaries provide intriguing insights into the political machinations of the time, and in some cases the personal lives of the diarists, the fact that they have been knowingly written with a view to later publication in some form (often edited and abridged) means that they must be interpreted with caution. The messages conveyed in political diaries are those that the diarist wanted their readers to hear and, in some cases at least, are intended to justify past political actions. Some literary figures also write personal diaries destined for publication from the start, and which can become an important part of their literary canon. For instance, the English playwright Alan Bennett has published extracts from his diaries in the London Review of Books every year since 1983, with many now also published in book form (Bennett 2008, 2016). Other celebrated literary diarists include (among many others) Virginia Woolf (1982) and Sylvia Plath (2007), together with historical diarists such as Daniel Defoe (2001) and Samuel Pepys (1987) who lived through and recorded significant (often traumatic) events.2 Although such diaries are usually very personal in nature, revealing the inner thoughts and fears of the diarists, like political diaries they were in most cases written with a view to publication and thus are crafted for an audience, and must be read through this lens. The same constraints also apply (but to a lesser extent) to the diaries written by ­participants in the Mass Observation surveys of the twentieth century. Participants were asked to write a record of their daily life, but they were aware that these would be seen by those who compiled the archive and 2  The references relate to the date of the edition consulted and not the date of original publication.

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thus may well have applied a considerable degree of self-censorship (Gazeley and Langhamer 2013; Hinton 2010; Hubble 2006; Langhamer 2016; University of Sussex 2015). While the published diaries of writers, politicians and others with a public profile can be of great value to historians, in this book we focus only on diaries that were, at the time, written purely for personal use. These are the day-to-day diaries that many people keep at some stage of their lives, often carefully guarded from the eyes of others, and used to record a combination of routine activities and, in some cases, inner thoughts, loves and fears. Many such diaries have been destroyed (often deliberately by the diarist), or simply lost over time, but many others have found their way into the homes of the diarist’s descendants or have been subsequently deposited in a public library or record office. They are mostly handwritten and usually remain unpublished unless a relative or researcher later decides that they are of sufficient interest to transcribe and publish in some form. They are not always easy to locate and can be very difficult to read, especially if the condition of the diary has deteriorated over time. Most crucially, they were never written with a view to publication and thus are not seeking to convey a particular message to a reader. Indeed, in most cases they were designed to be read only by the diarist. This does not mean that they necessarily provide a full or accurate account of daily life, but it is unlikely that omissions and perspectives have been deliberately designed to create an impression on a future reader. Of course, it is impossible ever to know precisely what was omitted from any personal diary. Personal diaries can take many different physical forms. A simple pocket appointments diary with a pre-printed calendar is likely to have limited space for extensive entries, although some diarists we have studied managed to cram a remarkable amount of information into such spaces: the very cramped writing and even whole sentences that sprawl up the margins can make these rather hard to read. The diarist who intended to chronicle their life in more detail often chose a large-format pre-printed diary, some with a page a day for entries, or in other cases simply used a notebook of any size in which the diarist could determine the length of any entry for a given day. These are usually easier to read, although sometimes dates can become muddled if the diarist has not recorded them sufficiently fully. In the twenty-first century, diary writers may record their activities in digital form. This may be done for purely personal use with a word processing programme, or for some degree of wider consumption on a social media platform or internet blog. Access to these accounts may be restricted to

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friends and family or may be designed for a wider audience, in which case they have many of the same characteristics as literary or political diaries that have been crafted to be read by others. In general, however, most personal diaries were designed to be kept very private and some even included a locking mechanism to keep them from prying eyes. A potential ethical dilemma for the researcher is created in instances where a personal diary states clearly at the start that it is private and not to be read by anyone other than the author. All the diaries we have consulted either have been deposited in archives (usually by a descendant) and are open for public access, or they have been given directly to the authors with permission to use for research. We therefore take the view that it is legitimate to read these diaries and to quote from them. Not everyone kept a personal diary and there is no way of knowing exactly who did chronicle their everyday activities in diary form. What we do know comes solely from the diaries that have survived and have been selected (by the diarist or by relatives) to be deposited in a public archive, or to be made available in some other way. Based on this sample of an unknown number of all possible diaries, it can be said that personal diaries were most frequently kept by young women, from their adolescent years until marriage and family formation. These diaries also tend to provide the fullest and most discursive accounts of everyday life. Men did write diaries, but those diaries that survive tend to have more concise and factual entries than many of the diaries written by women. For both men and women, the acquisition of family responsibilities and/or a busy working life tended to reduce the likelihood of daily diary writing: sometimes a diary will continue but with long gaps, or it may be kept only on specific occasions such as during a holiday or a long journey. Fundamentally, diary writing depends on literacy (and associated education), but also on the leisure time to sit and write diary entries. The regular diarist most usually completed the task each evening, some noting if there had been a gap in daily entries with material written up later. As a result of these constraints, there are far fewer surviving diaries from poorer families, with a distinct skew towards those written by men and women in the middle classes and above. Thus, information taken from diaries can never be claimed to be a representative sample of any population as we do not know either the total population of diarists or the nature of the sample. Each diary must be read on its own terms and should be seen as just one of many possible accounts of daily life. It is on this basis that the diaries used for our research have been interpreted. The reasons why someone chose to keep a diary can also be obscure, although we may be given clues. Appointment diaries have an obvious

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practical use, and occasionally a diarist will give some explanation of why they chose to record their everyday activities. For instance, in 1884 Elizabeth Lee (then age 15) wrote at the start of her diary: Last year I took it into my head to write a ‘Diary’; so I began on the 14th of January last, in an old exercise book. Papa gave me this Diary for a present, on this New Year’s day 1884, so I thought I would write down the principal events out of my old Diary of last year, in this.3

It is likely that Elizabeth had been encouraged to keep a diary by a parent or teacher, a motivation apparent in another example from our dataset. Betty Charnley began to write a diary age 13 in 1942. Her first diary was written in a school exercise book, and she gives no reason for starting to write. However, one of us was able to interview Betty before she died in 2018, and she confirmed that her schoolteacher had encouraged Betty to start keeping a diary shortly before she left school in 1942 so that she could continue to practise her writing. Betty then wrote a daily diary every year until shortly before she died. However, such explicit statements of a motivation are rare, and in most cases the precise reasons for diary writing remain obscure. It can be suggested that in the past, young women may have started to write a personal diary as a means of finding an outlet for their inner-most thoughts and feelings, at a time when the lives of some women at least were quite constrained by the conventions of respectable Victorian and Edwardian life. However, it is hard to find any proof for such sentiments as there is little evidence in the female diaries that we have read that the women’s lives were unduly constrained. Indeed, for the most part they lived full and busy lives with a high degree of personal mobility and autonomy (Pooley and Pooley 2021). In contrast, it has been suggested that male diarists were more likely to keep a diary to boost or justify their actions, though most discussions of diary writing do focus mainly on female diary writing (Blauvelt and Blauvelt 2007; Davis 1987; Gillikin and Porter 1989; Hogan 1991; Hunter 1992; Kerber 1988). Men with a public profile may well have used their memoirs to justify past actions, and in the past men were certainly much more likely than women to have such a public profile. Inevitably, male diarists also recorded more factual entries 3  Diary of Elizabeth Lee (Pooley et al. 2010). This entry is undated and the first daily entry in this volume is for 16 April 1884. The 1883 diary to which she refers gives no information about why she began to write a diary.

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related to their employment, though there are examples of both male and female diarists who wrote in depth about their feelings, while others made only much sparser and more mundane entries. Although we sometimes have a long run of personal diaries spanning much of a lifetime, more often they only exist for a small number of years. Diarist only rarely stated explicitly why they ceased keeping a diary, and often we may simply have random survivals possibly from a longer run of diaries. However, sometimes reasons can be inferred if the end of a run of diaries coincides with an event such as marriage, a residential move, a perceived transition to a new life stage, or serious illness. One such example comes from the diary of Gillian Caldwell (born 1937) whose surviving diaries run from 1952 to 1958. By August 1957, her diary entries were becoming increasingly sparse with gaps of several days at a time and only very brief notes for the whole of September. Previously, she had completed her diary assiduously every day. Gillian was clearly aware of this and on October 8 wrote: ‘I feel thoroughly ashamed that in my old age [she was almost 21] I am completely deserting my diary.’4 On October 23rd she again commented on her lack of diary entries and hinted at a reason for this: ‘Way behind as usual. The job of writing my diary seems to have disappeared except in odd sprints, presumably because as I am nearly always very happy there seems no point in commenting on it.’5 One function of Gillian’s diary writing seemed to be as a vehicle for offloading her emotions when she felt troubled. Sparse diary entries continued until the end of 1957 and she continued to feel guilty about her lack of devotion to the diary as shown by her entry for December 1st: ‘This is the only way I can think to redeem myself – I must keep this up until the end of the year.’6 The final diary entry occurred on January 3rd 1958 on the occasion of her 21st birthday: ‘[the party] went on till about three in the morning & [I] went to bed on the crest of a wave’.7 Although not explicitly stated, it seems as if Gillian felt that becoming 21 meant a transition to full adult life and that the need for the diary she had kept through her teenage years had gone. Unpublished personal diaries can be found in many different locations. An unknown number remain in private hands and are likely to be 4  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, October 8, 1957. Bishopsgate Institute Archive (BIA), London, GDP/1. All names cited are the names used at the time of writing. This diary is catalogued under the diarist’s married name of Marsham even though the diary does not cover this period of her life. 5  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, October 23, 1957. BIA (GDP/1). 6  Ibid., October 23, 1957. 7  Ibid., January 3, 1958.

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encountered only through chance conversations. Others are scattered in county archives and libraries around the country and are not always easy to locate using readily available search facilities, as they may be hidden among a larger collection of personal papers. We have used some diaries held privately or from a variety of archives but have focused especially on material held in two large diary collections. The Edward Hall diary collection is held in Wigan archives and consists of over 200 items.8 Hall was born in 1898 and worked as a dealer in ancient manuscripts. During his lifetime, Hall amassed a large collection of personal diaries and related documents and he donated these to Wigan Archives at various times during the twentieth century. A small sample of his collection can be viewed online,9 but otherwise readers must book an appointment. The second large collection of diaries we used is held by the archive of the Bishopsgate Institute in London.10 This currently consists of 510 items with more being added as they become available. Most have come to the archive via the Great Diary Project which was started in 2007 by Dr Irving Finkel and Dr Polly North, two enthusiastic collectors of personal diaries, with the aim of encouraging the deposit of personal diaries for public access. The Great Diary Project currently has some 11,000 unpublished diaries which since 2009 have begun to be deposited and catalogued at the Bishopsgate archive.11 Not all the material in these two collections is relevant to our research on mobility, but both archives do provide a rich seam of material for anyone wishing to use personal diaries for research purposes. Finally, it must be re-emphasised that diaries are very different from autobiographies and memoirs. Diaries mostly have an immediacy that accounts written later in life do not, and thus they are much more likely to record the mundane features of everyday mobility. Letters can provide contemporary accounts of everyday activities, but large collections of letters are rare except for those of some prominent public figures. We have used one letter book held in Wigan archives in our research.

8  Wigan Archives are located in Leigh (Lancashire): https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/ Museums-archives/Wigan-Archives/index.aspx 9   Edward Hall diary collection: https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Museums-­ archives/Wigan-Archives/Collections/People-and-families/Edward-Hall-diar y-­ collection.aspx 10  Bishopsgate Institute archive: https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/archives 11  Great Diary Project: https://www.thegreatdiaryproject.co.uk/

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2.2   What Can Diaries Contribute to Mobility Studies? The literature on different aspects of spatial mobility is large and expanding all the time, but the overwhelming focus of this research is on contemporary mobility issues. Historical perspectives are much more limited and usually focus primarily on either residential migration (especially international migration) or on transport history.12 There are a number of reasons for this. As outlined above, information on past mobilities can be hard to find, whereas the range of methods used by contemporary mobility researchers including accompanied journeys, in-depth interviews and ethnographic approaches allows present-day everyday mobility experiences to be examined in depth and from a variety of perspectives. From a theoretical perspective most mobility studies have utilised at least some aspects of the ‘new mobility paradigm’ developed by Sheller and Urry (2006). One aspect of this is to argue that high levels of spatial mobility of people, goods and information is a distinctive aspect of modern society, with the implication that this is in some way different from past mobilities. Not surprisingly, this has encouraged research cast within a mobilities framework to focus mainly on the present or very recent past. It might also be argued that the study of contemporary mobility is a more pressing and relevant issue than that of past mobilities, as it can contribute directly to current transport planning and policy development. In this book, we challenge all three of these assumptions. First, we demonstrate that by using life writing, and especially personal diaries, it is possible to reconstruct many aspects of everyday mobility from the past. Second, we argue that although travel was often slower than today, levels of mobility were high and that the extent and nature of everyday mobility for most people, most of the time, was similar to the mobility experiences revealed by contemporary research. Third, we argue that although there have been substantial shifts in transport technologies, understanding past mobilities can inform present-day transport planning and policy. In these ways, we extend the range and scope of mobility studies to engage more fully with historical research on all aspects of population movement. 12  See, for instance, contributions to The Journal of Migration History and The Journal of Transport History. For one notable exception see contributions to the journal Transfers, which links both historical and contemporary approaches to mobility in an international context.

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In doing this, we draw inspiration from the relatively small number of researchers that have applied aspects of mobility theory to past societies. Tim Cresswell (1999, 2001, 2006) has pioneered historical approaches to mobility studies both through his research on the movements of marginalised groups such as his study of tramps in the United States between the 1870s and the 1930s, and his more wide-ranging book on historical and contemporary mobilities On the Move. Peter Merriman’s work on the material cultures of Britain’s M6 motorway and the driving practices of motorists in the 1950s and 1960s also engages directly with contemporary mobility theory and demonstrates its relevance to past mobilities (Merriman 2005, 2006, 2009). In doing so, he has substantially extended the scope and application of mobility theories. More recently, Lambert and Merriman (2020) have edited a collection of essays on mobility and empire, and their introduction provides a particularly effective overview of historical mobility studies. Transport historians such as Gijs Mom and Colin Divall (among others) have also begun to engage with mobility theories and have stimulated debate about the future direction of transport history in the context of other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities (Divall 2011, 2014: Divall and Revill 2005; Merriman et al. 2013; Mom 2015; Moraglio 2017). However, for the most part migration historians have been relatively slow to engage directly either with transport or mobility studies. Leslie Page Moch’s work on migration in Europe (including Russia) is one notable exception (Moch 2003; Siegelbaum and Moch 2015), and Caroline Brettell and James Hollifield (2014) provide a good introduction to interdisciplinary migration theory in their edited volume, but few studies have explicitly linked migration history to both mobility and transport history (Pooley 2017a, b). Historical research can only take place if relevant sources are available. This has led to a focus on the mobility of particular groups and on population movements in unusual circumstances. For instance, many marginal groups came into contact with the law, and from records of these encounters it can be possible to trace their mobility and the unequal power structures that often constrained them. For instance, Catherine Coleborne’s studies of vagrancy in New Zealand and Australia have clearly demonstrated the ways in which vagrants were constrained and marginalised in their mobility by the legal framework of the state (Coleborne 2015, 2020; Coleborne and O’Connor 2020). However, most people left no official record of their everyday mobility, but an unusual mobility event (such as a mass evacuation), or migration during wartime, more often led to detailed reports and contemporary analyses (Reinisch and White 2011; Young

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2014; Yuh 2005). Elite mobilities may also have attracted more attention than movements of the poor; for instance, those who had access to a car in the early years of motoring were noted in journals and newspapers of the time (Mom 2014; O’Connell 1998; Pearce 2016). Tourist mobility can also leave records through hotel visitor books and, for international travel, passport registers, but such opportunities were only available to a small proportion of the population (Anderson 2010; Heafford 2006). In contrast, a personal diary that is completed daily can provide a detailed record of all those mundane moves that are rarely captured elsewhere. Although only some diaries will record almost all aspects of mobility (and we have no knowledge of what is omitted even from these), most diaries do allow insights into past mobilities that are hidden in most other sources. Not only do they allow the unexceptional and everyday to be revealed, but also they can demonstrate the ways in which these events helped to produce and shape most aspects of an individual’s life. For instance, they may allow the analysis of everyday commuting habits that are rarely recorded in historical documents, but which form such an essential feature of travel for many people today (Bissell 2018). Access to employment is often dependent on the ability to travel conveniently and cheaply to a work location, almost all social interaction requires mobility, and long-term friendships and courtship are usually dependent on the ability of one or more parties to travel. Indeed, many leisure activities can only take place if some degree of mobility is possible. Travel can also become the focus of social interaction, courtship and leisure. For instance, just going for a walk, a cycle ride or a drive may be intrinsic to simple everyday pleasures. By analysing accounts of mobility in the context of other diary entries, it is also possible to situate everyday travel within the context of the family and community. Mobility rarely affects only one person: it will to some extent implicate or impact upon other family members or other members of a community. The impacts of mobility on all family members are clearly demonstrated in a contemporary context by Clare Holdsworth (2013), but uncovering such connections even in the present is hard and discerning them for past mobilities is much more problematic (Murray and Cortés-Morales 2019; Pooley et  al. 2005). The role of mobility in facilitating (or limiting) romantic encounters and courtship is especially hard to uncover as most people are cautious about revealing such personal information. Pearce (2018, 2019) uses creative writing to explore this theme, and some of the female diarists we have studied also provide examples of the ways in which mobility provided opportunities for

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romance. Finally, immobility is a neglected aspect of population movement, although it is something that almost everyone experiences at certain periods of their life. In some instances, staying in one place can be a choice but in others it may imposed by external events or personal ill-health (Adey et al. 2021; Birtchnell and Büscher 2011; Bissell and Fuller 2011; Cresswell 2012; Doughty and Murray 2017). Personal diaries can provide insights into periods of immobility. In the following chapters, we draw on a large collection of diaries to examine many of these themes.

2.3  Selecting and Analysing the Diaries As stated in Chap. 1, there are many examples of personal diaries being used for historical research, but if the focus is on travel, in most instances this is a very particular form of mobility, usually a long and notable journey (Berbineau and Kilcup 2002; Butler 2006; Fairhead et  al. 2003; Hassam 1994). One rare example of everyday female travel in the past is Shiba’s (2012) study of early modern Japan. In this book, we focus on the mundane and everyday journeys that men and women made routinely in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain. In this section, we explain how we accessed and selected the material used, and the approaches that we adopted for analysis and interpretation of our data. We have gained access to diaries in a variety of ways. Some we sought out or found in existing archive collections, others came to us serendipitously. We first used diaries as a historical source when young researchers in the early 1970s. One of us (CGP) was working with Richard Lawton on an SSRC-funded project on the ‘Social Geography of Nineteenth-Century Liverpool’ (Lawton and Pooley 1974; Pooley and Lawton 1988). Although this project focused principally on the quantitative analysis of what was for the time a large set of census data, we also sought out personal accounts of life on Merseyside in the nineteenth century, and were given access to a small number of diaries. This combination of quantitative and qualitative data in historical research was relatively novel at the time (Lawton and Pooley 1975a, b), and two of the diaries we were given almost 50 years ago form part of this dataset. Since then, we have found diaries in various record offices, and in the 1990s generated some 13 further diaries and life histories through a project on residential migration in Britain since the eighteenth century (Pooley and Turnbull 1998). More recently, we have focused our attention on the large collections of diaries held in Wigan Archives and,

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especially, the Bishopsgate Institute Archive in London.13 This collection has provided the bulk of the material studied.14 While most of the documents studied are diaries that were usually written daily, we have included some life histories that were clearly compiled from diary or similar evidence, and which contain information about mobility. We also include one collection of letter books. The earliest diary used was written in 1804 (although two life histories cover earlier periods and were written up from diary entries in the mid-nineteenth century), and the most recent run of diaries ends in 2017. Of the 60 sets of diaries and life histories studied, 17 started before 1850, 20 were begun in the second half of the nineteenth century, 21 between 1901 and 1950, with just two series of diaries that started after 1950. Most diaries run to only a few volumes, with some covering only part of one year, but others can cover most of a lifetime, with the longest run we have read covering 75 years. In total (and excluding life histories), we have used diary entries that cover more than 620  years. We have read all these diaries and life histories, but we have not attempted to transcribe them all fully. This would have been an impossible task, and a combination of very difficult handwriting and the poor condition of many manuscript diaries meant that automatic conversion of text to a machine-readable version was not considered appropriate. We transcribed all sections of diaries relating to mobility, together with all associated contextual material so that travel could be set within an environmental, community and familial context. Analysis was undertaken manually through careful reading and focused searches of the material. Computer-based analysis was not considered appropriate because of the need, in some cases, to relate mobility events to contextual data that occurred much earlier in a diary (Rayson et al. 2017; Gregory et al. 2015; Murrieta-Flores et al. 2015). Summary details of all sources used are given in an appendix. The youngest diarists were aged 13 when they started writing and the oldest was 89 when she stopped. The majority of diary writers were relatively 13   Edward Hall collection, Wigan Archives: https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/ Museums-archives/Wigan-Archives/Collections/People-and-families/Edward-Hall-diary-­ collection.aspx; Great Diary Project collection, Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London: https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/collections 14  We had originally planned to consult several more diaries in the Bishopsgate Archive before writing this book, but with the prolonged closure of the archive from March 2020 due to the Covid19 pandemic we decided to work with the ample material we had already acquired.

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young with adolescent and young adult women writing the most detailed entries. It is very hard to assign a social class to the diarists but, based on their own occupation or that of their father or husband (if not employed themselves), most were broadly middle class with employment in manufacturing and/or retail trades, or in a profession. However, we do have a few diaries written either by a manual worker or by a member of their family, for example a tin miner in Cornwall and a gardener in Lincolnshire. At the other end of the social scale, a small number of our diarists were wealthy and lived off their private means. Here we provide more information about four of the young diarists studied to provide a flavour of the nature and diversity of the dataset. The commencement of diary writing at the age of about 13 seemed to be quite a common pattern for young boys and girls, possibly coinciding with the stage of life when they had recently left, or would soon be leaving, school. They may have been encouraged to keep a diary to maintain their writing skills. Not surprisingly, the diaries of very young writers were quite bland, with short entries recording basic facts of their everyday life. One of the earliest we have consulted is the diary of Charlotte Holtzapffel for 1813–14. Charlotte was born in London in February 1800 and lived with her parents and sister in Cockspur Street. Her father (who had been born in Strasbourg) was a mechanical engineer and toolmaker with premises in Long Acre. There are ten diary volumes in Wigan Archives. In 1831, Charlotte married William Boycott, a banker in London, but in 1847 she was widowed. Charlotte’s brief entries for August 1813 give a flavour of the contents of the diary and some insights to the nature of her life at that time. Like many 13-year-olds her mobility and range of other activities were limited, with a notable focus on food, especially ice cream, whilst apparently on holiday.15 August Wednesday 11th: I went to Mr Taylor’s to take my lessons. Took Julia with me, stayed to Tea and Mother came in the evening we left Mother behind she followed shortly after. Mr Deyerlein and Mr Flight supped with us, we received a parcel from Northstoke. Thursday 12: Mr and Mrs Heather took Tea and Supper with us. Miss Hallawell called in the evening. 13th: Father and Mother where invited to tea at Mr Heather’s but could not go.  In this section, the four diary extracts are reproduced almost exactly as in the original with no attempt to clarify spellings, but with some minor changes to layout and punctuation to improve clarity. In all other sections of the book the dates of quotes are given only in a footnote and some clarification of misspellings is given. 15

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14th: Nothing particular. 15th: I was to have gone to Mrs Smarts to tea, but my Father had engaged Mothers Uncle John Charles and me to go with him to Hanstead Heath. It was very pleasant. 16th: Mrs Taylor and Mr Suther dined with us. Mrs Taylor took tea. Mr Suther went home directly after diner. I went to Miss Smarts to Tea. 17th: Sally from Mrs Turrell called with the work box. Mother and Father and Mr Deyerlein went in the evening to Mr Suthers. 18th Wednesday: Mr and Mrs Heather and Mr Suther had tea with us, Father, Mr Suther, Mr Heather and Uncle went to Cumberland Gardens. Misses Miller called and in the evening Mr Miller called with his daughter and left her to sleep with me. 19th: Mother and Father went to Mrs Heather’s. Julia went home with Miss Miller to Mrs Suther’s and staid all day. 20: Mr R Bennet called in the evening. 21st: I went at 2 oclock with my Father to Sir John Stallbyn’s house in staffor place from the we went with sir John and Mrs Vinicobe to Woolmer’s in Hartford at 5 oclock, we arrived here at 8  in the evening it was very pleasant. 22 sun: After breakfast we all walked out till dinner time after dinner out again and tea at the summer house came home in the evening apricot ice. 23: the same as the preceding day. Mr Renolds came creem ice. 24: the same as before currant ice. 25: The same as before brown bread ice. 26: Fished before and after dinner caught none lemon ice. 27: working in the morning after dinner went to the summer house to tea Creen ice. 28: Walking in the morning tea at the summer house pineapple. 29: The same as before melon and Grap. 30: Mr Dodwell and his three daughters came in the afternoon. I fished caught one wrote to my mother grapes. 31: Out walking in the morning.16

The diary entries of the 17-year-old John Lee were very different, demonstrating a high degree of interest in his surroundings and his personal development, and also a higher degree of literacy. John Lee was born in Skipton (North Yorkshire) in 1842 and his surviving diary runs from 1859 to 1864 while he was working in a draper’s shop in East Lancashire but was also looking actively to develop his career. Lee began his entries for 1860 by stating ‘1860 Important year in my history in deciding for Good  Diary of Charlotte Holtzapffel, Wednesday August 11–Tuesday August 31, 1813. Edward Hall diary collection, Wigan Archives (WA), EHC/127. 16

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or Evil’,17 and his reflections on religion, his own beliefs and values, and self-improvement are not atypical of male diaries and autobiographies written in the nineteenth century (Heehs 2013). Lee’s entries for the last week of January 1860 give a flavour of the style and nature of diary writing that he adopted: January 22. Mr Townend and I took train to Rochdale and walked forward to High Crompton. After dinner we went down to Shaw & walked to Oldham It is a very large populous cotton town. Returned to Shaw in time for tea. Mr Townend preached this evening. As soon as the prayer meeting was over we came back to H.C. 23. Rose early and walked to Rochdale, intending to catch the first train, but we were just too late. Came on ‘shanks-galloway’ to Heywood, my feet were very sore with my gutta-percha shoes. 25. Began an evening class, called the ‘Young Men’s Self Improving Class’, at the Sunday School. Made a resolution that I would be more active and throw more interest into my business. I have been idle and disinterested lately. 27. After looking at the various Sects amongst the Dissenters; with my present views, I have determined to become a Wesleyan Methodist for life. Not as a member yet for the class has broken up. The Rev. Robt. G. Mason delivered a useful and interesting address in the Sunday School this afternoon. Wrote letters to Mr. Thompson and Mr. Sutcliffe. We had a very good united prayer meeting at our chapel at the close of the service. 30. Exceedingly stormy weather. Attended a lecture by the Rev. R.G.M. on Temperance and Health. I was made to see very clearly the great advantages arising from being tee-to-tle. I broke tee-to-tle last May, because I was so weak in health. Mr Dewsbury’s kept home-brewed beer & my friends advised me to take some to raise me. Now, thank God; I am better, but I don’t attribute it to the beer, far from it, it is the fresh air which I breathe, the change of air and diet &c. Therefore I am resolved to try this next month without taking any beer, if I find that my health continues the same, I will sign Te-to-tle for life, on or about the first of March. 31. Attended another lecture by  – Mason, which I did not think very interesting.18

Some 60 years later, the 17-year-old Annie Rudolph also used her diary to reflect on her everyday life, but in a very different style and with markedly different priorities. Annie was born in London in 1905, the daughter  Diary of John Lee, Sunday January 1, 1860 (authors’ collection).   Diary of John Lee, Sunday January 22–Tuesday January 31, 1860 (authors’ collection). 17 18

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of Jewish immigrants from Russian Poland.19 Her father was a tailor and second-hand clothes dealer and Annie helped in the family shop whilst also attending art and fashion design evening classes at a local college. Annie only kept a detailed (surviving) diary for the year 1923. Later volumes contain only occasional entries for major family events. Her diary is written as a continuous narrative with only rare reference to specific dates and some references back to earlier activities. It was most probably written up from an earlier diary, but this is not stated explicitly. Her diary is also peppered with little sketches, mostly of women in fashionable clothes, reflecting her interest in art and design. An entry for January 1923 is typical: Went to the club yesterday – I wanted to go to a dance but my friend had a bad cold. There was a concert there – bored me to tears. We didn’t stand it for long. A whole crowd of us cleared out together. We painted the high street red – also our lips – we felt mad I suppose that was because we had sat still all that time at the bally concert. Howsoever, we made up for it later. We went into Sam Isaacs. I didn’t really wanna, but the others did – we had some pomme de terre, fried, and cucumbers, sh. Then we went further for fresh fields to conquer. Found a Kosher place and went in for some fried ‘dofi’ on toast. Then we had some whipped cream walnuts. On the whole we punished our insides something terrific. We returned to the club, in time to hear the King saved. Then we went to one of the girls mansions where she set the Victoria going – we shimmied and foxtrotted till a late hour. I felt bad afterwards. Was it the things I had eaten or the four cigarettes I had smoked right off. **** I must go to Bye Bye now. It is cold sitting up in my pyjamas grooh …..20

Not all adolescent lives were as action-packed as Annie Rudolph’s appeared to be, and the diary entries of 17-year-old Betty Charnley in January 1946 provide insights into a much more sedate and routine lifestyle, with little sense of self-reflection. Betty grew up on a farm in upland north Lancashire and helped her parents on the farm and in the house. Her 1946 diary is written in a small notebook, but with each date clearly 19  In some documents the family name is Rudolf or Rudoff, but Annie uses the Anglicised version Rudolph. 20  Diary of Annie Rudolph, January 1923. BIA (GDP/31).

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demarcated. The first three days of the second week of January are typical and her routine varied little at weekends. Most activity was very local, with visits to relatives and friends or entertainment in the nearby village, and most travel was by bike or on foot but with occasional lifts in a car. Monday January 8th. Washed and got the clothes dry. Dad and Mother went to Preston in the car, they had a flat tyre when they came back to the car at Meriegolds. Jack Towers came. At night I ironed the clothes. Mother had intended going to the Dr’s but he was full up and she hadn’t time to wait. Tuesday January 9th. Mother baked bread, pie and cakes. I washed up and had our dinners. Then went with my Red Cross tin, it was 2 when I set off and 5 when I got home. Didn’t do anything much at night. Wednesday January 10th. Cleaned up after dinner. I went to Bedlham called at Clough as I was going, Grandad wasn’t in when I got there so I never saw him. I went from there to Dick Baines for a new bike chain and he put it on, saw Lillian at Hesketh Lane when I was coming home, and was talking to her a bit, not long, called at Clough again when I was coming home, did my sewing, then went to Core to see if I could ride with them and I could, came home and got ready and was at our gate at 7.40. It was the Institute dance and Core playing, there was’nt many there, there were some soldiers there, it was snowing when we came out of Oddfellows Hall and it snowed all the way home. It was 12.15 when I got in and I went straight to bed. Mother and Dad were both in bed.21

Further information about individual diarists studied will be given as they are referred to in later chapters, and this will be used to provide context for the analysis of everyday mobilities. Personal diaries are a very distinctive form of writing and none of the diaries referred to in this research were written with any intention of publication. They are also all very different, each one reflecting not only the location and time in which the diarist lived, but also shaped by their age, lifestyle and personality. In the following analysis, we seek to draw out similarities where they occur, but also to emphasise the uniqueness of each individual’s experiences. It must also be re-emphasised that no diary is a complete record of a life, and that we have no knowledge of what the diarist chose to omit. Indeed, there may be no pattern to such decisions as they could simply reflect the 21  Diary of Betty Charnley, Monday January 8–Wednesday January 10, 1946 (authors’ collection).

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priorities of the diarist at the time. Finally, it is also important to stress that qualitative data sources such as diaries cannot be used to generalise about a larger population. They provide important insights into individual experiences, but it cannot be assumed that they necessarily represent patterns of behaviour in any larger population. The photographs (Figs. 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5., 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 and 2.10) that follow this chapter represent a small selection of the diaries and diarists that have been studied, and the map (Fig.  2.11) locates a selection of the places most frequently referred to in the text.

Fig. 2.1  The diary of Elizabeth Lee, July 1889. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Joyce Roberts, reproduced with permission)

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Fig. 2.2  The Lee family, 1892. John Lee, seated, centre; Elizabeth Lee, standing, centre back. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Joyce Roberts, reproduced with permission)

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Fig. 2.3  Elizabeth Lee, February 1890. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Joyce Roberts, reproduced with permission)

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Fig. 2.4  The diary of Freda Smith, December 1908. (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/99). Reproduced with permission of the archive)

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Fig. 2.5.  The diary of Annie Rudolf (Rudoff), December 1923. (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/31). Reproduced with permission of the archive)

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Fig. 2.6  Annie Rudolph (Rudoff), undated (c.1920). (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/31). Reproduced with permission of the archive)

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Fig. 2.7  Annie Rudolph (Rudoff) with her father and brother outside their shop, undated (c.1920). (Source: Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London, (GDP/31). Reproduced with permission of the archive)

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Fig. 2.8  The diary of Betty Charnley, July 1983. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Julia Bland, reproduced with permission)

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Fig. 2.9  Betty Charnley, 1945. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Julia Bland, reproduced with permission)

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Fig. 2.10  Betty Charnley, 1970. (Source: Private collection of Mrs Julia Bland, reproduced with permission)

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Fig. 2.11  Map of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, showing key locations referred to in the text. Cartography by Kirsty Forber, Lancaster Environment Centre

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References Adey, P., K. Hannam, M. Sheller, and D. Tyfield. 2021. Pandemic (Im)mobilities. Mobilities 16: 1–19. Anderson, M. 2010. Tourism and the development of the modern British passport, 1814–1858. Journal of British Studies 49: 258–282. Benn, T. 2013. The Benn Diaries: 1940–1990. London: Random House. Bennett, A. 2008. Writing home. London: Faber & Faber. ———. 2016. Keeping on keeping on. London: Profile Books. Berbineau, L., and K. Kilcup. 2002. From Beacon Hill to the Crystal Palace: The 1851 travel diary of a working-class woman. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Birtchnell, T., and M.  Büscher. 2011. Stranded: An eruption of disruption. Mobilities 6: 1–9. Bissell, D. 2018. Transit life: How commuting is transforming our cities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bissell, D., and G. Fuller, eds. 2011. Stillness in a mobile world. London: Routledge. Blauvelt, M. 2007. The work of the heart: Young women and emotion, 1780–1830. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. Brettell, C., and J.  Hollifield, eds. 2014. Migration theory: Talking across disciplines. London: Routledge. Butler, J. 2006. Journey into war: A woman’s diary. Australian Historical Studies 37: 203–217. Castle, B. 1980. The Castle diaries, 1974–76. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Coleborne, C. 2015. Mobility stopped in its tracks: Institutional narratives and the mobile in the Australian and New Zealand colonial world, 1870s–1900s. Transfers 5: 87–103. ———. 2020. Consorting with ‘others’: Vagrancy laws and unauthorised mobility across colonial borders in New Zealand from 1877 to 1900. In Empire and mobility in the long nineteenth century, ed. D.  Lambert and P.  Merriman, 136–151. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Coleborne, C., and M. O’Connor. 2020. Vagrancy, mobility and colonialism. In The SAGE handbook of historical geography, ed. M. Domosh, M. Heffernan, and C. Withers, 374–389. London: Sage. Cresswell, T. 1999. Embodiment, power and the politics of mobility: The case of female tramps and hobos. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 24: 175–192. ———. 2001. The tramp in America. London: Reaktion Books. ———. 2006. On the move: Mobility in the modern western world. New  York: Taylor & Francis. ———. 2012. Mobilities II: Still. Progress in Human Geography 36: 645–653. Crossman, R. 1979. The Crossman diaries: Selections from the diaries of a cabinet minister, 1964–1970. London: Methuen.

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Currie, E. 2012. Edwina Currie: diaries 1992–1997. New  York: Biteback Publishing. Davis, G. 1987. Women’s frontier diaries: Writing for good reason. Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14: 5–14. Defoe, D. 2001. A journal of the plague year. New York: Random House. Divall, C. 2011. Transport history, the usable past and the future of mobility. In Mobilities: New perspectives on transport and society, ed. M. Grieco and J. Urry, 305–319. Farnham: Ashgate. ———. 2014. Mobilities and transport history. In The Routledge handbook of mobilities, ed. P. Adey, D. Bissell, K. Hannam, P. Merriman, and M. Sheller, 36–44. London: Routledge. Divall, C., and G. Revill. 2005. Cultures of transport: Representation, practice and technology. The Journal of Transport History 26: 99–111. Doughty, K., and L. Murray. 2017. Understanding everyday mobilities through the lens of disruption. In Experiencing networked urban Mobilities: Practices, flows, methods, ed. M.  Freudendal-Pedersen, K.  Hartmann-Petersen, and E. Perez Fjalland, 78–82. New York: Routledge. Fairhead, J., T. Geysbeek, S. Holsoe, and M. Leach, eds. 2003. African-American exploration in West Africa: Four nineteenth-century diaries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Fothergill, R. 1974. Private chronicles: A study of English diaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gazeley, I., and C. Langhamer. 2013. The meanings of happiness in mass observation’s Bolton. History Workshop Journal 75: 159–189. Gillikin, J., and N. Porter, eds. 1989. Women’s non-traditional literature. Women’s Studies Quarterly 17: 3–139. Gregory, I., C. Donaldson, P. Murrieta-Flores, and P. Rayson. 2015. Geoparsing, GIS, and textual analysis: Current developments in spatial humanities research. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 9: 1–14. Hassam, A. 1994. Sailing to Australia: Shipboard diaries by nineteenth-century British emigrants. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Heafford, M. 2006. Between grand tour and tourism: British travellers to Switzerland in a period of transition, 1814–1860. The Journal of Transport History 27: 25–47. Heehs, P. 2013. Writing the self: Diaries, memoirs, and the history of the self. New York: Bloomsbury. Hewitt, M. 2006. Diary, autobiography and the practice of life history. In life writing and Victorian culture, ed. D. Amigoni, 21–39. London: Routledge. Hinton, J. 2010. Nine wartime lives: Mass observation and the making of the modern self. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hogan, R. 1991. Engendered autobiographies: The diary as a feminine form. Prose Studies 14: 95–107.

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Holdsworth, C. 2013. Family and intimate mobilities. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Hubble, N. 2006. Mass observation and everyday life: Culture, history, theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Hunter, J. 1992. Inscribing the self in the heart of the family: Diaries and girlhood in late-Victorian America. American Quarterly 44: 51–81. Kerber, L. 1988. Separate spheres, female worlds, woman’s place: The rhetoric of women’s history. The Journal of American History 75: 9–39. Lambert, D., and P. Merriman, eds. 2020. Mobility and empire in the long nineteenth century. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Langhamer, C. 2016. An archive of feeling? Mass observation and the mid-century moment. Insight 9: 1–15. Lawton, R., and C.  Pooley. 1974. The social geography of nineteenth-century Merseyside: A research project. Historical Methods Newsletter 7: 276–284. ———. 1975a. David Brindley’s Liverpool: An aspect of urban society in the 1880s. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 126: 149–168. ———. 1975b. Individual appraisals of nineteenth-century Liverpool. Liverpool: Department of Geography, University of Liverpool. Lejeune, P. 2009. On Diary. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. Merriman, P. 2005. ‘Operation motorway’: Landscapes of construction on England’s M1 motorway. Journal of Historical Geography 31: 113–133. ———. 2006. ‘Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre’: Assembling and governing the motorway driver in late 1950s Britain. The Sociological Review 54: 75–92. ———. 2009. Driving spaces: A cultural-historical geography of England’s M1 motorway. Oxford: Blackwell. Merriman, P., R. Jones, T. Cresswell, C. Divall, G. Mom, M. Sheller, and J. Urry. 2013. Mobility: Geographies, histories, sociologies. Transfers 3: 47–165. Moch, L. 2003. Moving Europeans: Migration in western Europe since 1650. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Mom, G. 2014. Atlantic automobilism: Emergence and persistence of the car, 1895–1940. New York: Berghahn Books. ———. 2015. The crisis of transport history: A critique, and a vista. Mobility in History 6: 7–19. Moraglio, M. 2017. Seeking a (new) ontology for transport history. The Journal of Transport History 38: 3–10. Moran, J. 2015. Private lives, public histories: The diary in twentieth-century Britain. Journal of British Studies 54: 138–162. Murray, L., and S.  Cortés-Morales. 2019. Children’s mobilities: Interdependent, imagined, relational. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Murrieta-Flores, P., A.  Baron, I.  Gregory, A.  Hardie, and P.  Rayson. 2015. Automatically analyzing large texts in a GIS environment: The registrar general’s reports and cholera in the 19th century. Transactions in GIS 19: 296–320. Naussbaum, F. 1988. Toward conceptualizing diary. In Studies in autobiography, ed. F. Naussbaum and J. Olney, 128–140. Oxford: Oxford University Press. O’Connell, S. 1998. The car and British society: Class, gender and motoring, 1896–1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Pearce, L. 2016. Drivetime: Literary excursions in automotive consciousness. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ———. 2018. ‘Walking out’: The mobilities of love. Mobilities 13: 777–790. ———. 2019. Mobility, memory and the lifecourse in twentieth-century literature and culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Pepys, S. 1987. The diary of Samuel Pepys. A selection. London: Penguin. Plath, S. 2007. The unabridged journals of Sylvia Plath. New York: Anchor. Ponsonby, A. 1923. English diaries: A review of English diaries from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, with an introduction on diary writing. London: Methuen. Pooley, C. 2017a. Connecting historical studies of transport, mobility and migration. The Journal of Transport History 38: 251–259. ———. 2017b. Mobility, migration and transport: Historical perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Pooley, C., and R.  Lawton. 1988. The social geography of nineteenth-century British cities: A review. In Urban historical geography. Recent progress in Britain and Germany, ed. D. Denecke and G. Shaw, 159–174. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pooley, C., and M. Pooley. 2021. Young women on the move: Britain c1880–1950. Social Science History 45: 495–517. Pooley, C., and J.  Turnbull. 1998. Migration and mobility in Britain since the eighteenth century. London: UCL Press. Pooley, C., J. Turnbull, and M. Adams. 2005. “… everywhere she went I had to tag along beside her”: Family, life course and everyday mobility in England since the 1940s’. The History of the Family: An International Quarterly 10: 119–136. Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010. Growing up on Merseyside in the late-­ nineteenth century: The diary of Elizabeth Lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Rayson, P., A. Reinhold, J. Butler, C. Donaldson, I. Gregory, and J. Taylor. 2017. A deeply annotated testbed for geographical text analysis: The corpus of Lake District writing. In GeoHumanities’17: Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL Workshop on Geospatial Humanities, 9–15. New  York: Association for Computing Machinery.

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Reinisch, J., and E.  White, eds. 2011. The disentanglement of populations: Migration, expulsion and displacement in postwar Europe, 1944–49. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Sheller, M., and J. Urry. 2006. The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A 38: 207–226. Sherman, S. 2005. Diary and autobiography. In The Cambridge history of English literature, 1660–1780, ed. J.  Richetti, 623–648. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shiba, K. 2012. Literary creations on the road: women’s travel diaries in early modern Japan. Lanham: University Press of America. Siegelbaum, L., and L.P. Moch. 2015. Broad is my native land: Repertoires and regimes of migration in Russia’s twentieth century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Steinitz, R. 2011. Time, space, and gender in the nineteenth-century British diary. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. University of Sussex. 2015. Mass observation archive. http://www.massobs.org. uk/. Accessed 4 Nov 2021. Woolf, V. 1982. The diary of Virginia Woolf. London: Hogarth Press. Young, E. 2014. Alien nation: Chinese migration in the Americas from the coolie era through World War II. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Yuh, J. 2005. Moved by war: Migration, diaspora, and the Korean War. Journal of Asian American Studies 8: 277–291.

CHAPTER 3

Mobility Change over Time

3.1   How Can Diaries Illuminate Mobility Change over Time? The diaries that we have studied span almost two centuries. During this time there were massive shifts in the opportunities for personal travel (Dyos and Aldcroft 1969), and these are inevitably reflected in the ways in which diarists recorded mobility. Diaries can provide unrivalled insights into the ways in which individuals responded to changing transport technologies, and how they incorporated them into their everyday routines. Official statistics on transport and travel can never reveal such details. However, any longitudinal analysis of changes in mobilities practices that uses diaries as a source must also be approached with caution. Ideally, any analysis of change over time should be accomplished using longitudinal data that provide directly comparable information at regular and (preferably) short intervals. Demographic records of births, marriages and deaths provide one commonly used example of such a dataset (Alter et al. 2012; Gregory 2000). Diaries can never provide information with this degree of completeness or regularity. By their very nature diaries survive sporadically and the content varies with each individual diarist. This makes direct comparisons over long time periods unfeasible. In rare cases a run of diaries that lasts most of a lifetime may survive, thus providing a window on how

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_3

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one individual’s mobility changed over their life course, but such information cannot be reliably extrapolated beyond this individual. In this chapter, we examine some of the insights that diaries can provide to illuminate the nature and extent of mobility change over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many different factors may interact to influence the ways in which people travelled and to produce change over time at both the individual and societal levels. These include innovations in transport technology, changing societal preferences and norms, and the personal preferences of travellers. These are considered in more detail below. In addition, the pace and process of change may be affected by a wide range of other influences, including location, environment, seasonality, age and life-cycle stage of the traveller. These themes are among those considered in later chapters. Time is a slippery concept, and any consideration of longitudinal mobility change must also take into account the ways in which different time scales may influence mobility opportunities and choices (Adam 2002, 2013; Hassard 2016; May and Thrift 2003; Pred 1981; Thrift and Pred 1981). For instance, while technological change usually operates over years and decades, modes of travel for an individual may vary from season to season or from day to night. Although the creation of a fully integrated rail network in Britain took decades (Simmons 1986; Turnock 2016), the arrival of a new railway station in a community could transform overnight the patterns of travel to and from this location (Schwartz et al. 2011a, b). Similarly, the process of railway construction could generate both short-­ term and long-term change in cities and towns through the reallocation of urban space and the influx of labour while new rail infrastructure was being built (Kellett 2012; Patmore 1962). At an individual level, a journey that in the twentieth century may be made by car or public transport on a dark winter’s evening might be undertaken on foot or by bicycle on a balmy summer’s evening. Additionally, a route that was regularly walked by a person when young might be travelled by motorised means when older. All individuals are constantly making their own assessments of the ways in which they travel, and these interact with the longer-run shifts in transport technology and societal travel norms. In early-nineteenth-­ century Britain, clock time could also vary between regions, with individual towns adopting their own local mean time (Buckle 2021). The development of the rail network was a major factor leading to standardisation because of the need to publish timetables for the whole of the country; by the 1840s, most stations had clocks which displayed ‘London

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time’,1 but sometimes also a separate clock showing local time. However, it was not until 1880 that GMT was legally adopted in Britain, ending the minor variations in clock time that had persisted in some parts of the country.2 Two theoretical approaches to the study of change over time are relevant to this discussion: concepts of time–space convergence and compression; and rhythmanalysis, which considers the ways in which activities may have cyclical patterns of change. Time–space convergence refers to the process by which space has been shrunk by the speeding up of transport and the ease of travel (Janelle 2014). For instance, a journey from Manchester to Liverpool by canal in the early nineteenth century would have taken approximately 20 hours. Travel by road on a fast stagecoach was quicker, taking about four hours but, by using the Manchester to Liverpool railway which opened in 1830, the journey could be accomplished in one- and three-quarter hours. Rail travel times reduced throughout the nineteenth century and today direct trains between the two cities take about one hour. This is approximately the same length of time in which the 57 km (35 miles) journey can be completed by car using the modern motorway. Nineteenth-century trains were also cheaper than road travel (Simmons 1986; Turnock 2016; UK Parliament 2021). The combination of increased speed and reduced cost enabled more people to travel quickly and easily around the country, thus perceptually shrinking space and opening new horizons for those who had access to the new transport networks. However, like most social processes, the convergence of time and space was uneven. Not all locations had easy access to the faster forms of transport that became available in the nineteenth century, and not all travellers could afford rail fares (Knowles 2006). In such cases the cheapest and slowest form of transport, travel on foot, often remained the only option. Time–space compression takes this concept further3 to argue that not only did transport improvements shrink space for the movement of people and goods, but also that this speeded up and compressed many other aspects of everyday life as new information flows enabled more rapid globalisation as part of the development of a modern capitalist global economy and society (Harvey 1999; Kivisto 2012; Stein 2003; Warf 1  The time set by the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, commonly known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). 2  In Ireland Dublin Mean Time persisted until 1916, when GMT was adopted. 3  The two terms are often used interchangeably.

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2008). We will use evidence from the diaries studied to examine the extent to which the lives of travellers were altered by new transport technologies. Rhythmanalysis, as theorised by Henri Lefebvre (2004), enables a conceptualisation of the rhythms and routines that can regulate and dominate most everyday lives. Many everyday journeys such as daily travel to work or to school, visits to a relative at weekends, church attendance or a regular weekly shopping day, take place to a predictable pattern with only minor changes from week to week. This theme has been developed by many other writers and applied to most aspects of everyday life, including mobility (Lyons 2018; Reid-Musson 2018; Simpson 2012). Tim Edensor (2010a, b) identifies four key components of everyday rhythms: the repetitive actions of people as they go about their everyday lives; bodily rhythms that determine (for instance) when we eat or sleep; rhythms of mobility that create regular flows of people through space; and the rhythms of nature (such as seasonal change) with which we interact. For the most part, these are deeply embedded patterns of behaviour that usually require little thought. Only when these rhythms are disrupted do we have to adjust our daily lives and construct new routines. Such disruptions may occur due to personal life events such as illness, or because of family decisions such as holidays. But they can also be impacted by external factors such as transport disruption due to weather or strike action, conflicts that prevent the routines of normal life, or environmental events such as earthquakes, floods or volcanoes (Adey and Anderson 2011; Adey et al. 2021; Birtchnell and Büscher 2011; Marsden et  al. 2020; Sheller 2020). Examination of personal diaries can illuminate the ways in which travellers both constructed their regular routines, and how they adapted (or failed to adapt) to mobility disruptions.

3.2  The Impact of Technological Change In this section, we use evidence from the diaries studied to examine the extent to which travellers embraced new transport technologies as they became available, and we also investigate the ways in which more traditional modes of travel continued to operate alongside the newer technologies. Transport modes on land can be divided into two broad categories: those such as walking, cycling, travel on horseback, or in a carriage or cart drawn by a horse, ass, ox or similar beast, which require either human or animal power; and those such as trains, trams, and motor vehicles of

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various kinds that depend on motor power (usually generated by oil or electricity) and which require little or no human effort. In the early nineteenth century, almost all travellers relied upon human or animal power to travel by road, but from mid-century onwards these modes were progressively replaced by the various forms of powered vehicles. Much the same was true for travel on water, with a shift from, for instance, barges and boats drawn by horses or powered by wind, to those driven mainly by steam. In general, all the newer forms of transport offered faster and more comfortable means of travel, but they were rarely accessible to all due to a combination of cost and locational disadvantage. The details of these shifts in transport technology are well-rehearsed elsewhere (Bagwell and Lyth 2002; Bogart 2014; Dyos and Aldcroft 1969; Freeman and Aldcroft 1991). In this chapter, we focus on the ways in which individual travellers engaged with new technologies as they became available and assess the extent to which they altered the experience of travel. Not only were new transport technologies unavailable to some travellers, but also those forms of transport that had been available for many years could be experienced anew by individuals who had not encountered them before. Thus, concepts of what is new and what is old are relative to the previous experiences of individual travellers. One example of this comes from the mobility of Ellen (Nellie) Weeton (born 1776) as revealed in the letters that she wrote to her relatives and friends in the early nineteenth century. Her everyday travel around her local area in south Lancashire was mostly accomplished on foot, and when she travelled to Liverpool to seek employment, she first walked some 18 km (11 miles) from Leigh (Lancashire) where she had been staying with her brother to Up Holland, and then a further five km (three miles) to Appleby Bridge (near Wigan) to catch the (horse-drawn) barge to Liverpool via the Leeds-­ Liverpool canal. However, after some 15 months on Merseyside she eventually secured a position as a governess in a large house on the shore of Lake Windermere (Westmorland). On this occasion she travelled on the mail coach, possibly paid for by her future employer. This was clearly a novel experience for her as this journey enabled her to use a form of travel that was commonplace for those with more resources than Nellie had. She had a male companion for most of the way and was impressed by the scenery, but also a little scared by some elements of the journey. This may not have been the first time she travelled by carriage, but it was certainly an unusual form of transport for Miss Weeton. The different elements of her journeys are summarised in the following extracts from her letters:

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Since I left Up Holland I have spent four or five weeks at my brothers. … On 22inst I left Leigh, walked to Holland, staid all night at my Aunt Barton’s, and on the following morning set sail for Liverpool from Apply Bridge and am now at Miss Chorleys in Dale Street.4 I left there [Wigan] next morning all in the rain, and how it began to be fair soon after I got into the boat, and what an agreeable sail I had.5 I leave here at 7 o clock on Tuesday morning next, expect to arrive at Preston at 12, where Mr Barton and his niece will meet me and conduct me to their house at Walton. I shall stay there all night and proceed the following day under Mr Barton’s protection the remainder of the journey.6 I left Liverpool on Tuesday 12th and staid all night at Mr Barton’s at Walton, the next morning at 7 o clock he and I left Preston in the mail and arrived at Kendal soon after two that afternoon. We dined there and then took a post chaise to Mr Peddar’s of Dove Nest twelve miles from Kendal. … Dove Nest is situated on an eminence near the head of Windermere Lake and the lake extending only about one mile father north than the house we are within two or three hundred yards of it and have a fine view.7 On ascending [the hill to Dove Nest] in the chaise I felt some degree of alarm. Mr B got out, I preferred riding up because of the wetness of the ground, but so steep was the road that if the horses had slipped ever so little they would have been drawn back by the chaise, and we should have been precipitated all together into the lake, there being not so much as a wall or bank to have prevented us.8

There are many other instances where diarists encountered forms of transport that were either in themselves new, or which were novel to them. Although by 1840 London was linked by rail to major northern cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, smaller places were more slowly connected to the national rail network, with Norwich in East Anglia only gaining rail access to London in 1845 (Shaw-Taylor and You 2018). In 1847, John Leeson (born 1804) was living in central London with his mother but had close family in Norwich. In his brief diary entries for 1847 Leeson noted what appears to be the first occasion that his mother (Elizabeth Leeson) travelled by train to visit her family in Norwich. She 4  Letter books of Ellen Weeton. Letter 80 to Miss Bolton, Saturday August 27, 1808. WA (EHC/165a). 5  Ibid., Letter 81 to Mr Tom Weeton, Wednesday August 31, 1808. 6  Ibid., Letter 128 to Mr Tom Weeton, Saturday December 9, 1809. 7  Ibid., Letter 131 to Mr Tom Weeton, Monday December 25, 1809. 8  Ibid., Letter 132 to Miss Winkley, Thursday December 28, 1809.

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was 77 years of age at that time, and from the tone of her son’s comments this may have been her first outing on any train. It is not clear from the diary whether she travelled alone or (most likely) with a maid or other companion on the journey to Norwich, but she appears to have been favourably impressed by the experience: Mother went to Norwich by Railway at 7 to see Richard. She arrived safe, likes Railway travelling. Richard busy, she likes his house.9 Mother came home by Railway from Norwich – I met her at the station at 2 of clock. Fred came with her. She looks well, pleased with her excursion there and likes Railway travelling.10

Some forms of transport were particularly novel. In August 1860, the first street tramway system in Britain opened in Birkenhead on Merseyside (Green 2016; Jones 1978; Lee 1953a, b), and only two months later John Lee (born 1842) encountered this new form of transport while he was staying with a relative in Liverpool and looking for employment as a draper’s shop assistant. He seems to have enjoyed using the new horse-drawn tram to access Birkenhead Park to take his daily exercise: Train to Liverpool, dinner with Aunt and Uncle Walter. Over to Tranmere, walked from there to Birkenhead and got into one of the Americain [sic] Railway carraiges [sic], that have just been made here to run through the streets on rails. We rode daily along to the Park, enjoyed a short walk there ….11

John Lee eventually settled in Birkenhead, and some 25 years later both he and his daughter Elizabeth engaged with a further transport innovation on Merseyside: the new rail tunnel under the river Mersey which linked Birkenhead to Liverpool. Previously the only way of crossing the Mersey at this point was by ferry. In December 1885, Elizabeth (born 1867) noted in her diary that Mr Lee and a friend walked through the tunnel when it was opened by the Prince of Wales, and in February 1886 Elizabeth recorded her first train ride through the tunnel on the day that it was fully opened. She seemed especially impressed by the lift and the crowds of men. Thereafter, she used the rail for most trips to Liverpool, although the  Diary of John Leeson, Saturday July 10–Saturday July 31, 1847. BIA (GDP/8).  Ibid., Saturday August 21, 1847. 11  Diary of John Lee, Sunday October 14, 1860 (authors’ collection). 9

10

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ferry service still ran and was sometimes more convenient as it operated over much longer hours than the rail service did. Fine day. The railway under the Tunnel was opened for traffic today and I went to L’pool by it. I went up in the “lift” when I got to L’pool and there was such a frightful crush to get it. Had a good look round L’pool and came back by train. Such a lot of gentleman in the station. It was so jolly but I got nearly squashed to death.12

New and less mechanised forms of transport were also becoming more common in this period, with tricycles and the new safety bicycle increasingly frequent sights on Britain’s roads (Herlihy 2004; Lloyd-Jones and Lewis 2000). Elizabeth Lee did not own a cycle, but she did encounter them from time to time and recorded one brief ride on a tricycle in 1886: ‘Baked today. Mr. Rimmington and J. Carless came up tonight on a double tricycle and they gave me such a jolly ride on it up and down the road. Went to see Louie after’.13 Richard Wharton (born 1866) and his wife were rather more adventurous. In 1896, the 45-year-old Liverpool grocer and his wife set out on a journey from Liverpool to Kenilworth by tandem tricycle. The full journey took four days and covered some 160 miles, and the first day of the excursion, briefly charted in his travel journals, is reproduced below. They returned to Liverpool by train from Birmingham, but repeated the trip the following year, this time taking a longer scenic route via central Wales and the Forest of Dean. On this occasion, they travelled on bicycles and the trip covered 265 miles in 7 days. 7 am. Richard Wharton + wife left home on Tandem Tricycle. Destination for day Ashbourne, Derbyshire. 68  m via Warrington, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Leek (by 6.30). Stayed night in Inn in Bottom 8 miles from Ashbourne.14

By the later nineteenth century, trams and horse-drawn omnibuses were also common sights on the streets of many British cities, but the development of the motorbus provided a new dimension to urban travel. It was argued that motorbuses were more flexible, in that they did not run  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Monday February 1, 1886 (Pooley et al. 2010).  Ibid., Tuesday August 3, 1886. 14  Travel journals of Richard Wharton, Wednesday July 22, 1896. Liverpool Record Office (920 WHA/1). 12

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on rails, did not cause traffic congestion in the way that trams were thought to do, and also provided a quieter and smoother ride for passengers (Pooley and Turnbull 2000, 2005). The first Manchester Corporation motorbus route was established in 1906, linking the tram terminus at West Didsbury to Northenden. This replaced a previous horse-drawn bus route (Manchester Corporation 2016). Ida Berry (born 1884) lived in south Manchester and in her diaries for the period 1902–1907 she recorded her frequent mobility around the Manchester region, using a wide variety of transport. She often combined travel by tram, train and bus in an outing, though her preferred leisure activity was cycling. In June 1906 she noted (with very little elaboration) what was probably her first ride on the new motorbus route, but she made no further comments on the convenience or otherwise of this new mode of travel. What is perhaps most notable about her travel in Manchester at this time is the ease with which she could switch from one mode to another during a journey without any obvious need to plan ahead. Maud wheeled her bicycle to Shaws to have a puncture mended etc. At night we went on the motor bus from Northenden.15 After dinner we all went by train to Chorlton, and then walked to Stretford and then we got on the top of the bus, and went to Urmston house hunting, it was a beautiful day and we had our tea at a shop. Coming home we had a cab from Stretford station to Chorlton station and caught the three minutes to seven train home.16 Glorious afternoon, Mother and I went on the bus to Cheadle and then walked to Cheadle Hulme station and took the train to Wilmslow, we went through the ‘Bollin Valley’ … It came on very wet about 7 o’clock so we went by train to Manchester and got home about 9.15.17

While the motorbus became common on urban roads, and the ‘charabanc’ was used increasingly for holiday outings (Taylor 1956; Walton 2011), private motor vehicles were adopted relatively slowly in Britain and remained the preserve of the wealthy until at least the mid-twentieth century. Some 85 per cent of British households were without a car in 1951 and only just over 50 per cent of households had one or more cars in 1971 (Leibling 2008). Verena Black-Hawkins (born 1885) grew up in an  Diary of Ida Berry, Saturday June 16, 1906. BIA (GDP/28).  Ibid., Wednesday May 10, 1905. 17  Ibid., Friday April 27, 1906. 15 16

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affluent Hampshire family and her diary entries show that she had some access to a car in the first decade of the twentieth century, although initially it is not always obvious who drove or owned the car. She was married in August 1908 to a London solicitor, William Pennyfather (she calls him ‘Sommy’), and they lived in Kensington (London). Verena clearly had a keen interest in motor vehicles: in November 1907 she mentioned the London motor show, and the contact details of a motor garage are listed at the start of her 1908 diary. In August 1908, shortly after their marriage, Sommy and Verena bought a motor of their own, the implication being that previously he and Verena had used family vehicles. Although it is not always explicit, it is obvious from the context that both Verena and Sommy drove. Interestingly, the purchase of a motor was made remotely ‘by wire’: the replacement of face-to-face contact with digital and related communication is perhaps not as novel in the twenty-first century as is sometimes suggested (Allmendinger 2021; Reades and Crookston 2021). Early motors were not especially reliable, and the Pennyfathers’ was subject to overheating and other mishaps which meant that quite often the train continued to be preferred for longer journeys. A selection of the brief diary entries that Verena made illustrate these points. Went with Sommy over to Little Waltham. Motored after tea.18 … Motored over to Clacton on Sea. Ripping day.19 … Drove with Sommy and Lottie to Dearing. The others motored. Sommy bought a motor by wire.20 … The motor turned up. Went with Claude and Aggie in their motor to Thetford. Evie and Dad came too. Uncle Dick and Aunt Tommie came to lunch. Went in their motor to Dereham and returned in small one with Sommy.21 … The motor turned up about 7.30.22 … Arranged to go to Burnham Beeches by motor, but she wasn’t running properly and we turned back before Hammersmith.23

While female motorists were not uncommon in the early twentieth century (Chen 2020; Clarsen 2008), car driving remained a predominantly male activity for much of the twentieth century. Even in 1965 while some  Diary of Verena Black-Hawkins/Pennyfather, Saturday July 6, 1907. BIA (GDP/51).  Ibid., Sunday July 7, 1907. 20  Ibid., Thursday August 20, 1908. 21  Ibid., Saturday August 22, 1908. 22  Ibid., Friday September 25, 1908. 23  Ibid., Sunday September 27, 1908. 18 19

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50 per cent of men had a driving licence, only ten per cent of women had qualified to drive (Department for Transport 2015a, b). In the 1920s, female drivers could be viewed with surprise by male motorists, as suggested by the rather patronising comments made by the 25-year-old Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice in 1926 when he was driven by a female friend: Yesterday we went for such a lovely drive in Prue’s new car, a five seater Fiat saloon, a sweet little thing. … Prue drove so well – dear little Prue … It was the first time she had driven at night, but she got on very well.24

The teenage Ronald Joskey (born 1920) was a motor enthusiast long before he was legally able to drive, and his brief diary entries for 1936 describe the way in which he spent much of his spare time when not at school tinkering with his father’s car. He was especially excited when his father bought a smart new vehicle and Ronald relished the occasions on which he could ride in it. His usual transport was by bike, but he was clearly itching to be able to drive and even considered buying a car before he could drive. Dad and Landsdown gone to fetch new car from Manchester, went by Flying Scotsman.25 … Dad arrived from Manchester with the new Crossley.26 Marvellous car.27 … Cleaned Crossley for first time, really marvellous car.28 … Went for a run in the afternoon round Castlewoods, arrived back at school 2.30 pm. Came in second.. Went to French by bicycle afterwards.29 … Dad took me to school in the Crossley. Could do with more of that.30 … Will not buy car till I can drive.31 … Spent all day under Crossley. Oiled and greased springs, greased all round and oiled all round.32 … Another day under the car. Changed gear preselector oil, takes ½ gallon. Filled up steering O. Tightened up all round nuts, bolts etc.33

 Diary of Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice, Sunday October 24, 1926. BIA (GDP/52).  Diary of Ronald Joskey, Tuesday January 28, 1936. BIA (GDP/350). 26  Crossley Motors produced high quality cars in Manchester from 1904–1938: (Crossley Motors 2021). 27  Diary of Ronald Joskey, Friday January 31, 1936. BIA, (GDP/350). 28  Ibid, Sunday February 2, 1936. 29  Ibid., Wednesday February 6, 1936. 30  Ibid., Wednesday February 19, 1936. 31  Ibid., Saturday April 4, 1936. 32  Ibid., Sunday April 12, 1936. 33  Ibid., Monday April 19, 1936. (Easter Monday). 24 25

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The other major new form of transport that became increasingly widely available in the twentieth century was air travel. Initially this could be perilous and was experienced by a very few. The diary of second lieutenant E.  Walker who was a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War gives a flavour of the difficulties he encountered while flying in 1915: A fine clear day with N. wind. Left Gosport at 9.45 am with my luggage in the front seat. My engine got worse and worse so I came down at Shoreham and repaired two broken high tension leads, after being 1½ hours in the air. Over the Downs I ran into thick mist, with a stiff wind blowing out to sea. It was interesting to speculate at times whether I was over Sussex or the Channel! There were some pretty lusty bumps too. Next my engine began to peter out, letting me drop about 100 feet a minute. After a while I struck a clear patch and descended in a field by a cemetery on the west side of Eastbourne.34

In the 1930s, air travel began to become more widely available to those civilian travellers who could afford it, with Manchester’s Ringway airport opening fully in 1938. By 1952, Ringway was handling some 163,000 passengers a year to a variety of destinations (Manchester Airport 2021). In her diary entry for 1954 Gillian Caldwell (then aged 17) gives quite a detailed account of her travel from Manchester to Zurich to take up temporary work in an English travel agency in the city. The journey was clearly a novel and exciting experience but was accomplished without difficulty. Wonderful surprise this morning when the post came with a registered letter from Switzerland. My permits were through. Pa went to Barrow before lunch in spite of the bad roads to see Cocks [travel agent]. It’s been decided that I had better fly otherwise I shall have to break my journey at Basle for a medical examination. … Pa rang up about 3.30 to say he had got a seat for me on a week on Wednesday. I’m flying from Ringway on a 60 seat Swiss Constellation and Pa is taking me down to M/C the day before. We leave Ringway at 9.35 and fly into Zurich at 1.35 Swiss time. Sika’s have sent me one of their labels to put on to my luggage so that the woman meeting me will recognize me. Sounds like the M.I.5.35 We got to the airport at 8.45. I had to say goodbye to Pa outside the Customs who were very decent and never opened my bags. Quite a long  Diary of E. Walker, Wednesday February 24, 1915. WA (EHC/208/M1011b).  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Monday February 8, 1954. BIA (GDP/1).

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wait then until we went aboard the plane which was twin engined and quite big. I thoroughly enjoyed the flight and never noticed the take-off, though when we were coming in to land you could feel the plane losing height. … Miss? took me to my digs – I share with a girl called Dora. We had lunch in the Bahnhof Buffet  – simply delicious and then she left me to my own devices. It’s a lovely town but lousy weather. I went to the flicks in the evening.36

3.3  The Persistence of Older Technologies Although most travellers engaged to some degree with new transport technologies as they became available, at the same time older forms of mobility persisted. There were many reasons for this, including geographical variations in the speed at which new technologies were introduced (considered in more detail in the Chap. 4), personal preferences, constraints of income or access, and attitudes towards the mobility norms of the time. In this section, we examine some of the ways in which old and new forms of transport interacted with each other, and the ways in which they were utilised. Travellers have undertaken the sea crossing between Ireland and Britain for much of human history. Crossings peaked in the mid-nineteenth century due to mass emigration from Ireland caused by famine and poverty, but interchange between Ireland and Britain was common both before and after this period (Bielenberg 2000; Gallman 2000; MacRaild 1999; Ó’Gráda 1995). After the partition of Ireland in 1922, such movement continued from both Northern Ireland and (what was to become) the Republic of Ireland (Delaney 2002; Keogh 2005; Lynch 2019; Walter 1980). One such traveller was Rhona Little (born 1919) who, at the age of 17, travelled from her Northern Irish home in Londonderry (as she called it) to London (England) to take up work in the typing pool at the offices of the Inland Revenue. Rhona grew up in a middle-class Protestant family in a relatively small community.37 She had never travelled to England before and her experience of travel in Ireland was also quite limited. Rhona’s father did own a car and the family travelled locally to visit relatives and for holidays, but she rarely strayed far from home. One journey for a vacation in 1936 was typical of her movements prior to moving to  Ibid., Wednesday February 17, 1954.  In 1937, the population of Londonderry County Borough was 47,813 (Government of Northern Ireland 1954). 36 37

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England. The family were to holiday on the Donegal coast just 40  km (25 miles) from their home. However, as Londonderry was adjacent to the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, this did entail a border crossing. Although Rhona’s parents and her younger siblings travelled by car, Rhona and her sister went by bus together with their luggage, including their bicycles. Presumably, this was because the car was too small to accommodate them all, but it demonstrates nicely the ways in which an older, slower, less comfortable and more widely available form of transport (the bus) was used alongside the newer and less common private motor vehicle. Rhona wrote a detailed description of their journey in her diary, noting the various activities and interruptions that occurred along the way. From her comments it would seem that this trip was an unusual experience for Rhona and her sister Lisle, and they were especially concerned about the safety of their bikes, which provided their main form of independent transport. About dinner time Daddy brought the car round. Before this he had bought two new cases. Lisle took one and I took the other. We unpacked our clothes and packed them into the new ones. After dinner time Daddy took Lisle’s and my luggage over to the bus depot. Then we packed all the things we needed into the car and at last at about 2.30 the family except Lisle and me went off to Culdaff in the car. When it was nearly 3 o’clock Lisle and I got ready to go to the bus. On the way there Lisle’s hat blew off. We weighed ourselves at Bennett’s stores. Lisle is 8 st 7lbs and I am 7 stones 12–13 lbs. We arrived at the depot in fairly good time. We wandered uncertainly in and out of the waiting room several times. Then I asked a conductor about our bus and we got safely into it with our luggage. It was quite full. Soon it was crowded. The journey to Moville was quite nice and comfortable except for momentary fears about our bicycles when the bus went rather fast. At the border we had scarcely any trouble. He wanted to know if we had anything dutible [sic] and if we were taking presents to any of our friends. At Moville we had to wait a few minutes because our bus had to turn. A man then kindly told us when it came up and also put on our bicycles and tied them down on top of the bus. When we came into Moville on the other bus our bicycles tore a great rent in a banner which was hanging across the road. The journey out to Culdaff was wonderfully bumpy. At times the teeth were nearly shaken out of my head. Lisle was forever looking apprehensively out of the back of the bus, she was expecting the bicycles to come flying off the top of the bus. When we reached Culdaff we found Daddy waiting for us. He took our cases and we decided to ride the bicycles. It was then that we

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discovered the loss of our new pump. We arrived at the “Knock” and had our tea.38

Rhona’s account of her journey from home to London in 1937 emphasises the significance of this move. She had spent much of the previous week saying sad goodbyes to friends and also acquiring new clothes suitable for her office work. She travelled with a friend who was going over to England at the same time, and both girls were accompanied by their fathers. Both the sea crossing and long train journey were novel for Rhona, and she was obviously impressed by the scale and bustle of London compared to her home town. Although the journey was new to Rhona, her travel modes could have been utilised at least seven decades earlier. Boats, trains, buses and finally travel on foot were all well-established means of transport, although in this instance they were moving Rhona and her friend to a modern city and associated employment. This morning I went with Lisle to Skerry’s to say goodbye to all. I spent quite a while with Misses Lindsay and Carnegham. I said goodbye to Margaret too. Then I went to say goodbye to the girls, and last of all Mr Halliday. I went at dinner time to get my new skirt of Miss Gilmour and said goodbye to them. I got a nice new case with my initials on it. I did nothing much until I said goodbye to them all. Lisle and Muriel went with me to the station and Harry came up at the last moment. We got on the train and K McCurdy and her papa came in with us. The journey to Belfast was very nice and quick. I said goodbye to Miss McAllister and Brien. It rained hard all the time. The boat is called Duke of Argyll and is very nice. We had tea and toast at supper. It was lovely going out. I had better go to sleep now as the boat is beginning to heave badly. The name of the ship is “Duke of Argyll”. The name of the train was Edward VII or VIII, I don’t know which. I did not go to bed until 10.15. I stayed on deck with Daddy, Kathleen and Mr. McCurdy. I did not get to sleep for ages and then I only slept to 2. o’clock. The ship rolled up and down after we were out of the Lough. The cabins are very nice if rather small. Daddy and Mr McCurdy have a cabin between them while Kathleen and I have the one next to it. No 11. We saw the dining saloon where we all had a supper of tea and toast and bread and butter. I was not sick at all coming over. We are here at Heysham now. It is nearly 6 o’clock now and it is really Saturday. The rain was dreadful coming in the train and when we went to the boat.

 Diary of Rhona Little, Wednesday, 30 June 1937 (authors’ collection).

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We are waiting for our morning tea now. It came. It was rather insufficient for our appetites. We had to rush at the last moment to catch the train. We got into the end carriage. In it were a man and a woman, who was his wife. The country was not extraordinary interesting. I saw a number of canals with motor-barges coming along them. I also glimpsed a horse-drawn one. I saw a pottery factory and some slag heaps with the coal heads near them. There was only one or two tunnels in the whole length of the journey. We went after 8 o’clock to get our breakfast. We all got the 3/6 one. We had grapefruit, fish, bacon and eggs, tea and rolls and toast. We had as much as we could eat. The gentleman in our carriage had a great argument with Daddy and Mr. McCurdy on the Irish question. We arrived in London at 12.15. It is very black looking (the station) and after the style of Belfast station, only bigger. Then we went in a bus to near Earl’s Court. When we got off we had a good bit of walking and my arm ached with holding things. The road to Earl’s Court was very interesting. Full of people, buses, cars and great big shops. We arrived at last at Eardley Crescent, we saw the room which I am to occupy. I am sharing a room with a Mary Alexander and Anna Forrest.39

Travel on foot is by far the oldest form of mobility. It is simple, can be accomplished by most people, costs little and gives a traveller the ability to go almost wherever they wish. Although best suited to the relatively short trips that form the majority of most people’s daily mobility, given time it is perfectly possible to travel long distances as a pedestrian. Unsurprisingly it has persisted to the present, with some 25 per cent of all journeys made in Britain still undertaken on foot (Pooley 2021; Pooley et al. 2014). All the diarists we have studied walked to some extent as part of their daily lives, although the extent and frequency of travel on foot changed over time, varied from place to place, and altered in tune with the mobility norms of the society in which people lived. In contemporary Britain, walking is sometimes seen mainly as a leisure pursuit to be undertaken in the countryside or in urban parks rather than as a means of executing everyday utility travel to work or to visit friends. Recognition of the health and environmental benefits of walking is beginning to challenge such assumptions, and some travellers do incorporate more travel on foot into their everyday journeys, but travel by car over short distances that could easily be walked by most people is still common (Department for Transport 2015a, b; Laverty et al. 2013; Pooley et al. 2013; Singleton 2019; Tight  Ibid., Friday January 28 and Saturday January 29, 1938.

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2018). In the past, the distinction between walking for utility travel and leisure purposes was often less clear. Most people could rarely afford any form of transport other than travel on foot, and only the rich who (for instance) had access to a private carriage had a choice of how to travel. In affluent society, walking for recreation and leisure was seen as something beneficial both for health and as a social activity. These themes can be illustrated by brief extracts from five diaries ranging from the mid-­ nineteenth century to the later twentieth century. John Leeson (born 1804) lived comfortably in central London in the mid-nineteenth century and usually travelled around the city by cab, bus, or train. The principal mentions of walking in his diary are associated with leisure activities. However, although John did sometimes walk with his family (especially when on holiday), more often it was his wife (Charlotte) who walked out with their children for exercise, especially at weekends. This was encouraged by John but more rarely practised by himself: Lotty began to go out again daily for a walk in morning and afternoon – had been in the house some days while the weather was cold and wet – looks much better for it.40 In afternoon Charlotte, I, Lotty and Johnny walked in St James’ Park – the park full of Holidays folk and children  – tag rag and bob tail  – all very happy.41 Mrs Leeson and the children began to walk out after being confined to the house. … The frost and snow leaving us  – a gradual thaw for several days. Our water came in without bursting the pipes.42

The Liverpool merchant banker George Brown (born 1804) also recorded his regular walks in and around the city. He sometimes combined a cab ride with a walk but clearly saw walking as a valuable Sunday leisure exercise and he was only rarely put off by bad weather: ‘Rainy Sunday – no getting out – own regular walk disturbed – well after all tis a rare event, I think only twice in five years.43

40  Diary of John Leeson, Saturday March 12, 1853. Bishopsgate Institute Archive, London (GDP/8). 41  Ibid., Friday April 15, 1854 (Good Friday). 42  Ibid., Saturday January 26, 1861. 43  Memoirs and diaries of George Brown, Sunday November 21, 1852. Liverpool Record Office (920 MD 376).

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Rode with M to Aigburth then walked to Woolton via Speke, a beautiful day and we really enjoyed it.44

Joshua Horner (born 1812) lived with his mother and one domestic servant in Halifax in the mid-nineteenth century. He worked as a portrait painter and art restorer and, though not poor, was much less wealthy than either Leeson or Brown cited above. Most of his journeys were within about 12  km (7  miles) of his home and, although he did occasionally travel by train, almost all his everyday and leisure travel was undertaken on foot. His brief diary entries for the autumn of 1867 give a flavour of his mobility when he was in his fifties. Got ¼ of a pig 72 sh, went with [?] to Hebden Bridge & walked to & returned home on foot [c.12 km (7 miles) each way].45 Walked with Mother [age 73] to Sowerby Bridge [c.4  km (2.5  miles) each way] – Mrs Whiteley’s. Mother a Little easier today.46 Took a walk out for an hour. Mr Lowe called to ask us to Poor Martha’s Funeral on Friday Morning next.47 Walked with Mother to call & see Mr Lowe Sowerby Bridge.48

Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) lived with her parents in a suburb of Birkenhead, Merseyside, in the late nineteenth century. Her family was quite affluent, and she had ready access to all the modes of transport available at the time. Although she regularly travelled by train, tram, bus, cab and ferry across the Mersey, she also walked both for routine everyday activities and for leisure. She often combined walking and some other form of transport, and her diary entry for June 1886 is typical as she combined travel by train with walking for social activity with a friend. Each walk specified was about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) each way, and during the day she probably covered some 12 km (7.5 miles). For Elizabeth, combining all possible modes of transport to facilitate her everyday life was normal, and she comfortably moved between old and newer means of mobility, travelling either alone or with friends.

 Ibid., Sunday October 9, 1853.  Diary of Joshua Horner, Friday October 25, 1867. WA (EHC/ 90). 46  Ibid., Tuesday October 29, 1867. 47  Ibid., Monday November 18, 1867. 48  Ibid., Wednesday November 20, 1867. 44 45

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This morning I walked to the Dock’s station and took the train to Hoylake. Arrived there 12 a.m. Went straight to Heathcock’s new shop expecting to see Lottie. But she was at B’head so they said I had better stop, as of course Lottie had asked me to come. They said Lottie must have forgotten as Mr. Tyler (her sweetheart) had stopped a day longer than he intended. After dinner went a walk along the shore: It was dreadfully windy. Just as we had got sat down for tea Lottie came in and she was so astonished at seeing me. After tea we all walked to West Kirby and back. We went through the fields and back by the road. It was lovely. I have never been to West Kirby before. Got home about 10. p.m.49

Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice (born 1901) also had the means to travel by any mode available to him. He lived in London in the 1920s and moved around the city by train, bus, tram and sometimes motors, although he did not own a car. However, he also walked regularly, clearly enjoyed walking, and saw this as a perfectly normal form of transport for a young professional man.50 His enthusiasm for walking, and his quite seamless use of a variety of old and new transport modes, is demonstrated in his diary entry for June 1927 when he decided to travel north to get a good view of the total solar eclipse that took place on June 29th that year (Timeanddate. com 2021). On Tuesday night [28th June] I decided I would go up North and see the Eclipse, and took the 11.5 from Euston to Preston. … Many special cheap trains were being run into the totality belt that night but this was the ordinary Scottish express. I took it because the others were full. I arrived at Preston at 3.20. I knew that if I walked for 5 miles or so in either a due northerly or due westerly direction I should be in the line of the central totality, and proceeded to do this with the help of a pocket compass. I found a road going north and marched steadily along it. My fear was that Preston might extend out for miles, and that the hour of 5.30 or so when the eclipse was about due to commence would find me still surrounded by houses. … However it was not so. After walking for some three miles I found myself quite outside Preston going along a broad road, due north, along which cars were going in a stream, all northwards.

 Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Wednesday June 16, 1886 (Pooley et al. 2010).  Fitzmaurice was Cambridge educated and by 1927 was a young barrister working mainly in London. He went on to become a senior judge (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2021). 49 50

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Presently a car came to a halt beside me and its occupant a man of about 35–40 asked me the way to a certain village where he said he had been told a good view of the eclipse could be obtained. I could not tell him. He then offered to give me a lift but I said I dared not let him as I had to get back to Preston on my legs. However he said he was not going much further as we must now be very near the central line. We then by police and other directions and following other cars got ourselves to a village with a name something like Inglewhite dead on the central line.51 It was much further from Preston than I had bargained for but my kind friend had by this time assured me he would see me back to Preston which was most kind of him as it was out of his way, he being on his way to Lancaster. … My friend now not only shared a very welcome flask of cocoa with me but also drove me back to Preston in time to catch the first train to London. I arrived in time for lunch, not having had any sleep. I still have not had any although this is Thursday evening, about 60 hours.52

Despite his lack of sleep, Gerald seemed determined not to allow this excursion to get in the way of his London social life, and he went to a concert and on to a dance hall on the Thursday evening after his return from Preston. Although in mid-century only a minority of British households had access to a private motor vehicle, attitudes towards traditional forms of travel were beginning to change among at least some sectors of the population. Travel by car was beginning to be viewed as the normal and preferred form of transport, with more traditional forms of transport such as walking, cycling and public transport starting to be viewed as inferior and to be avoided if possible. This was certainly the view of Gillian Caldwell (born 1937), who grew up in the remote Eskdale valley in Cumberland,53 where her parents ran a busy restaurant with accommodation. Gillian’s father owned a car and there seemed to be substantial numbers of young men around who also had cars. Gillian did not take a driving test during the period of the diary but, although at times she was forced to use public transport, she often complained about its inconvenience and whenever possible sought a lift from whoever was available. She did own a bike but rarely cycled and, although she did sometimes walk for leisure, especially when with a boyfriend, at times she appeared to view walking with disdain:  Inglewhite is 13 km (8 miles) from Preston railway station.  Diary of Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice, Thursday June 30, 1927. BIA (GDP/52). 53  Now Cumbria. 51 52

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‘Uncle Stuart and I went for a walk this afternoon – I was literally forced to go! All these town dwellers have an absolute mania for walking.’54 The lack of a good local bus service also meant that she often relied upon a lift to accomplish her regular travel to and from Edinburgh. Up early and Pooh and I were all ready to go by 10 but Charlie certainly wasn’t and by 10.15 I was getting worried so we piled into Ray’s Morgan & he drove at a maniacal speed all the way to the station. We just made it. We were late into Edinburgh and thoroughly cheesed off so we went straight to Mackies [café].55

The extent to which car travel came to dominate almost all aspects of everyday mobility in the later twentieth century is illustrated through the diary of Betty Charnley. Betty was born in 1928 and lived all her life in north Lancashire. Unusually, we have a complete run of her diaries from the age of 13 to shortly before her death in 2018. For the first 30 years of her life, most of Betty’s local travel was on foot or by bike, with occasional lifts in her father’s car and other longer journeys by bus. She passed her driving test at the age of 30 in 1958 and bought her own car six years later. Thereafter, she used the car for almost all her travel including very short journeys that could easily have been accomplished on foot or by bike. Betty Charnley’s mobility history is considered in more detail in Chap. 4, but her almost total dependence on motor-powered rather than human-­ powered transport is emphasised by the fact that it was only when her car was out of action that she reverted to walking or cycling the short distance (3  km) to and from work, although she sought a lift from a colleague where possible. Betty’s behaviour was typical of many people in the second half of the twentieth century as travel by car became more accessible, offered more comfort and convenience, and increasingly became the expected norm for most everyday travel. Four short extracts from Betty’s diary emphasise the degree to which any travel other than by car had become unusual by the late-1960s. Car wouldn’t start, walked to work, Dad brought the bike for me.56 Car still out of order, used the bike.57  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Monday December 28, 1953. BIA (GDP/1).  Ibid., Tuesday April 12, 1955. 56  Diary of Betty Charnley, Tuesday March 18, 1969 (authors’ collection). 57  Ibid., Wednesday March 1969. 54 55

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Walked to work. Car wouldn’t start, frozen up. Paul Ashcroft came for it and towed it in. Jack Butler took me home at dinner time and picked me up. Walked home at night.58 Walked to work. Jack Butler brought me home for dinner. I went on the bus to Garstang after dinner to the bank, then I picked up the car at Bamber’s.59

This chapter has used personal diaries to demonstrate the complexity of mobility change over time. All diarists engaged with different modes of transport and often moved easily between them, linking both older and newer forms of everyday mobility. There was no simple or linear mobility transition from one form of transport to another, but rather a messy mixture of mobilities that could vary by location, season, time of day, personal preferences, and many other factors. While there is little evidence that everyday mobilities were driven primarily by technological change, there is rather more to suggest that individuals made their own choices about how they travelled, and that they moved comfortably between different forms of transport technology.

References Adam, B. 2002. Perceptions of time. In Companion encyclopedia of anthropology, ed. T. Ingold, 537–560. London: Routledge. ———. 2013. Time and social theory. Hoboken: Wiley. Adey, P., and B. Anderson. 2011. Anticipation, materiality, event: The Icelandic ash cloud disruption and the security of mobility. Mobilities 6: 11–20. Adey, P., K. Hannam, M. Sheller, and D. Tyfield. 2021. Pandemic (Im)mobilities. Mobilities 16: 1–19. Allmendinger, P. 2021. The forgotten city: Rethinking digital living for our people and the planet. Bristol: Policy Press. Alter, G., M.  Gutmann, S.  Leonard, and E.  Merchant. 2012. Introduction: Longitudinal analysis of historical-demographic data. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42: 503–517. Bagwell, P., and P. Lyth. 2002. Transport in Britain: From canal lock to gridlock. London: Hambleton and London. Bielenberg, A., ed. 2000. The Irish diaspora. London: Routledge. Birtchnell, T., and M.  Büscher. 2011. Stranded: An eruption of disruption. Mobilities 6: 1–9.  Ibid., Monday January 5, 1970.  Ibid., Tuesday January 6, 1970.

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Bogart, D. 2014. The transport revolution in industrialising Britain. In The Cambridge economic history of modern Britain, volume 1 1700–1870, ed. R.  Floud, J.  Humphries, and P.  Johnson, 368–391. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Buckle, A. 2021. Time zone history of the United Kingdom. https://www.timeanddate.com/time/uk/time-­zone-­background.html. Accessed 5 Nov 2021. Chen, E. 2020. Pretty women don’t drive: Early women motorists and the taming of the motor-car. Women’s Studies 49: 149–179. Clarsen, G. 2008. Eat my dust: Early women motorists. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Crossley Motors. 2021. http://www.crossley-­motors.org.uk/. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Delaney, E. 2002. Gender and twentieth-century Irish migration, 1921–1971. In Women, gender and labour migration, ed. P.  Sharpe, 227–241. London: Routledge. Department for Transport. 2015a. National Travel Survey: Changes in travel since 1965. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/457732/nts2014-­factsheet.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. ———. 2015b. Investing in walking and cycling: The economic case for action. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-­and-­walking-­the-­ economic-­case-­for-­action. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Dyos, H.J., and D. Aldcroft. 1969. British transport: An economic survey from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. Leicester: Leicester University Press. Edensor, T. 2010a. Introduction: Thinking about rhythm and space. In Geographies of rhythm: Nature, place, mobilities and bodies, ed. T.  Edensor, 1–18. Farnham: Ashgate. ———. 2010b. Walking in rhythms: Place, regulation, style and the flow of experience. Visual Studies 25: 69–79. Freeman, M., and D.  Aldcroft, eds. 1991. Transport in Victorian Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Gallman, J. 2000. Receiving Erin’s children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish famine migration, 1845–1855. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Government of Northern Ireland. 1954. Census of Population 1951, County and County Borough of Londonderry (Table 4). Belfast: HMSO. https://www.nisra. gov.uk/sites/nisra.gov.uk/files/publications/1951-­c ensus-­l ondonderry-­ county-­borough-­report.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Green, O. 2016. Rails in the road: A history of tramways in Britain and Ireland. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. Gregory, I. 2000. Longitudinal analysis of age-and gender-specific migration patterns in England and Wales: A GIS-based approach. Social Science History 24: 471–503.

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Harvey, D. 1999. Time-space compression and the postmodern condition. In Modernity: Critical concepts, ed. M. Waters, 98–118. London: Routledge. Hassard, J., ed. 2016. The sociology of time. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Herlihy, D. 2004. Bicycle: The history. New Haven: Yale University Press. Janelle, D. 2014. Time–space convergence. In Handbook of research methods and applications in spatially integrated social science, ed. R.  Stimson, 43–60. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Jones, P. 1978. Innovation life-span: The urban tramway. Area 10: 247–249. Kellett, J. 2012. The impact of railways on Victorian cities. London: Routledge. Keogh, D. 2005. Twentieth-century Ireland: Revolution and state-building–the partition of Ireland, the troubles and the Celtic tiger. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. Kivisto, P. 2012. Time-space compression. The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of globalization. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog557. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Knowles, R. 2006. Transport shaping space: Differential collapse in time–space. Journal of Transport Geography 14: 407–425. Laverty, A., J. Mindell, E. Webb, and C. Millett. 2013. Active travel to work and cardiovascular risk factors in the United Kingdom. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 45: 282–288. Lee, C. 1953a. The English street tramways of George Francis train—I. The Journal of Transport History 1: 20–27. ———. 1953b. The English street tramways of George Francis train—II. The Journal of Transport History 1: 97–108. Lefebvre, H. 2004. Rhythmanalysis: Space, time and everyday life. New  York: Continuum. (Originally published in French in 1992). Leibling, D. 2008. Car ownership in Great Britain. London: RAC Foundation. https://www.racfoundation.org/wp-­c ontent/uploads/2017/11/car-­ ownership-­in-­great-­britain-­leibling-­171008-­report.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Lloyd-Jones, R., and M. Lewis. 2000. Raleigh and the British bicycle industry: An economic and business history, 1870–1960. London: Routledge. Lynch, R. 2019. The partition of Ireland: 1918–1925. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lyon, D. 2018. What is rhythmanalysis? London: Bloomsbury. MacRaild, D. 1999. Irish migrants in modern Britain, 1750–1922. London: Macmillan. Manchester Airport. 2021. Our history. https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/ about-­us/manchester-­airport-­and-­mag/history/. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Manchester Corporation. 2016. Manchester Corporation Transport. The buses 1906–1969. http://www.lthlibrary.org.uk/library/PDF-­079-­1.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Marsden, G., J. Anable, T. Chatterton, I. Docherty, J. Faulconbridge, L. Murray, H.  Roby, and J.  Shires. 2020. Studying disruptive events: Innovations in

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­ ehaviour, opportunities for lower carbon transport policy? Transport Policy b 94: 89–101. May, J., and N. Thrift, eds. 2003. Timespace: Geographies of temporality. London: Routledge. Ó’Gráda, C. 1995. The great Irish famine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2021. Fitzmaurice, Sir Gerald Gray. https://www-­o xforddnb-­c om.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/view/10.1093/ r ef:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-­9 780198614128-­e -­3 1111?rskey=6v0r8I&result=1. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Patmore, J.A. 1962. A navvy gang of 1851. The Journal of Transport History 5: 182–189. Pooley, C. 2021. Walking spaces: Changing pedestrian practices in Britain since c. 1850. The Journal of Transport History 42: 227–246. Pooley, C., with T.  Jones, M.  Tight, D.  Horton, G.  Scheldeman, C.  Mullen, A. Jopson, and E. Strano. 2013. Promoting walking and cycling. New perspectives on sustainable travel. Bristol: Policy Press. Pooley, C., and J.  Turnbull. 2000. Commuting, transport and urban form: Manchester and Glasgow in the mid-twentieth century. Urban History 27: 360–383. ———. 2005. Coping with congestion: Responses to urban traffic problems in British cities c. 1920–1960. Journal of Historical Geography 31: 78–93. Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010. Growing up on Merseyside in the late-­ nineteenth century: The diary of Elizabeth Lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Pooley, C., D. Horton, G. Scheldeman, C. Mullen, T. Jones, and M. Tight. 2014. ‘You feel unusual walking’: The invisible presence of walking in four English cities. Journal of Transport & Health 1: 260–266. Pred, A. 1981. Social reproduction and the time-geography of everyday life. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography 63: 5–22. Reades, J., and M. Crookston. 2021. Why face-to-face still matters: The persistent power of cities in the post-pandemic era. Bristol: Policy Press. Reid-Musson, E. 2018. Intersectional rhythmanalysis: Power, rhythm, and everyday life. Progress in Human Geography 42: 881–897. Schwartz, R., I.  Gregory, and T.  Thévenin. 2011a. Spatial history: Railways, uneven development, and population change in France and Great Britain, 1850–1914. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42: 53–88. Schwartz, R., I.  Gregory, and J.  Marti-Henneberg. 2011b. History and GIS: Railways, population change, and agricultural development in late nineteenth-­ century Wales. In GeoHumanities: Art, history, text at the edge of place, ed. M.  Dear, J.  Ketchum, S.  Luria, and D.  Richardson, 251–266. London: Routledge.

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Shaw-Taylor, L., and X.  You. 2018. The development of the railway network in Britain 1825–1911. https://www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/transport/onlineatlas/railways.pdf. Accessed 5 Nov 2021. Sheller, M. 2020. Ten years of transfers: Mobility studies and social change during a pandemic. Transfers 10: 22–34. Simmons, J. 1986. The railway in town and country, 1830–1914. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. Simpson, P. 2012. Apprehending everyday rhythms: Rhythmanalysis, time-lapse photography, and the space-times of street performance. Cultural Geographies 19: 423–445. Singleton, P. 2019. Walking (and cycling) to well-being: Modal and other determinants of subjective well-being during the commute. Travel Behaviour and Society 16: 249–261. Stein, J. 2003. Reflections on time, time-space compression and technology in the nineteenth century. In Timespace, ed. J. May and N. Thrift, 118–131. London: Routledge. Taylor, E. 1956. The development of motor coach touring. The Tourist Review 11: 20–23. Thrift, N., and A.  Pred. 1981. Time-geography: A new beginning. Progress in Human Geography 5: 277–286. Tight, M. 2018. Walking in the UK transport system: How and why is it changing? London: Foresight, Government Office for Science. https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/future-­of-­mobility-­walking-­in-­the-­uk-­transport-­ system. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Timeanddate.com. 2021. Eclipse. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/ solar/1927-­june-­29. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Turnock, D. 2016. An historical geography of railways in Great Britain and Ireland. London: Routledge. UK Parliament, Railways in early nineteenth century Britain. 2021. https://www. parliament.uk/about/living-­heritage/transformingsociety/transportcomms/ roadsrail/kent-­case-­study/introduction/railways-­in-­early-­nineteenth-­century-­ britain. Accessed 5 Nov 2021. Walter, B. 1980. Time-space patterns of second-wave Irish immigration into British towns. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 5: 297–317. Walton, J. 2011. The origins of the modern package tour? British motor-coach tours in Europe, 1930–70. The Journal of Transport History 32: 145–163. Warf, B. 2008. Time-space compression: Historical geographies. London: Routledge.

CHAPTER 4

Location Matters

4.1   Introduction: Space, Place, and Mobility In twenty-first-century Britain, where a person lives can fundamentally affect the ease with which they travel and the modes of transport available (Banister 2018). London has by far the best public transport provision in the country, and most other large urban areas offer more mobility choices than small towns and rural areas (Gray et  al. 2006; Kamruzzaman and Hine 2011). This has led to well-recognised rural mobility deprivation, and to what has been termed ‘forced car ownership’ as travel by private car is viewed as the only possible way of accessing services in many rural locations (Lucas 2012; Mattioli 2014, 2017). Such inequalities are of long standing and may even have increased over time (Pooley 2016a, b). The diaries we have studied can demonstrate the ways in which people in rural and urban areas of Britain have travelled at different times in the past. The availability of transport and the ease of mobility are not only structured by a simple rural/urban division. Many other factors intervene to create a complex mosaic of spatial mobility opportunities and disadvantages. Local topography and terrain can make a significant difference, especially when using human- or animal-powered transport modes. These difficulties are further enhanced by factors such as local weather conditions and the state of the highway. An extract from the travel journal of an

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_4

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anonymous woman who embarked on extensive travels around England and Wales in 1833 provides one example of the experience of traversing rough terrain in mid-Wales during poor weather: The morning was misty when first we set out but it gradually cleared away first from the tops of the mountains when the effect was both uncommon & grand for the mist remaining on the middle & lower parts of the mountain looked like clouds whilst the towering summits appeared as if rising above them we passed through a most lovely & fertile vale through wh. the Wye wound its course. But alas the sky became overcast & soon the rain came down in torrents we sheltered ourselves with the hood, umbrellas and Uncles waterproof cloak notwithstanding wh. we got wet after an hour and a half passed in this manner we arrived at Rhayader about 11, 14 miles from Bualt & had a comfortable fire made by wh. we soon dried & warmed ourselves & then breakfasted. The Inn was a good one (the Red Lion) We left Rhayader about one being obliged to take 4 horses on account of the roughness & hilliness of the road we went by the old road to Hefod. The weather had cleared up & the scenery was magnificent. Our road wound up a high mountain on one side of it were steep bold rocks rising perpendicularly above us on the other a precipitous descent down into the valley beneath where the little huts & cottages were seen thinly scattered whilst high mountains were on the other side of the vale. We continued ascending for four miles amongst a continual change of most grand scenery the numerous mountain streams often crossing our path & rushing in long waterfalls down the valley where they joined the Illion & afterwards the Ithwith.1

The structure of rural settlements and the services that they provide can influence the need to travel to fulfil everyday needs, and thus lead to rural mobility disadvantage compared to most urban areas. Lack of service provision may also impact on the cohesion and viability of rural communities (Cabras and Lau 2019; Higgs and White 1997). Not only do most rural communities have fewer facilities than urban areas, but also their residents may need to travel further to access fast and efficient transport to reach the services that they need. For instance, the diarist Mary Anne Prout (born 1861) who lived in the village of St Agnes in rural Cornwall in the 1880s recorded the ways in which she and her friends travelled. Although the village would have provided for most basic everyday needs, the nearest town (Truro) was some 14  km (9  miles) away. Travel to this larger 1

 An Anonymous Woman’s travel journal, Saturday August 10, 1833. WA (EHC/96).

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settlement would have had to be on foot, by horse and trap or cart. Moreover, St Agnes did not get its own railway station until 1903, and the nearest rail halts to Mary Anne’s home were some 8 km (5 miles) away at Scorrier or Chacewater (Wikipedia 2021). Travellers who used the rail network regularly walked this distance. The following diary extracts give a flavour of the ways in which Mary Anne and others in her neighbourhood travelled to access the facilities, services and entertainments that they needed. Mrs Piddlestone, Mrs Henwood, Miss Piddlestone, Miss Bessie Henwood Mother and me went into Truro this afternoon in Hancock’s Wagonette. We went up all around the new schools and looked in at the windows. What a nice building. The president of the Wesleyan Conference is going to open the school on Tuesday. … we arrived home about ½ past 10 o’clock.2 Mother sent Telegram to Truro for Father to meet Mr Brunt at Scorrier and sent Roberts’s trap to station for them. They went from Scorrier to Perran [Perranporth] to see the Willie [a boat] and then came back here. … Mr Brunt walked to Chacewater station.3 Mrs Henwood, wife and son and me drove into Truro today and then went down to Falmouth by the steamer. It is a lovely view all the way down but Mrs Henwood was poorly all day.4 Mr Henwood left about dinner time. Mrs Mitchel from Hayle came in just before he left she walked from Scorrier station this afternoon.5

In contrast, Elizabeth Lee (born 1867), a young lady of about the same age as Miss Prout, lived on Merseyside in the late-nineteenth century. Although her home was in the semi-rural suburb of Prenton, she had easy access to urban facilities in Birkenhead and across the Mersey in Liverpool. Daily travel was locally on foot, but also by bus, tram, train, and ferry. Birkenhead gained its first railway station in 1844 with the addition of further stations in 1886 (Patmore 1961); these were no more than 3 km (2 miles) from Elizabeth’s home, with good connections to bus and tram routes. In her diary, Elizabeth recorded how she moved freely around Merseyside using all the different transport modes available. Her choice of transport mode and the range of facilities and entertainments available to  Diary of Mary Anne Prout, Sunday May 7, 1882. BIA (GDP/58).  Ibid., Saturday April 22, 1882. 4  Ibid., Saturday August 26, 1882. 5  Ibid., Monday May 8, 1882. 2 3

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Elizabeth and her friends were very much greater than for the rural Mary Anne Prout in the same period. It is also noticeable that Elizabeth only rarely noted her modes of travel, presumably taking for granted that everyday movement around the Merseyside region was easy and normal. Two diary entries for 1888 are typical: Ma and I started to go to L’pool, but Ma felt too tired after, so I went with Lizzie Sanchez (met her as I was going) and we had a nice talk, her mother behaves shamefully to her. I bought a very pretty dove-grey dress at Frisby Dyke’s. Ma likes it very much. Lizzie and I went to the shop in Cross St. and had our tea, then I went to the Heathcock’s and had such a jolly talk with Lottie and Tamar. Lovely moonlight night.6 Met Francis Teare at ‘Cripps’ today (in L’pool) as she had asked me to go to tea. We walked about L’pool a bit and met Mr. Bragg; then we went on Tram to her house. I have’nt been for about 9 years. Saw Charlie Teare, whom I have never seen before. He had just come from “Sea” the night before. F. walked down to the station with me. Got home rather late. Nice day but very close.7

In all locations, geography and class intersect to structure mobility opportunities. In both urban and rural areas the rich have more mobility choices and, in general, travel more quickly and comfortably than the poor (Davoudi and Bell 2016; Cloke and Thrift 1987). In the twentieth century, access to a motor vehicle became a crucial factor in enabling greater freedom to travel independently and without recourse to public transport. Arguably, this has increased mobility inequalities in all locations as those without a car must continue to rely on often limited public transport. The memoir written by Mollie Potts (born 1902)8 gives a sense of the excitement and freedom that car ownership could bring in the early twentieth century. Female drivers were relatively rare at this time and driving was clearly a source of great pride for Mollie (Chen 2020; Clarsen 2008; O’Connell 2007). In 1922, Mollie was living with her parents in Heaton Norris, Stockport. Her father was a cotton merchant and Mollie worked in an office in central Manchester. Learning to drive and having a car widened Mollie’s horizons substantially, although it was not without its setbacks, as the following extracts show:  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Wednesday March 25, 1888. (Pooley et al. 2010).  Ibid., Saturday May 26, 1888. 8  She was born Mary Cecil Hobson and wrote her memoir at the age of 75. 6 7

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When we eventually achieved a car having become more wealthy, and me having passed the R.A.C. examination and got a licence, my father gave me a Willys-Overland Crossley saloon (open) but with a hood and side curtains,9 for my 21st birthday – the year before when I was 20. It had been the great object of my life to achieve this and I was terribly proud of it and I enjoyed all the lessons (in Manchester) thoroughly. I also had to learn how to change a tyre and do any repair jobs, such as Puncture etc. … However, I remember I passed the R.A.C. test with about 75 or 80 marks, having driven him all amongst the traffic of lorries and trams through the heart of Manchester and also through the slums – Shude Hill was the worst part with narrow cobbled streets and fierce looking women standing in their doorways with bricks ready to throw at passing cars, should the mood take them. However, that was that and I was very proud of myself. My mother went in for the same lessons and also passed her test some months later, but I never remember her driving. We went to the factory at Levenshulme to choose the car where it was made and chose this pale grey tourer and eventually went again to take delivery – how proud I felt when I drove my mother home – all among the trams and only about 2 miles from Heaton Moor. There it was to greet my Father when he arrived home. … After we had taken delivery of the car, it was early in the week before Easter, and we had planned to go away for the weekend – my mother and I thought that as it was a nice day, we would take the opportunity of going over to Cheadle Hulme to see my Mother’s cousin … so off we set in great style, at about 2p.m. one sunny afternoon. About a mile from home I had a sudden feeling that the handbrake was on, stooped down to take it off and crash-bang we crashed into a lamp-post, as the road bent at that point. We stopped dead, and both being entirely without nerves, looked at each other and burst out laughing! I sprang out and found the mudguard crumpled into the left hand front tyre and headlamp broken – and then tried to get the engine on again and back the car so that it was straight on the road instead of sticking out at an awkward angle into the road. This I think I managed with a lot of curious noises coming from the engine. In the meantime, my mother had rushed to the nearest house and asked to use the phone and ring up our garage where at that time, we kept the car, not having had one of our own, so early on. The Man soon arrived, hoisted up the car, and we rode in his, very ignominiously down Heaton Moor Road, home! Never having made the entirely short and simple and short journey to see Cousin Sadie. The awful thing was, I had to ring up and tell my father what had happened, and it was really sad because it was doubtful whether they could mend the car in time for us to go off on 9  These motors were manufactured close to where the Hobsons’ lived in Stockport. (Crossley motors 2021).

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the Thursday – when I told him he said “A very good thing – you were driving far too fast”. … I have since driven quite literally thousands of miles throughout my life and never had another mishap.10

In contrast, most families with fewer resources relied on public transport, their feet and legs, or their bicycles to travel around. In urban areas this was not usually a problem as multiple transport options usually intersected, especially in London which has always been better served with transport than most other places, but in the countryside mobility options were much more limited. This is emphasised if we compare the daily travel of two more female diarists and their families, one in Manchester and one in rural Lincolnshire. In early-twentieth-century Manchester, Ida Berry and her family seemed to move seamlessly between different transport modes as they travelled around the city. They did not own a car in the first decade of the twentieth century, but there is no sense that this restricted their mobility. After dinner we all went by train to Chorlton, and then walked to Stretford and then we got on the top of the bus, and went to Urmston house hunting, it was a beautiful day and we had our tea at a shop. Coming home we had a cab from Stretford station to Chorlton station and caught the three minutes to seven train home.11

Three decades later, Catherine Gayler (born 1919) was living with her parents and siblings in a village in rural Lincolnshire. Her father was a gardener on a local estate and at that time they did not have access to a car. Catherine was at school in the town of Grantham and usually made this journey of about 11  km (7  miles) by school bus. All the family’s other travel was on foot, by bicycle, on public service bus or, very occasionally, by train. There was only one mention of travelling by car when she got a lift home from Grantham, and she cycled quite long distances, especially during the school summer holidays. Although a rail line passed close to the village, the nearest station was some 5 km (3 miles) away. Catherine’s teenage diary entries were relatively brief, but a selection from 1934 give a flavour of the family’s rural mobility at this time:

10  Potts, M. (1976) Memoirs of an Edwardian (unpublished memoir of Mollie Potts, authors’ collection, chapter 8). 11  Diary of Ida Berry, Wednesday May 10, 1905.BIA (GDP/28).

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Went to Grantham on 4 ‘bus with M. Came back on 6 ‘bus. Had my hair cut. Bought a penknife and comb.12 Went up heath in morning. In afternoon hiked a little way past Hall. Went to Grantham on 4 o’clock bus with Mummy. Had a new coat, a dull red one. G had a half day at school.13 New bikes, Went to Whyndam Park Baths with Midge. Not so warm as last time but quite nice.14 We had afternoon off [NB: in middle of Oxford Board external exams]. Went to tea and dinner with M.C. Finished Chem at 6.00. They brought me in car home.15 Went for bike ride to Bennington, back round Westborough in morning with Sos and George (20 miles). Bikes to Brandon back through Marston with DC.16 Biked to Newark and back in afternoon with G and S (about 27 miles)17 Biked over to Grannies at night with Daddy. Saw Auntie Lucy and Auntie Mabel. Coming back at about 15 ½ m.p.h.18 Mum and G went to Grantham by train.19 Didn’t get up very early in morning and biked over to grannies with Mum in afternoon. It rained quite hard coming back. Got home just after six.20 Bus very crowded. Both boys and girls on one bus as other broke down at Frieston. Stayed to get hair done and came home on 5 bus.21

4.2  Residential Change and Mobility Change A small number of the diarists we have studied moved between rural and urban areas during the course of their surviving diaries, and we can use these to illustrate more clearly the ways in which mobility could alter in relation to different locations. Of course, there is not a simple rural to urban division of mobility experiences, but rather a continuum of change from remoter rural areas, through suburban locations to large cities which  Diary of Catherine Gayler, Saturday January 13, 1934. BIA (GDP/16)  Ibid., Saturday January 27, 1934. 14  Ibid., Thursday July 12, 1934. 15  Ibid., Thursday July 19, 1934. 16  Ibid., Wednesday August 31, 1934. 17  Ibid., Friday August 3, 1934. 18  Ibid., Sunday August 19, 1934. 19  Ibid., Monday September 17, 1934. 20  Ibid., Saturday September 29, 1934. 21  Ibid., Friday October 5, 1934. 12 13

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usually have the greatest range of transport choices. Mary Leesmith (born 1870) wrote her surviving diary from 1894 to 1896, stopping after her mother died and shortly before she married in 1897. For most of 1894, she lived with relatives in a rural community near the small town of Ripon in North Yorkshire, but in December 1894 moved (with her mother) to Bushey (Hertfordshire), located just to the south of Watford on the outer suburban fringe of London. Although in the late nineteenth century Bushey was a village close to open countryside, it also had good rail connections to London. Mary Leesmith was an artist and portrait painter with a studio in London and she frequently travelled into and around the capital. The move south seemed to be primarily motivated by the desire to live closer to her fiancé George Harcourt (who was also an artist). Whilst in Yorkshire Mary and her mother had easy access to a family carriage, and all her local travel was either on foot or by carriage, with rare longer journeys undertaken by train. In contrast, once in Bushey the majority of her travel was by public transport, including bus, tram, and both overground and underground trains in and around London. A carriage was used primarily for trips out locally and when travelling away from home. The following extracts contrast her everyday travel in the two locations. In Yorkshire: L started at 12.4 for Bushey. Drove22 to the station with Scamp to see her off. In the afternoon I, Mother and my Aunt drove Tom up to golf. Scamp loves a run with the carriage, drove back on the box, bitter NE wind made my head feel it afterwards.23 Tom called with Raffle, took Scamp out for the first time in his new muzzle. Walked with Tom around by Bishopton Bridge & thro the town as we stopped at the reading room. I left Raffle at SC and then back home.24 Dressed and drove up to the Mechanics Institute with A.F. … just in time to hear the Dean open the Bazaar in the place of Lord Ripon. … as AF and I were getting some tea the carriage came for us so we drove home still pouring rain & spent the evening at Sunnybank.25

22  In all the diaries we have seen for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ‘drove’ is normally used for travel in a cab or carriage. If a motor vehicle is used, then the journey is referred to as ‘motoring’. 23  Diary of Mary Leesmith, Saturday October 20, 1894. BIA (GDP/95). 24  Ibid., Thursday November 1, 1894. 25  Ibid., Wednesday November 7, 1894.

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In Bushey and London: Hs & I went to town at 9.12, lovely morning  – changed at Willesden, Addison & Gloucester Rd for Bayswater. Went to Whitley’s to see if they let out costumes – recommended us to Covent Garden shops. Got a map & then armed with that we went by bus to Bond St, walked down there looked at some photos, had lunch at Lyons. Then went up and down Endell St, found no shops we wanted, then went down Bow St., went into 2 shops there. … then to Holborn Rest. For something to eat. Wired mother we couldn’t get home till 9. Back to Burnets where we got all we wanted in scraps (some lovely remnants) and then home after a long day.26 I went to studio in the afternoon. By underground from Marlborough Rd to Baker St & then bus to Victoria.27 G and I went to town by the 9.4 changed at Harrow. … went straight to 16 Queensgate and saw the Fairfax-Lucys. … called at a photographer’s next and then had some lunch and went by underground from Kensington High St to Gower St and then to see some studios. I had been told of miserable looking places – such a nasty part of London. Can’t think how artists can do it. … back to Fairfax at 5.30 … drove back by bus to Euston and got the 7.4 train home. Delightful to get to the country again. G came to supper with me.28 A beautiful day. G and I went to town by the 9.4 train to see Fanny. Delayed for 3 quarters of an hour between Sudbury and Willesden, engine gone wrong. Got pushed by a coal train for a little, then another engine sent from Willesden took us to Euston. Drove by bus to 17 Suffolk St, Pall Mall, saw Fannie and had long talk. … Fannie drove us to station and we got the 3.40 train.29 The H’s and I walked to Aldenham, a beautiful windy morning. Walked back with the Miss Knolls, pleasant bright girls. In the afternoon we went across the fields to Fowlers to order some buttermilk for tomorrow & spent the evening round the fire reading.30

A second example of the ways in which mobility could vary from place to place comes from the diaries of Freda Smith (born 1887), whose surviving journals cover the period 1904–14. Freda grew up in a wealthy and well-connected family. Her father was a colonel in the British army, and  Ibid., Friday January 18, 1895.  Ibid., Monday April 15, 1895. 28  Ibid., Monday April 20, 1895. 29  Ibid., Wednesday May 15, 1895. 30  Ibid., Sunday November 24, 1895. 26 27

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she was related to aristocracy.31 Partly because of her father’s work Freda experienced quite a peripatetic life, moving between a number of locations, but between 1906 and 1908 when her father held a London post, she mainly lived in the family’s rented smart central London home, but often stayed at her paternal grandmother’s large country house in Oxfordshire, or with her aunt on the Watson-Armstrong estates of Cragside and Bamburgh in the north-east of England. With such an affluent family, in theory Freda could have access to any form of transport she wished, but in practice how she travelled did vary depending on where she was living at the time. Colonel Smith did not own a motor in London,32 possibly because he sometimes had access to a military vehicle, but Freda travelled quite frequently in the motor vehicles of relatives and male friends, particularly on outings to places in the outer London suburbs and Home Counties. Within central London Freda mostly travelled on foot, by private carriage or occasionally in relatives’ cars, although she also used the London bus network, hansom cabs and taxis, and travelled by both overground and underground trains. Like Mary Leesmith, she exploited the full range of mobility options available in London. In contrast, when in rural Oxfordshire most travel was on foot, or by bicycle, with longer trips usually made in her grandmother’s private carriage, in the cars of relatives or friends, or occasionally by travelling on the extensive local train network. The most distinctive difference from London, apart from the relative lack of public transport options, was the fact that she only ever recorded using her London-bought bicycle in Oxfordshire. It is as though this was seen as appropriate transport in the countryside but less so in town. When she travelled north to Northumberland, she usually went by train but, once there, apart from local walks almost all her travel was in the motor cars of her relatives and others that she knew. The Cragside and Bamburgh estates are both very rural and, while a motor was not seen as necessary in London, in these remoter locations a car was viewed as essential by those who could afford one in the first decade of the twentieth century. Of course, location was not the only factor that determined how Freda travelled, and factors such as social class and the personal attitudes of the people she was staying with were also important. The implications 31  William Henry Watson-Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside, who inherited the substantial industrial empire in north-east England established by his great-uncle, Lord Armstrong of Cragside, was her uncle by marriage. 32  In her 1906 diary, Freda does note that her father was contemplating buying a car.

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of some of these factors for a young woman at this time are explored in more detail in Chap. 6. The following diary extracts illustrate Freda’s travel in different locations. In London: This morning to Miss Sutcliffe [dressmaker] in a hansom … lunched at 92. Afterwards M[other] and I had the carriage and left cards on a great many people.33 M[other] and I went by the new tube [Piccadilly line opened December 1906] – to Regent and Bond St. Ball dress hunting etc. Afternoon I went to Sutcliffe with Reid [servant] who was very disagreeable- and is going  – thank goodness.34 [Cousin] Jack asked M[other] if I cd go out with him and she said Oh yes at once so he and I had a ripping morning shopping – the Sloanes and Gorringe- then we walked to Bond St & home in a taxi. We dashed back to lunch & off all of us -and Johnnie- to the Hippodrome. Home in a taxi.35

In Oxfordshire: Afternoon drove to Watlington with A[unt] A. and Mother … Tuesday 3rd …To post this morning. Afternoon A[unt] G. & I bicycled to Ewelme.36 I bicycled to lunch with the Phillimores [at Brightwell] & stayed to tea … John and I had a nice afternoon in the punt … Mr Hampden came over to tea & we went for a spin in his car.37 A[unt] G. drove me over to lunch at Brightwell & I was to have gone to Tythrop with them [the Phillimores]. – But the Chauffeur was attacked last night by a man leading two bicycles (theirs) & is quite hors de combat. They have not caught the man! However, after lunch Crystal, John & their cousin and I went by train to Goring to the Bowyers where we had tea.38

 Diary of Freda Smith, Friday May 25, 1906. BIA (GDP/99).  Ibid., Monday December 17, 1906. 35  Ibid., Saturday February 15, 1908. 36  Ibid., Monday October 2, and Tuesday October 3, 1905. 37  Ibid., Sunday August 5, 1906. 38  Ibid., Monday May 27, 1907. 33 34

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In Northumberland: [Cragside] U[ncle] Will & I went to Alnwick by 4.30 train. The others motored. Got there 6.48. Stopped at the White Swan … Percy Hunt Ball began 9.30 … We got home at 4.39 We left Alnwick in 2 cars at about 12 & had a very nice run home [to Cragside]. Very wet & deep snow each side though the road was clear.40 [Cragside]. Molly & I motored over to Trewhitt with Guy. Fetched Jack – then when we got back Molly, Jack & I went for a long walk over the Cragside Moor.41

Our final example of the way in which transport options changed following a residential move comes from the 1950s. Gillian Caldwell (born 1937) grew up in the remote upland valley of Eskdale in Cumberland, NW England, where her parents ran a restaurant. She kept a (surviving) diary from 1952–58. Initially, Gillian was a week-day boarder at a private girls’ school on the Cumberland coast, but returned home most weekends. She left school at the age of 16 in June 1953 and then lived mainly at home (with frequent visits to friends and relatives) until early 1954. After a period of about three months working in Zurich, she returned to Eskdale for a few weeks before going to Edinburgh to attend college and, from 1956, working in the office of an Edinburgh accountancy firm. She continued to make frequent return visits to Eskdale, and here we compare Gillian’s mobility opportunities and choices in the city of Edinburgh and the rural community of Eskdale. Eskdale was not without transport options in the 1950s. A bus service ran through the valley and the narrow-­ gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale railway (designed mainly for tourists) also passed close by, with a station about 750 m (½ mile) from Gillian’s home. However, whenever possible Gillian sought a lift to the nearest mainline railway station or to a community with a more frequent bus service than the one that ran near her home. She had a bicycle but only used it when absolutely necessary, and definitely preferred motorised transport to either walking or cycling. Car transport was usually provided by her father or by anyone with a car who was available. In contrast, while in Edinburgh Gillian could travel around the relatively compact city on foot and by bus or tram, with longer trips usually by train. She never mentioned cycling in Edinburgh and only rarely travelled by car. As in Cumberland, she  Ibid., Friday January 7, 1907.  Ibid., Saturday January 5, 1907. 41  Ibid., Wednesday August 27, 1907. 39 40

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depended on others for car travel but, unlike at home, few of her Edinburgh friends had access to a vehicle. Everyday mobility in Edinburgh was much easier than in Eskdale, and the range of transport options available allowed her to experience much more independent travel than at home where she was often dependent on (male) friends and relatives for a lift. The following extracts from Gillian Caldwell’s diaries demonstrate these differences. In Cumberland: Phil, Marjorie, Alaister, Sue and I went to Ennerdale after lunch and had a picnic by the shores of a lake which is so level, it seems to be in a setting of fairyland. Phil is a devilish reckless driver though and if I were Marj I should be perfectly terrified.42 We went to the study after lunch and learnt the ins and outs of cycling on a Sunday. We decided to set off towards the BHI [home] but as we were at Holmrook by 2.30 we each got home. It was an effort for me though as my bike was in top gear – the others having bust – and it was the first strenuous exercise I’d taken for years. We passed Dorothy and Nigel on the way in – she stopped the Wolsey right on the crest of the hill.43 I’m really sorry this weekend has gone so quickly. However M & D are running me to Carlisle which will make an enormous difference. … The car wouldn’t start and when we finally got away it was nearly three. We had tea in the station and it seemed no time at all before I was back home and being met by Randy who had missed me I think.44

In Edinburgh: [after tea] we took a tram out to Churchill and went to see ‘Salome’ at the Dominion. I loved it and we sat through it nearly twice but time ran out and we went back. I had to change trams at Toll Cross which was a hellish nuisance but I managed to get home in time for a spot of supper.45 Pooh [female friend] and I were too damned broke to do anything tonight. So we took a tram out to Easter Rd and walked all along the Queen’s Mile and talked. The slums are quite amazing still. Then we came home by the castle and parted about 9.30 so we had an early night.46 Absolute panic this morning! The two cases, dress box and Ranald’s holdall hardly fit in the car [of friend] at all; and the train was absolutely packed  Ibid., Sunday April 12, 1953.  Ibid., Sunday May 3, 1953. 44  Ibid., Sunday February 17, 1957. 45  Ibid., Thursday May 20, 1954. 46  Ibid., Tuesday May 25, 1954. 42 43

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so we had to travel first class again. It took ages to Carlisle going by the Borders and we missed our connection. I had no money for lunch. By this time we were both thoroughly bad tempered. We eventually caught the two o’clock train & Daddy met us.47 [travel from Edinburgh to Eskdale]. Then we went home {to Ranald’s flat] for coffee and were so wrapped up in each other that I nearly missed the last bus home.48

4.3  The Exceptionalism of London As some of the previous accounts of everyday mobilities have shown, London offered a far wider range of travel and transport opportunities than other locations in Britain. Even cities such as Manchester or Edinburgh could not compete with the mobility options that London offered the traveller. Moreover, as new transport technologies were developed the gap between London and other locations widened. For instance, while in the mid-nineteenth century all cities provided only horse-drawn public transport in the form of cabs or omnibuses, together with connection to the emerging national rail network, by the first decade of the twentieth century, London had acquired a network of trams, suburban trains and a developing underground rail system that was far more comprehensive than that of any other British city (Barker and Robbins 1976a, b; Fowler 2019; Galviz 2019; Jackson 2018). Most London residents utilised the full range of mobility experiences that the city offered, and usually moved quite seamlessly between them. The ease with which most people moved around London is perhaps emphasised by the fact that in the diaries of several people who lived at least part of their life in London, the mode of transport used is only rarely specified. Journeys were recorded but the form of transport and the experience of the journey were often not noted. For the most part, unusual outings were the only ones that merited particular attention. However, mobility options were not uniformly or equally distributed across the city, with some of the poorest parts of the city having the fewest transport links (Jones 2014; Porter 1995), while affluent suburbs were relatively rapidly connected to the expanding overground and underground suburban rail networks (Abernethy 2015; Dyos 1953; Wolmar 2009). Location mattered even within a city that had a relatively well-developed transport infrastructure. The diarists considered  Ibid., Saturday September 1, 1956.  Ibid., Wednesday June 12, 1957.

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below demonstrate the variety of transport modes and the ease of movement that most London residents experienced. Thomas Harradence (born 1801) was a bookseller living in Camberwell, south London, when he wrote his surviving diaries for the years 1844–54. By the mid-nineteenth century, Camberwell was a growing suburb of London, within walking distance of the city, but also with horse-drawn omnibus connections to central London (Dyos 1961). Most of Thomas’s movements were very local and on foot, with some longer trips by train. Local Sunday walks with his children seemed to be important to him, and, so far as his brief diary entries reveal, the mobility that constructed his business life seemed easy and taken-for-granted, although the mode of transport was rarely recorded. Took children for a walk round Herne Hill49 … Took children for a walk round Brixton.50 … Took children out into the fields after dinner, a most splendid day.51 … Left London with Mary, little Kate and Sarah by the one o’clock excursion train for Yarmouth. Arrived there soon after 9.52

John Leeson (born 1804) also lived in London in the mid-nineteenth century, but he was more affluent than Harradence and lived in a smart location in central London. Although he was relatively wealthy, he did not keep a carriage of his own but utilised the full range of transport available to him at the time, including travel on foot, by hired cab, bus, train, occasionally in the carriage of an acquaintance or by boat from the Thames. It was usual for such families not to keep a carriage when in London, as space for stabling was limited and local transport alternatives were good. Much the same is true in London today as the capital has levels of car ownership that are well below the national average, and most everyday travel can be easily accomplished without access to a vehicle.53 Selected extracts from Leeson’s diaries illustrate the range of travel options available to him for both business and leisure purposes, although like Harradence he frequently did not specifically mention a transport mode.  Diary of Thomas Harradence, Sunday February 15, 1846. BIA (GDP/49).  Ibid., Sunday February 22, 1846. 51  Ibid., Sunday May 3, 1846. 52  Ibid., Saturday June 27, 1846. 53  In England, 75 per cent of households have access to a car whereas in London only 54 per cent of households have at least one car, with the highest car-ownership rates in central London. (Transport for London 2012; Department for Transport 2020). 49 50

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Left London with Mrs Leeson and went by Eastern Union Railway to Norwich, very foggy. Went to Richard’s house, Surrey Road  – found all well.54 I left London with Mrs Leeson, Lotty and nurse and went from London Bridge by steamer to Margate, took lodgings on the front  – stayed there six weeks.55 In afternoon Charlotte, I, Lotty and Johnny walked in St James’ Park – the park full of Holidays folk and children  – tag rag and bob tail  – all very happy.56 I and Mrs Leeson dined with Mrs Salter and Mr Beasley Mr Carter and Mrs Salter at Hammersmith in afternoon. Mr B took me in his Chaise through Mortlake to Richmond on the Hill, through the Park a wedding and home over suspension bridge – I much enjoyed the ride, and it called up old times, riding with Father in his Chaise.57 I slipped down in London – Euston Road – on leaving an Omnibus and sprained my left arm, was confined to the house a few days with the arm in a sling.58 I, Mrs L and Children had a ride in a Fly for 2 hrs – to Fulham, Putney Bridge, Bishop of London’s Palace, Fulham Fields etc which we enjoyed very much – the first we have had.59 Charlotte, Lotty and I rode in a cab for the rents – called on Mrs Brown Camden Town who was not at home.60

The diary of an anonymous male Londoner written in 1871 also provides quite a detailed account of the way in which travel around the capital by a variety of means was almost seamless in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. In addition to travel by overground rail, bus, tram and boat, by 1871 four lines in London’s developing underground network had been constructed, thus further enhancing travel opportunities in the capital when compared to other British cities.61 Little is known of the diarist, but he appeared to live in Finchley (north London) and may have  Diary of John Leeson, Monday December 23, 1850. BIA (GDP/8).  Ibid., Thursday August 5, 1852. 56  Ibid., Friday April 15, 1854. 57  Ibid., Saturday August 6, 1859. 58  Ibid., Saturday March 3, 1860. 59  Ibid., Saturday April 12, 1862. 60  Ibid., Saturday April 16, 1864. 61  The only other British city with a subway system before the 1970s was Glasgow where an underground city-centre loop opened in 1896. Today, both Newcastle upon Tyne and Liverpool have limited subway systems. 54 55

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worked in the building and construction trade. He also regularly noted the cost of his various travels around the city. Morning with Mr H Williams to the Archway, by bus to Highbury and by rail to Woolwich (via Blackwall, then to Cannels’ and Nursery and Charlton Pier, by boat to London Bridge then to Moorgate St by rail to East End and home. Rails, boat and toll: 1sh 10d62 Morning to Highgate, by rail to Moorgate St, then by bus to Charing Cross, Covent Garden, by District Rail from Charing Cross to Cannon St, then to the Borough and Moorgate St, by rail to East End and home. Rails and bus: 1s 2d63 Morning to the Archway, by bus to Highbury, Institution, Mr Coley’s, Essex Road … Aspinal’s Wharf, Old Jewry for Annuity warrant, Bank, Moorgate St, by tram to the Nag’s Head, then to Crouch End, by rail to East End and home. Tram, rail and bus: 7 ½d.64

A decade later in 1881, Frederick Dunn (born 1859) enjoyed much the same range of public transport options as his predecessors, but in addition cycled regularly, most probably on a high-wheel bike (penny farthing) which would have been difficult to ride. The safety bicycle was not developed fully until the mid-1880s (Herlihy 2004). Dunn lived with his parents in Marylebone and worked in the City of London as a Civil Service clerk. He does not routinely state how he travelled to work, and he would have had various public transport options, but at least on some occasions he cycled or walked. Office till 5. Had tea with Alf Jenkins in the City. Both of us had a conversation with President Kirkstall F C who wanted us to take a team to Leeds.65 Walked to Oxford Street. Bus from Oxford to Post Offices. Saw Alf to Liverpool St & then retired.66 Office till 5. Rode out with Brookes in evening about Kensington. Rode over a dog. Had supper at the Queen’s Arms. Collision in Park Lane with

 Diary of an anonymous male, Monday April 24, 1871. BIA (GDP/87).  Ibid., Saturday September 2, 1871. 64  Ibid., Tuesday October 17, 1871. 65  This would be for a rugby match. Frederick Dunn played rugby for the Saracens F.C. which was founded in Marylebone in 1876. (Saracens 2021). 66  Diary of Frederick Dunn, Wednesday January 5, 1881. BIA (GDP/135). 62 63

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Brook’s machine. Got off safely myself but B’s front wheel knocked completely out of shape.67 Rode to and from office on machine. Office till 5. Saw Doctor who ordered me to give up bicycling for time on acc’t of knee.68

By the 1920s, private motor vehicles and motor buses had been added to the mix of transport options available to Londoners, and in his diary of 1926 Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice (born 1901) gives a vivid picture of the normal bustle of London transport when he describes the effect of the General Strike on public transport in the city. The strike is in being. All trams and buses have stopped, also tubes and underground trains etc. and Dockers and others. Taxis and private buses are on the streets. Everybody is getting to work on motor bikes and push bikes, lorries, charabancs and private cars. The embankment, Whitehall, Strand etc. were a sea of vehicles during the rush hours.69

The modernity and busyness of London usually impressed visitors from elsewhere, especially when they contrasted it with their usual small town or rural locations. Rhona Little’s account of her journey to London from Northern Ireland and her first impressions of the city (quoted in Chap. 3) give a flavour of this in the late-1930s, and Gillian Caldwell was similarly impressed when she travelled to London with her father in the 1950s. The contrast with her rural home in Cumberland would be marked but, although in her description of the journey she was clearly excited about travelling to London, and was impressed by the modernity of the city, she also found it in some ways alienating. The journey to and from the capital was undertaken by car as far as Luton from where they caught the train into central London. Presumably, her father did not want the hassle of driving and parking in the city. We left really early  – in reality only 10.30 and meandered slowly southwards – through the old world villages of Cheshire to Derby where we had drinks at a sweet pub called the Dolphin and lunch at a positively lousy hole called the Friary. We were in Leicester about teatime I suppose but we didn’t stop again till Luton. By 8.10 Pops and I were in London. I LOVE it but I  Ibid., Friday February 11.  Ibid., Wednesday March 2, 1881. 69  Diary of Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice, Tuesday May 4, 1926. BIA London (GDP/52). 67 68

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LOATHE it like hell at the same time. I love it for what it offers – its carefree society, links with the past and its delightful bustle of the modern world. I loathe it for its complete lack of care for the world. Cadogan House is quite decent but we spent the evening walking (!) from Marble Arch to Piccadilly. Eventually about 11.30 we stopped in Regent St and had a ghastly snack at the Chicken Inn.70 We left St Pancras at 9.5 – dear God was it cold – and got to E. Luton at 10.05. Then home. We took sandwiches with us and ate them somewhere near Newcastle [under Lyme] where we stocked up with more grub and I bought Ma some perfume. We had dinner at Carnforth, at the Station Hotel – extremely nice – and the first time I had been in.71 Funny to be back here – as Alaister H. expressed Eskdale is the one place in the whole Universe to come back to.72

Whenever Gillian had been away from Eskdale for a period of time, she looked forward to returning, and the images and memories attached to a place could make a significant difference to how a journey was experienced. Typical sentiments are expressed in her diary as she returned to Eskdale in 1952. At last I found myself on the puffer coming home after putting it off for days. Much as I have enjoyed my holiday, I’m as excited as ever at the prospect of getting home. I can’t explain how I feel – not even to myself – on paper what I feel like when I see the mountains for the first time after a week. The journey was very quiet and I should think that after Millom I was about the only person on the train. Dear old Affie met me at the station – with her dog.73

The diaries examined in this chapter demonstrate not only the centrality of all forms of travel to the production of the everyday life of the writers, but also emphasise both the varied ways in which individuals chose to utilise the transport technologies available and the range of their mobility experiences. There was never one set of mobilities experiences in Britain, but rather a mosaic of different opportunities and experiences depending on a combination of location, affluence and personal preference. Arguably, as mobility options widened in the twentieth century, the extent to which  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Sunday October 25, 1953. BIA (GDP/1).  Ibid., Wednesday November 4, 1953. 72  Ibid., Thursday November 5, 1953. 73  Ibid., Thursday April 24, 1952. 70 71

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there were variations from place to place also increased, with rural areas providing far fewer transport opportunities than large cities, especially London. In any study of mobilities, it is essential to consider how this spatial component influences our interpretation of the New Mobilities Paradigm.

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Herlihy, D. 2004. Bicycle: The history. New Haven: Yale University Press. Higgs, G., and S. White. 1997. Changes in service provision in rural areas. Part 1: The use of GIS in analysing accessibility to services in rural deprivation research. Journal of Rural Studies 13: 441–450. Jackson, A. 2018. Semi-detached London: Suburban development, life and transport, 1900–39. London: Routledge. Jones, G.S. 2014. Outcast London: A study in the relationship between classes in Victorian society. London: Verso. Kamruzzaman, M., and J. Hine. 2011. Participation index: A measure to identify rural transport disadvantage? Journal of Transport Geography 19: 882–899. Lucas, K. 2012. Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now? Transport Policy 20: 105–113. Mattioli, G. 2014. Where sustainable transport and social exclusion meet: Households without cars and car dependence in Great Britain. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 16: 379–400. ———. 2017. “Forced car ownership” in the UK and Germany: Socio-spatial patterns and potential economic stress impacts. Social Inclusion 5: 147–160. O’Connell, S. 2007. Motoring and modernity. In Twentieth-century Britain. Economic, cultural and social change, ed. F.  Carnevali and J.-M.  Strange, 111–126. Harlow: Pearson. Patmore, J. 1961. The railway network of Merseyside. Transactions and Papers of the Institute of British Geographers 29: 231–244. Pooley, C. 2016a. Mobility, transport and social inclusion: Lessons from history. Social Inclusion 4: 100–109. ———. 2016b. Balancing social justice and environmental justice: Mobility inequalities in Britain since circa 1900. In Transport policy: Learning lessons from history, ed. C. Divall, J. Hine, and C. Pooley, 47–64. London: Routledge. Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010. Growing up on Merseyside in the late-­ nineteenth century: The diary of Elizabeth lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Porter, R. 1995. London, a social history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Saracens. 2021. Early days. https://www.saracens.com/early-­days/. Accessed 25 Nov 2021. Transport for London. 2012. Roads task force, technical note 12. http://content. tfl.gov.uk/technical-­n ote-­1 2-­h ow-­m any-­c ars-­a re-­t here-­i n-­l ondon.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2021. Wikipedia. 2021. Truro and Newquay Railway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Truro_and_Newquay_Railway#St_Agnes. Accessed 24 Nov 2021. Wolmar, C. 2009. The subterranean railway: How the London underground was built and how it changed the city forever. London: Atlantic Books.

CHAPTER 5

Mobility, Family, and the Life Course

5.1   Introduction The way we travel, how we travel, whom we travel with and why we travel can change markedly over the life course. This was as true in the past as it is in the present, although the precise nature of such changes is not always easy to determine. A simple formulation of such change is that mobility is most constrained for the young and very old, with more and more varied travel for most adults. But in practice, mobility change is much more complex than this and can be influenced by many different interacting factors. It is important to stress that change over the life course is different from the more traditional view of a life cycle. Whereas a life cycle approach assumes a regular progression from one stage to another, usually determined by age (for instance, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, older adulthood, retirement, etc.), a life course approach recognises that there is no regular or necessary progression from one stage to another, but rather that life course changes are variable, sometimes unpredictable and can occur at any age (Bailey 2009; Elder 2017; Mortimer and Shanahan 2002). Families are crucial to such changes and the ways in which different family members interact and make decisions can fundamentally influence mobility opportunities and experiences. For instance, the mobility of an adolescent in a highly protective family is likely to be different from that © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_5

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of someone of a similar age who is allowed more freedom. Likewise, where extended families live in close proximity to each other, travel may be less than in more geographically dispersed families. All these factors varied over time and shifted in relation to the norms of society and the opportunities available to people. Clare Holdsworth (2013) provides a perceptive overview of the ways in which mobility and family relationships are intertwined in the context of broader mobilities research, stressing the relational nature of most mobilities within a familial structure. Everyday mobilities are almost always negotiated and sometimes contested within the family as different family members seek a degree of separation from the residential contract that family life requires. However, Holdsworth’s book focuses mainly on contemporary society with only brief excursions into historical material. In this chapter, we seek to explore the ways in which relational mobilities in families and across the life course were constituted in different households over the past two centuries. Given the nature of the sources available, this can only ever be a partial picture. Most surviving diaries cover only a few years of the diarist’s life and runs of diaries that record a (almost) complete life course are extremely rare. As outlined earlier, surviving diaries tend to be dominated by those written by young women, with a distinct lack of material from men or women in the family-building phase of a life course. To counteract these biases, in this chapter we also draw selectively on other material that begins to fill in some of the gaps left by the diary sources, including the use of life histories, oral history and other records that record mobility of different kinds. However, the core sources continue to be personal diaries. It can be suggested that many different factors interact to mediate the extent and nature of mobility over the life course and within family relations. These may include (among other factors) the degree of independence afforded to an individual; personal competence to travel; access to transport facilities which may be limited by available infrastructure and personal resources; perceived need to travel; and personal preferences. To illustrate the nature of mobility experiences in relation to family circumstances and life-course changes, we identify four phases of the life course which may occur at any age, may repeat themselves at different times, and almost always have implications for the constitution and functioning of a family and individual mobility. Periods of dependence may affect an individual at any time and in many different circumstances. Dependence is most often associated with the very young and the very old, but illness may strike at any age. The wide range of infectious diseases that circulated in the population, and their potentially serious impacts in the absence of effective treatment, meant

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that illness from these causes was much more common in the past than in the present,1 and this could lead to periods of dependence on other family members at any stage of life. For instance, tuberculosis often caused long-­ term chronic illness that could incapacitate the major income-earner in a family, with severe implications for all family members (Condrau and Worboys 2007; Wohl 1983). One consequence of having dependent family members is that some must take on a caring role. This may influence mobility opportunities just as much as dependence may do. Any family member who is the principal carer for a small child, an aged parent or a family member with disabling illness or impairment, is likely not only to have their own freedom to move restricted, but also this may shift some burdens on to other family members, thus compromising their personal mobility (Milligan 2000; Moore and McArthur 2007). Women with young children may be particularly affected by childcare roles as, traditionally, the bulk of such responsibilities has fallen to mothers or to other female family members (Plyushteva and Schwanen 2018; Tivers 1988). Few people have complete independence to travel when or wherever they wish as there will always be some constraints of employment, finance, time or other commitments. However, there are periods during the life course when the freedom to travel is increased. Adolescents and young adults, who have shaken off parental controls but have not yet gained family responsibilities of their own, are among the most independent travellers, although for many their ability to travel may be limited by lack of finance (Blumenberg et al. 2012). Older adults, whose children have left the parental home, can also benefit from increased freedom to travel as they gain both the time and money to enable frequent mobility both locally and further afield. For some at least, this can continue post retirement into a period of healthy ageing when freedom from paid employment gives even more time to travel frequently and widely, although this may become restricted by lack of finance and declining health (Rosso et al. 2011; Metz 2000). Our final category focuses on those periods of the life course when an individual or family experiences a significant change in their circumstances that may fundamentally alter their everyday mobility. This may relate to periods of illness (as outlined above) but could also include the unexpected death of a family member, loss of employment, environmental 1  Though the long-term effects of Covid 19 infections have led to a marked increase in adult dependency due to ill-health in the present day.

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disaster such as flood or fire, collapse of travel infrastructure, or a forced residential move (Christie et al. 2016; Graham 2010). All of these circumstances can alter the time, energy and resources available for travel, while relocation to a new area requires the acquisition of fresh knowledge and negotiation of new transport networks. Such phases may be relatively short-lived but can significantly impair mobility while they occur. In the following sections, we use diary evidence from nineteenth- and twentieth-­ century Britain, supplemented by some other research, to illustrate the ways in which everyday mobilities were affected by a selection of the family and life-course events that have been outlined above.

5.2  Dependent Mobilities Definitions and perceptions of what constitutes childhood can vary over time and space (Thane 1981; Fass 2012), and the perspectives of very young dependent children are hard to discern. Our youngest diarists were age 13 when they began keeping a (surviving) diary, and they had already gained quite a high degree of freedom to travel independently, though not necessarily without some parental controls. However, the diaries of parents with young children may provide some insights into the nature and degree of dependency and how it may have changed over time, together with the constraints placed on parents (considered below). John Leeson (born 1804) lived in central London in the mid-nineteenth century. He married relatively late in life in August 1850 and his wife Charlotte bore two children, a daughter (Lotty) in December 1851 and a son (Johnny) in January 1854. The Leesons were relatively wealthy and could comfortably afford a nurse in addition to their other servants,2 so a young family placed relatively few constraints on the mobility of the adult Leesons. As the diary is written very much from a male perspective, it is hard to ascertain how much independence the children gained as they grew older. When very young, they travelled frequently with one or both parents, and usually a nurse but, although the diary runs to May 1865 (shortly before John Leeson died and when the children were age 13 and 10), there were no entries which specifically recorded any independent travel by the children. It is noted that both children were at school, but whether they travelled independently or with an adult is not clear. The following brief diary 2  In the 1851 census (taken before their first child was born), the Leesons employed two live-in servants, a housemaid and a cook.

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extracts illustrate the nature of this family mobility, and they also demonstrate the difficulty of discerning the extent of independent childhood mobility from the diary of an adult male. Left London with Mrs L, Lotty and Nurse for Marchwood  – I wrote to Aunt Davis and W Register before – but did not receive any answers from them – we hired bed rooms at the White Horse Inn and bought most of the provisions for ourselves and Aunt Davis’ family. … stayed there about 4 weeks then went to Ryde for 4 weeks at Mrs Kemps … Ryde very hilly and fatiguing to Mrs L, Lotty liked the pier.3 We went to Margate by steamer on 9th August with Lotty who was very poorly, John and nurse Susan. Had lodgings at Front Crescent, stayed there 6 weeks … then we went to Ramsgate – Spencer Square – and stayed there 4 weeks. Came home by Railway, fine country of pasture land, some hops still out.4 Mrs Leeson, Lotty, Johnny and Ann left home and went to Eastbourne, Sussex, took lodgings at Mrs H Hurst’s, 2 Adelaide Terrace, heard from them – are comfortable and near the sea.5

In common with many reasonably affluent families in the nineteenth century, the constant presence of a nurse in the Leeson household meant that while young children had substantial accompanied mobility, this was not necessarily with a parent. Much the same was true for the Pennyfather family in the early twentieth century. Verena Pennyfather had two children, born in 1909 and 1912. Her surviving diaries restart in 1913 after a break between 1909 and 1912, presumably while she was occupied with childbirth and very young children. In common with Charlotte Leeson, although Verena Pennyfather took some responsibility for accompanying her children to school and other commitments, she and her husband were just as likely to pass that responsibility on to their nurse, as in the second example when the family was visiting Brighton. Took Dick to school and called for him, took him to the park for his first riding lesson.6

 Diary of John Leeson, August 6–October 4, 1853. (BIA: GDP/8).  Ibid., August 9–October 11, 1855. 5  Ibid., Tuesday July 22, 1862. 6  Diary of Verena Vera Pennyfather, Tuesday March 17, 1914. (BIA GDP/51). 3 4

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Took the children out in a boat. After lunch shot them to Blackrock with nurse, and went out on the pier with Father and Ivie; they returned to town after tea.7

The luxury of employing a nurse to care for small children was not something that most families could afford, although it was often the case that in large families with older siblings present or extended family nearby, other family members could be called upon for childcare responsibilities. Research using witness and victim statements given at the Old Bailey has shown that in the nineteenth century many children from poorer families had considerable independence. It was not uncommon for them to take themselves to and from school at a very young age, or to run errands for a parent (Pooley 2021). Unfortunately, few diaries survive for poorer families with young children in the nineteenth century. Research using oral history has also demonstrated the ways in which the extent and nature of childhood mobility in the past could vary according to family structure and circumstances. While some children had considerable freedoms, others could be quite constrained in their independent mobility (Pooley et al. 2005). It might be expected that during a period of crisis, such as in Britain during the Second World War, children would be given fewer freedoms, and might become more dependent on adults for their mobility. However, this was not necessarily the case for the 13-year-old Rosemary Fern Smith in Wolverhampton in 1941. According to her mother’s diary, she seemed to be allowed to visit a nearby relative alone, and even to camp out overnight [presumably in their garden] despite air raid sirens sounding while she was outside. Rosemary and I walked down to Auntie Lauries with a jar of my damson cheese, which she is very fond of. Arranged for Rosemary to go there this afternoon, whilst R [husband] is at ARP meeting and I am at the symphony concert with Mr and Mrs Hancock.8 Rosemary has been sleeping in her tent for the last 4 nights … she never awakened when the sirens went last night.9

 Ibid., Wednesday June 15, 1915.  Diary of Irene Fern Smith, Sunday February 23, 1941. (BIA GDP/18). 9  Ibid., Tuesday June 24, 1941. 7 8

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Few diarists wrote about their own periods of illness that caused increased dependency, and diaries that extend into old age are also relatively rare. At the start of Verena Pennyfather’s diary (cited above), she was at a clinic in Germany recovering from tuberculosis. She returned to England in April 1907, apparently cured. The relative wealth of her family enabled her to enjoy a successful recuperation not available to most at the time. Her German diary entries are brief and consist mainly of local walks presumably taken as part of her recovery programme. More often, the nature of dependent mobility is reported by a relative or carer in their diary, in the same way that we viewed the dependency of children. For instance, in her diary of 1894 Mary Leesmith recorded the purchase of a ‘cycle chair’ for her mother, who was presumably becoming increasingly immobile. It was purchased second-hand and initially met with approval, but there are no further mentions of it until in December Mary expressed concern about its condition. It seems that the chair was not a success and it is not mentioned again. The health of Mary Leesmith’s mother gradually declined before she died in February 1896. Soon after I got back Mother’s cycle chair came. Fletcher had been sent today to bring it back. I took her round the garden in it – it’s fine.10 Took the cycle chair to Crofts to be examined.11 Called at Crofts about the cycle chair. They had taken it back to Sunny Bank. … Mrs Croft gave us a full account of its condition – it is shamefully worn and we have evidently been cheated by Medici as he said in a letter that it was as good as new.12 I write to mother every day and every day I get a letter from her – it is so nice, but I do miss her so.13 After dinner Kats and I went towards the station and met Miss Cooper & drove back to the top of the hill with her, she drove down and she sat with mother a bit … At 5 [I] went up the hill with them and they drove to the station for the 6.29 train.14

As noted in an earlier chapter, the diary of Betty Charnley is unusual as it covers almost her entire life from the age of 13 in 1941. Following a  Diary of Mary Leesmith, Tuesday October 30, 1894. (BIA GDP/95).  Ibid., Tuesday December 4, 1894. 12  Ibid., Wednesday December 5, 1894. 13  Ibid., Saturday August 23, 1895. 14  Ibid., Wednesday September 18, 1895. 10 11

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number of periods of illness and a leg fracture, Betty became increasingly unwilling to drive anywhere other than very locally, as illustrated by her reaction when told she had to go to Kendal, a distance of some 51 km (32 miles), for a hospital appointment. By 2013, Betty was totally dependent on lifts to get her to medical appointments and, occasionally, to go shopping. In her mid-80s she had lost all the mobility independence that she had exercised for most of her life. ‘Nurse Pat Smith rang to say I have to go to Kendal Hospital on Thursday!! Oh Ek!! Transport is being arranged!! I wonder. Nurse Emma Wood, would I be going alone, can manage in a car! No!!15 ‘P came and took me to the Medical Centre for 11.20am, to see L regarding Diabetes, she had quite a bit to tell me’.16

5.3   Mobility Whilst Caring The ways in which caring roles could restrict mobility has already been demonstrated to some degree in the context of dependency (above). One is the inverse of the other, as a carer may limit their independent mobility in order to provide more and better mobility for someone for whom they were caring. This could be a child, a temporarily sick relative or an ageing parent. The diary of Saima Blake (born 1856) covers a period of illness for her husband (John) culminating in his death in December 1903. The Blakes lived in Hammersmith (London) with their two sons, Gerald (born 1886) and Clive (born 1890). Saima’s diary begins in January 1903. Although Saima is rarely explicit about her movements, it is clear from the sparse diary entries, the reference to tiredness and to John’s health that caring for her husband took up a large amount of her time. The family does undertake some local travel with John in a bath chair, and during the summer he was out of the house every day, but much of the time he was bed-bound. Following her husband’s death Saima’s diary stops for a year, but in 1905 the diary continues, with Saima apparently busy with everyday tasks, visits and caring for her children. However, the memory of her husband lingered for a long time, with a poignant entry in 1913 which noted the tenth anniversary of John’s death and a visit to his grave accompanied

 Diary of Betty Charnley, Monday April 30, 2012 (authors’ collection).  Ibid., Thursday December 19, 2013.

15 16

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by one of her sons. The following extracts give a flavour of Saima’s life during this period. John at home – in bed most of day.17 Dr Shuter called – been coming over since commencement of year. Too busy and tired to have kept up entries. John worse than 3 months ago. Gerald and Clive went to Earl’s Court.18 Gerald and Clive went to Chiswick church. John in bath chair.19 John out in bath chair every day. Feeling very ill still.20 Poor John nearing the end of this life – coma set in early this evening after which he talked unintelligibly until he passed away. Mr Weeks there for about 2 hrs. No one could understand a word my poor husband was saying. The boys there with him.21 Dear John just lived to his birthday, expiring about 1am today.22 Clive’s birthday. Mrs Lewis came over and we all went to the zoological gardens i.e. Mrs Lewis, Gerald, Clive, Charlie Coulton, Angus Macmillan and self. Fine day. Gave Clive photo enlarger.23 My John died 10 years ago … Gerald and I went to Brompton Cemetery and put 2 cherry plants and tidied it a little.24

Responsibility for caring did not fall only on a parent or spouse. Frequently, an older daughter would be tasked with looking after a younger sibling, at least for a short period of time. If such responsibility interrupted the usual pattern of independent mobility, it could be strongly resented. Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) lived in a large family; by 1890 her mother had borne 12 children. Elizabeth was the eldest and all her siblings were boys. The Lees were a reasonably affluent family. They lived in a large house in a semi-rural suburb of Birkenhead (Merseyside), and Elizabeth’s father was co-proprietor of a gentleman’s drapers. Normally they had at least one live-in servant, plus a nurse when there was a small baby in the household, together with some other paid help that lived nearby. Elizabeth’s diary runs from 1884 to 1892 and covers her adolescent and  Diary of Saima Blake, Wednesday January 7, 1903. (BIA GDP/100).  Ibid., Saturday May 23, 1903. 19  Ibid., Sunday June 21, 1903. 20  Ibid., Sunday August 30, 1903. 21  Ibid., Thursday December 17, 1903. 22  Ibid., Friday December 18, 1903. 23  Ibid., Saturday May 6, 1905, 24  Ibid., Thursday December 18, 1913. 17 18

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young adult years. For most of this time she had considerable freedom to travel as and when she wished, and she was used to a high degree of independence. She did regularly help her mother and the servant with routine household chores and with baking, but very occasionally frustration showed through, as in her diary entry for July 1885: ‘Went to Church this morning. Met Mr. W.  It is very wet this evening, and I had to stop at home because of that precious baby. Wrote a long letter to Miss Beale.’25 Annie Rudolph (born 1905) lived in London and kept a detailed personal journal for the year 1923 when she was 17. The diary is unusually reflective, although her recording of activities and dates is inconsistent.26 Annie led a busy social life going out regularly to dances and other activities, but she was the eldest daughter still at home with six younger siblings. The family did not keep a servant, and Annie’s mother was apparently keen to persuade Annie to take more responsibilities for the considerable amount of housework and childcare that would have been necessary. Annie was not at all keen on this suggestion, as expressed in her journal entry. Had a long conversation with mater yesterday. Had quite a lecture – Ma said I didn’t do enough at home – the idea! She says I must get used to housework, for when I marry. Marry? … .. (not yet anyway). So I said “well later when I get married I can do housework, at present I’m young, I won’t be young again – can’t I enjoy myself now?” But mother doesn’t see my view and I hardly know how to explain.27

The final example of the way in which a caring responsibility could restrict mobility comes from the diary of Betty Charnley. As we have already explained, Betty lived with her parents in north Lancashire and was responsible for the care of her father (William) as his health declined in the mid-1970s when he was in his 80s. From his behaviour William clearly had dementia, though this is not specifically mentioned, and he also suffered a stroke. Despite the fact that he attended a nearby day-care centre, William made substantial demands on his daughter. She was quite frequently called from work to deal with him when he wandered out of the day-care centre (which was obviously not secure), and care at home fell  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Sunday July 19, 1885. (Pooley et al. 2010a).  The diary was almost certainly written up from earlier notes or a different diary as the diary itself is for 1924, but this has been changed to 1923. Few actual dates are stated, so the dates given here are those on the page on which the entry occurs. 27  Diary of Annie Rudolph, Saturday February 2, 1923. (BIA GDP/31). 25 26

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entirely on Betty. Although she maintained some of her everyday activities, often with the help of neighbours and friends in the locality, her freedom to travel when she wished was substantially restricted. Eventually, in March 1977, William was admitted to hospital and died later the same year. Once Betty had been released from the duties of care that she had cheerfully accepted, her mobility and range of activities increased substantially. The following extracts chart some of the episodes that affected Betty’s mobility during the last four years of her father’s life. Was up all night with Dad so had to stay at home with him. Got the Dr to him. … Tom Davies brought me some work to do. Tom and Jessie came and had their tea with us. Tom stoped [sic] with Dad, and Jessie and I went to Phyllis’s to a stainless steel party, Tom had to ring up for us to come home, I got Dad to bed.28 PH [work] 8 to 5. Took Dad to ‘The Beeches’ [day care centre] at 10 to 8 and left him there. Collected him at about 5 past 5. He seemed to have got along alright.29 LFS [work] 8.30 to 5. Dad at the Beeches. Dad had set off home, was brought back from down Bowgreave.30 Dad went to the Beeches. Mr Burne rang to say Dad had landed home, had fallen and made quite a mess of himself, and was wet through. I went home, he was in Burne’s, a lady was bathing him, I took him to see Dr Beswick. Billy Collinson came to see how Dad was, Mrs Collinson had help him to get home.31 LFS 8.30 to 9am. Took Dad to the Beeches, he had a slight stroke soon after I left him, I came home, brought his bed downstairs, he came home in the ambulance. Dr Beswick came to him, he brightened up at dinner time. I took his bed back upstairs at night.32 LFS 8.30 to 5pm. Dad went to Beeches. Tim Parker rang me up this afternoon to say Dad had just gone walking past Helmes yard gate, he was at Jackson’s Row when I went and picked him up and brought him back to the Beeches.33 Dad was in a wheelchair when I got to Beeches, he was leaning to one side, I got him inside at home, how I don’t know.34  Diary of Betty Charnley, Tuesday December 4, 1973 (authors’ collection).  Ibid., Monday March 18, 1974. 30  Ibid., Wednesday March 26, 1975. 31  Ibid., Thursday December 11, 1975. 32  Ibid., Monday December 15, 1975. 33  Ibid., Monday June 28, 1976. 34  Ibid., Thursday March 17, 1977. 28 29

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5.4   Independent Mobilities Independence is an illusory concept. No-one is totally independent of all constraints on their activities including mobility but, for some people and for some phases of the life course, a relatively high degree of independence may be attained. The degree of independent mobility that someone experiences depends on a number of factors including age, gender, income and family circumstances. There is a large international literature on children’s independent mobility and how it appears to have declined over time (Fyhri and Hjorthol 2009; Hillman et al. 1990; Kyttä et al. 2015; Mikkelsen and Christensen 2009; Pooley et al. 2010b; Shaw et al. 2013), and mobility inequalities by gender and income are considered in detail in Chaps. 6 and 7. Here we focus on those diarists we have studied who appear to have had the greatest degree of independent mobility. By independent mobility we mean the ability of an individual to travel unaccompanied to a chosen destination, by whatever means of available transport that they chose, and at a time that was convenient for them. It does not mean that they were without family responsibilities and constraints, but those did appear to weigh relatively lightly and to have minimal impact on mobility. This focuses attention on young adults, especially males, but young men are among the most problematic to research using diaries and other life writing. As explained in Chap. 2, women were far more likely to keep a daily diary than were men, and entries by male diarists tended to be shorter and more factual than those by many female diarists. Thus, the extent and quality of detail revealed may be limited. Men were more likely than women to write life histories towards the end of their life, but these mostly focus on those events that the author considers to be a major milestone in their life, and only rarely provides insights into more mundane aspects of everyday activities. However, we do have a sufficient number of men’s diaries ranging from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century to illustrate the extent to which males had considerable freedom to travel as and when they wished. The extent to which women experienced independent mobility and the constraints that could limit their movements are considered in Chap. 6. The diary of 14-year-old Raleigh Trevelyan (born 1800) contains only brief entries, and it is not always clear if he was travelling alone or with others, but it does suggest that his freedom to travel as and when he wished was quite considerable. He definitely travelled by stagecoach to and from his boarding school without adult accompaniment, and he

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appeared to be able to go out at almost any time he wished. The following four consecutive extracts for July 1813 provide some examples. Came home to Stratford place by the 9 o’clock stage  – called on Miss Forbes – Calverly came – Did not get to sleep till near 4 in the morning on account of the fleas.35 All in a bustle in packing up for Ramsgate. Went to the park. Slept on some chairs to avoid the fleas. Papa & Mama dined out.36 Got up at … [4] o’clock & took a walk round the Prince regents park about 1 mile & ½ by the canal before breakfast – Mr Plumbtree & Ellison dined here. Rode to Chelsea for Julia & Emma to come home.37 Went to see the Indian juglers who put a sword about 20 inches down their throat & conjur with balls excelently  – saw the Cummings. Very hot indeed.38

More than a century later, the diary of Ronald Cecil Joskey (born 1920) provides a remarkably similar picture of the mobility of a young male. His home was in London, but he had family in Devon and paid regular visits to Tiverton, Exeter and other parts of south-west England. At the age of 15 he travelled widely, sometimes in company with others but also sometimes alone, and appeared to have few constraints on where he went and what he did. His diary entries are brief, but selected extracts for 1935 give a flavour of Ronald’s mobility. Went to Bristol. Started 9.30 Monday, back 11pm. Nearly left King at Swindon. He went to buy a book. Went over Frys. Also Bath.39 Went into Exeter by train. Met Bing there. Go into Teignmouth. All day see uncle who looks bad, and Aunt Betty.40 Before breakfast went for walk up on the moors. Started home 12 o’c. Had bad trouble. Arrived home 8.30.41 Walked out to a farm (five miles away). A friend of Cliffs. Went rabbit shooting (got 2).42

 Diary of Raleigh Trevelyan, Tuesday July 27, 1813. WA (EHC/191).  Ibid., Wednesday July 28, 1813. 37  Ibid., Thursday July 29, 1813. 38  Ibid., Friday July 30, 1813. 39  Diary of Ronald Cecil Joskey, Monday April 1, 1935. BIA (GDP/350). 40  Ibid., Sunday April 21, 1935. 41  Ibid., Tuesday June 11, 1935. 42  Ibid., Monday July 29, 1935. 35 36

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Two anonymous male diaries from the 1870s give a flavour of the easy everyday mobility of relatively affluent older adult males. Personal details of these diarists are sparse: we do not know their precise ages or exactly where they lived, but one diary for 1871 is definitely based in and around London (the diarist was possibly in the building trade and may have lived in or near Finchley), and the other for 1875 is written by a man who appeared not to need to work, and whose main home was outside Malvern (Worcestershire), but with relatives (and property) in London which he visited regularly. Both men had the freedom to travel frequently and easily, both locally and further afield, and although the diary entries are again quite brief and each diary lasts only for a year, there is little evidence of any significant family constraints on their mobility. Both men used most of the transport modes that were available to them at the time, including travel by train, bus, carriage, boat (when in London) and on foot. Selected examples demonstrate the nature and extent of their mobility. Morning to Highgate, by rail to Holloway, then to Islington called and saw Mr and Mrs Cayley, then to Wharfe Road and Cheapside, by bus to Holborn and Kings Cross, by rail to East End and home.43 Morning to Hornsey Rise, by bus to the Angel, then to Farmer’s and the City, by bus to regent’s Circus and Minton’s Conduit St, then to Mr Dowie, Charing Cross and then to King’s Cross, by rail to East End and home.44 Morning to North Bank, went in carriage to Kensall Green Cemetery (with Mrs Rock Junr and Mrs Sangiovanni) met there Mr and Mrs Rock Senr and Father Podolski, came back to North Bank met there Dr Connolly and Father Connolly and Miss Mace.45 Morning to Highgate, by rail to Farringdon St, then to Clare Market, Waterloo Pier, by boat to London Bridge then to Tower Hill, Hounditch, Shoreditch, by rail to Islington and then walked home.46 Expected Mr Chauncey to lunch. Did not turn up. Walk by self in aft.47 Walk with Barker in morning. Left with him by 12.30 boat, he for Wickham and I for the Grosvenor, London.48

 Diary of an anonymous male, Friday April 28, 1871. (GDP/87).  Ibid., Saturday May 20, 1871. 45  Ibid., Tuesday May 2, 1871. 46  Ibid., Thursday September 5, 1871. 47  Diary of an anonymous male, Friday February 26, 1875. (GDP/176). 48  Ibid., Thursday March 4, 1875. 43 44

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At club in London. Walk with C in town in aft. Reading in eve. By 10.35 train to Clifton.49

The character and nature of diary entries by men did not seem to change significantly in the twentieth century: most entries were brief, and travel was stated in a matter-of-fact way that suggested both ease and normality. In an earlier chapter we have seen how the young barrister Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice had the freedom to take off from London to Preston (Lancashire) to watch a solar eclipse. Despite his work commitments this was typical of his ability to move around London and beyond. The diary of an anonymous male who appeared to live in Southend but to work in London in newspaper or magazine publishing presents a similar picture. He only rarely stated a travel mode, but everyday mobility was clearly taken for granted as something that just happened. Went to Ashby de la Zouch 12.25 pm St Pancras. 2.26 Leicester changed and took 2.48 pm from there – Bernard and Mary came to station to see me – arrived at Ashby 3.36 … Stayed until Tuesday 24th.50 Went for a walk and called on Mr Cook of Royal Hotel … Returned home – Herbert motored me to Leicester. Caught 4.11 pm to St Pancras.51

The diarists cited above were all relatively affluent and money could provide the freedom to move as and when they wished. Not all men were so fortunate. Although there are few surviving diaries written by the very poor, we have read some journals that were kept by men with very limited means. David Brindley (born 1856) worked as a railway porter at Canada Dock in Liverpool. His journal (clearly written up from earlier entries and more in the form of a life history than a day-to-day diary) provides a detailed picture of his life. His earnings were limited, but at 21 shillings (£1.05p) a week when he started work at Canada Dock in 1882, they were better than many working men. His working hours could be long, but unlike most dock workers his employment was regular. He lived in a terrace house in a respectable working-class district of the city and almost all travel in and around Liverpool was on foot. However, his work for the railway company meant that he did get access to some free or cheap rail travel, and he used this to visit relatives in Staffordshire and for some other  Ibid., Friday May 26, 1875.  Diary of an anonymous male, Friday June 20, 1930. (GDP/78). 51  Ibid., Tuesday June 24, 1930. 49 50

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local outings, including those organised by the railway company (Kingsford 2006). In this regard he was better off, and more easily mobile, than other dock workers who were not employed by a railway company.52 James Bennetts Williams (born 1856) undertook one of the longest journeys of any of the diarists studied, but this migration from Cornwall to South America was forced by the decline of employment in the Cornish tin mining industry and his desire to avoid the poverty of unemployment. This was a course taken by many young Cornish men at this time (Burke and Richardson 1981; Deacon 2007; Payton 2005). Although such migration suggests a freedom to move, it was propelled by necessity and is therefore one of the least independent forms of mobility undertaken by young men at this time. Bennetts Williams left his wife53 and family to travel with a group of other former tin miners on pre-paid tickets, and it is likely that even his travel in England from his home in St Agnes to Liverpool was one of the longest and most complex journeys he had undertaken. His detailed account of this travel up to the point at which he sets sail is reproduced below. The diary charts his work and travels in South America before he returned to Cornwall four years later in 1887. Left St Agnes about 6 a.m. got to Truro about 7 and found several Boys who were going on to the same place. Charlie Batten came on to Truro from Chacewater Station and changed his ticket at Truro. A woman with 4 children came there from Rose going to North America to her husband Reuben Penna. Aunt Mary met me at the station with some apples which we enjoyed very much. We got to Bristol all right but very late found Brother Will and family waiting for me. He gave me some Spanish books and a pocket book and diary. The train did not stop many minutes. We went as far as Didcot and then changed trains and got as far as Oxford and changed again, and got at Birkenhead Station about ½ past 10 P.M. and got across the ferry and to Mr Puckeys about 11, then made a good supper and went to bed feeling rather tired after the long journey. Did not go to sleep for some time but slept pretty well after.54 We got up just before 7 a.m. and took a walk up as far as the exchange and got back just in time to get a good breakfast on ham and eggs. After breakfast we all went up to the town, except Charlie Batten who stayed home with a bad face caused by pain in the teeth. We got home just before 2 P.M. and ate good dinner and Charlie and I went down to the dock and  For a fuller analysis of this diary see Lawton and Pooley (1975).  In 1883 he had married Mary Anne Prout whose diary for 1882 is cited elsewhere. 54  Diary of James Bennetts Williams, Monday September 24, 1883. (BIA GDP/57). 52 53

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saw lots of people crossing the ferry. The City of Richmond is now leaving for New  York. We got home just before 5 P.M.  After dinner all the boys wrote letters home. I wrote one to my wife this morning and one to Aunt Mary after dinner. We are now expecting the boys home. We are 3 of us here now. I wrote to my wife and brother and went to bed pretty early.55 Got up just before 7. A.M. and took a walk up the street and bought a card to send home to my wife, then came back and had a good breakfast and went up to see the museum and bought a cup to take with me. Finished my letter to my wife and then had dinner and got ready to go on board the Galicia. We went down to the Wharf about 3 P.M. The tender Warrior took us out to the boat, we got ready and weighed anchor about 5.30, wind blowing strong, every indication of a rough night. We then went below and had supper but we soon threw it all up again. I turned in, in my bed, and stayed there all night.56

This section has focused on the independent mobility of men, but this does not mean that women did not have the freedom to move as and when they wished. However, male mobility in the past is a relatively neglected topic and our analysis of diaries provides useful new evidence. In contrast, the mobility of women and the degree to which they experienced either freedom or constraints to their mobility is a much-debated topic with an extensive literature. This is examined in detail in the next chapter where diary evidence is used to assess the extent to which women were able to move freely from place to place at different times over the past 200 years.

5.5  Disrupted Mobilities Everyday mobility can be disrupted by many factors, including inclement weather, illness, technological failure and industrial action (Pooley 2013). However, these are usually relatively short-lived and require only a temporary adjustment to mobility patterns and behaviours. Some of the causes and consequences of immobility are considered in Chap. 9. Leaving the parental home for the first time may also alter mobility opportunities and behaviours, but in most instances these are welcome, and they often provide new opportunities for mobility (Holdsworth 2000; Pooley and Turnbull 1997; van Poppel et al. 2004; Wall 1989). For example, this was  Ibid., Tuesday September 25, 1883.  Ibid., Wednesday September 26, 1883.

55 56

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the case for Gillian Caldwell whose changes in mobility when she left her parental home in rural Cumbria to live in Edinburgh were noted in Chap. 4. However, the movement of children or a partner away from home can cause distress to those left behind. This was especially acute in times of stress, as evidenced by the diary entries of Elsie Gyde (born 1883). Her husband had been away on war service but in January 1917 was home on leave. Elsie’s diary entry when he had to leave is especially poignant: ‘Packed up. Sorrowful farewell at Bedford. Sad, formal and awful parting with my dear one. So happy to have had him with me.’57 We now focus on just one example of extensive disruption to everyday mobility caused by a significant change in family circumstances. Annie Rudolph (born 1905) lived with her parents and siblings in London. Her family was Jewish, and her parents had migrated to London from eastern Europe shortly before Annie was born. As noted previously, her journal provides an unusually reflective account of her life as a 17-year-old in 1923, although her narrative is often written in a continuous journal style rather than as regular daily entries. Annie led a busy life, helping in her father’s shop which was located some distance from their home,58 attending evening classes in art and fashion design, and enjoying an active social life with dances, outings to the West End and meeting many different friends (both male and female). As we noted above, occasionally her mother tried to get Annie to contribute more to housework but with little success. However, in May 1923 Annie’s mother died following an ­operation to remove gallstones. This totally changed Annie’s life including her everyday mobility. First, as the eldest daughter at home she was expected to immediately take on all household and childcare responsibilities, whilst still assisting her father in his business. This meant she had little time for any of the social activities that she previously enjoyed. Second, Annie was expected to observe the Jewish custom of a year of mourning following the death of her mother. This included not purchasing or wearing new clothes and foregoing all forms of entertainment or other enjoyable social activities (Chabad.org 2021). Immediately, Annie’s life was transformed from one of relatively carefree independent mobility with few  Diary of Elsie Gyde, Wednesday January 10, 1917. BIA (GDP/26).  Her father was described as a tailor and second-hand clothes dealer in the 1911 census, with a shop in the East End of London. At that point they lived above the shop, but by the time of Annie’s diary in 1923 they were living in north London (Stoke Newington), some six km (3.6 miles) from the shop. 57 58

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familial constraints, to one in which her family took precedence, and she was expected to give up most of the activities and everyday travel that she enjoyed most. She writes at length about this period of her life in her diary/journal. She was clearly very unhappy, and was further upset when her father considered moving back closer to the shop to avoid the commute to and from his business. Annie loved her nice family home and garden and did not want to live in what she saw as more constrained and less attractive circumstances. In fact, the family did not move and by August the strict mourning regime appeared to be relaxed, with Annie enjoying far more social activities outside the home, including a holiday near Reading. Her younger sister also took on some of the household chores so that gradually Annie’s life began to return to something like its state prior to the death of her mother, although she continued to share a much greater burden of family-­related responsibilities than she ever did while her mother was alive. A series of quite lengthy extracts from her journal illustrate this transition in Annie Rudolph’s life. The last two weeks have been Hell nothing else. The work I’ve had to do. I never was at home always out – I went to business, dad’s place, about 9.30 in the morning  – I made dinner there  – did the correspondence and the books – and about 6 o’clock I went either to the art school or else out – I only stopped indoors Friday evening that’s all – But in a few weeks how different I am  – here I am settled down to housework! responsibility!! and cooking!!! If anyone had told me this a little while ago I’d have laughed – clean the floor ME!! Be in a house all day  – cook  – wash up  – I’d have laughed to think that I’d do such things – that I even could do them.59 Little book I am miserable … I was up this morning before 8 – (I used to roll down about 8.45 or 9) – washed the children – combed their hair – gave them breakfast and got them off to school. It was about 9 o’clock that I was able to have a cup of tea myself. Then I put a soup on the gas for father, Mark and myself for the shop – Then I ran up to make the beds, and dusted – went out shopping – cleaned the place round. The children don’t care for soup so I had to make them potatoes and veal cutlets. I have to prepare meat and kosher it the previous day. While this was cooking I boiled some lockshen [noodles] for the soup. Dinner was ready by 12.15. Whilst the kids were eating I poured the soup into bottles, packed them and ran off to the shop – There I put on the gas to warm up and made dinner – then I washed up being finished all that by about 3. – Then swept round, typed 59  Diary of Annie Rudolph, Thursday May 22, 1923. (BIA GDP/31). Layout and some punctuation have been altered for conciseness.

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some letters, saw to book keeping – then it was time for tea – made that quickly then ran home to cook another dinner for Esther of potatoes, steak – and pudding – then it was time to wash the kids – gave them supper and sent them to bed. Then father came home and wanted his supper – then I was able to sit down – it’s now 10 o’clock – have just sat down. This today and every day. We’re going to move to the East End – we can’t put up with this – I can’t rush backwards and forwards, I’ll go mad – I am sure of it. If we are all together I’ll cook one dinner for all – and it won’t be such a rush – I don’t think I quite appreciated this house before but I’ll miss it if we move. The beautiful garden with the scent of flowers – and the creeper hanging over the windows. The big airy lofty rooms – how we’ll miss them, but we cannot keep that – we’ve lost a lot already.60 I used to go out in the week ends and enjoy myself – theatre, dances, pictures – now I don’t go anywhere as I have to keep up a year’s mourning. I don’t really feel for going out – I don’t want to enjoy myself – who would believe that it is the same Me now … I am absolutely glad to stop in doors Saturday and Sunday for a rest!61 It’s fortunate that the weather’s fine at present – so we go to the Parks and for rides – but I’ll be sorry when winter comes – because I shall have to stop indoors I suppose as I don’t go out. Once upon a time it would have been so stressful to stop in on a Saturday or Sunday – and now – I’m used to it. Last year, at this time, we were thinking of holidays and going away – but now – I don’t think we’ll go this year. What’s the use as we can’t enjoy ourselves. Last year we went to Brighton – it was great. The weather was lovely so we had a fine time. Maybe we might go away – as the children need it – Oh it is such a life – we have such worries. The children always need something and are always getting into mischief – a real handful.62

In this chapter, we have used a range of diary evidence to examine the ways in which mobility varied over the life course and in relation to family circumstances. There is no clear division between mobility independence and mobility dependence as these two conditions are closely interlinked, can change rapidly in relation to family circumstances, and can include many intermediate conditions where there is some independent mobility but also mobility constraints. These were probably the conditions under which most people lived most of the time. However, it is argued that freedom to move as and when one desired was greater for some than for  Ibid., Sunday May 25, 1923.  Ibid., Wednesday May 28, 1923. 62  Ibid. Saturday July 26, 1923. 60 61

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others. Young adults, especially males, probably had the most freedom, together with some older adults who were free from childcare responsibilities and were not yet limited by age or infirmity. But family and life course factors are only one set of circumstances that may influence mobility. In Chap. 6, we explore gendered mobility in more detail by focusing on the experiences of women travellers at different times in the past, and in Chap. 7 we focus on the important issue of money. As with most aspects of life, money may buy more freedom—in this case, the ability to travel as and when desired, and to adapt easily to changes in transport technologies.

References Bailey, A. 2009. Population geography: Lifecourse matters. Progress in Human Geography 33: 407–418. Blumenberg, E., B. Taylor, M. Smart, K. Ralph, M. Wander, and S. Brumbagh. 2012. What’s youth got to do with it? Exploring the travel behavior of teens and young adults. Los Angeles: University of California Transportation Center. Burke, G., and P. Richardson. 1981. The decline and fall of the cost book system in the Cornish tin mining industry, 1895–1914. Business History 23: 4–18. Chabad.org. 2021. Shiva and other mourning observances. https://www.chabad. org/library/article_cdo/aid/291135/jewish/Shiva-­and-­Other-­Mourning-­ Observances.htm. Accessed 25 Nov 2021. Christie, N., L.  Griffin, N.  Chan, J.  Twigg, and H.  Titheridge. 2016. Private needs, public responses: Vulnerable people’s flood-disrupted mobility. Disaster Prevention and Management 25: 244–260. Condrau, F., and M. Worboys. 2007. Second opinions: Epidemics and infections in nineteenth-century Britain. Social History of Medicine 20: 147–158. Deacon, B. 2007. “We don’t travel much, only to South Africa”: Reconstructing nineteenth-century Cornish migration patterns. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. Elder, G. 2017. Families and lives: Some developments in life-course studies. In Family history at the crossroads, ed. T.  Hareven and A.  Plakans, 179–200. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Fass, P. 2012. The Routledge history of childhood in the western world. London: Routledge. Fyhri, A., and R.  Hjorthol. 2009. Children’s independent mobility to school, friends and leisure activities. Journal of Transport Geography 17: 377–384. Graham, S., ed. 2010. Disrupted cities: When infrastructure fails. London: Routledge. Hillman, M., J. Adams, and J. Whitelegg. 1990. One false move. London: Policy Studies Institute.

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Holdsworth, C. 2000. Leaving home in Britain and Spain. European Sociological Review 16: 201–222. ———. 2013. Family and intimate mobilities. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Kingsford, P. 2006. Victorian railwaymen: The emergence and growth of railway labour, 1830–1870. Abingdon: Routledge. Kyttä, M., J. Hirvonen, J. Rudner, I. Pirjola, and T. Laatikainen. 2015. The last free-range children? Children’s independent mobility in Finland in the 1990s and 2010s. Journal of Transport Geography 47: 1–12. Lawton, R., and C. Pooley. 1975. David Brindley’s Liverpool: An aspect of urban society in the 1880s. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 126: 149–168. Metz, D. 2000. Mobility of older people and their quality of life. Transport Policy 7: 149–152. Mikkelsen, M., and P. Christensen. 2009. Is children’s independent mobility really independent? A study of children’s mobility combining ethnography and GPS/ mobile phone technologies. Mobilities 4: 37–58. Milligan, C. 2000. ‘Bearing the burden’: Towards a restructured geography of caring. Area 32: 49–58. Moore, T., and M. McArthur. 2007. We’re all in it together: Supporting young carers and their families in Australia. Health & Social Care in the Community 15: 561–568. Mortimer, J., and M.  Shanahan, eds. 2002. Handbook of the life course. New York: Kluwer. Payton, P. 2005. The Cornish overseas: A history of Cornwall’s ‘great emigration’. Toronto: Dundurn. Plyushteva, A., and T. Schwanen. 2018. Care-related journeys over the life course: Thinking mobility biographies with gender, care and the household. Geoforum 97: 131–141. Pooley, C. 2013. Uncertain mobilities: A view from the past. Transfers 3: 26–44. ———. 2021. On the street in nineteenth-century London. Urban History 48: 211–226. Pooley, C., and J. Turnbull. 1997. Leaving home: The experience of migration from the parental home in Britain since c. 1770. Journal of Family History 22: 390–424. Pooley, C., J. Turnbull, and M. Adams. 2005. “… everywhere she went I had to tag along beside her”: Family, life course, and everyday mobility in England since the 1940s. The History of the Family 10: 119–136. Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010a. Growing up on Merseyside in the late-­ nineteenth century: The diary of Elizabeth Lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

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Pooley, C., D. Whyatt, M. Walker, G. Davies, P. Coulton, and W. Bamford. 2010b. Understanding the school journey: Integrating data on travel and environment. Environment and Planning A 42: 948–965. Rosso, A., A. Auchincloss, and Y. Michael. 2011. The urban built environment and mobility in older adults: A comprehensive review. Journal of Aging Research. https://doi.org/10.4061/2011/816106. Shaw, B., B.  Fagan-Watson, B.  Frauendienst, A.  Redecker, T.  Jones, and M.  Hillman. 2013. Children’s independent mobility: A comparative study in England and Germany (1971–2010). London: Policy Studies Institute. Thane, P. 1981. Childhood in history. In Childhood, welfare and justice, ed. M. King, 6–25. London: Batsford. Tivers, J. 1988. Women with young children: Constraints on activities in the urban environment. In Women in cities. Gender and the urban environment, ed. J. Little, L. Peake, and P. Richardson, 84–97. London: Macmillan. van Poppel, F., M. Oris, and J. Lee, eds. 2004. The road to independence: Leaving home in western and eastern societies, 16th-20th centuries. Bern: Peter Lang. Wall, R. 1989. Leaving home and living alone: An historical perspective. Population Studies 43: 369–389. Wohl, A. 1983. Endangered lives: Public health in Victorian Britain. London: JM Dent and Sons.

CHAPTER 6

Gendered Mobilities: The Female Experience

6.1   Introduction The everyday mobilities of women have been a persistent feature of previous chapters which have drawn on the testimonies of both male and female diarists. Many of the factors that structure mobilities are common to both men and women and, as much travel is undertaken with a friend, partner or in a family group, men and women may frequently travel together. However, there are also many ways in which the mobility experiences of women may differ from those of men. In this chapter, we focus specifically on these differences, first by reviewing some of the factors that create gender difference and, second, by examining the experiences of a small number of female diarists in a range of different mobility settings. In Chap. 5 we demonstrated the extent to which male travellers had considerable freedom to exercise independent mobility without undue constraints. In this chapter, we argue that while women often experienced far more constraints to independent mobility than did men, most women were also able to exercise quite a high degree of agency and to negotiate these constraints within the social, economic and cultural structures of the time. There is an extensive literature on the extent and nature of gender inequality today (Cotter et  al. 2004; Jayachandran 2015; Kleven et  al. 2019; Ridgeway 2011), which highlights significant variations between

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_6

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countries. Nations with the lowest levels of overall gender equality are located mainly in the Middle East and North Africa, while the greatest gender equality is found in Western Europe and North America (Bericat 2012; World Economic Forum 2021). While there has been some overall reduction in global gender inequalities since the mid-twentieth century, the pace of change in many countries has been slow (Dilli et al. 2019). The indices used to measure levels of gender inequality include political representation, employment, income, education, and health. Mobility is rarely explicitly covered as it is hard to measure, but the ability to move freely and without undue difficulty or inconvenience is fundamental to the ability to access work, education, and healthcare. Indeed, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes (article 13) the ‘right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State’, and the ‘right to leave any country including his own, and to return to his country’ (United Nations 1948). It is assumed that this applies to both women and men despite the gendered language of the 1948 document. There are many factors that may restrict the mobility of women, both in the past and the present, some of which have been mentioned already in previous chapters. As shown in Chap. 5, women bore (and for the most part still bear) the brunt of childcare responsibilities, including escorting to and from school and other activities. These responsibilities can significantly impair the ability of mothers with young children to make their own mobility decisions (Craig and van Tienoven 2019; Plyushteva and Schwanen 2018). Women are also likely to have less access to disposable income to spend on travel than is the case for men. In the past, when fewer women worked outside the home, many women were dependent on a husband, father or other male relation for their income; and the incomes of working women were, and still are, lower than those of men with comparable qualifications and experience (Gibb et al. 2014; Lane et al. 2004; Todd 2005). Lack of income can be a major constraint on access to all but the slowest and least convenient modes of transport, and women were usually less able than men to access the newest and fastest forms of transport technology (Kattiyapornpong and Miller 2009; Nyaupane and Andereck 2008). This theme is pursued in more detail in Chap. 7. Although most people feel that they should adhere to some social norms (Hechter and Opp 2001), for instance, a degree of politeness or willingness to queue where necessary, in the past women were much more likely to feel the constraints of social norms associated with their class than were their menfolk. This could apply especially to women from elite social classes where behaviour could be mediated by both male and female

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relations, and may have led to mobility restrictions with, in some cases, the need always to be chaperoned when travelling. Even today, solo female travellers may be viewed differently from their male counterparts (Bachand 2015; Khoo-Lattimore and Wilson 2017; Wilson and Little 2005). We will use diary evidence to explore the ways in which social constraints affected female travellers from different strata of society. Any travel may involve some discomfort or inconvenience, for instance from adverse weather or technological failures. These affect all travellers, and some examples are considered in Chap. 9 in the context of immobility. However, female travellers may face additional inconveniences, especially in the form of unwanted male attention. The range of harassment and inappropriate comments experienced by women today whilst travelling has been starkly revealed by the Everyday Sexism project started by Laura Bates (2016). We will use the evidence in women’s diaries to assess the extent to which the same levels of discomfort were experienced in the past. There is an extensive historical literature on the extent to which middle-­ class men and women may have inhabited different social and physical spaces in the past. Some studies identify ‘separate spheres’, where men occupied public spaces and lived public lives while women occupied private spaces and lived private lives; but other research has suggested much more varied and nuanced experiences (Davidoff and Hall 2018; Davidson et  al. 2002; Gleadle 2007; Gordon and Nair 2003; Pooley and Pooley 2021; Vickery 1993). It must also be noted that most such research focuses on the behaviours of men and women from the middle classes and above. Much more written evidence survives for these groups, but the experiences of working-class women largely remain in the shadows. For most working-class women, the necessity to have some paid employment to supplement family income would have been combined with duties of childcare and domesticity. Independent travel outside the home would have been necessary to fulfil their obligations, and they would have had little time for other activities (Murdoch 2013; Parratt 1998). It has also been suggested that the performance of masculinity and fatherhood roles may have been much less rigid than a simple public-private conception might suggest (Strange 2012; Tosh 2017). Our diary evidence suffers from some of the same limitations as those sources used in other studies, as there are few diaries written by working-class women. However, by combining diary evidence with other sources a fuller picture can be revealed. The nature of constraints on women outside the home also varied over time. It has been argued that in Georgian England most women

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had much more freedom to travel independently, and that greater constraints on some women at least were imposed by the much more controlling societies of Victorian and Edwardian England (Vickery 2003; Thompson 1988). We now consider the experiences of female diarists in three different mobility settings: walking on the street; travelling by any form of public transport; and journeys in a private vehicle.

6.2   Women Walking All the diary evidence that we have encountered makes it clear that women were present on the streets of both urban and rural areas throughout the period studied. Sometimes they walked alone, and sometimes in the company of other women or with male relations, but there is little evidence that their pedestrian mobility was tightly constrained. There were exceptions (detailed later), and like most travellers female pedestrians planned their journeys to minimise perceived risks, but overall any notion that women were excluded from the public sphere of the street cannot be sustained. Much the same has been demonstrated from analysis of the visual evidence provided by photographs, which consistently show that both women and men were present on urban streets in European cities in the twentieth century, though not always at the same times or in the same places (Männistö-Funk 2020, 2021; Schmucki 2012). Analysis of witness and victim statements made at London’s Central Criminal Court (The Old Bailey) paints a similar picture for the nineteenth century, with ample evidence that women of all classes were on the streets of the city at most times of the day and night (Pooley 2021). Diary entries do not always specify exactly how a diarist travelled, but if this is not stated explicitly it is often obvious from the context that at least part of a journey was undertaken on foot. In Chap. 3 we cited the example of Nelly Weeton, who in 1808 walked a long distance alone on her journey from her home in south Lancashire to seek new employment in Liverpool.1 Travel on foot would have been the only feasible means of transport for many women in the early nineteenth century. The diary of a Miss Davis, who lived in Ambleside (Westmorland) in 1810, has only very brief entries, and we know very little about her, but in her diary she recorded frequent movement around 1  Letter Books of Ellen Weeton, 1808. (Wigan Archives, Edward Hall Diary Collection EHC/165a).

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her local area, including walking on the sands of Morecambe Bay.2 Like her more famous contemporary diarist and keen walker, Dorothy Wordsworth, who for much of her life lived nearby in Rydal and Grasmere, travel on foot for everyday transactions and pleasure was normal (Wordsworth 2002). The diary of the young Charlotte Holtzapffel (born 1800) has numerous mentions of walking in London. Interestingly, this is most often specified when the walk was taken as a leisure activity, but the implication is that most local travel undertaken by Charlotte and her family was on foot. As might be expected for a 13-year-old female of her class, most of Charlotte’s outings were in the company of other family members, but there are rare occasions when no companions were mentioned so that the implication is that she may have travelled alone. Even if Charlotte did not walk alone, the diary does give instances where her mother travelled on her own through the streets of London. The extended extract from Charlotte’s diary given in Chap. 2 illustrates these points, and just one further example of the family walking in London is given here. Sunday 12 / Father went out in the morning. Charles and I went to St Martin Church met Mr Smart coming home Miss Wingfield called after dinner Father Charles Julia and me took a walk with them the three latter mention [sic] and me went on, when they came home with me to tea we found Mr Bayley there after tea Mr W Smart came.3

An anonymous female diarist kept a detailed journal for the first nine months of 1833, mainly focusing on her frequent travel. We know little about her, but she seemed to be based in and around Brighton and Lewes (East Sussex), but with visits to London and a tour by carriage to Wales and through Derbyshire. She was obviously a relatively affluent adult, who had various travelling companions, and for whom walking to explore the places she visited was a normal part of her travel routine. Longer journeys were usually in a ‘Fly’4 but she also combined this form of transport with walking. She rarely mentioned walking alone but that is not surprising as she always seemed to have company. A selection of her diary entries gives a flavour of her mobility. 2   Diary of Miss Davis, 1810. (Wigan Archives, Edward Hall Diary Collection, EHC/78/M847). 3  Diary of Charlotte Holtzapffel, Sunday December 12, 1813. WA. (EHC/127). 4  A light and fast horse-drawn carriage almost certainly hired for a specific outing.

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Went to Lewes in a Fly with Susan & George Harrison & was kindly received by aunt and cousins. Walked out and saw the castle which much pleased us. In the afternoon St. Mary joined our party & we had music in the evening.5 Went in the morning to Dr Everards chapel as we turned the corner of Waterloo Street the wind which was extremely violent took us completely off our feet & though Mary & I & Miss Baker who was with us held each other fast we were swept along with extreme violence till after much difficulty and danger we got hold of some rails where a baker & a police officer came to our rescue & with their assistance we proceeded to the chapel.6 Walked on the Common went to the village returned home where we found Mrs Taylor waiting to see us.7 Walked to Battersea called on Mrs Triton who had just lost her father in law.8 After breakfast we packed up and then walked to Greenwich called on Mr W.C.& likewise. Did some shopping we were caught in the rain and we returned home.9 Wet. Took a Fly to St. James heard Mr Martland Mr Mitford read, walked home.10 In the morning went to Mr Blunts Chelsea We walked through the park then being tired we got into a Hackney coach heard a delightful sermon Luke 5. 27. 28 walked home through Piccadilly. In the evening we heard Baptist Noel John 15. 4, walked home.11 Before breakfast Mary & I took a pleasant walk along the Festiniog road. About 11 we set out in an Irish jaunting car to visit the vale of Festiniog and the waterfalls after an hours walking and riding we stopped at Martha Owens Inn and having procured a guide walked to Rhaeadr & the Falls of Rhaeadr one of them was 300yds above and the other 300yds below the stone bridge … We left Festiniog and arrived at the Tanybwlch Inn having rested a few minutes we set off to see the falls of Maentwrog we rode within a mile and a quarter and then walked accompanied by a guide and an old woman of 74 we visited both falls & returned about seven very tired & much gratified.12

 An Anonymous Woman’s Travel Journal, Tuesday January 22, 1833. WA. (EHC/96).  Ibid., Wednesday February 20, 1833. 7  Ibid., Monday April 29, 1833. 8  Ibid., Saturday May 25, 1833. 9  Ibid., Friday June 14, 1833. 10  Ibid., Sunday June 23, 1833. 11  Ibid., Sunday July 14, 1833. 12  Ibid., Saturday August 24, 1833. 5 6

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The female diarists cited above were all relatively unencumbered and appeared to have the freedom to travel more or less as they pleased by a variety of different means, including on foot. In contrast, Charlotte Leeson (born 1819) was a married woman with two small children. She lived with her husband (John) in central London in the mid-nineteenth century, and John Leeson’s diary quite frequently recorded his wife’s everyday outings. Charlotte walked mainly for leisure and health and was mostly accompanied by her children (and sometimes a nurse for the baby). The diary particularly notes when Charlotte resumed walking as a regular activity after her confinements, or following illness or bad weather, and includes some occasions when she appeared to walk alone or without male accompaniment. Walking was invariably recorded on a Saturday, but the entries imply that she also walked on other days. Charlotte went with Mrs Webb to be churched … had a drive round the Regent’s Park after. Charlotte first went out on Friday morning – 5 weeks after her confinement – for a walk.13 Mrs Leeson better, been out for walks, but obliged to be very careful.14 Mrs Leeson and the children began to walk out after being confined to the house for some days. … The frost and snow leaving us – a gradual thaw for several days. Our water came in without bursting the pipes.15 Mrs Leeson is better and walks out – thinks Kensington is unhealthy and does not agree with her – prefers living at Notting Hill, been there about houses.16 Mrs Leeson begins to walk out again [after illness] – been twice this evening – gone to London today with the children – left off her medicine.17

The latter part of the nineteenth century was the period during which women who walked alone may have come under especial scrutiny and censure. In 1864, the first of a series of Contagious Diseases Acts were passed by Parliament, and these focused attention on the perceived problem of prostitution, especially in port cities and garrison towns. The acts gave the (male) authorities powers to forcibly detain women and conduct intimate inspections for venereal disease. The acts met strong opposition  Diary of John Leeson, Saturday January 24, 1852. BIA. (GDP/8).  Ibid., Saturday April 3, 1858. 15  Ibid., Saturday January 26, 1861. 16  Ibid., Saturday March 29, 1862. 17  Ibid., Saturday January 10, 1863. 13 14

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from some influential women and women’s groups, especially the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, led by Josephine Butler, and the acts were eventually repealed in 1886. It has been suggested that publicity concerning the acts and their effects could have deterred many ordinary women from walking alone (Hamilton 1978; Smith 1990; Walkowitz 1982, 2013; Walkowitz and Walkowitz 1973). However, evidence from female diaries during this period does not suggest that female independent mobility changed significantly during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Leonora Simpson (born 1839 and listed as a widow living as a visitor in Portsea, Portsmouth, in the 1881 census), wrote a surviving diary covering the years 1878–1880. She seemed to live a peripatetic life, moving between various friends and relatives. Her diary covers travel to London, Portsmouth, Cheltenham and Glasgow (among many other locations in Britain and Ireland), with transport variously by train, boat, carriage and locally on foot. She walked most days, sometimes with companions but often apparently alone and she never expressed concerns in any location. We include four brief extracts from her diary. After lunch C & brats met me at station, her house is too small for my taste, but she has it nice enough, we dined at 2 afterwards went for a long walk home to tea did not go out again.18 A very windy day. I got up at 7 & had a walk before breakfast. After breakfast the C’s went out to see the Bicycles & met Mr. Sheils. I sat in the house & went up to the Hanson’s sitting room & saw 600 Bicycles start.19 A fine day did not go to church took the dog out a walk during Church time.20 Nugent went to London by early train & telegraphed to me at 2- that he had passed his Exam. I walked to the Ardmore & then went a walk with Betty.21

Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) provides us with one of the most detailed diaries that we have read, and she has been cited several times in previous chapters. As a young woman she travelled freely around the ports of Birkenhead and Liverpool in the later nineteenth century. She used all the  Diary of Mrs. L. M. Simpson, Saturday March 1, 1879, Glasgow. WA. (EHC/53).  Ibid., Monday August 1, 1879, Harrogate. 20  Ibid., Sunday March 14, 1880, Cheltenham. 21  Ibid., Friday April 30, 1880, Cheltenham. 18 19

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transport modes available to her and often included a substantial walk in her journeys. While some walks were in the company of a female friend or one of the numerous young men with whom she was friends, she also walked alone both in the daytime and evening. At no time did she express any concerns and, apart from occasional transport disruption, her travel was almost entirely trouble free. During the eight years of her diary (1884–1892), there are 891 specific mentions of going for a walk, together with other outings where transport is not specified but where walking was almost certainly part of the journey. Travel on foot was central to Elizabeth’s independent mobility in late-nineteenth-century Birkenhead and Liverpool. We cite a small number of extracts from her diary when she was age 16 or 17. This morning Fred, Arthur, and the girls, and I went out playing tick in the garden. We had such fun. Late this afternoon Miss Sykes and I went a long walk (about 5 or 6 miles) right into the town. We went to the Town Hall and up Picadilly and came home thoroughly tired out. I bought some primroses for Sunday, and some blue ribbon.22 We are having such lovely hot weather. I took the children over to Roper’s after tea and had a long walk with Louie.23 I went to Church this morning. Pa and boys also went. This afternoon I walked to Landican and saw Patty and Jessie Ragg who is stopping with her. They were so surprised to see me. This evening Louie B. and I went to Church. So jolly. It has been such a lovely bright day.24 Went to Church this morning. C. Robson preached a beautiful sermon Text, “Grieve not the holy Spirit of Gods”. I went a long walk this afternoon a little bit with Ma and the rest by myself. Went down the New Rd. through the fields into Prenton, down to the old bridle path and then through Storeton, past Mr. Mellor’s home. I went to Roper’s for Louie to come to Church with me but she had gone so I had to go by myself. Got a nice seat in Church. I met Mr. Christopherson and another fellow (when I came out of Church) and they took me home. Lovely weather today. Nobody went to Church tonight except me for poor Pa had the toothache dreadfully.25 Went to Birkenhead this afternoon. L. Heathcock asked me to stop to tea, so I did. I walked home by myself up Grange Lane.26  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Saturday March 29, 1884. (Pooley et al. 2010).  Ibid., Thursday September 18, 1884. 24  Ibid., Sunday October 12, 1884. 25  Ibid., Sunday October 19, 1884. 26  Ibid., Friday February 20, 1884. 22 23

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As shown by other examples cited earlier in this volume, walking continued to be mentioned by all female diarists in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Female travellers took responsibility for their own safety, and it was rare for any diarist to record a situation that they considered problematic, annoying or dangerous. Of course, this may have been because they chose not to record such incidents, but it seems unlikely, especially with very detailed diaries such as that of Elizabeth Lee. However, two female diarists that we have read are exceptions to this interpretation of women’s experiences of walking in public, but each for very different reasons. Freda (Winifreda) Smith (born 1887) kept a (surviving) diary from the age of 17 for some ten years between 1904 and 1914. Her family was by some margin the most elite and well-connected of all the diarists we have studied, and her mobility was at least partially constrained by the social norms and expectations of the elite society in which she and her parents moved. Freda’s father was a colonel in the British Army, and she was the niece by marriage of William Henry Watson-Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside, who inherited the substantial industrial empire in north-east England established by his great-uncle, Lord Armstrong of Cragside. The main family home was in London where Freda had been presented at court, and she mixed in some of the most elite social circles. When in London, Freda’s family quite tightly regulated her movements, including requiring her to be chaperoned most of the time particularly before she was 21 and, on some occasions, objecting to her chosen companions. Her companion was often an older female relative or a female friend acceptable to her parents, but at times she was allowed out with only a maid who probably would have had little control over her chosen movements. However, when staying with relatives outside of London, which she did quite frequently, her movements tended to be much less tightly regulated. This theme is explored in more detail in the next chapter where we consider the impact of money and class on mobility. While in London, Freda travelled by a variety of different forms of transport, including walking to nearby destinations. A small selection of extracts illustrates the nature of control exerted over her movements when she was age 20, her occasional frustration with it, and her delight when allowed out unchaperoned.

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M[other] tells me she is told “young C…[Freda’s dentist] is a bad lot” & I am not to go alone any more. It seems absurd…27 This mng I went to Harrods and Sloane Street shopping alone!- Xmas things.28 To Woolwich [Royal Military Academy] with Father- so nice- walked to Blackheath [c.5km/3 miles] with Helen [daughter of senior army officer] … Cold … My fur coat a blessing!29 This aft to Sloane St…It is so nice being able to get out without a maid more.30 I went to the Oratory this afternoon. Coming out I met Mr Howard Wilson and rather against my will, he walked me home. He is an odd man. I never feel quite sane with him. M[other] did not mind his walking home with me…31

Our second example of the hindrances and annoyances sometimes experienced by young women travelling on foot is of a very different nature. Annie Rudolph (born 1905) was able to move freely and frequently around London as an adolescent, with very little social control on her movements. She sometimes travelled with friends but often went out alone, and walking formed a significant part of her everyday mobility, often in combination with other modes of transport. As outlined in an earlier chapter, Annie’s father had a tailor’s and second-hand clothes dealer’s business in the East End of London but, by the time of her journal in 1923, the family lived in a middle-class neighbourhood of north London. Annie was the only female diarist who recorded a number of occasions when she felt harassed, embarrassed or fearful whilst out walking. It is hard to know why her diary should reveal such a different picture from that of other young females who also walked regularly. Annie’s journal was far more reflective than most, and it is quite possible that she was simply more willing to record such encounters and the inner emotions that they generated. Both the time period and the location may also have been significant. The 1920s were a period of rapid social change, with new norms of behaviour beginning to emerge among at least some sections of society. This may have been especially noticeable in central London, particularly in  Diary of Freda Smith, Wednesday May 15, 1907. BIA (GDP/99).  Ibid., Wednesday December 12, 1906. 29  Ibid., Friday December 14, 1906. 30  Ibid., Wednesday October 23, 1907. 31  Ibid., Sunday November 24, 1907. 27 28

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the theatre district of the West End (including Soho), where Annie often travelled. Finally, Annie was a student of fashion and design. She made many of her own clothes, and her journal includes numerous sketches of dresses she was designing for herself. Her fashionable dress sense may have made her especially visible to some men (Bingham 2004; Carnevali and Strange 2014; Fowler 2014; Horwood 2000; Langhamer 2000; Søland 2000). Whatever the reasons, according to the testimonies in her journal, Annie Rudolph had to endure quite frequent unwanted attentions from men whilst out walking. This did not prevent her from continuing to walk whenever she needed to, but it was clearly a substantial source of irritation and inconvenience. This example from January 1923 is typical. Had a most annoying experience this evening. I was returning from evening school [evening college course in art and design]. On my ownsome of course. I heard quick foot marks behind me, and a voice said ‘do you mind if I walk with you? I’m going your way!’ I got the wind up and crossed the road, but would you believe it, he crossed over too. Isn’t it absurd to walk zig-zag to avoid someone one doesn’t know, so I said ‘I don’t know you and don’t want to know you. If you don’t skiddadle – in other words vamoose – I’ll call someone’. So he said ‘ Now don’t talk like that kid. I want to know you ‘. But I turned my nose up and flew!!! Positively.32

Annie’s attitude to such occasions is summed up in this subsequent entry that reflects on her experiences with young men whilst out walking the streets of London. Boys are so funny, well not exactly funny you know – sort of peculiar – for instance – one cannot go out without being bothered with them. – I’m not a Goody, Goody. I don’t profess to be one. I like a good time and try to get it – but some fellows are so ….. so …. My friend and I were out one evening a few weeks ago, we were strolling round Piccadilly, looking in the shops and eating chocs, we had seats for a show, and were walking round before it commenced. A young fellow came up to us, he raised his hat, said it was a nice evening, we agreed. He asked if we could come out, but as we were booked we had to decline. So he said ‘well shall I ring you up or come and see you at your home?’ I looked at Gertie!! Gertie looked at me!! I got over the shock first somewhat, so I retorted ‘Say do you think we are actresses???’33 32  Diary of Annie Rudolph, Tuesday January 8, 1923. BIA (GDP/31). N.B. Annie’s journal entries seem not to correspond directly to the date on the printed page of the diary used. 33  A common synonym for prostitute.

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So he smiled foolishly and said ‘er no’ – so I said – ‘s’alright then’ and we toddled off. What a nerve! Some of them are …. too bad.34

While these encounters appeared to be with young men roughly her own age, she also recorded unwanted attention from older men. This seemed to particularly occur when Annie and a friend went out to the West End of London, and they were probably far more worrying than approaches that came from her contemporaries. She recorded the following incident in her journal which occurred when walking with a female friend. I almost fainted with horror the other day. I was up West with my friend – we were strolling along looking into the shops. I was walking with my hand swinging limply. Suddenly I felt another hand touch mine  – and squeeze it – I gasped – and turned. It was an old man about over 50 – I went all colours – and clasping my friend _ I flew along until we were a long distance from there – I was horrified. Whenever I am up West I walk – looking neither to the right or the left – It’s beastly – but that’s how it is.35

Although Annie had few constraints placed on her and never came to actual harm, she did take risks and was (at least in retrospect) aware, or was made aware by her father, that her behaviour might have been deemed by others to be either inappropriate or even dangerous. In her journal she recounted two occasions on which returning home late at night from a dance was problematic. The difficulty was usually caused by a failure in public transport which necessitated a much longer walk than anticipated. On one occasion she was actually with her twin brother but was aware that her conduct in walking late at night with a male might be misconstrued; and on a second occasion she was with a female friend and, after much difficulty with transport, resorted to accepting a lift from a male stranger. Had such a time last week. I went down to Bella’s place – got home at 1.30!! Yes I know it wasn’t right but I couldn’t help it. It was thuswise. Marky was with me for which I was pleased later. We left Bella’s place about 11 – and then waited for the bus. But it was no go – our bus came not – so we concluded that we’d missed the last one. So we decided to go by train from 34  Diary of Annie Rudolph. Recorded in journal on page marked Wednesday January 9, 1923, but referring to earlier encounters. BIA (GDP/31). 35  Ibid., Tuesday January 8, 1923.

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New Cross to Liverpool St. We waited in the blessed station till 11.45, till our train came in. I was really fagged too – and so sleepy – I flopped into a corner seat, and closed my eyes wearily. Jog jog  – jog  – I looked at my watch – 12 o’clock. Gosh – I was just nodding when bump, bump, rattle – and we’d come to a full stop. Then darkness – I sat up and asked ‘wassermatter’ – R Guard explained – a train on the line had gone wonky and had to be done up – He didn’t say it in those words – but that is what I concluded – so the current had been switched off till it should be righted. We sat in the darkness until 12.30! We howled a cheer as we rattled off. Got to Liverpool St. at 12.45. Imagine me walking in the street at that time of night. The first time in my life – honestly. Everyone looked at me. Who was to know he was my brother with me? Walked to Shoreditch [c1 mile]– Oh my feet! And was very fortunate to catch a stray bus that was out for an airing – after waiting half an hour! Father murmured softly all sorts of things  – But was it our fault. It was not!36 This was some time ago. There was a very especial dance on – that I felt I just had to go to. There was a row at home as it was till 2am – but as I explained it’s only once. After much arguing I was allowed to go. It was some affair too – a supper and ball inclusive – of course we went in evening dress. It was in the East End – I didn’t worry about getting home – I said that “sufficient unto the hour is the evil thereof ….” But we intended walking from Aldgate to Shoreditch where a car goes all night …. It’s some distance [about 1.5 miles] but we considered it worth it for the extra two hours dancing. It was lovely, we had plenty of partners – surprising as it may seem there were more boys than girls!!! And such a jolly supper with music and a real ritzy band. During the evening there were turns – singing – dancing – and we didn’t want to leave early. Well we had to leave at 2am – with things still at full swing – we said goodnight – my friend and I – and sobbing that we much regretted going – we went. We got into Aldgate where there was a crowd of boys  – and they all said “Nice morning sweetie”  – and “You’re late this morning” also “Don’t forget to take in the milk”. – We went all colour and ran along the streets towards Shoreditch. We swore we wouldn’t do it again – it does look so …. so – after all 2 o’clock!!!!!!! Boys followed us and we ran. At last after about 20 minute we got to Shoreditch but there were no cars at all in sight and I didn’t at all fancy walking home – neither did my friend – it would have taken an hour if we did – so we looked at each other and almost cried – our feet in thin dancing slippers were aching too. Usually we get some boys to see us home – but it was so late so we didn’t allow them to ….. We were tired and we were just wondering what to do – we had been told that a tram goes from Shoreditch all night – but it is  Ibid., Sunday April 13, 1923.

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evident that we had been misinformed. What were we to do …. A clock chimed the half hour – it was half past two. A crowd of leering boys went by on the other side of the road and whistled to us … we ran along and we took an oath to do it never no more. As we were walking along desperately a taxi stopped – and a voice said “Want a lift”. Well – think of the temptation – two beauteous (?) maidens – lost and forlorn – tired and sleepy – boohoo miles from home – and a taxi drops – literally – from the skies – and says do we want a lift!!! But I had 2d – my friend 6d – well? – the fare would be at least 10/-. However I murmured  – “Do you want anything because we honestly haven’t any money”. So he said “Oh that’s all right – hop in” We hopped. The taxi took my friend home also me – right up to our doors – we said to him “Goodbye – God bless you …” and I didn’t fall into the arms of Morpheus till 3.o’clock. I told father in the morning and he carried on dreadful – said we had some impudence going in a taxi on our own at that time of night. Hadn’t we read books etc., didn’t we read the newspapers etc. etc. and I did realize that it had been both foolish and very risky. But we were tired  – and after all he was a nice chauffeur  – it was tremendously good of him.37

In this section, we have focused on the experiences of women who travelled on foot to pursue their everyday activities. For most women this was the most common means of travel over short distances, and in most locations short-distance travel was (and still is) the dominant form of travel for everyone. It is also one of the aspects of female mobility that has been most debated and, for some, regulated. Evidence from the diaries we have read suggest that for most women for most of the time walking was an unproblematic means of travel. It provided freedom and agency, with no need to adhere to a pre-set timetable, and could cope with most routes and varied terrains. Only rarely did female travellers encounter serious problems and, as with Annie Rudolph, these most often occurred when undertaking journeys that were unusual. It is likely that for most journeys female pedestrians regulated their own movements in such a way that they avoided potential censure or risk but, as remains the case today, some women did have to negotiate difficult situations in which men appeared to generate feelings of danger and embarrassment. In such circumstances, women took responsibility for their own safety and managed it as best they could, while most men failed to recognize that their behaviour could make female travellers uncomfortable. The only responsibility that men did  Ibid., Sunday November 30, 1923.

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exercise in some circumstances was to exercise control over a women’s movements. In the final sections of this chapter we more briefly examine the experiences of women when travelling by public transport and in private vehicles.

6.3   Female Experiences of Public Transport Women are much more likely to use public transport than are men. Although in the UK today nearly as many women as men hold a driving licence, it is still the case that public transport, and especially buses, is much more likely to be occupied by women than by men. For instance, in 2018 women made a third more journeys by bus than did men (Department for Transport 2020a; Women’s Budget Group 2020). Dependence on public transport is obviously less convenient and flexible than travel by car, and this can significantly limit some women’s ability to gain access to employment or to undertake preferred leisure and social activities. Moreover, women face the added risk of unwanted attention from male passengers, especially when travelling alone or when a bus or rail carriage is relatively empty (Gekoski et  al. 2017; Schmucki 2002; Smith 2008). The discrepancy between male and female public transport use was likely to have been even greater during much of the twentieth century. For instance, whereas 69 per cent of males held a driving licence in 1975/6, only 29 per cent of women did (Department for Transport 2020b). Many women depended either on public transport or on lifts from a male relative or friend. In contrast, in the nineteenth century before the car became a significant means of private transport, the differences between male and female public transport use would have been much less. Certainly, men would have had greater access to private carriages or a horse for their travel, but for most journeys all men and women either travelled on foot or by public transport in the form of stagecoach, train, bus or tram. Almost all of our female diarists travelled by public transport on some occasions and, as with travel on foot, for the most part such journeys were unproblematic. If difficulties were experienced, they were most commonly failures of technology or interruptions in service due to the weather that affected all passengers equally. With one notable exception, that of Annie Rudolph (discussed above), recorded incidences of harassment were again mostly absent from the diaries. For instance, in mid-nineteenth-century London, Charlotte Leeson travelled by (horse-drawn) bus and by train, on her own, with her children and with female friends. Her mobility, as

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recorded in her husband’s diary, was probably less than his, and much of their travel was as a family, but the public transport modes used by Charlotte for her independent travel were essentially the same as those used by her husband. Charlotte lost £3 in an omnibus, going to her sister’s at Walworth.38 Mrs Leeson, Lottie and Johnnie went to Hampton Court Palace for the day – by railway from Kensington Station – home at 8 ½ of clock –enjoyed themselves much.39 Saturday. Mrs Leeson and Mrs Lilley went by railway to Norwich and Mundesley for a few days to Mrs Gordon’s – I went with them to station.40

The young Elizabeth Lee also used public transport to travel around Merseyside in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and sometimes undertook longer journeys by train both alone and with family or friends. Her travel by rail, tram and on the Mersey ferry was rarely problematic. She recorded no incidents of harassment or fear whilst travelling but occasionally found her fellow passengers unusual or amusing. For instance, when she travelled alone by train to see relatives in Long Preston (North Yorkshire), she described her carriage companions as comical Americans. Uncle George took me to the station today. Had a very nice journey. The carriage I was in was full of Americans and they were so comical. Arrived at L’preston about 5 p.m. They were so astonished when I walked in. Mabel was quite excited. Pa, Mr. D. and Mr. Robb arrived about 8. p.m. I was on the “Boar’s Head when they came. They were so surprised, to see me there, for they did’nt know I was coming. Saw Mr. Taylor.41

Annie Rudolph recorded far fewer problematic incidents whilst travelling by public transport than she did when walking. This may have been because the enclosed space of a bus or tram may have provided a more protective environment than the street, thus placing constraints on the sorts of unwanted approaches that she experienced when walking. Like Elizabeth Lee, Annie found the behaviour of some fellow passengers amusing, and occasionally slightly embarrassing or annoying, but she  Diary of John Leeson, Saturday February 8, 1851, BIA (GDP/8).  Ibid., Saturday April 9, 1864, BIA (GDP/8). 40  Ibid., Saturday May 21, BIA (GDP/8). 41  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Thursday August 20, 1885. (Pooley et al. 2010). 38 39

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recorded no incidents similar to those she experienced as a pedestrian. Compare, for instance, the following two entries from her journal (the second a recollection from 1921). It was such a joke yesterday …….. It wasn’t really nice but it was funny – anyone would have laughed. I was on the top of a bus with a friend – it was rather late – I’d been for a ride – and we were just going home – of course it was dark – it wasn’t too cold – so we went on top. We were talking and all that – the bus was full and we were travelling very fast – I did enjoy the ride. Suddenly I heard a giggle behind me – a girl’s giggle – and a boy’s voice said – “funny place to be ticklish”. I thought this a queer remark and just glanced round – I don’t know what made me really turn – but I just did – I gasped – and turned away quickly. That couple gasped more – their faces turned pink – they jumped up and got off the very next stop …. (nuff said).42 I met a girl today that I used to go with … We were going out one evening and as it was early yet we went up the Hill and stood looking in the shop windows  – afterwards we felt tired so we went and sat on the seats along there. We were both togged up in the fashion then of very short skirts (about 2 years ago) and they barely covered our knees – but we wore nice stockings so we didn’t mind. Well we sat down and crossed our legs and started jawing. Suddenly along came two officers … well they chortled and came over – they looked at our legs so we quickly uncrossed them. They asked us what we were doing up there – so we said – same as you probably . So they told us we shouldn’t wear such short skirts … We don’t wear short skirts to entice them – only because they were fashionable.43

The ability to travel easily and safely by public transport often depends on the ease with which different modes and routes interconnect. Seamless travel, for instance between trains and buses, makes for an easy journey with few long waits. This was certainly possible in Britain’s major cities in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. For instance, Ida Berry in Manchester seemed to be able to move between different modes as she travelled around the city and its surroundings without any significant pre-­ planning, and much the same was true for Mary Leesmith in London who often travelled by a combination of overground and underground trains and buses. Two brief examples illustrate this point.

 Journal of Annie Rudolph, Friday October 17, 1923. BIA (GDP/31).  Ibid., Saturday September 27, 1923 (recollection of an incident in 1921). BIA (GDP/31). 42 43

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We went to Chapel and then for a walk with Ruby and Norman and they brought us home. After dinner they called for us and we went on the bus to Cheadle and then on a tram to Stockport and then another to ‘Woodley’, and on the way we passed ‘Vernon Park’. We climbed 700 feet and got to the top of ‘Werneth Low’. It was lovely all the country round and we could see ‘Kinder Scout’ in the distance. We had tea at ‘Compstall’ and then walked into ‘Marple’ it was a lovely outing and we did enjoy it. We came home by train from Marple and they brought us home.44 G and I went to town by the 9.4 changed at Harrow. … went straight to 16 Queensgate and saw the Fairfax-Lucys. … called at a photographer’s next and then had some lunch and went by underground from Kensington High St to Gower St and then to see some studios. I had been told of miserable looking places – such a nasty part of London. Can’t think how artists can do it. … back to Fairfax at 5.30 … drove back by bus to Euston and got the 7.4 train home. Delightful to get to the country again. G came to supper with me.45

However, in rural areas transport did not always connect so effectively. Before she learned to drive at the age of 30, Betty Charnley in the north Lancashire countryside relied almost entirely on the bus for journeys that she could not complete by bike or on foot. She rarely complained about the bus service, but on occasion had long waits when she had to change between services, as in this example from 1943. Joan and I catched [sic] the twenty four minutes past eleven to Preston and when we arrived in Preston we had almost an hour to wait for a Chipping bus so we went to Davison’s café and arrived home at three o’clock.46

For the most part, public transport in the past was frequent and efficient. The women who travelled by train, bus or tram rarely encountered problems that were any different from those that would have been experienced by their male counterparts; and for Annie Rudolph in London in the 1920s public transport appeared to be safer and less problematic than travel on foot. We can only speculate on why this might be different from the experiences of many women today who have recorded numerous incidents of harassment and, potentially, danger whilst travelling on public transport (Bates 2016). It may, of course, simply reflect differences in  Diary of Ida Berry, Friday April 1, 1904 (Good Friday). BIA (GDP/28).  Diary of Mary Leesmith, Monday April 20, 1896. BIA (GDP/95). 46  Diary of Betty Charnley, Tuesday February 9, 1943 (authors’ collection). 44 45

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what women were and are prepared to write or speak about, but it can also be suggested that in the past, societal constraints on behaviour whilst travelling by public transport operated rather more tightly than they do today.

6.4  Travelling Privately Private transport always provides more flexibility, comfort and safety than travel on public transport or on foot. However, over the past two centuries the proportion of the population with access to private transport has increased dramatically, and the degree of comfort and convenience that it provides has also improved. In the nineteenth century, private travel modes were on horseback or in a private carriage. These were the preserve of the relatively rich, and they were mainly accessed by men. During the twentieth century, travel by bicycle and motor car became increasingly common, with the bike providing flexibility if not always comfort, and the car delivering maximum speed, comfort and flexibility. Initially both cycling and motoring were dominated by men, but some women also quickly adopted these travel modes. Here we briefly examine the use of private transport by female diarists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ladies living in affluent households often travelled by private carriage in the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, but they rarely drove themselves: usually either a male servant or a male relative would take the reins. In her diary, Elizabeth Lee noted that her father bought a dogcart47 in 1883; this was normally driven by him or by John, their male servant but, on one occasion in 1892 and at the age of 25, Elizabeth did note that she drove herself. She had only driven a light carriage once before whilst on holiday in the Isle of Man, and on both occasions she had a male companion, but she also commented that a lady driving was thought to be very unusual. For the most part Elizabeth’s everyday mobility was undertaken by public transport or on foot. Lovely day. Mr. Young called and had a row with him. Went to Kirk Braddam with Tom F. It is quite a sight to see, they have an open-air service. Drove in gig with Tom thro’ Peel to Glen Maye. Loveliest place I ever saw. I drove home all the way and round the Prom. the Scotchman saw me etc. people did look, as it is quite an uncommon thing to see a lady driving. Percy,  A light horse-drawn carriage.

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C. Needham and I went down to see Tom off by 12.pm boat. So sorry he’s gone (to Glasgow).48 P. Okell came to tea. Afterwards I actually drove dogcart, thro’ Heswall, Thurstaston, past near W.  Kirby and round home,- went about 20 miles. C.G.  Wallace with me XX.  First time I’ve ever drove, excepting once in I. of Man.49

From the late nineteenth century, bicycles became an increasingly important way in which independent and private mobility could be achieved. Initially cycling was mainly a male preserve: for instance, although Elizabeth Lee’s brothers cycled, she never did, apart from once being given a ride on a double tricycle in August 1886 when she was aged 19. However, from the 1890s it became more common to see female cyclists (Jungnickel 2015; Macrae 2015; Rubinstein 1977), and Ida Berry who lived in south Manchester in the first decade of the twentieth century was a keen cyclist. She recorded only one occasion when she cycled into central Manchester as almost all her cycling was undertaken as a leisure activity which took her out into the countryside to the south of the city. Cycling clearly formed an important part of her life and was engaged in most weeks during the summer months. Most usually Ida cycled on a Saturday with her younger sister Maud, but also cycled quite frequently with a larger group of male friends. The following diary entries from 1905 are typical of Ida’s cycling activities. We went for our 8 mile ride for the first time this year. It was a glorious evening and we did enjoy it. The setting sun lighted all the newly opened leaves down Gibb Lane and the birds were singing and the air was lovely. We rested for a while down Stockport Rd. I viewed the familiar landscape and watched the rose-tinted clouds fly past. As we came home we met Harry, motoring, so he turned back and rode between us down Northern Grove, and we had a little chat at the gate.50 It was a glorious day. Maud and I had a lovely ride to Altrincham. Mother and Baby went on the Bus to Northenden and met us at the end of Gibb Lane, on our way back.51 We went out to ‘Rostherne Mere’ for a ride, it was glorious we sat on the banks of the ‘mere’ to rest watching the water rippling in the sunshine then  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Sunday July 10, 1892. (Pooley et al. 2010).  Ibid., Friday August 26, 1892. 50  Diary of Ida Berry, Monday March 27, 1905. BIS (GDP/28). 51  Ibid., Saturday April 8, 1905. 48 49

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we wended our way to Altrincham to have our famous 6d tea. We got home at 7.30 p.m. and then rode to Chorlton and left the machines at Shaws to have the free wheels oiled. We had such a lot of fun on the way.52 Six of us went for a ride to ‘Arley’, it was grand. We had a beautiful tea and walked round the ‘Meres’, coming home we saw the most beautiful sunset we had ever seen, the sun looked like a jewel so bright, and the sky was blazing with red and gold.53

Motoring in the twentieth century had a similar trajectory to that of cycling. Initially, it was mainly a male preserve but some women with access to a car did drive from the earliest days of motoring. This could greatly increase their independent mobility and make it much easier to carry out a range of tasks during a day. The car also provided privacy and a degree of safety. However, automobiles in the early twentieth century were very unreliable, and all drivers had to learn to cope with a wide range of mechanical failures whilst driving. Often, this required resorting to public transport and arranging for a garage to collect the car. As mentioned in a previous chapter, the Pennyfathers bought a car in August 1908 and from then onwards motoring became an important part of their everyday mobility.54 Unsurprisingly, many of Verena’s trips by car were with her husband or with friends, and it is not always clear who was behind the wheel but, very soon after the car was purchased, the diary does make it explicit that Verena drove the car. For instance, she regularly motored from their Kensington home into central London, but the unreliability of the car meant that it was mostly used for local trips rather than longer journeys. There is a long gap in the diary entries from 1909–12, during which Verena had two children, but by 1913 travel by car had become one of Verena’s main modes of everyday travel, including for some longer journeys. However, these mostly occurred at weekends, possibly because her husband had the car to travel to work on weekdays. In this way Verena’s mobility options continued to be restricted. It is not clear if in 1913 they owned the same car as they had in 1908, but it certainly continued to be unreliable and Verena’s name for the car (the mangle) remained unchanged. Her diary entries are brief, but the following extracts  Ibid., Saturday May 13, 1905.  Ibid., Saturday May 27, 1905. 54  In the very early twentieth century, a ‘drive’ was usually in a horse-drawn carriage. Travel by automobile was referred to as ‘motoring’. However, by 1913 Verena Pennyfather used the term driving to refer to travel by car. 52 53

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give a flavour of some of the car journeys she made in the early twentieth century. Motored up to Chelmsford, train on to London. Lunched at Bury St Edmonds, tea at Chelmsford and dinner at Wynstay Gardens [Home].55 Stayed in bed for breakfast. Tried to get a trout out of the pond. Rowed about the river. After lunch started to motor home. Motor got too hot, trained up.56 Left flat about 4 O’Clock, met Sommy [husband] at Waterloo, arrived Bourne in time for dinner [later diary entry makes it clear that she takes the motor to Waterloo to collect Sommy].57 Started to motor to Harrods but lost way.58 After lunch went out in the mangle.59 Drove over to Colchester in the mangle to lunch with the Steeles.60 Went down to Henley with Tub [husband] and on to Newbury to look at a house there. Met Tub at Henley again and went to look at Hill Rise. Took Dick out in the mangle after tea.61

For Betty Charnley, passing her driving test at the age of 30  in July 1958 fundamentally changed her mobility options. Her diary characteristically makes only brief reference to this event, stating blandly ‘Smashing day. Passed my driving test’.62 This was as enthusiastic as Betty got about almost anything in her diary writing, but getting her driving licence meant that, rather than relying on often unreliable public transport, cycling or walking, she could easily travel as and when she wished. It also gave her increased status among her friends, most of whom could not drive at the time. Significant gender inequalities in both the ability to drive and access to a car continued throughout the twentieth century, and even at the start of the final decade of the century only 50 per cent of adult women had a driving licence. In contrast, 80 per cent of men could legally drive—a

 Diary of Verena Pennyfather, Sunday September 6, 1908. BIA. (GDP/51).  Ibid., Sunday September 20, 1908. 57  Ibid., Friday October 9, 1908. 58  Ibid., Saturday October 17, 1908. 59  Ibid., Sunday October 22, 1908. 60  Ibid., Sunday January 26, 1913. 61  Ibid., Sunday May 10, 1913. 62  Diary of Betty Charnley, Monday July 7, 1958 (authors’ collection). 55 56

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figure that has remained almost unchanged to the present day.63 Women travelled by car, but for most of the twentieth century this was more likely to be as a passenger than as a driver. In this chapter, we have used the personal diaries we have studied to demonstrate the ways in which women travelled at different times in the past, and the mobility injustices that they sometimes faced. For most women, for most of the time, everyday travel was common and relatively unproblematic. Female travellers utilised the full range of transport modes available and mostly did so without difficulty. However, on occasion young women such as Annie Rudolph in London did meet with serious harassment and unwanted attention from men. This did not stop her travelling, and she appeared confident in taking responsibility for her own travel behaviour and safety, but it was clearly a considerable annoyance. Paradoxically, as the faster and more convenient mobility opportunities offered by the automobile became available in the twentieth century, gender inequalities in mobility became more pronounced. In the nineteenth century, most men and women used the same range of transport modes, but travel by car as a driver rather than a passenger was persistently male dominated throughout the twentieth century. Everyday mobility was, and still is, highly gendered, with men consistently privileged over women.

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Schmucki, B. 2002. On the trams: Women, men and urban public transport in Germany. The Journal of Transport History 23: 60–72. ———. 2012. “If I walked on my own at night I stuck to well lit areas.” Gendered spaces and urban transport in 20th century Britain. Research in Transportation Economics 34: 74–85. Smith, F. 1990. The Contagious Diseases Acts reconsidered. Social History of Medicine 3: 197–215. Smith, M. 2008. Addressing the security needs of women passengers on public transport. Security Journal 21: 117–133. Søland, B. 2000. Becoming modern: Young women and the reconstruction of womanhood in the 1920s. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Strange, J.M. 2012. Fatherhood, providing, and attachment in late Victorian and Edwardian working-class families. The Historical Journal 55: 1007–1027. Thompson, F.M.L. 1988. The rise of respectable society: A social history of Victorian Britain, 1830–1900. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Todd, S. 2005. Young women, work, and family in England 1918–1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tosh, J. 2017. Manliness and masculinities in nineteenth-century Britain: Essays on gender, family and empire. London: Routledge. United Nations. 1948. Universal declaration of human rights. http://www.verklaringwarenatuur.org/Downloads_files/Universal%20Declaration%20of%20 Human%20Rights.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2021. Vickery, A. 1993. Golden age to separate spheres? A review of the categories and chronology of English women’s history. The Historical Journal 36: 383–414. ———. 2003. The gentleman’s daughter. London: Yale University Press. Walkowitz, J. 1982. Prostitution and Victorian society: Women, class, and the state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 2013. City of dreadful delight: Narratives of sexual danger in late-­Victorian London. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Walkowitz, J., and D.  Walkowitz. 1973. “We Are Not Beasts of the Field”: Prostitution and the poor in Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts. Feminist Studies 1: 73–106. Wilson, E., and D. Little. 2005. A “relative escape”? The impact of constraints on women who travel solo. Tourism Review International 9: 155–175. Women’s Budget Group. 2020. Public transport and gender. https://wbg.org. uk/wp-­content/uploads/2020/02/final-­transport-­2020.pdf. Accessed 3 Aug 2021. Wordsworth, D. 2002. The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals. Oxford: Oxford University Press. World Economic Forum. 2021. Global gender gap report 2021. https://www. weforum.org/reports/global-­gender-­gap-­report-­2021/digest. Accessed 28 July 2021.

CHAPTER 7

Money Matters

7.1   Introduction All travel has a cost. Walking provides the simplest and cheapest means of transport, and travel on foot was the principal means of moving from place to place for most people in the past. However, walking does have a cost in terms of the wear on shoe leather and outdoor clothes, and in the past the clothes used for walking were most probably also those that were worn every day. All other forms of travel are more costly. Cycling requires an initial outlay for a bike and there may be on-going repair and maintenance costs. All forms of public transport require payment, usually graded in relation to the comfort and speed of the service, and motoring requires a large initial outlay and substantial service and maintenance costs. Travel also has other more hidden, but nonetheless important, costs. These include the costs of time for the traveller: for instance, a long daily journey to work will eat into the time available for other activities and may reduce work productivity. Costs to the environment are also involved, minimally recognised in the past but increasingly obvious today, especially in the form of pollution from motor vehicles and air travel (Banister 1997; Banister and Button 2015). However, even walking has an environmental cost if paths are trampled and vegetation destroyed. Of course, transport and travel also have value, and many journeys may be deemed essential and would be taken at any cost. Each individual traveller must make their © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_7

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own assessment of the cost–benefit ratio for them for a particular journey. This will vary not only from person to person, but also with the reason for travel and the financial circumstances faced by a potential traveller at the time. It is difficult to precisely assess the changes in the real costs of travel over time as there are so many variables involved. In general, travel costs declined over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a rail journey costing less than equivalent travel by horse-drawn coach, and with the introduction of cheap workmen’s fares on some rail routes, especially in London (Abernethy 2015; Dyos 1953; Gunn 2018; London Transport Museum 2021). More recently, while all transport costs have increased, the cost of travel by public transport (rail or bus) has gone up far more substantially than for motoring. For instance, between 2011 and 2021 the cost of bus and coach fares went up by 75 per cent, rail travel by 37 per cent but motoring only by 9 per cent (Statistica 2021). As a component of the overall costs of living, the cost of motoring has relatively declined. While this obviously benefits the majority who travel by car in the twenty-­ first century, it severely disadvantages some of the most deprived and marginal groups within the UK who rely entirely on public transport for their travel. The only form of transport that has declined in cost over most of the twentieth century is air travel, with low-cost flights following deregulation in the 1980s widening opportunities to travel by air (Lyth 2016; Lyth and Dierikx 1994). Perversely, air travel is one of the most environmentally harmful means of travel (Hares et al. 2010). It is obvious that the rich have more transport choices, and access to faster and more comfortable transport, than do the poor. This has been repeatedly demonstrated in the evidence quoted in previous chapters. In this chapter, we move beyond the simple monetary cost of transport, and use our diary evidence to consider in more detail the range of benefits and burdens that wealth or poverty could confer on travellers, and how it affected their lives. In doing this, two related concepts are important: first, travel and transport are intimately connected to power structures and, second, these are reflected in social class differences within society. The power of money and class enables some to travel as and when they wish in relative comfort, while the powerful can also exert power and control through travel as they may dominate road space and gain privileges not available to most travellers. Power and status in relation to travel and transport are also strongly gendered. As shown in Chap. 6, men were usually able to exert far more power, and to access the fastest, most spacious, and most comfortable forms of transport more easily than women, while status could impose constraints on some female mobility. Some further aspects of this are considered later in this chapter.

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7.2  The Constraints of Poverty As we have previously explained, few surviving diaries relate to the very poor because they did not have the means or the leisure time to write. However, there are several examples in the diaries we have read where a lack of resources placed constraints on travel or, in some instances, precipitated a residential move. This was the case for James Bennetts Williams, whose travel from Cornwall to Liverpool prior to boarding a ship to South America was outlined in a previous chapter. This move was stimulated by the lack of suitable work in Cornwall as the tin mining industry declined, and the relative poverty that would have occurred if young men had not moved long distances to seek work elsewhere. John James (born1822) also left Cornwall because work prospects in mining and related industries were poor. He travelled widely in Britain and overseas in order to maintain an income for himself and his family who remained in Cornwall for much of the time he was away. James’s journal entries occur irregularly, sometimes weekly but at other times with a gap of several months before he recounts recent events in his life. For instance, there were no entries between January and August 1867, but he then wrote: I have seen a great change since my last entry here. About the end of February I accepted an offer to go to Newcastle on Tyne as sampler of Norwegian ores. My position at home was very uncertain, mine poor, although I had the confidence of my employers. I intended to have taken my family with me in a very short time, but matters did not succeed. The price of the mineral went down just at once. I had to leave for Garston in Liverpool, being at Newcastle about 5 months. I liked Newcastle and Newcastle Methodists. It is a fine busy place.1

James remained in Garston (working for the same employer) for just under a year before being sent to Antwerp to oversee and check deliveries of pyrites. Over subsequent years he worked in Norway, Newfoundland and Ireland, with only brief periods back in Cornwall in between. Travel for work to sustain an income was normal for Cornishmen such as John James – and he had previously worked in North America as a young man – but it was only in 1876 that his family could finally join him in Ireland. From his diary entries John James very much missed his home and family, but necessity forced him into a peripatetic and often lonely lifestyle. 1

 Journal of John James, Sunday August 18, 1867 (authors’ collection).

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The impact of poverty on residential location is most often narrated in life histories, written as the author looks back on key moments of their life. This was true for the Shaw family in north-west England in the late-­ eighteenth century. According to the family life history written by Benjamin Shaw in 1826,2 their move from Dent (Cumbria) to Dolphinholme (Lancashire) was precipitated by a combination of lack of work for his father, Joseph Shaw, and the opportunity offered by new employment elsewhere. Joseph had worked as a weaver and itinerant clock and watch maker, but he struggled to support his family and the move south was designed to boost household income by finding work for his children in the new worsted mill at Dolphinholme. Mr Edmondson the managing master came over to dent to engage hands, several more families hired, & among the rest my father & family – we were 7 childrer & they liked large families the Best for the Childrers sake – my father engaged for him & me to work in the machanic shop, at our trade &c – So my father Sold the greater part of his goods, & some he left unsold, & came to this Dolphinholme, with some others in July 179I.3

Joseph’s son Benjamin (author of the family history) did not settle at the mill and later moved to Preston (Lancashire) to improve his prospects. However, he experienced illness and unemployment and poverty forced him to apply for Poor Relief. The Preston Overseers removed him to what they considered to be his parish of settlement, leaving two of his children with his sister in Preston. I was advised to apply to preston for relief, so my wife got 5 shilling or some trifle, & they removed us to Ellel, the town in which I lived when I was at dolphinholme, we left 2 lads in preston with my sister, that was in work, & thought that they would keep themselves nearly, & sleep at home, for we did not sell our house-hold goods.4

William Holt (born 1897) also gives a vivid account of the enforced move that his parents made some time between 1906 and 1911, when their business collapsed, and they were living in great poverty as a  With a short addition to 1836.   The Family Records of Benjamin Shaw, Lancashire Record Office, Preston (DDX/1154/1) p. 27. See also Crosby (1991). 4  Ibid., p. 46. 2 3

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consequence. The account was a recollection from the author’s childhood memory, but the event clearly made a substantial impression on his young mind. Very hard times had come to my parents at Stoney Lane. The brewery was not profitable. Customers were keeping the empty bottles to use as hot-­ water bottles in winter and refusing to buy my father’s brews if he charged a deposit on the bottle. My father’s journeys took him farther and farther afield to sell his bottles. My brother Ernest broke his collar bone and caught pneumonia. Doctor’s bills were heavy. Gradually we sank lower and lower into poverty until we were hungry, and glad to have margarine and bread. Often we sat in darkness without a penny to put into the gas meter. … Then came the end of the brewery. The business was closed down and the plant sold piecemeal. Our furniture was packed on the cart again and we flitted to Todmorden. My father had failed heroically.5

The previous examples focus mainly on residential mobility as the sources available provide scant information on the more mundane everyday mobility we have discussed elsewhere. However, for those with few resources, almost all travel must have been on foot; however, in an age when access to other forms of transport was limited, walking would not have been seen as an unusual mode of travel. Thomas Thomas (born 1788) provides an account of his mobility as a travelling preacher in Baptist chapels along the Welsh borders in the early nineteenth century. His life history (written in 1868) does not provide precise dates, but one entry reads: I was invited to preach in a new chapel in Montgomeryshire, and at a little chapel at Rolla [?] in Shropshire. Which chapels I supplied for about seven years. The chapels were at the distance of at least 4 miles apart. So that I had to walk 15 miles each Sabbath day. Preaching morning and afternoon and often in the evening. Receiving little more remuneration than provided suitable apparel to appear in.6

At this period of his life with a young family to feed, his peripatetic existence as a preacher clearly made life difficult, and he worked as a labourer during the week to try to make ends meet. This mode of living 5 6

 Life history of William Holt. (Holt 1939, p. 24).  Autobiography of Thomas Thomas. (Authors’ collection).

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hand to mouth with long journeys made on foot to seek work was not uncommon in the first half of the nineteenth century. Travel on foot was also not confined to the very poor, as evidenced by the long-distance mobility of some skilled artisans who travelled long distances around the country, seeking work where it was available (Southall 1991).

7.3  Those Who Just Managed Many of the diaries we have read were written by people who could, in normal circumstances, manage their finances in such a way that they could travel reasonably easily and, probably most importantly, had some degree of autonomy and control over their lives, rather than having their mobility limited by poverty. This section of society has sometimes been referred to by historians as the ‘middling sort’ (D’Cruze 1994; Gauci 2006; Popp 2021). For some this position was marginal, and periods of illness, unemployment or other disruption could precipitate a financial crisis, but this was usually temporary. For the most part their mobility was typical of many of the examples already cited. Very few diarists actually wrote about their finances or admitted to financial difficulties. This may have been because such occasions rarely occurred, or because they preferred to keep them hidden even from a personal diary. Few people readily admit to lack of resources. One rare exception was Saima Blake (born 1856). She was used to living reasonably comfortably. Her husband was a London solicitor, her sons were at boarding school, and the family retained at least one domestic servant. However, Saima’s husband died in December 1903 after a lengthy period of illness, and after that she appeared on some occasions to be concerned about her income. This was rarely stated explicitly, but she began to include a detailed statement of annual accounts at the end of her diary so presumably had been monitoring her expenses closely. She does continue to travel locally and does not seem to significantly curb her activities, but in 1912 she included the following note in the front of her diary. It was addressed to ‘My dear Frank’ and it is unclear if it was ever sent. Saima’s relationship to Frank is unclear (he may have been her brother), but he was obviously in the habit of asking her for money and, on this occasion, she felt unable to spare anything. However, in May the same year she recorded giving Frank gifts of 30 shillings. I am sorry you are in need of money again, but you cannot expect me to supply you and I cannot do it. I let you have nearly £7 in about 9 week, part

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of September, October and November alone. This is a heavy time of year for householders, and it is all I can do to pay my way over Christmas as my banking balance is very low, and nothing falls in till 31 January and I feared I should run short. With only yourself to keep you could cope on your income, and considering all I have let you have for Mrs Wright’s help you ought to be fairly straight.7

The life history of Henry Jaques (born 1842) was written up from diaries in 1901, although Jaques lived on until 1907. He worked in a range of textile-related trades in London, including as a buyer and seller for retail firms, with a small business on his own account, and as a home-based shirtmaker. Throughout his life he experienced repeated periods of poverty that limited his ability to support his family and to travel as he wished. The life of Jaques has been explored in detail elsewhere (Pooley and Turnbull 1997): here we simply provide a small number of short extracts from the life history that focus on the impact of poverty on Jaques’ life and mobility. Jaques married in April 1864 and at the same time started his own small retail tailoring business in the East End of London. He was immediately concerned about his finances, and this was worsened five months later when he was taken ill with rheumatic fever. We returned to our new ‘home’ a few days before the opening day. The furniture did not take us long to arrange. We made a poor show, just the very barest of necessities. My poor dear Lizzie was – I could see – disappointed, but she said but little. All the money available had to go into the business leaving little to furnish with. We had all the large furniture on hire, and it took us 15 months to clear off.8 Many a time when the day came to take up a bill I found myself several pounds short and more than once had to seek the aid of the Pawnbroker for the time being.9

Eventually his business collapsed and Jaques took employment with a large retail company. He was engaged as a buyer which required him to travel widely on business, but it left little time or money for his family and he also found his occupation laborious, especially as he got older and he

 Diary of Saima Blake, 1912 (insert at start of diary). BIA (GDP/100).  Life history of Henry Jaques, p. 47. (Authors’ collection). 9  Ibid., p. 50. 7 8

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took new employment with a large wholesale hosiery firm for whom he had to travel to secure new accounts. We had no annual holidays then – I always had my two weeks at B.D. & Co. but we seldom did more than go for daily trips. The children were all too young, and my purse too scanty to take them all away, so the holiday was more often, then, occupied in work at home.10 No one will ever know what the next seven months meant to me physically. The daily effort, involving long tedious walks between the many short drives by bus and train, the heavy weight of the bag, sometimes supplemented by a parcel in addition, the long and earnest talking to would-be customers, tiring in itself, and, when I arrived home, often and often at 8,9 and sometimes 10 o/c tired out, but only to have a snatch of a supper and then go to the cutting board for an hour or two.11

Such explicit descriptions of poverty and hardship are very uncommon in personal diaries written up on a daily basis, but they do occur in memoirs and life histories constructed later in life. Maybe at the time it was important to just get on with life and to make the best of the circumstances, whereas in more reflective life histories there was sufficient distance to be able confront periods of hardship. Many life histories also have an underlying theme of redemption or, at least, of overcoming hardships, and thus it was necessary to describe the hardships in order to show that the writers survived and prospered despite their difficulties.

7.4   What Mobilities Does Money Buy? Travellers who were confident that they had some surplus income, or resources that they could call upon if necessary, had the reassurance that unusual situations could be dealt with and, if one set of travel options failed, then it would be possible to switch to an alternative and more expensive transport mode. In other words, money provides a combination of choice, flexibility, convenience, power, and the assurance that whatever the travel difficulties it will be possible to survive reasonably easily. Many of our diarists did have these options. For the most part they were exercised sparingly, and their resources were not unlimited, but the options were there and could be used if the situation necessitated. Money also  Ibid., p. 67.  Ibid., p. 86.

10 11

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provided the possibility of greater comfort, and access to travel for leisure as well as for necessity. Leisure travel is considered more fully in Chap. 8, but here we provide a series of examples of the ways in which the availability of some surplus income could ease and enhance mobility experiences. Such options have existed during the full time span of our research, but they became more varied and more frequently exercised during the twentieth century as mobility options widened and became more affordable. In the nineteenth century, transport opportunities were more uniform and only the very rich could afford to travel by the most convenient and comfortable modes (Pooley 2016; Pooley et al. 2006). As previous chapters have demonstrated, many of the diarists studied travelled by a variety of the transport modes available to them, and they switched easily from one form to another. This was as true, for instance, for John Leeson in London in the 1850s as it was for Mary Leesmith in the capital almost half a century later, and for Ida Berry in Manchester in the first decade of the twentieth century. The diary of Gillian Caldwell (born 1937) includes unusually detailed accounts of her travel in Cumbria, Edinburgh and elsewhere in the 1950s, and provides many examples of the ways in which relatively secure access to resources could ease her travel. As a teenager, Gillian had limited access to money of her own, but her parents ran a restaurant in a remote Cumbrian valley, and she was able to secure extra funds from them relatively easily. This occurred not only when she lived at home, but also after she had moved to Edinburgh and had a job of her own. From time to time she would persuade her father to top up what she considered to be inadequate resources, although the money was apparently needed principally to maintain her preferred lifestyle rather than for necessities. Back to work with a vengeance … cashed Pop’s cheque this morning and proceeded to hand out the loot to all the mob. Pooh and I washed and changed and David picked us up at 6.30 and Ranald at seven. We had an exquisite meal at the Open Arms at a table on the veranda with soft lighting. A delightful meal and a bottle of wonderful Austrian Dernhard Hock. Coffee and liqueurs  – Ranald smoking his pipe and looking unhealthily lean  – by a blazing log fire, and then on to the Marine Hotel at North Berwick for more drinks.12

 Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Tuesday September 20, 1955. BIA (GDP/1).

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Life in rural Cumbria usually meant travelling relatively long distances to access larger shops and other facilities, and the rural transport network was not always deemed to be totally convenient or reliable. Gillian’s account of a shopping trip to Carlisle13 combined a lift from her father and travel by train and bus before resorting to a taxi for the final 8 km (5 mile) journey home. The diary does not make the identity of Gillian’s companions clear, but it seems likely that June may have been an adult who was persuaded to pay for the taxi. Alternatively, either the 15-year-old Gillian had sufficient of her own resources, or she was confident that a parent would pay when she returned. Daddy and I left for Jean’s quite early and as he ran me to Thornhill I managed to be in Whitehaven quite early. … I’d no sooner got to June’s than we were off shopping and we were in plenty of time for the train at Carlisle. Jimmy the chump wouldn’t have got off there if June hadn’t barged along the train and lugged him out! … We managed to catch a bus to Gosforth and I also managed to persuade June that a taxi was a NECESSITY if I was to keep alive.14

Whilst working in Edinburgh, Gillian Caldwell often returned home to Eskdale in Cumbria, and some of these journeys illustrate the ways in which she combined some relatively extravagant transport choices with complaints about lacking money. She (and the friends she often travelled with) was not averse to travelling first class if the train was very crowded or, indeed, if they just fancied more comfort than usual. Although Gillian often complained that she was short of money, she also seemed confident that more money would become available to allow her to make transport choices that increased her comfort and convenience. Finally managed to work through today. We dashed on to the train very early and did piles of shorthand before we got to Carlisle. We were both stony broke so couldn’t afford a drink. Jean and Dick Hartley met us and we got home about 10 to find a merry party from the OBMS in.15 More glorious weather but what a business travelling back to Edinburgh is, we left an hour early, felt belligerent and so travelled first class, and arrived  A city in north Cumbria some 90 km (55 miles) by road from Gillian Caldwell’s home.  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Monday April 28, 1952. BIA (GDP/1). 15  Ibid., Friday July 9, 1954. The abbreviation OBMS refers to the Outward Bound Mountain School located in Eskdale. 13 14

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at Carlisle at half past three. We had tea in the County Hotel and then wandered back on to the station to discover that the usual Edinburgh train ‘wa ‘na’ running’ British Railways. We had to change at Carstairs and were shoved into a piggy little train – the size of the Granton-Leith Express. Got into town getting on for eight and made for home.16 Absolute panic this morning! The two cases, dress box and Ranald’s holdall hardly fit in the [Stewart’s] car at all; and the train was absolutely packed so we had to travel first class again. It took ages to Carlisle going by the Borders and we missed our connection. I had no money for lunch. By this time we were both thoroughly bad tempered. We eventually caught the two o’clock train & Daddy met us.17

Money can also convey power in the form of access to the fastest vehicles that could dominate road space and potentially inconvenience other travellers. In the twenty-first century, we are familiar with complaints from pedestrians and cyclists who feel that they are being marginalised and often placed in dangerous situations by the volume of motor vehicles on the roads (Cloutier et al. 2017; Oldenziel et al. 2016; Paschalidis et al. 2016; Pooley et al. 2013). However, conflicts over road space are not new. In the nineteenth century, fast carriages could dominate road space and push pedestrians to the margins where, in the countryside especially, a walker may have been calf-deep in mud. In the early twentieth century, some raised concerns about the impact of motor vehicles on horse-drawn transport, with vehicle speeds severely restricted in the very early days of motoring (O’Connell 2007; Pooley 2010). Perhaps surprisingly, the diarists we studied do not mention such conflicts. Those who walked in the nineteenth century never complained about vehicles on the road, and neither cyclists nor pedestrians commented on conflict with cars in the twentieth century. There are several possible reasons for this. It could be that these issues did not arise for the selection of diarists we have studied, though they may have existed for others. Alternatively, it may have been that such incidents were so commonplace that the diarists did not consider them worth recording. As with all life writing, the silences must remain unresolved. The diaries do provide some evidence of the ways in which relative affluence provided access to speed. This was especially the case during the twentieth century as motor vehicles became increasingly accessible for at  Ibid., Sunday April 1, 1956.  Ibid., Saturday September 1, 1956.

16 17

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least some travellers. As outlined in Chap. 6, Freda Smith (born 1887) usually lived with her wealthy and well-connected family in London, but as a young woman she also visited many equally affluent friends and relatives in different parts of the country. Some of her male companions had access to a car and she apparently revelled in the (relative) speed that this elite form of transport offered in the first decade of the twentieth century. For instance, in August 1907 she attended a house party at Neasham Hall, near Darlington, and wrote enthusiastically about the speedy motoring that she enjoyed. We are a party of about 19 staying here … This aft Hope, Miss le P. who is nice, Guy W. & I motored to Saltram [Middlesbrough] to see a review of the Ch. Lads Brigade. A lovely run abt. 35 miles- we tore along.18 Music and tennis with Jocelyn this mng. A little archery this afternoon & suddenly at 4.26 Hope & Guy W. Miss le P … William Cox and I motored off to Harrogate in his car (William Cox’s) a perfect Siddeley. I never had such a ripping run … 30 in abt 1 ¼ hours. Tea at the Majestic. Left H. 6.30 home at 8.19

Freda’s enthusiasm for motoring continued and, when living in Gloucestershire in January 1910, she mentions having ‘a motor lesson’.20 Almost half a century later, Gillian Caldwell also enjoyed the advantages and exhilaration of speed, both to facilitate a journey from her parental home in Cumbria to Edinburgh that nearly went wrong due to an unreliable lift to the station, and for her leisure activities in Edinburgh where she became increasingly attracted to a young man with a fast car, despite having a regular boyfriend at the time. They apparently also had the power and influence to persuade the police not to pursue a prosecution when they were stopped for speeding. Had they been in a less smart car, and had looked less respectable, the police may not have reacted in the same way. Up early and Pooh and I were all ready to go by 10 but Charlie certainly wasn’t and by 10.15 I was getting worried so we piled into Ray’s Morgan & he drove at a maniacal speed all the way to the station. We just made it. We

 Diary of Freda Smith, Thursday August 8, 1907. BIA (GDP/99).  Ibid., Friday August 10, 1907. 20  Ibid., Monday January 3, 1910. 18 19

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were late into Edinburgh and thoroughly cheesed off so we went straight to Mackies [café].21 What a surprise. Just after breakfast the doorbell rang and there was KEN MARSH plus supersonic new green sports car  – an A.C.  Great fun. He stayed for lunch and after arranging it with Ran, Ken and I drove out to Duleton and spent the afternoon on the beach. What a fascinating rogue he is. I wish I had no morals! We drove back at high speed and were stopped by the police outside Portobello for speeding. They were very decent and let us off.22

The other benefit that wealth can bring is leisure time. As the previous extract has demonstrated, Gillian Caldwell made full use of her leisure time in Edinburgh, but she did have to work, and her time and resources were limited. Those with a private income, or with employment that enabled them to take long periods away from work, could enjoy extensive travel both in the UK and overseas. In the nineteenth century, it was not unusual for affluent Londoners to take a long summer break away from the city, usually travelling to a coastal resort. As shown in earlier chapters, in the 1850s the Leeson household often took rooms in Margate for much of August and, according to the diary of Frederica Leggatt (born 1843), the Leggatt household followed a similar pattern in the early 1860s. The Leggatts lived in a smart district of central London and Frederica’s father was described as a surgeon and general practitioner in the 1851 census, and as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in the 1861 census. They were a large household with seven children at home in 1861 (Frederica was absent and living as a visitor in the household of (presumably) a friend in Brighton). They also had five live-in servants. In August 1863, Frederica provided a detailed description of the family’s search for summer lodgings and of their eventual removal to Brighton for four weeks from August 14th to September 11th. Papa went to Brighton to look for a house but to our intense disappointment did not succeed.23 Was woken up early at 7 to get ready to start at 9 with Mamma for Felixstowe to look for a house. Went to Fenchurch St station in a hansom cab. Went to Harwich and had to cross over in a ferry boat. Mamma was  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Tuesday April 12, 1955. BIA (GDP/1).  Ibid., Sunday August 4, 1957. 23  Diary of Frederica Leggatt, Tuesday August 4, 1863. WA (EHC 176/M968). 21 22

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very frightened. Sir John Logan’s 2 sons drove us to Felixstowe in their Phaeton. Were disappointed in the place. Mamma did not like a house. Had no time to go to Dover Court as the last train was at 5.15. Did not get home until 9.30.24 Mamma and Papa have settled to go to Brighton tomorrow to take a house!. … Mamma did a lot of packing.25 Mamma and Papa started for Brighton at 11.30 with some of the luggage. We packed. … Mamma came back at 8½. Joy of joys they have taken the middle house in Marine Square facing the sea. It is too good to be true. Finished my packing. Up very late.26 Up early, packed all morning, had dinner and started for Victoria station at 2½. Came down to Brighton by the 2 0’clock train. Papa met us at Hassocks Gate and came on. We arrived at the terminus at 6½ and found an omnibus waiting to bring us up here 16 Marine Square. Were all delighted with the house. We had tea and then unpacked a little.27 Packed our luggage and went down to have our last bathe which was a glorious one. The Inces walked with us. Came home to London by the 3.30 train. … Found the house here very clean and nice. I got all straight by bedtime.28

This account illustrates a number of aspects of elite mobility in the mid-­ nineteenth century. It was clearly taken for granted that the family would have a long summer break away from the city at a coastal resort, with the then elite resort of Brighton the family’s preferred option. Female members of the household were in one instance charged with the responsibility of finding suitable accommodation, and it was also assumed that accommodation could be arranged at short notice, although it took more than one attempt to find something suitable. Finally, during their search for property and eventual removal to Brighton, they travelled by a wide range of different transport modes, including three forms of public transport (train, omnibus and ferry), a hansom cab and the private carriage of a friend. This example emphasises the social uniformity of some aspects of travel in the mid-nineteenth century. Several of the family’s journeys took place on transport that was available to most travellers, although presumably they travelled first class and with an entourage of servants. However,  Ibid., Tuesday August 11, 1863.  Ibid., Wednesday August 12, 1863. 26  Ibid., Thursday August 13, 1863. 27  Ibid., Friday August 14, 1863. 28  Ibid., Friday September 11, 1863. 24 25

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the servants are never mentioned by Frederica and both she and her mother appeared to do much of their packing. Long summer breaks taken by the affluent were not restricted to Britain. Henry Foley (born 1805) was a retired army officer and Deputy Lieutenant for Berkshire when he and two of his daughters set out for Switzerland via Paris in August 1865. At the 1861 census he had been living in Canterbury (Kent) with his wife, six daughters and nine servants. The remainder of his family apparently remained at home, though his wife accompanied him to Folkestone for their departure. Foley provides a detailed description of his journey to and from the European continent and, as with the Leggatts, he and his daughters travelled by a variety of public and private transport modes. A day or two before we started on our Travels we drove over to Dover to find out about the Steamers going to Calais & the hours of starting and As there seemed some difficulty as to registering our Baggage direct to Paris, we determined to go by Boulogne – accordingly on Monday the 14th of August Lucy – Edith and myself left Home in our Waggonete for Folkestone at ¼ before 10 am. Mrs Foley accompanying us there. It was a most blustering day with heavy showers of rain but this did not deter us starting – consequently we had a very rough drive of 2½ hours. On our arrival I at once procured through tickets first Class from Folkestone to Paris and then had our Baggage registered direct there. At ½ past 12 we all went on board the Steamer “The Alexandra” a fine new Vessel, in which we secured good Sophas [sofas] for each of the Girls and one for myself and took possession and waited patiently for the Arrival of the Tidal Train from London – which was half an hour late in consequence of the number of Passengers. We did not leave Folkestone Harbour before 1.20pm and had a very rough Passage across of nearly two hours – we arrived safely at Boulogne and glad were we to get on shore again. We got into one of the many Omnibus’s waiting there and drove off at once to the Railway Station – & secured our places in one of the Carriages for Paris.29 A most lovely day. We embarked at 12 oclock on board the Steamer ‘Alexandria’ and shortly after started for Folkstone where we safely arrived after a most calm passage of 1 ¾ hours – The Boat was full of Passengers – We soon got our Traps through the Custom House and at 3 oclock we were all packed in our Waggonette and off for Canterbury where we arrived

 Diary of Henry Foley, Monday August 14, 1865. WA. (EHC/45).

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about ½ past 5 oclock not sorry to get back home after our Travels and the great heat we experienced throughout our Journey.30

In one final brief example of the summer travels that money could buy, the immature diary of the 13-year-old Susan Awdry provides a child’s view of her excursion in 1863, mainly by yacht, to Ireland and the Isle of Man with her mother and various friends or relations (precise connections are not clear). Susan’s father was the vicar of Seagry near Chippenham (Wiltshire) where they lived in a large household with four servants. Here we reproduce Susan’s account of her travels from home at the start of the excursion in July and their return towards the end of August. On the morning of July 3rd Mamma and I, with Miss Devaux who was going from Chippenham’s Hanwell, left Seagry in Mr. Hayward’s dog cart, Tom driving us to the Chippenham Station, from thence Mamma and I travelled to Dartmouth Mr. Mrs. and Mary Dendy had come in the four oared gig to meet us and we were rowed to their yacht lying at anchor in Dartmouth harbour. In the evening Mary and I amused ourselves by pacing the deck, and talking of what we had done since we last met.31 On the morning of Wednesday August the 23rd. we were rowed to the shore [at Plymouth] in the gig. Mr. Dendy accompanied us to the landing place where the fly was awaiting us that had been ordered the night before. It was raining very fast and Mamma kept calling out to take care her best bonnet did not get wet. We came in the express train. The line is very pretty just by Dawlish as it passes along close by the sea. From thence we had a pleasant journey to Chippenham, where we took the omnibus from thence to Seagry, where Papa came from London to join us.32

For the most part money enabled travellers to move more comfortably, more flexibly, more often and for longer periods of time. However, money could also be connected to status and class, and this could lead to the imposition of constraints in certain contexts and sections of society. In Chap. 6 we outlined the way in which the teenage Freda Smith was required by her family to be chaperoned on most journeys in London. Her parents also carefully vetted the young female friends with whom she was allowed out, and particularly prevented almost all unaccompanied  Ibid., Tuesday September 19, 1865.  Diary of Susan V Awdry, Friday July 3, 1863. WA (EHC/104). 32  Ibid., Sunday August 23, 1863. 30 31

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outings with young men, except (very occasionally) with relatives, the sons of family friends, or army officers well-known to her father. Her well-­ connected family clearly felt the need to conform to what they viewed to be the social norms of the society of which they considered themselves to be a part, and Freda only gained a little more freedom in London as she moved into her 20s. However, such codes were not universally imposed and, when Freda visited her aristocratic relations in the north-east of England, she was usually given much more freedom by her aunt, on occasion to the dismay of her parents. Here she was able to mix with a number of socially selected young men and to accompany them unchaperoned on local travel. Freda’s diary entries note her appreciation of the greater freedom that she was given when away from London society, even though her Northumberland relations were more aristocratic and better connected than her parents. The social norms and constraints of class could vary between locations and contexts although, as the following extracts show, Freda clearly felt that she (and her aunt) were treading a fine line between what was acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. It is dreadful about D.S. though she is quite all right. Still I must practically drop her. I quite see that I must do as M[other] & F[ather] say in this matter but in my soul I feel it a little mean.33 M[other] was very good & let me go with John to the Stores etc.34 Jack & I went over to the [Cragside] gardens & then to Rothbury. We get on so well – do some people think too well? Anyway Aunt Winy is quite happy & understands. And I know what a boy he is!35 Tonight we had a fancy dress dinner & danced afterwards. It was such fun…Jack was awfully nice. We flirted quite a lot! I know A. Winy does not really mind – it was fun.36

This chapter has examined the ways in which money, or the lack of it, influenced the ability and experience of everyday travel over the past two centuries. However, consideration of income and wealth cannot be divorced from other aspects of everyday travel, and the privileges of income intersect with many of the other issues discussed in this volume. The significance of income has varied over time. When transport choices  Diary of Freda Smith, Tuesday June 4, 1907. BIA (GDP/99).  Ibid., Tuesday July 2, 1907. 35  Ibid. Friday August 23, 1907. 36  Ibid., Saturday August 24, 1907. 33 34

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were more limited in the nineteenth century, mobility differences between the rich and poor may have been less marked than when a wider range of faster and more expensive transport forms evolved in the twentieth century. Mobility options for both rich and poor also varied by location: in a remote rural area everyday mobilities could be problematic even for those with some wealth. Mobility was also constantly structured by gender and age, irrespective of income and resources. The intersections between the range of variables influencing mobility are crucial components of any understanding of the ways in which everyday mobilities were structured and evolved for different families and individuals. However, power underpins all mobilities: those with the most power also have most control over the form and timing of their travel. They are also able to dominate road space to the detriment of other travellers (Mullen et al. 2014). Power can be gained by a variety of different means, but money is one key component that enables the exercise of power in most walks of life, including travel.

References Abernethy, S. 2015. Opening up the suburbs: Workmen’s trains in London 1860–1914. Urban History 42: 70–88. Banister, D. 1997. Reducing the need to travel. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 24: 437–449. Banister, D., and K. Button, eds. 2015. Transport, the environment and sustainable development. London: Routledge. Cloutier, M., U.  Lachapelle, A. d’Amours-Ouellet, J.  Bergeron, S.  Lord, and J. TorresJ. 2017. “Outta my way!” Individual and environmental correlates of interactions between pedestrians and vehicles during street crossings. Accident Analysis & Prevention 104: 36–45. Crosby, A., ed. 1991. The family records of Benjamin Shaw, mechanic of Dent, Dolphinholme and Preston, 1772–1841. Manchester: Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. D’Cruze, S. 1994. The middling sort in eighteenth-century Colchester: Independence, social relations and the community broker. In The middling Sort of people, ed. J. Barry and C. Brooks, 181–207. London: Palgrave. Dyos, H.J. 1953. Workmen’s fares in South London, 1860–1914. The Journal of Transport History 1: 3–19. Gauci, P. 2006. Finding the middle-ground: The middling sort in the eighteenth entury. History Compass 4: 228–234.

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Gunn, S. 2018. The history of transport systems in the UK. London: Foresight, Government Office for Science. Hares, A., J. Dickinson, and K. Wilkes. 2010. Climate change and the air travel decisions of UK tourists. Journal of Transport Geography 18: 466–473. Holt, W. 1939. I haven’t unpacked. An autobiography. London: G Harrap. London Transport Museum. 2021. Public transport in Victorian London – On the surface. https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/transport/public-­ transport-­victorian-­london-­surface. Accessed 17 Aug 2021. Lyth, P. 2016. Plane crazy Brits: Aeromobility, climate change and the British traveller. In Transport policy: Learning lessons from history, ed. C. Divall, J. Hine, and C. Pooley, 171–184. London: Routledge. Lyth, P., and M. Dierikx. 1994. From privilege to popularity the growth of leisure air travel since 1945. The Journal of Transport History 15: 97–116. Mullen, C., M. Tight, A. Whiteing, and A. Jopson. 2014. Knowing their place on the roads: What would equality mean for walking and cycling? Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 61: 238–248. O’Connell, S. 2007. Motoring and modernity. In Twentieth century Britain. Economic, cultural and social change, ed. F.  Carnevali and J.-M.  Strange, 111–126. Harlow: Pearson. Oldenziel, R., M. Emanuel, A. de la Bruhèze, and F. Veraart. 2016. Cycling cities: The European experience: Hundred years of policy and practice. Eindhoven: Foundation for the History of Technology. Paschalidis, E., S.  Basbas, I.  Politis, and M.  Prodromou. 2016. “Put the blame on… others!”: The battle of cyclists against pedestrians and car drivers at the urban environment. A cyclists’ perception study. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 41: 243–260. Pooley, C. 2010. Landscapes without the car: A counterfactual historical geography of twentieth-century Britain. Journal of Historical Geography 36: 266–275. ———. 2016. Mobility, transport and social inclusion: Lessons from history. Social Inclusion 4: 100–109. Pooley, C., and J.  Turnbull. 1997. Changing home and workplace in Victorian London: The life of Henry Jaques, shirtmaker. Urban History 24: 148–178. Pooley, C., J. Turnbull, and M. Adams. 2006. The impact of new transport technologies on intraurban mobility: A view from the past. Environment and Planning A 38: 253–267. Pooley, C., D. Horton, G. Scheldeman, C. Mullen, T. Jones, M. Tight, A. Jopson, and A. Chisholm. 2013. Policies for promoting walking and cycling in England: A view from the street. Transport Policy 27: 66–72. Popp, A. 2021. ‘But to cover her shame:’ Respectability, social mobility, and the middling sort in early nineteenth-century England. Cultural and Social History 18: 501–516.

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Southall, H. 1991. The tramping artisan revisits: Labour mobility and economic distress in early Victorian England 1. The Economic History Review 44: 272–296. Statistica. 2021. The increasingly unsustainable cost of UK public transport. https:// www.statista.com/chart/24962/change-­in-­costs-­of-­uk-­public-­transport-­and-­ motoring/. Accessed 17 Aug 2021.

CHAPTER 8

The Significance of Journey Purpose

8.1   Introduction Travel occurs for many reasons, some not always obvious, and the intended purpose of a journey can have a significant influence on both the nature and experience of mobility. A journey may be undertaken to fulfil a particular commitment, such as work or school; to visit a friend or relative; to go to a specific destination for a new experience; or simply to travel for the pleasure of the journey itself. Many journeys may have multiple purposes, perhaps combining tasks such as escorting a child to school, picking up some shopping and then going on to work. One extract from the diary of Betty Charnley in July 1981 illustrates the multiple purposes of a mundane and non-essential journey, and the way in which it fitted into her day. Betty was at her home in north Lancashire on holiday from work, and she had obviously planned an outing with her friend Irene. In addition to spending a day with her companion, the journey enabled her to enjoy a good lunch out, to visit two sets of friends and relatives, to enjoy a picnic in a scenic location, and to travel through landscapes close to where she had previously lived and of which she was very fond. Although Betty’s diary does not convey much emotion—her diary entries rarely did—she clearly enjoyed the day out despite the poor weather. The total distance travelled on her trip was about 147  km (91  miles) and, if undertaken

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_8

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without stops, would have taken around three hours to drive, with much of the route on minor country roads. Betty extended the outing to a total of 11¼ hours, thereby filling most of her day with this single excursion. Got up at 8am. I picked a pan full of blackcurrants, cleaned them, and put them in the freezer. Packed up a picnic and Irene and I left at 11.15. I fed the cats and we went to Kirkby Lonsdale, via the A6 to Caton and Hornby, had some lunch at a café in Kirkby Lonsdale, Steak and Kidney Pie, chips, peas, sweet corn, cherry pie with cream and coffee £2.55p. We then went to Settle and Long Preston, called on Uncle Lance and Aunty Lucy and had an hour with them, left at 4.45, came home through Slaidburn, Newton and Dunsop Bridge, were [sic] we had our sandwiches then on to Whitewell and called on Alice Seed, and stayed until 8.30pm. Then we went through Longridge and Goosnargh and I took Irene home. We had a drink and I left at 10.30 pm and it was still raining. Rained all day.1

Because of the variety of activities that may be undertaken during one trip, it is difficult to produce a firm classification of journey purpose. Nonetheless, international studies of transport and mobility often do attempt such classifications, with travel to and from work or school (Buliung et al. 2021; Ermagun and Levinson 2017; Hislop 2008; Lapin 2016; Mouratidis 2018; O’Connor 1980), and travel for leisure and tourism most often the focus of attention (Czepkiewicz et al. 2020; Forsyth 2016; Fox et al. 2017; O’Regan 2008). The principal justification for a focus on these types of journeys is that they are common, make the greatest demands upon the transport network, and make substantial contributions to traffic congestion and emissions. There has also been a focus on gender differences in travel to work and on the impact of different transport modes on equity and health (Blumen 1994; Cui et al. 2019; Ericksen 1977; Martin et al. 2015; Pang et al. 2017; Ross 2007). Although travel to and from work or education is often seen as a simple repeated journey, it should be recognised that the journey to work or school may be substantially different from the return trip. For instance, while travel to work or to school may be completed as quickly as possible to minimise travel time and to ensure a punctual arrival, the journey home may be more leisurely and might easily accommodate other activities. An adult returning from work may call in at a pub or café for a drink with friends before returning home, and a child returning from school with friends may stop 1

 Diary of Betty Charnley, Monday July 20, 1981 (authors’ collection).

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to play in a park. In-depth qualitative studies of school travel have demonstrated such variations (Pooley et al. 2010b; Walker et al. 2009). While most studies of commuting assume a trip from home to an office, factory or other fixed work location, some people will work mostly from home, and for many workers the location of their employment may vary daily. Such travel for work can in some cases take the worker away from home for lengthy periods of time rather than travelling daily to or from employment. This can be a crucial component of the transport demand and life experiences of such workers (Casinowsky 2013; Gustafson 2006). Certain travelling lifestyles have sometimes gained attention because they are problematised. This is certainly the case for traveller families who require secure accommodation sites for their vehicles, but who are often perceived to be unwelcome in the communities in which they temporarily locate (Niner 2004; Shubin 2011a, b). Historical research that focuses specifically on travel to work or school is limited, due mainly to a lack of good-quality data. While the UK national travel survey provides some information on journey purpose from 1965 onwards, and oral history techniques may be used for the recent past, information for earlier time periods must be gleaned from scanty local records. The registers of large employers can sometimes provide information on the home address of employees, thus allowing travel-to-work distances to be traced and, in a small community with a single large employer, it may be possible to infer likely travel to work patterns from census occupational data, but there are no sources that provide comprehensive information (Green 1988; Lawton 1968; Pooley and Turnbull 1999, 2000a, b; Pooley et al. 2005; Warnes 1972). There are also historical studies of leisure travel, both for local entertainments and further afield. However, these often focus on the continental travel of rich British families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, or on the problems generated by unruly behaviour linked to leisure and entertainment in British cities (Black 2010; Crone 2016; Towner 1985). Bridging these two extremes are those studies that highlight the importance of the rise of the package holiday in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially the role of Thomas Cook who from the 1840s provided excursions that were accessible to many of the working classes, first within Britain and later to continental Europe (Brendon 1991; Smith 1998). The personal diaries used in this research can provide insights into the varied and often multiple purposes of everyday journeys that go beyond anything that can be gained from most other sources. However, diaries are

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not without their problems when it comes to analysing and understanding the purposes of travel. Some routine travel such as the daily journey to work may be perceived by a diarist as so mundane that it is not recorded at all. In other cases only the barest details are provided, or in some instances travel is recorded without any explicit mention of a purpose, although this may often be deduced from later contextual information, such as what the diarist did after a journey. This emphasises the importance of reading through a diary so that different events can be linked and understood within their broader context. In this chapter we divide the journeys we have studied into two broad categories of purpose, each with many sub-categories within them. First, we focus on those that were routine, and for the most part were required, such as travel for employment, education or to shop. Secondly, we examine the multitude of different journeys that were discretionary, such as travel for leisure, entertainments, holidays, romance or visits to friends or relatives. This category can also include the mobility of those diarists who, for at least part of their life, adopted a highly mobile lifestyle and were constantly on the move. Even this simple division is not fixed. For instance, visits to relatives may be to some extent discretionary, but an individual may also feel an obligation to visit and thus it becomes a required activity at least on some occasions.

8.2  Routine and Required Journeys The nature and extent of daily commuting for work has changed significantly over time (Aldred 2014; Pooley 2021). In the nineteenth century most women from affluent households had no paid employment outside the home, and this is reflected in our diaries as few female diarists had regular employment that required travel to and from work (Gleadle 2017; Jordan 2002). In the second half of the nineteenth century some women began to move into professional occupations, and others took on philanthropic roles, but wider employment opportunities for middle-class women expanded only slowly in the twentieth century. In contrast, most working-class women did need to supplement the household income and found employment that was usually poorly paid and low skilled in a wide range of sectors (Holloway 2007; Pennington and Westover 1989). For almost all workers (both male and female), travel to work distances in the nineteenth century were short or, in some cases, non-existent. Most people lived either within walking distance or a short tram or omnibus ride from their factory or office workplace, while many others spent their

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working day in a workshop or retail outlet which was part of their home. Unmarried women were most likely to work as live-in domestic servants, but married women frequently worked at home taking in laundry or doing needlework of some kind (Barke 1991; Green 1988). During the twentieth century, the ties between home and workplace were gradually loosened as better transport, increasing affluence, more secure employment and the restructuring of cities enabled at least some workers to move to the suburbs and to undertake much longer daily commutes (Pooley 2003; Pooley and Turnbull 2000a, b), while in the twenty-first century the internet has allowed more home working (Rae 2017). The information on travel to work in our diaries is highly varied and reflects these trends. Frederick Dunn (born 1859) was one of a small number of our nineteenth-­century diarists who did undertake a regular commute. He worked in central London as a civil service clerk and probably lived about 5 km (3 miles) from his place of work.2 He could travel by public transport, but particularly noted the occasions when he walked or cycled, although this activity was limited by an injury to his knee: ‘Office. Walked home with McGregor. Went to Band of Hope and Temperance Committee in evening’,3 ‘Office till 5. Rode there and back on machine. Made knee worse’.4 In contrast, the much more affluent Londoner John Leeson (born 1804) gained his income in the mid-nineteenth century by collecting rents from property that he owned. Consequently, his work-related travel was irregular and consisted mainly of visiting his houses to collect rents, to check up on tenants and to deal with any issues that arose with the properties. On some occasions, he could combine such trips with a family outing and social activities. From time to time he expanded his property portfolio and, when he and his family moved home, he retained the house and let it to a neighbour. Revd W Pitman gave me notice to quit his house next Lady Day – has been there many years – lost his money to a merchant who is Bankrupt.5 I went to the tenants for the rents – took Mrs L, baby and Kate in the cab with me.6

 We don’t have a precise address for either his home or workplace.  Diary of William Dunn, Monday January 3, 1881. BIA (GDP/135). 4  Ibid., Tuesday March 31, 1881. 5  Diary of John Leeson, Sunday July 26, 1846. BIA (GDP/8). 6  Ibid., Saturday April 17, 1852. 2 3

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We left No 41 Davies Street after residing there with my parents and wife and children for 53 years for No 19 Upper Phillimore Place Kensington. I let the house to my neighbour Mr John Webb for 21 years from Christmas at £100 per year and reduced his rent of No 40 Davies St.7

Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice (born 1901) was a young lawyer in London in the 1920s. Most of his work was in London at the Inns of Court where he also had rooms, so his journey to work was negligible and his diary consists mainly of his social engagements. However, on occasion he was required to attend courts elsewhere to assist a senior judge with their deliberations. In June 1926, his diary provides an account of his journey to the West Country to act as marshal to the circuit judge. He clearly found the trip out of London irritating and was not at all impressed with the mundane duties he had to perform. However, he also complained bitterly about the crowds and crushes on public transport when he returned to London later in the summer. I left Paddington at 1.15 but didn’t get here [Wells] till after 7 o’c. The connection I had been told I should catch at Yatton was not running so I had to wait there for over one & half hours. All the trains are disorganised owing to the coal strike. The Marshall’s servant met me with a car which was clever of him as I hadn’t come by the train I said I would. … These [duties] consist in being a sort of A.D.C. [Aide-De-Camp] to the judge and being handy when wanted. On ceremonial occasions I walk behind him clad in top hat and morning coat, and sit next to him in court. I also pay his expenses, tips etc. when out with him and get them refunded by the butler  – and answer formal invitations. It will be seen that my chief function is to enjoy myself and be tactful.8 I hate being back in murky stuffy London. We had an unpleasant uncomfortable journey, hot and train crowded. I had to stand most of the way.9

None of the nineteenth-century female diarists we have studied had regular paid employment, a fact that underlines the lack of representation of poorer families in diary writing. However, Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) did from time to time assist in her father’s draper’s shop, although it is not clear if she ever received any payment for this, and one of the main  Ibid., Thursday October 10, 1857.  Diary of Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice, Wednesday June 2, 1926. BIA (GDP/52). 9  Ibid., Thursday August 19, 1926. 7 8

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attractions of going to the shop appeared to be the presence of many young male shop assistants. Elizabeth’s day was mostly filled with household chores and leisure activities. Her travel to serve in her father’s shop usually occurred at especially busy periods and was probably as much about enjoyment as employment. This extract from her diary for Christmas Eve 1889 is typical: Very busy all day. Copied a lot of music out. Went to Shop to serve, very busy indeed. Mr. M. going down and J.S.A. as I was waiting for the tram so walked home with him instead. Got to bed very late.10

During the twentieth century, more young women gained employment outside the home and travel to and from work probably became more routine and predictable. This is reflected in diary entries which often do no more than note that the diarist went to work. Comments on the journey itself usually only occurred when the travel experience was novel or when something unusual occurred. We provide brief examples from three female diarists. When Rhona Little (born 1919) first arrived in London from Northern Ireland to work as a typist in central London, everything was new to her and her travel around the city was tentative. However, she quickly became confident and, having been shown the way from her hostel accommodation to her workplace on her first day of work by a friend who was already in London, on the second day she quite confidently managed the journey alone. She was clearly pleased with her new-found freedom and gradually also ventured further afield at lunchtimes as she began to explore the city. Thereafter, her work-related travel became routine and was usually only briefly mentioned. After that [breakfast] I went to the station. From there to Charing Cross. I walked through a little park, through Somerset House, across the road, through Bush House, up Aldwych to Kingsway and so to Holborn. Turnstile House is a modern building. I think I can do the things better now. At lunchtime I went to the Milk Bar where I had steak and kidney pie and chips 4d. Then I went for a walk and found myself in Lincoln Inns Fields where the solicitors are. I walked round them and saw some men who fed the pigeons and sparrows.11

 Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Tuesday December 24, 1889. (Pooley et al. 2010a).  Diary of Rhona Little, Tuesday February 1, 1938 (authors’ collection).

10 11

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In the 1950s, Gillian Caldwell (born 1937) was working in an accountancy office in Edinburgh and, although her diary provided much more detail than most, her journey to and from work was usually only remarked upon when something notable occurred. Most often this was simply the lateness or inconvenience of her transport: ‘And late again this morning – we waited 25 minutes for a tram & there wasn’t room on one.’12 Routine and unproblematic journeys were rarely recorded. Much the same was true for Betty Charnley (born 1928). Her diary recorded her entire working life, but on most days her entry simply stated the fact that she was at work. However, when she changed employment and had a new route to negotiate, or when something unusual occurred, she did record the event. In January 1954, she began a new job which required her to travel some 10 km (6 miles) from her home. Betty’s diary entries relating to her travel to and from work for the first week she was employed are reproduced below. They show how she began to establish a routine of travel by bus and with lifts from other workers. Within a few weeks this became routine and her journey to work was only briefly noted except when something unusual occurred, as in the two additional examples below. The first from 1954 was a rare occasion when she worked very long hours on a Sunday, moving chickens because of impending fowl pest regulations, and the second from 30 years later when she worked in a cotton mill and travelled to and from work in the work’s bus. Wallings 8.30–6pm. Went on 7.45 bus. I was tired at night, legs and arms acked [sic]. One of the travellers brought me home to A6 end of Cock Robin. Wallings 8.30 to 5pm. Went on 7.45 bus, at night Mr Walling brought me back to end of Cock Robin (Catterall Lane end). Mother, Dad and I went to Chipping W.I. Committee meeting. Home 11.30. Wallings 8.30–5.30. Went and came home by bus. … Mother and Dad went to Granny’s funeral, and it rained very hard. Work 8.30 to 12. Buses were late this morning after floods last night. Dad came for me at dinner time. Work 8.30 to 6.30. Mr Walling brought me home to end of Cock Robin at about 6.30. Wallings 8.30 to 5. Came to Garstang with Mr Walling at night, then came home on the bus.13  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Tuesday January 11, 1955. BIA (GDP/1).  Diary of Betty Charnley, Monday January 18–Saturday January 23, 1954 (authors’ collection). 12 13

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Wallings 8am to 11pm. Dad took me to work as there are no bus’s [sic] early Sunday mornings. Was busy moving chickens to Tom Walling’s at Crucky Farm, till 11pm. Mother and Dad came for me. A standstill order on all poultry from midnight tonight, owing to Fowl Pest.14 Started to snow as soon as we got to work, and steadily got worse until they decided to take us home, there was about 20 in the mill bus, after a struggle to get out of the bottom some of us walked it to the police station, managed ever so well from there.15

The diary entries we have studied do demonstrate the complexity and variety of journeys undertaken to and from work, and they also illustrate some of the ways in which such journeys have changed over time. However, it is also the case that as these journeys became more familiar and routine, they became much less prominent features of the diaries, with only unusual travel events being recorded. This means that in interpreting literary representations of routine trips such as travel to work, the entries must be treated with caution as the events given the most prominence may not have been typical of most such journeys. Much the same is true for the routine journeys made by children when they travelled to and from school. Most of the diarists we have studied had left school when their surviving diaries were written, but we do have a small number of examples that again illustrate the way in which unusual events during a routine journey can be foregrounded in diary writing. Betty Charnley began her diary at the age of 13 during her final term at school. At this stage her diary mostly consisted of brief entries in a school exercise book, and the school journey itself was only recorded specifically on those occasions when it was unusual, such as when she could not go to school due to snow and when she hurt her knee at school: ‘Hasn’t been to school. Started snowing more’,16 ‘Been to school. Hurt my knee, came home hopping’.17 Gillian Caldwell was also still at school when she began her diary in 1952 but, unlike Betty, attended a girls’ boarding school in west Cumbria. This school was only some 13 km (8 miles) from her home in Eskdale, but presumably her parents sent her there because of the lack of rural transport and because they considered that it would give her a better education than other alternatives. Gillian quite often popped home  Ibid., Sunday May 16, 1954.  Ibid., Monday January 23, 1984. 16  Ibid., Wednesday January 21, 1942. 17  Ibid., Tuesday March 17, 1942. 14 15

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during a weekend as well as returning during school holidays, and her comments usually related to the joy of being home rather than the journey itself, as in the following extract from May 1953 when she had just returned home for half term. However, delight at returning home to Eskdale was not confined to school travel, as shown by the extract from January 1952 when she was travelling home after a brief stay with her grandparents. In both cases it is clear that it was the destination, together with the associated behaviours, that was important rather than the journey itself. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be home! We smoked and drank to celebrate the occasion and changed as soon as we got back into the glamour girls of 1953.18 Hurrah, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful – I could hear the wheels saying ‘Off to Eskdale, off to Eskdale’. All the way I only had two cigarettes and I’d finished those by Lancaster, but as luck would have it I found that [I had] Perfectos in my pocket at Grange – so passed another enjoyable few (too few) minutes. Mr Possie met me ‘cos Pa had gone to Manchester after all.19

8.3  Discretionary Travel While travel to and from school and work is, for many people, unavoidable at some points in their lives, most other travel is to a degree discretionary. Was such mobility viewed (and recorded) differently from the routine journeys of work and school travel? Shopping trips are a hybrid form of travel: although some purchases are essential, shopping can also become a leisure experience. In the nineteenth century most shopping was done very locally, and in rich households routine purchases would be made by servants (Scola 1975, 1982). This is borne out by the diary entries we have studied. Male diarists hardly ever mentioned shopping or, if they did, it was for goods related to their business activities. Female diarists, who for the most part were from middle-class families, did shop, but most often for personal and luxury items. Such trips were often combined with a range of social activities. Everyday purchases of food and other household requirements would be made by servants, or they would have been delivered directly to the home by a retailer. Two entries from the diary of  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Friday May 25, 1953. BIA (GDP/1).  Ibid., Thursday January 10, 1952.

18 19

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Elizabeth Lee, the 24-year-old daughter of a middle-class Merseyside family, are typical: Ought to have met Rose Blackhurst in L’pool today, but had a letter from her to say that they were having dreadful weather, so she thought we had better leave it till it gets a little warmer; however I went to L’pool and had a good look at the shops. Bought a pair of nice dark tan shoes for outdoor wear, had a cup of tea in L’pool. Called at Heathcock’s coming home, but they were out.20 Ethel and I went to L’pool and had a good look round at shops. Bought my Xmas Cards. Actually met Mr. Rigg, had some tea in Cafè with him. Did’nt get home till 7. and met Mr. M. at our gate.21

During the later twentieth century this gradually changed, as most people fitted regular supermarket shopping in around work and other commitments; but, when time allowed, shopping could also become a leisure pursuit, combining browsing in a large department store with other social activities in much the same way that richer women such as Elizabeth Lee were doing in the nineteenth century (Jefferys 2011). The following two entries from the diaries of Betty Charnley (born 1928) illustrate, first, the way in which during one busy day in 1970, she fitted (presumably) essential shopping around seeking work, having recently been made redundant; and second, when she was at home on holiday from work, a typical day out which entailed driving around the local area, looking at shops and visiting a market. Of course, as on-line shopping and home delivery has expanded rapidly in the twenty-first century, the pattern of having groceries and other items delivered to the door has again become normal for many people. Went to Preston to the Ministry of Labour, did some shoping [sic] on the market. Called at Barton Grange Garden Centre for an interview at 12 o’clock.22 Had an early dinner 11.30. We went to Lancaster had a good look round, then went to Caton, Hornby on to Kirkby Lonsdale, it was market day, I had a look round, then went and parked by Devils Bridge and had our tea, left at 7.30, came home by Whittington, Halton and Slyne.23

 Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Wednesday March 11, 1891. (Pooley et al. 2010a).  Ibid., Friday December 18, 1891. 22  Diary of Betty Charnley, Friday April17, 1970 (authors’ collection). 23  Ibid., Thursday August 1, 1974. 20 21

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The two categories of discretionary travel that undoubtedly generated the longest diary entries, and which often produced the most effusive writing, were travel for leisure and romance. These were journeys which could be eagerly anticipated, which usually brought pleasure, and which were sufficiently memorable to be recorded in some detail. New landscapes and experiences could also have a vivid impact on the traveller, with these being recorded in a diary even when most everyday entries were rather sparse and factual. In August 1859 John Lee (born 1842) set out for a trip from his home in Lancashire across the county border to Yorkshire. He travelled widely on foot, and sometimes by train or in a carter’s wagon, and provided an extended account of his travels and what he saw. The extract below from August 26th shows that he was clearly impressed with the grandeur of the architecture in Leeds, but much less impressed with the adjacent industrial landscape. The level of detail he provides suggests that he may have copied some of his diary entries from a guidebook but, towards the end of his trip, his final thoughts demonstrate the enjoyment that he gained from his travels. Walked out and had a look at the Central Market. Its Grecian front, spacious shops, galleries, and avenues of stalls enable it to take rank among the best of modern markets. One of the best structures at Leeds, except the new Town Hall, is the Commercial Buildings, situated at the southern end of Park Row. It has three fronts, to as many streets, and a fourth front adjoining a Cemetery, so as to be completely isolated. The architect has selected a Grecian design. The area of the ground covered by the establishment is said to be more than 1,300 square yards, and the expense to have been £35,000. Next went through the long scraggy suburb such as only a busy manufacturing town can create, to Kirkstall Abbey. … [describes Kirkstall Abbey] … I had expected to see the valley of the Aire sprinkled with the villa residences of the merchants of Leeds; but the busy traders prefer to live in the town, and in all the nine miles on the way to Bradford, you have only a succession of factories, dye-works, and excavations, encroaching on and deforming, the beauty of the valley, while the vegetation betrays signs of the harmful effects of smoke. … If the reading of this diary stir you up to go and see Yorkshire with your own eyes and on your own legs, you will, I hope, be able to choose a centre of exploration. … [ He then recommends each of the places he has visited] … The sum total of my walking amounts to 182 miles. The cost of travelling &c only amounts to £1 18 6 so you see it is a very cheap excursion. And think not that because I have chosen the public-house instead of the hotel that I have suffered in regard to diet, or found any lack

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of comfort and cleanliness. The advantage in all these respects, as I know full well, is not unfrequently [sic] with the house of least pretension. And, again, the public-house shows you far more variety of unsophisticated life and character than you could ever hope to witness in an hotel.24

Holiday travel could also generate anticipation and excitement prior to the journey itself, as well as stimulating strong feelings about the journey. In August 1923, the 17-year-old Annie Rudolph was told by her father that she and her sister could leave London and visit old friends near Reading (Berkshire). This came after a long period when all her activities had been restricted following her mother’s death in May that year. Annie’s account of her reaction on hearing the news of her visit, and the subsequent journey a few days later, vividly conveys the way in which a longed-­ for leisure trip brought a level of excitement and enjoyment that far exceeded that generated by any routine journey. Oh little book I’m so thrilled – so excited – It doesn’t seem possible – what’s going to happen I mean. We are going to Reading! I can’t believe it. How I’ve always imagined it – dreamt of it – But never realised that it could and would happen. We were in Reading for nearly two years – during the war – and have been away for over five years. During the two years that we were there, we had grown to love it so … we were only young children then and the happiest days of my childhood were spent there.25 Have just arrived here! Oh it’s wonderful. … I arrived here by the skin of my teeth. I was supposed to meet Bella at Liverpool Street, as she was going to see me off. She was to meet me at 2.30 – I was catching the 3.15 from Paddington. – It took ½ hour from Liverpool St to Paddington- I’d just get there by ¼ hour to spare. I got there to time and waited till 2.45 – no Bella – So what was I to do – I rang up Dad from the station. I was on pins and needles – hot, frustrated and worried. – with a big portmanteau to drag with me – Dad told me full particulars to get there – I flew down the stairs and just just caught a train at the Metropolitan Railway. I hadn’t sat down when the train started. Got to Paddington at 13 past 3 leaving me 2 minutes – I had no time to get a ticket – I hopped into the train and it started off before I could sit down. The Inspector on coming round wrote me a ticket on a slip of paper. Gee what a rush I was so puffed. Mrs Turner kissed me like a long lost friend. Esther met me at the station.26  Diary of John Lee, August 26, 1859 (authors’ collection).  Diary of Annie Rudolph, Tuesday August 5, 1923. BIA (GDP/31). 26  Ibid., Friday August 15, 1923. 24 25

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Annie’s excitement was generated both by the thought of getting away from home and the associated work and household chores, and by the attraction of returning to a location of which she had very fond memories. Journeys to meet an actual or potential romantic partner can generate similar emotions. Mobility and romance can be closely connected, with distance limiting contact between lovers, and walks or rides out providing the opportunity for romance. Holidays and other periods away from the constraints of home can also provide fresh opportunities for romantic encounters (Pearce 2018, 2019). Romance, or the hope of it, is a frequent element in many of the diaries, especially those written by young women, but the words on the page must be interpreted with caution. Entries that might sound racy to modern ears may actually refer to quite tame romantic behaviours and, as with all written evidence, they must be interpreted within the context of the cultural norms of the time (Phegley 2012). We use extracts from the diaries of three young women in their teens and early twenties to illustrate the ways in which travel, both to meet a romantic partner and outings with a potential lover, could generate diary entries that expressed much stronger and more vivid feelings than did most other reasons for travel. We have met these diarists on several previous occasions in this volume: Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) who lived on Merseyside; Freda Smith (born 1887) who lived mainly in London but with frequent visits elsewhere; and Gillian Caldwell (born 1937) who lived in rural Cumberland and later Edinburgh. All came from quite affluent families and were of an age and class where courtship and eventual marriage would have been expected. During the nine years of Elizabeth Lee’s diary from1884 to 1892, Elizabeth mentions no fewer than 39 young male friends. Most of these she met on multiple occasions for walks and a wide range of other activities, and most seemed to generate some degree of romantic interest for her, although this was not always reciprocated. She quite seriously discussed marriage with at least three young men, though none of these relationships came to anything. The following extracts provide examples of the varied ways in which mobility could be related to romance: the enjoyment of a walk with one male friend (Mr Duncan) and the excitement of also meeting another man (Mr Williams) whom she also saw frequently; the disappointment of travelling to meet Mr. Duncan a month later when he did not turn up; and the opportunities offered by very short distance mobility to escape from company to places where privacy allowed greater freedom of romantic expression.

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Went to L’pool this afternoon. Met Mr. Duncan at 5. p.m. We went by train to B’head and called at Lizzie Sanchez’s, and introduced Mr. D. to her. Then we went right along the Borough Rd and up to Mount House and stopped by the gate talking for an hour or so. Oh dear, He was such a darling; talked so jolly. Only the worst of it was it was so very cold. But I did enjoy myself. It was such a lark, we met Mr. Williams. I said goodbye about a quarter to ten. Shall see him in a month in B’head. My own love.27 Have felt ill all day. Gordon is very ill with a cold. We have been doctoring him up tonight. Tonight I went down to the “Central Station to meet (Mr. Duncan) at 7. p.m. but however I waited till nearly 8. and could see no signs of him, so at last had to come home again. I can hardly believe that I have not seen him. There must surely something have prevented him coming. I just feel dreadful and have been nearly crying my eyes out. for I suppose I shall never see him any more now and I had such a lovely card that I was going to give him. I had the greatest bother in the world to get out as Pa came home and we were very busy in the Library, which we are trying to get ready for Xmas.28 We had our 3rd dance at the shop tonight and it has been the most enjoyable one so far. There were such a lot of us. We had another Mr. Robinson and a Mr. Cook for new ones tonight. Mr. Bragg and I went upstairs into the dark room over head, (to explore) and he kissed me. Francis Teare came up to tea this afternoon and then she came to the dance. She stopped all night. Mr. Bragg came home with F. and I. Lovely moonlight night.29 Went to Church this morning. Wet afternoon- As I was going to Church tonight met J.S.A.  We went a walk instead of going to Church. Went in Straw Shed. Had such fun.30

As explained in previous chapters, Freda Smith had much less freedom for romantic encounters, especially when she lived with her parents in London. However, she was able to attend house parties elsewhere in the country hosted (presumably) by trusted friends, and also to visit the family of her aunt in Northumberland. When away from home she could sometimes negotiate greater freedom from supervision. Two extracts from Freda’s diary when she was staying in Northumberland provide examples of the way in which she could snatch time away from adults to walk out alone with young men to whom she had taken a fancy.  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Wednesday November 17, 1886. (Pooley et al. 2010a).  Ibid., Wednesday December 15, 1886. 29  Ibid., Thursday January 26, 1888. 30  Ibid., Sunday November 25, 1888. 27 28

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[Bamburgh Castle; aged 17] Walked with Guy to golf …. Evening walked home with Guy via P.O & seat. After dinner loose boxes for some time.31 [Cragside; aged 20] Jack goes by train tomorrow so we made the most of today! We did! This evg song followed song. At last we got so desperate that Jack went and asked A[unt] Winy if we could go out. She said ‘certainly’. She was altogether a brick. All the other relations- and there were tons of them- at least it seemed so -looked horrified. She was ripping. Out there it was so nice – Jack is very nice – & he wants me to stay there. He wants all sorts of things and hints – but I know he is a flirt – And I like him very much but not in that sort of way. I hope Granny won’t give me away.32

As a teenager in Cumberland in the 1950s, Gillian Caldwell had far more freedom than did young women of earlier generations. She had many male friends, and on one occasion she listed them all in the back of her diary, together with what she saw as their main positive and negative attributes. Several of the young men she knew had cars, which increased their allure and provided opportunities for romance. At other times, she cadged lifts from adults to enable her to rendezvous with her friends. The following brief extracts again demonstrate the central role of mobility for romance, with the anticipation of meeting her boyfriend of the time (David) in 1952 when she was just 15, the freedom given by access to a car in 1953, and the way in which the pleasure of meeting her main Edinburgh boyfriend (Ranald) in 1956 overcame the inconveniences of the journey. Never, never has the car seemed to go so slowly. We got there getting on for twelve, arriving in a blaze of sunshine. It was heaven to be so near him [David] again. We went straight to the Kirkstone Pass Inn and had bacon and eggs33 About 10.30 [at night] Robbie suggested to Edna [visiting] that they should go to Santon B. so Dave and I went too. Piled into the old, olde Bentley, Robbie driving most recklessly. … Coming back Dave and I sat in the back; Dave with his arm round me, singing … As he remarked at the top of Irton fell, kissing in a Bentley is hugely invigorating.34

 Diary of Freda Smith, Monday September 19, 1904. BIA (GDP/99).  Ibid., Monday August 26, 1907. 33  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Wednesday April 16, 1952. BIA (GDP/1). 34  Ibid., Friday October 2, 1953. 31 32

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On to the train at half past two and over an hour’s wait in Carlisle. The confounded train was twenty minutes late – but it was worth it to see Ranald waiting on the station to see me.35

This chapter has explored the varied ways in which different journeys were recorded in the diaries we have studied. If we make the assumption that the nature of the written record, provided in close proximity to the event, reflected the actual feelings of the diarist, then it is clear that the reasons for mobility fundamentally influenced the extent to which it generated positive or negative emotions. For the most part, routine journeys were taken for granted and only generated a significant diary entry when novel or when disruption occurred. In contrast, travel for leisure and romance generated much more effusive entries, with normally reticent diarists sometimes providing quite detailed and extensive accounts of their leisure travel. We end the chapter with one final example. The diary entries of Betty Charnley were detailed, but rarely expressed surprise or any other emotion. However, in her later years she began to travel much more widely, including trips abroad; although her diary entries remained mainly unemotional, she did describe what she saw in detail and, in particular, picked out those aspects of landscape that were distinctly different from what she was used to at home in Lancashire. The following extract refers to a trip she took at the age of 76 to the Dutch bulb fields. She and a friend travelled by boat and coach on a couriered excursion, and she was clearly very interested in what she viewed as the unusual features of the Dutch landscape. Never slept, boat shuddered. Awoke at 6pm … assembled in the lounge, left at 8.30 on coach to Amsterdam, we had a sail on the canal at 4.30, travelling through country with roadworks galore, windmills, flat fields with little lakes, bikes own lanes and lights, coaches follow certain routes, steep house roofs. Railway, bus, trams and taxi in one place. Arrived at hotel 6.45pm.36

 Ibid., Sunday February 5, 1956.  Diary of Betty Charnley, Tuesday April 13, 2004 (authors’ collection).

35 36

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References Aldred, R. 2014. The commute. In The Routledge handbook of mobilities, ed. P.  Adey, D.  Bissell, K.  Hannam, P.  Merriman, and M.  Sheller, 470–479. London: Routledge. Barke, M. 1991. The middle-class journey to work in Newcastle upon Tyne, 1850–1913. The Journal of Transport History 12: 107–134. Black, J. 2010. The British and the Grand Tour. Abingdon: Routledge. Blumen, O. 1994. Gender differences in the journey to work. Urban Geography 15: 223–245. Brendon, P. 1991. Thomas Cook: 150 years of popular tourism. London: Secker & Warburg. Buliung, R., P.  Hess, L.  Flowers, F.  Moola, and G.  Faulkner. 2021. Living the journey to school: Conceptual asymmetry between parents and planners on the journey to school. Social Science & Medicine 284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. socscimed.2021.114237. Casinowsky, G. 2013. Working life on the move, domestic life at standstill? Work-­ related travel and responsibility for home and family. Gender, Work and Organization 20: 311–326. Crone, R. 2016. Violent Victorians: Popular entertainment in nineteenth-century London. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Cui, B., G. Boisjoly, A. El-Geneidy, and D. Levinson. 2019. Accessibility and the journey to work through the lens of equity. Journal of Transport Geography 74: 269–277. Czepkiewicz, M., J. Heinonen, P. Næss, and H. Stefansdóttir. 2020. Who travels more, and why? A mixed-method study of urban dwellers’ leisure travel. Travel Behaviour and Society 19: 67–81. Ericksen, J. 1977. An analysis of the journey to work for women. Social Problems 24: 428–435. Ermagun, A., and D. Levinson. 2017. Public transit, active travel, and the journey to school: A cross-nested logit analysis. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science 13: 24–37. Forsyth, P. 2016. Aviation and tourism: Implications for leisure travel. London: Routledge. Fox, E., R. Hitchings, R. Day, and S. Venn. 2017. Demanding distances in later life leisure travel. Geoforum 82: 102–111. Gleadle, K. 2017. British women in the nineteenth century. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Green, D. 1988. Distance to work in Victorian London: A case study of Henry Poole, bespoke tailors. Business History 30: 179–194. Gustafson, P. 2006. Work-related travel, gender and family obligations. Work, Employment and Society 20: 513–530.

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Hislop, D., ed. 2008. Mobility and Technology in the Workplace. London: Routledge. Holloway, G. 2007. Women and Work in Britain since 1840. London: Routledge. Jefferys, J. 2011. Retail trading in Britain 1850–1950: A study of trends in retailing with special reference to the development of co-operative, multiple shop and department store methods of trading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jordan, E. 2002. The women’s movement and women’s employment in nineteenth century Britain. London: Routledge. Lapin, H. 2016. Structuring the journey to work. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Lawton, R. 1968. The journey to work in Britain: Some trends and problems. Regional Studies 2: 27–40. Martin, A., J.  Panter, M.  Suhrcke, and O.  Ogilvie. 2015. Impact of changes in mode of travel to work on changes in body mass index: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 69: 753–761. Mouratidis, G. 2018. Digital nomads: Travel, remote work and alternative lifestyles. Lund: Lund University. Niner, P. 2004. Accommodating nomadism? An examination of accommodation options for Gypsies and Travellers in England. Housing Studies 19: 141–159. O’Connor, K. 1980. The analysis of journey to work patterns in human geography. Progress in Human Geography 4: 475–499. O’Regan, M. 2008. Hypermobility in backpacker lifestyles: The emergence of the internet café. In Tourism and mobilities: Local-global connections, ed. P. Burns and M. Novelli, 109–132. Wallingford: CABI. Pang, B., K.  Kubacki, and S.  Rundle-Thiele. 2017. Promoting active travel to school: A systematic review (2010–2016). BMC Public Health 17: 1–15. Pearce, L. 2018. ‘Walking out’: The mobilities of love. Mobilities 1: 777–790. ———. 2019. Mobility, memory and the lifecourse in twentieth-century literature and culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Pennington, S., and B. Westover. 1989. A hidden workforce: Women homeworkers in Britain, 1850–1985. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education. Phegley, J. 2012. Courtship and marriage in Victorian England. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. Pooley, C. 2003. Mobility in the twentieth century: Substituting commuting for migration? In Geographies of British modernity: Space and society in the twentieth century, ed. D. Gilbert, D. Matless, and B. Short, 80–96. Oxford: Blackwell. ———. 2021. Transport modes and commuters. In International encyclopedia of transportation, ed. R. Vickerman, 92–97. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Pooley, C., and J.  Turnbull. 1999. The journey to work: A century of change. Area 31: 281–292.

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———. 2000a. Modal choice and modal change: The journey to work in Britain since 1890. Journal of Transport Geography 8: 11–24. ———. 2000b. Commuting, transport and urban form: Manchester and Glasgow in the mid-twentieth century. Urban History 27: 360–383. Pooley, C., J. Turnbull, and M. Adams. 2005. The journey to school in Britain since the 1940s: Continuity and change. Area 37: 43–53. Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010a. Growing up on Merseyside in the late-­ nineteenth century: The diary of Elizabeth Lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Pooley, C., D. Whyatt, M. Walker, G. Davies, P. Coulton, and W. Bamford. 2010b. Understanding the school journey: Integrating data on travel and environment. Environment and Planning A 42: 948–965. Rae, A. 2017. The geography of travel to work in England and Wales: Extracts from the 2011 census. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy 10: 457–473. Ross, N. 2007. ‘My journey to school…’: Foregrounding the meaning of school journeys and children’s engagements and interactions in their everyday localities. Children’s Geographies 5: 373–391. Scola, R. 1975. Food markets and shops in Manchester 1770–1870. Journal of Historical Geography 1: 153–167. ———. 1982. Retailing in the nineteenth-century town: Some problems and possibilities. In The structure of nineteenth century cities, ed. J.  Johnson and C. Pooley, 153–170. London: Croom Helm. Shubin, S. 2011a. Travelling as being: Understanding mobility amongst Scottish Gypsy Travellers. Environment and Planning A 43: 1930–1947. ———. 2011b. “Where can a Gypsy stop?” Rethinking mobility in Scotland. Antipode 43: 494–524. Smith, P., ed. 1998. The history of tourism: Thomas Cook and the origins of leisure travel. Hove: Psychology Press. Towner, J. 1985. The grand tour: A key phase in the history of tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 12: 297–333. Walker, M., D. Whyatt, C. Pooley, G. Davies, P. Coulton, and W. Bamford. 2009. Talk, technologies and teenagers: Understanding the school journey using a mixed-methods approach. Children’s Geographies 7: 107–122. Warnes, A. 1972. Estimates of journey-to-work distances from census statistics. Regional Studies: 315–326.

CHAPTER 9

Immobility

9.1   Introduction: Approaches to Immobility Not surprisingly, mobility studies have focused overwhelmingly on movement, and it is only relatively recently that immobility has been recognised as an important component of everyday travel. Although the opening editorial of the journal Mobilities which began publication in 2006 had the inclusive title ‘Mobilities, Immobilities and Moorings’ (Hannam et  al. 2006), it was arguably the disruption of international air travel by the Icelandic volcanic eruption of 2010 which began to focus attention more firmly on immobility as well as mobility, leading the journal to publish a theme issue in 2011 that was entitled ‘Stranded: An Eruption of Disruption’ (Birtchnell and Büscher 2011). More recently, the travel restrictions imposed during the Covid19 pandemic have imposed immobility on many (Adey et  al. 2021; Sheller 2020; Tzanelli 2021). In this chapter, we review some of the main factors that can generate immobility, discuss the different approaches that have been taken to the topic, and provide examples of a wide range of different experiences of disrupted mobility and immobility selected from the diaries we have studied. Most people will have experienced periods of immobility during their lifetime, and lack of mobility is a topic that deserves as much consideration as other aspects of travel and movement. Discussion of immobility is also complicated by the fact that it can mean different things to different people © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_9

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depending on their expectations of movement, and it can also vary with scale and context. For instance, immobility at the macro-scale may be viewed as residential stability, with a focus on those people who remained at the same address for most or all of their lives. In contrast, at the micro-­ scale immobility could be the inability even to move around a home due to infirmity. By far the most frequently encountered experience of immobility is a delay during travel caused by bad weather, technical failure, or other disruption. Almost everyone must have experienced a train journey which included a long wait between trains, or a period when the train did not move due to some problem on the line. Such interruptions to a journey, though annoying and inconvenient at the time, are temporary and quickly forgotten. Other forms of immobility, such as those due to incapacity, can be long lasting and seriously disruptive of everyday life. Less common, though nonetheless important for those involved, are many other causes of immobility such as imprisonment, or cultural norms that constrain the movement of particular groups, most commonly women in some Islamic societies. Relative immobility can also be caused simply by a combination of busyness and contentment with the life that is led. If there is little time or desire for mobility, then immobility may become a preferred norm. Urban historians in Britain and the United States drew attention to residential immobility (or stability) from the 1970s. While some studies examined population stability within a locality, others tracked residential permanence at individual addresses, most usually by linking populations between decennial censuses or other sources (Boulton 1986; Dennis 1977, 1982; Hershberg 1976; Knights 1971; Pooley 1979). These studies provided some measure of residential turnover within a city, but they did not focus on other aspects of immobility. In addition to the work on major and unusual interruptions to travel cited above, mobilities researchers have paid increased attention to everyday disruptions to travel. These have focused on issues such as the periods of time spent waiting during a journey, and the ways in which travellers adopt different strategies to overcome minor disruptions to their regular travel routines (Bissell 2007; Doughty and Murray 2017; Marsden et al. 2020; Murray and Doughty 2016; Straughan et  al. 2020; Vozyanov 2014). A further (and related) research theme addresses the links between the high levels of both longand short-distance mobility that exist within modern societies, and the challenges created by global climate change and the need to move to more sustainable economic and social practices, including travel. It is argued that low levels of more sustainable mobility must become the norm if carbon reduction goals are to be achieved (Banister 2011; Rode 2013; Tacoli

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2009; Tight et  al. 2011). Historical studies of disrupted or interrupted mobility are much scarcer, and these have mainly focused on the barriers to international migration imposed by policies that restrict entry and select some migrants as being more desirable than others (Bonjour and Schrover 2015; Caestecker 2003; Schrover and Molony 2013). In the following sections, we use evidence from the diaries studied to examine the variety of ways in which past journeys were disrupted and the ways in which travellers coped with their interrupted mobility. We also consider the impacts of situations that prevented travel occurring at all.

9.2   Immobility Whilst Travelling Many of the diary entries featured in previous chapters, and which were used to illustrate a range of different topics, also include examples of interrupted travel. For instance, in Chap. 4 we examined the early car driving experiences of Mollie Potts, which included a dramatic collision with a lamp post which rapidly brought her journey to an end. In this section, we focus specifically on the ways in which travel could be disrupted by events such as bad weather, accidents or transport failures, and we evaluate the impact that this may have had on the travellers themselves. Although travel by rail is one of the safest and most convenient forms of transport today (Department for Transport 2020a), in the early years of rail travel incidents that caused delay and sometimes potential injury were somewhat more common. John Lee (born 1842) recounted one such experience in September 1860 when he travelled by rail from his home in Burnley (East Lancashire) on a day excursion to Knowsley Park near Liverpool. Although obviously inconvenienced by the combination of an accident not long after he would have departed Burnley, together with a long delay on his return journey, he did not seem to be unduly put out by the experience, and it certainly did not deter him from future travel by train. Went on a cheap trip to a Grand Review at Knowsley Park near Liverpool. We had a slight accident at the Accrington Station, where several got black eyes, bloody noses &c &c. We had to go to Kirkby Station, and then walk four miles to Knowsley … I set off at the conclusion of the review to come to the station. Altogether, our departure during the pleasant evening with dusk just setting in, was by no means the least picturesque of the day’s sights. When we got to the station, it was completely crammed. It his [sic] in a cutting and all up the side were groups squatting and waiting patiently.

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I had to wait about 3 hours in the open air, when very fortunately I got into a first class carriage. Set off about 10 o’clock and it was 2 the next morning before I arrived at Burnley.1

Road travel by horse and carriage could also be interrupted by accidents or other incidents, including bad weather or simple congestion. In 1861, John Leeson (born 1804) recounted an incident that clearly troubled him when he travelled by Fly2 in central London. This was not a transport mode that he commonly used and, although he was unhurt, his journey home did not go as planned and the incident clearly unsettled him. His reaction to his interrupted travel was certainly rather less phlegmatic than that of John Lee, perhaps reflecting the different perspectives of a young man (Lee) and an older and (at the time) much more affluent traveller (Leeson). Mrs Tunks spent a few days with us – I after are come home from London in a Fly – the horse ran away with me alone in it from our house, he providentially stopped at his old stables near Addison Road – I have much cause to be thankful to God for preserving me as I might have been thrown out and killed or much hurt – for which protection I bless his Holy Name.3

In the early twentieth century, motor vehicles were unreliable and road traffic accidents were common. There were only 2.3 million licensed vehicles on Britain’s roads in 1930, but some 7305 people were killed in road accidents, over 50 per cent of whom were pedestrians. Due largely to the introduction of enforceable speed limits and other safety measures, road casualties have since fallen substantially despite a massive increase in vehicle ownership and use. By 1960, when there were 9.4  million licensed vehicles, there were still 6970 fatalities on the roads, but by the end of the millennium road deaths in Britain had fallen to 3409 despite there being 28.9 million vehicles on the roads (Department for Transport 2020b). By the end of 2019, there were 38.7 million licensed vehicles on British roads but just 1752 deaths in that year (Department for Transport 2020b, c). In fact, apart from the incident described in Chap. 4, none of our diarists recorded being directly involved in a serious road traffic accident, though some did note accidents that happened to others and that either shocked  Diary of John Lee, Saturday September 1, 1860 (authors’ collection).  A small, light carriage. 3  Diary of John Leeson, Friday April 26, 1861. BIA (GDP/8). 1 2

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them or caused a delay to their journey. For instance, in 1952 the 15-yearold schoolgirl Gillian Caldwell was clearly upset by the death of a motorcyclist in her home village in Eskdale (Cumberland), and in 1974 Betty Charnley had to take an indirect route coming home from work because of a road traffic accident near her home. I had a letter from Mummy today … which had some jolly disturbing news in. Lawson Wilson was killed the night before last. He was on his motor bike and drove into the Eskdale Green bridge and was thrown over it. Sandy Crowe was with him but he was only badly hurt.4 LFS 8.30 to 5. Dad went to the Beeches. There was an accident on the canal bridge coming out of Garstang at night. I had to go round by Dimples Lane, out by Calder House Lane, and back to the Beeches for Dad.5

Travel by motor could be delayed not only by road traffic accidents but also by the failure of the vehicle either before or during a journey. This often led to an aborted trip or a change of travel plans, thus leading to delay and inconvenience. The Pennefathers acquired a motor in the first decade of the twentieth century, but its unreliability limited its use and they continued to mix travel by car with other modes of transport including travel by carriage, train and occasionally bicycle or motorbike. Two brief entries from Verena’s diaries of 1908 and 1913 illustrate the unreliability of their motor, to which Verena had given the not entirely complimentary name the ‘mangle’. Arranged to go to Burnham Beeches by motor, but she wasn’t running properly and we turned back before Hammersmith.6 Nurse left for her holiday. Mangle broke down before starting, Tub bicycled to the station.7

In the 1920s, Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice also recounted an incident when the motor he was travelling in with friends broke down, leading to a change of plans and ad hoc arrangements to enable the journey to continue with minimum delay. Gerald had been dining with friends but then  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Thursday July 17, 1952. BIA (GDP/1).  Diary of Betty Charnley, Friday September 6, 1974 (authors’ collection). 6   Diary of Verena Black-Hawkins/Pennefather, Sunday September 27, 1908. BIA (GDP/51). 7  Ibid., Monday June 9, 1913. 4 5

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they all intended to motor on to a dance. His diary of 1926 recorded the actions they took to overcome the fact that the car lights had failed on a dark January evening. Towards the end of dinner we were greeted with the news that the car wouldn’t function, or rather, its lights wouldn’t. After attempts to hire a car and/or get a taxi to take us down, it ended by our going on John Arthur’s motor bike … he driving, Cecily in the side car and myself on the pillion, a cold night and a bumpy road and some 12 to 15 miles. We arrived very late which was as well because it was rather a bad dance.8

Travel by public transport could often involve long periods of waiting because of delayed trains or missed connections. At the very least this could be inconvenient, but on other occasions it might expose the traveller to potential danger if they were left stranded late at night and far from home, as in the incident described by Annie Rudolph which was discussed in Chap. 5. Most periods of waiting for transport connections were much less dramatic but, when they occurred, the later diary entry usually expressed some degree of annoyance or frustration, regardless of whether the delay was caused by transport failure or by the incompetence of the traveller. Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) described two such incidents, one in 1890 when her mother and brother were badly delayed, and another in 1892 when she and her mother went on a shopping expedition to Manchester, but mistakenly boarded the wrong train so had to return to Manchester and await another service. Went down Oxton Rd tonight. Called at Roper’s. Ma and Arthur came home tonight, they were over two hours late, a train in front of theirs had broken down, so of course, they were delayed. Ma has enjoyed herself in a quiet way. They have had a good deal of wet weather.9 Went over to L’pool this morning. Bought pr of shoes, and a dressing-­ case for Ma. and a compact little case for Cards, stamps, etc, which I intend giving my Percy Y. on his birthday. Met Ma at 12.30. and went by excursion train to M’Chester. Were in the warehouses all afternoon. Ma bought two capes for herself, I bought pr of corsets, a rustic hat, and some flowers. Ma bought me one of the new ladies ‘shirts’, pale blue with a spot of red on it. Such a pretty one. Then we went to Sykes’s. Had tea and good talk with Ada 8 9

 Diary of Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice, Friday January 8, 1926. BIA (GDP/52).  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Monday August 18, 1890 (Pooley et al. 2010).

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and G. Ashton. Got in the wrong train coming home and had to come back to M. and then wait for train. felt half dead when we got home.10

Some 60 years later, Gillian Caldwell (born 1937) also recorded similar experiences of delays that were due both to transport failures and her own incompetence when travelling. In February 1954, she had a frustrating journey from her rural home to keep appointments with her dentist and hairdresser, and the following year she described a much-delayed journey from her parental home back to Edinburgh where she was then living and working. Her diary entries make her annoyance at these inconveniences extremely clear. Horribly messy day. Daddy took me to Gosforth to catch the bus and after hanging round Egremont for an hour I got really browned off and caught a bus from there to Whitehaven and on to Cleater Moor just in time for my appointment [at the dentist]. … I missed dozens of buses to Egremont mainly due to the fact that I was standing on the wrong side of the road. How the hell was I to know that a bus marked ‘Cleator’ went to Egremont. I finally got to the hairdressers at 4.00. … By the time I got home I was frozen.11 My God! What a journey. All the trains were running at least an hour late and it was quite unbearably hot. As for the fiddling around in Carstairs – it would drive anyone round the bend and up the creek. When I staggered off the train there was Ranald to meet me, bless him, with provisions for the flat & a taxi laid on.12

Though not really delayed or postponed travel, in the pre-railway age much everyday travel was slow and discontinuous. Journeys on foot were obviously taken at a slow pace and long trips on horseback or by carriage could often last for more than a single day, with frequent breaks to change horses and take refreshment. In 1804, the diary of Samuel Staniforth recorded his two-day ride from Liverpool to Sheffield, with frequent rests and periods of walking rather than riding his horse for the full distance of about 113 km (70 miles).

 Ibid., Monday April 11, 1892.  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Tuesday February 2, 1954. BIA (GDP/1). 12  Ibid., Sunday July 17, 1955. 10 11

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Waited for letters until ½ past 8 then mounted the blk horse & rode to B. Green. Breakfast with my good mother. Rested horse at Warrington & read the paper. Walked on 2 miles. Mounted my horse at Knutsford at 2.00. Macclesfield at ½ past 5.13 Rose soon after 4. Off on foot at ¼ before 5, mounting my horse going up the hill. At Castleton at 10. Arr at Sheffield at ½ past one.14

In 1838, the 12-year-old Joseph Yates undertook a much longer journey when he travelled, with adult companions, from London to Leominster (Herefordshire) to begin an apprenticeship. Left home at Battersea at 5am. with Aunt Davies and Mr John Townsend. Coach … left ‘Bull and Mouth’ Inn, Oxford Street at 7am., arrived Oxford at 1pm., stayed an hour for dinner and reached Hereford at 10pm. Slept at the Green Dragon Hotel. Rose at 6am. on 24th, breakfasted, started by coach at 7am. And arrived at Hope Gate. Thence to Mr Green, Hampton Mill.15

Today this journey of some 250 km (155 miles) would take about three and a half hours by car or by train. The ability to travel quickly and easily from place to place is taken for granted in modern life, but there is also a growing movement promoting slow travel. Proponents of this approach to travel argue that it consumes fewer resources, is more environmentally sustainable, and allows more intimate and prolonged engagement with the landscapes and townscapes encountered during a journey (Dickinson and Lumsdon 2010; Dickinson et al. 2011). In the early nineteenth century almost all travel was of necessity slow, but this was accepted as a normal part of everyday mobility at the time.

9.3   Immobility that Prevents Travel By far the most frequent reasons why travel was not undertaken in the past, or was postponed to a later date, were the weather conditions pertaining at the time. At a time when many journeys were undertaken on foot, on horseback, or in an open cart or carriage, the impact of inclement 13  Diary of Samuel Staniforth, Sunday April 29, 1804. Liverpool Record Office (920 STI/2/1/1). 14  Ibid., Monday April 30, 1804. 15  Diary/life history of Joseph Yates, October 23, 1838 (authors’ collection).

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weather could be much more severe than when travelling by train or motor, although neither transport mode is immune from the effects of bad weather. The diaries we have studied provide numerous examples of travel being curtailed by inclement weather, with snow, ice and heavy rain being the principal deterrents to mobility. Inclement weather did not necessarily prevent all travel, but it could stop those journeys that were deemed less essential, or which could easily be postponed. For the most part, such inconveniences seemed to be taken as a normal part of life and did not cause undue concern. The following extracts from diaries that span some 150  years demonstrate the different ways in which people responded to adverse weather conditions. Charlotte Holtzapffel (born 1800) lived in central London, mostly travelled on foot, and her adolescent mobility was only mildly affected by inclement weather. Mr Kemp came in the morning. Caroline Charles and I prepared to go to Church but it rained and stopt [sic] us. Father went to Church and returned and took us three to see the icy Thames which was all broken.16

John Leeson (born 1804) also lived in central London, but his diaries date from some 40 years later than those of the young Charlotte. By mid-­ century, Leeson had access to a rapidly expanding rail network, widening his travel options, but his mobility, and that of his family, could still be constrained by winter weather. For instance, in 1854 he noted that snow brought all rail services to a halt, and in 1861 that his wife and children had been confined indoors by severe weather. A very heavy fall of snow in London and many parts of England – the railways stopped running – Serpentine froze over and persons skating there.17 Mrs Leeson and the children began to walk out after being confined to the house for some days. … The frost and snow leaving us – a gradual thaw for several days. Our water came in without bursting the pipes.18

Nearly three decades later, William Dunn (born 1859) was a fit, rugby-­ playing young man also living in London. He enjoyed some aspects of winter weather, especially the opportunity to skate on the frozen  Diary of Charlotte Holtzapffel, Sunday February 6, 1814. WA (EHC/127).  Diary of John Leeson, Saturday January 7, 1854. BIA (GDP/8). 18  Ibid., Saturday January 26, 1861. 16 17

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Serpentine, but on occasion even his mobility was constrained as his two diary extracts from 1881 illustrate. Office till 5. Tremendous snow storm. Short walk in evening. Saw a sledge in London streets for first time. Great gale had blown the snow into drifts some of which several feet deep.19 Office till 5. Locomotion so bad owing to snow that I stopped in doors.20

Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) and Ida Berry (born 1884) both lived in north-west England, where the weather is, on average, rather wetter and colder than in London. Both young ladies frequently travelled in inclement conditions, but on occasion bad weather did curtail their local journeys in Manchester (Berry) and on Merseyside (Lee). Today has been one of the worst days this winter. Frightful storm of snow and bitterly cold. Children had to stop at home from school.21 Dreadful weather out. Such a lot of snow. I have been doing the children’s scrapbooks this afternoon. Pa came home early.22 Snowing and raining all day. Stayed in till tonight, when I went to Church.23 It poured with rain in the morning but cleared up a little after dinner. Maud and I went to ‘Alexandra Park’ for a walk. In the evening it poured again and we had to stay in.24

Freda Smith (born 1887) and her family were also inconvenienced by adverse weather conditions in the early twentieth century. For instance, in October 1906 an outing by motor to Bournemouth (Dorset) from where she was staying in Wiltshire was cancelled because of rain, and at the end of the same year the Smith family’s plans to travel by train from London to spend the New Year with relatives in Northumberland were badly affected by a heavy snow fall. Pouring rain so motoring to Bournemouth was out of the question.25  Diary of William Dunn, Tuesday January 18, 1881. BIA (GDP/135).  Ibid., Wednesday January 19, 1881. 21  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Monday March 1, 1886. (Pooley et al. 2010). 22  Ibid., Friday January 7, 1887. 23  Ibid., Sunday January 17, 1892. 24  Diary of Ida Berry, Monday August 7, 1905. BIS (GDP/28). 25  Diary of Freda Smith, Sunday October 7, 1906. BIA (GDP/99). 19 20

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A fall of snow & consequently no cabs – & we cd. not get to Kings + for Crag! We hope to go tomorrow & for January Dance.26 Left London by 10 train with Father. All the country white. Guy! met us at ___ [sic] extraordinary. I for one felt a little awkward. We had a 2 hrs wait there as motoring out was impossible. Came by last train full of doubt whether we shd. get through the snow but we did! I dressed at Munstead & went to the Yeomanry Dance with A[unt] W[iny]. Such fun.27 Heavy snow continued – the trains blocked it’s said till Monday! Poor Mother [who had planned to travel from London to Cragside that day].28

Finally, we return to Gillian Caldwell (born 1937). Growing up in the English Lake District she would have been well used to extreme weather conditions, and they rarely prevented her mobility or that of her family. However, there were occasions when she was clearly concerned that adverse weather conditions could curtail a journey, as on this occasion when she was returning to Edinburgh from a weekend at her parental home in Eskdale. While she admired the beauty of the snow on the hills, as she and her friend travelled north to Scotland, they became increasingly worried that they might not complete the journey as planned. The valley is looking quite perfect today – thick deep snow, glittering mountains & lazy snowflakes … We got to Carlisle late & caught the mid-day Scot to Carstairs. The snow got worse and worse as we got up Beattock Incline & I think if we had left our travelling a day later we might not have made it. We arrived in Edinburgh in the middle of a blizzard and a biting East wind. Mrs Nash though welcomed us with tea, biscuits and hot water bottles.29

Apart from the weather, the other common reasons why mobility might have been limited were illness or infirmity. While most illnesses were of short duration and usually prevented travel for no more than a few days, old age could bring a gradual reduction in mobility, leading eventually to almost complete immobility. Illness in a household could also restrict the mobility of others if they had to care for an invalid, or when there were concerns about the impact of infectious disease. The following extracts from the diary of John Leeson in mid-nineteenth-century London  Ibid., Wednesday December 26, 1906.  Ibid., Thursday December 27, 1906. 28  Ibid., Friday December 28, 1906. 29  Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Monday February 21, 1955. BIA (GDP/1). 26 27

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illustrate these points well. Illness of his eight-year-old son (also John) not only kept the invalid indoors, but also restricted the mobility of Mrs Leeson and their housemaid as they cared for him. On another occasion some ten years previously, the Leeson family felt obliged to restrict the mobility of their housemaid (Kate) who wanted to visit her sister who was ill with smallpox. The Leesons were clearly afraid of bringing the infection into the home and prevented Kate from travelling, much to her distress. John very ill all this week – attended by Mr Merriman – we had for him a nurse Mrs Jeffries, Newland Street at 14/- per week as Mrs L and housemaid had to be with him day and night.30 Kate’s sister, living at confectioners in Marsh Lane (?), taken ill with smallpox and taken to the hospital – Charlotte would not allow Kate to go and see her for fear of catching it.31 Kate very unsettled and crying all the week about her sister, who is still very ill – she wishes to leave and go home – we talked to her.32

Illness could also mean substantial extra expense for doctors’ fees and/ or to hire a nurse. The Leesons could easily afford this expense but this would not have been true for all families (Brockington 1965; Wohl 1983). Elizabeth Lee endured a significant period of ill health due to bronchitis in 1889. She was confined to bed for several days, was attended by a nurse and more than one doctor, and she was incapacitated for much of April and into May. Selected extracts from her diary during this period of illness emphasise how much she resented being kept indoors when she usually led a very active life with frequent travel around Merseyside. The family was also under extra pressure as Elizabeth’s mother was also confined to bed, having given birth just a few days before Elizabeth began to feel ill. Have felt frightfully ill all day. Thorough bad cold all over me. ‘Nurse’ was out a long time and had to nurse Baby all the while. Frightful bad weather all week. east wind and wet.33 Ma getting on nicely. Have felt very bad today. Went to Church tonight. Came home with Soldier. Nearly fainted and was very sick when I got home.34

 Diary of John Leeson, Saturday June 28, 1862. BIS (GDP/8).  Ibid., Saturday April 24, 1852. 32  Ibid., Saturday May 1, 1852. 33  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Saturday April 6, 1889. (Pooley et al. 2010). 34  Ibid., Sunday April 7, 1889. 30 31

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Coughed all night. Feel as weak as a cat. Poor Ma not quite so well today. L. Holdsworth called. Quite a pleasure to see a fresh face.35 Feel very bad. Doctor examined me and sent me to bed.36 Had a bad night. Dr. came. Lovely weather. It is so nice with Patty [friend] to look after me. Poor nurse has been nearly run of her feet. Have had to paint my throat all this time with most horrible stuff. People keep calling to see how I am getting on.37 Patty had to go home tonight. Feel dreadfully lonely without her. My illness has been “bhroncitis” [sic] and a stomach very much out of order and bad throat.38 I am getting very tired of being upstairs.39 Feel quite lonely without nurse to look after me. Went downstairs into the dining-room about tea time for first time. Seemed so strange.40 The Doctor came today and stayed a good bit. He said my chest was better, but the ‘lungs’ in my back were worse. Says it is, most important that I should go away as soon as possible. Had a letter from Louie Beale.41 Got up earlier today and actually went out into the garden for a bit. The fresh air did seem nice after being shut up so long in one room.42

Most of our diarists were relatively young when they kept a surviving diary. As we stressed in Chap. 2, diary writing tended to decline rapidly once family responsibilities began to take precedence. John Leeson (quoted above) died aged 61 very shortly after the last entry in his diary in May 1865, but there was no indication from his diary entries or movements around London that he had been suffering from any disabling condition. In contrast, Betty Charnley, whose run of diaries cover her entire adult life, did become increasingly immobile in her mid-80s, until she was effectively confined to the house unless a friend or relative could assist her. Betty’s frustration at her inability to live independently and to enjoy the degree of mobility that she was used to comes through strongly in the following extract from her diary of 2013 when she was aged 85.

 Ibid., Wednesday April 10, 1889.  Ibid., Thursday April 11, 1889. 37  Ibid., Sunday April 21, 1889 (Easter Sunday). 38  Ibid., Thursday April 25, 1889. 39  Ibid., Monday April 29, 1889. 40  Ibid., Sunday May 5, 1889. 41  Ibid., Monday May 6, 1889. 42  Ibid., Tuesday May 14, 1889. 35 36

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What a morning!! About 5am, old time, could not push myself up from the bed side, after about ½ an hour, disided [sic] to go on my knee’s [sic] to the landing step, but no luck, after periods of getting back my breath. Went back on my knees and a stool for support, to try and use the landing step, got on to the chair lift, but again no luck, with a struggle managed to get back into the bedroom, I decided to ring next door … Anne rang for help, about ¾ of an hour, the Paramedics came.43

Other interruptions to mobility could be caused by unusual national or global events that temporarily disrupted normal mobility patterns and kept people at home far more than usual. Most recently, the Covid19 pandemic has obviously had this effect with massively reduced levels of mobility during national lockdowns, but the 1918/19 Spanish Influenza pandemic would have had a similar effect, though in a society where expectations of global mobility would have been much less common (Spinney 2017). Relatively few of the diaries we have read cover the period 1918/19 and, perhaps surprisingly, there is little evidence from these diaries that the pandemic had a large impact on everyday mobility in rural areas at least. Maria Gyte (born 1857) lived in the Derbyshire village of Sheldon (near Bakewell) and kept a wartime diary (1913–20). Although she expresses concern and compassion for the local people who were ill or, in some cases, died during the influenza pandemic, her everyday activities and mobilities and those of her neighbours seemed to continue pretty much as normal. Not surprisingly, her main preoccupations were the course of the war and the seasonal routines of rural life in the early twentieth century. The following extract is typical of her diary entries at this period. Misty first thing, but clears out, sunshine and rather cold. Tom, Wm, Vincent and Freddy Carson were getting our potatoes. Sam Bramwell was at our house tonight having come home on leave last night. Billy Naylor was hacking out below Mr Eds to find a burst in the water pipes. It was found in T.A. Sheldon’s branch pipe and now there is a supply for folks at the top of the village. Some people are bad with influenza. Four at H. Frosts and Billy, Pattie and Hilda Carson.44

 Diary of Betty Charnley, Sunday October 27, 2013 (authors’ collection).  Diary of Maria Gyte, Thursday October 24, 1918. (Phizackerley 1999).

43 44

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However, with approximately 25 per cent of the British population infected and some 228,000 deaths, influenza must have had a significant impact on the communities in which our diarists lived (Johnson n.d.). The major disruptive events of the twentieth century were, of course, the two world wars (Robb 2014; Smith 1986). Young men who joined the armed forces were moved overseas, often leaving their home area for the first time and encountering new, sometimes unwelcome, mobility experiences; while particularly during the Second World War Britain’s major cities (especially London) were subjected to extensive and prolonged air raids that disrupted life and travel at home. Five of the diaries we have studied cover the period of the Second World War, and some provide examples of the ways in which wartime conditions could limit mobility. Petrol rationing affected most of the population and severely restricted the use of private motor vehicles for anything other than essential business (King and Andrews 2014). The response recorded in 1941 by Irene Fern Smith (born 1902) at her Wolverhampton home was probably typical: ‘Roland has “jacked” the car on blocks until our next trip. I wonder when’.45 Lack of petrol was inconvenient, but air raids were much more worrying and could seriously disrupt the mobilities of everyday life. For instance, the ports and industrial areas of South Wales experienced quite prolonged air raids in 1940, and the diary of Clifford Powell (born 1905), who lived in Caerphilly (near Cardiff) and worked as a colliery accountant, recorded the ways in which the air raid sirens affected his mobility and that of his family. We had our first daylight air raid today. The sirens sounded about 12.10. Dora did not hear them, and neither did Grandpa who happened to be visiting us, but Mrs John and Mrs Morris ran over to warn us. I was at Elliot colliery, and had to spend the time (about 45 minutes), in one of the shelters. There was another ‘yellow’ at 5.30 so I hurried home, and arrived just after the alarm had been sounded. This was of shorter duration, the all clear going just before 6 o’clock.46

Rhona Little (born 1919) lived in central London throughout the Second World War and her diary describes some of the heavy air raids that shook the city in 1940/41. Even before the main raids occurred, Rhona’s  Diary of Irene Fern Smith, Sunday January 5, 1941. BIA (GDP/18).  Diary of Cliff and Dora Powell, Wednesday July 3, 1940 (authors’ collection).

45 46

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everyday life was from time to time interrupted by warning sirens, but for much of the period from September 1940 to May 1941 her routine was constantly disrupted by air raids. During this time she, and other Londoners, carried on as much of their normal life as possible, but perhaps the most telling clue to how much Rhona’s life and associated mobilities were disrupted comes from the brevity of her diary entries during this period. Rhona Little usually wrote detailed full-page accounts of her daily activities, but during the period of heaviest air raids there were many blank pages, or pages which simply contained the words ‘air raids’. Other accounts of living in London during the Blitz paint a similar picture (Bell 2009; Beaven and Griffiths 1999; Freedman 2014). We reproduce below two entries from Rhona Little’s diary, one from August 1940 just before the main Blitz began and when the routine of taking shelter still appeared to have novelty value, and another from September 7th, which was the first day of the most intense bombing campaign on London. By this time, Rhona seemed to have adopted a strategy for coping with the alarms and raids, but the constraints they imposed on her everyday mobilities are very clear. We passed a peaceful night. I went to the office and got my pay as usual. I have a fearful amount of work on hand. At 12.15 or so the sirens suddenly went off. I was astonished. I flew round throwing open the windows. We all went down to the shelter. I had biscuits and chocolate with me. Moore and I played whist with Mr Marsden and Davey. It was quite good. The warning lasted until 1.15 or so. We then had our lunch which consisted of tinned grapefruit and cheese. The afternoon passed packed with work and atmosphere. I had just got to the bus stop at 5 when the sirens went again. I was undecided what to do at first. I went to the shelter in the vaults of St Pancras. I met two nice ladies there and spent the whole time talking. One of them was Irish. Her name was Mrs Callough and she knew all about Downhill and Marble Hill. We had a great talk.47 I enjoyed myself. The all clear went at 6.10. I eventually got a bus and arrived at 42 and had dinner at 7. Miss Weir was in a frightful fury over the whole thing.48 Just finished tennis with Mary and Ellie when first siren of the day sounded. Saw 37 planes surrounded with bursting shells. Went home. In middle of bath had to get out because of very large bang and gunfire. Terrific bangs while in shelter. Shook earth. All clear at 6.30 or so. Siren again at 47  Rhona Little had migrated from Northern Ireland to London before the war and she was always keen to meet other Irish Londoners. 48  Diary of Rhona Little, Friday August 16, 1940 (authors’ collection).

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8.30. First raid started great fire in City direction, could see great red glow. Stayed in shelter till 10. Went to bed. Lots of guns. Wakened at 1 by terrific explosion. Sat on stairs for a while. Went back to bed and fell asleep.49

Few of the situations discussed in this chapter represent complete immobility, but all do limit mobility in various ways, or impose short periods of waiting or incapacity. In most cases, the immobility is caused by external events that are both unforeseen and unwelcome, and which are beyond the control of an individual traveller. We conclude with one rather different example of restricted mobility: lack of travel that was apparently chosen as a way of life. Many of our diarists lived spatially constrained lives, at least during the period of their diaries. Although they moved freely around their local area and were able to engage in a wide range of activities, they were content to remain local even when the possibility of longer journeys was reasonably readily available. Thus, during her diary written in 1861, Mary Anne Prout (introduced in Chap. 4) never travelled more than about 13 km (eight miles) from her home in the village of St Agnes in Cornwall. In contrast, several men from her neighbourhood travelled far from home to seek work, as illustrated in Chap. 5 by the example of James Bennetts Williams. The limited mobility of Mary Anne may have been in part due to the societal expectations placed on young females at this time, but her diary never provides any sense that she was not content with a life that was focused on her immediate surroundings. Much the same was true for Betty Charnley, whose immobility in old age was described above. Betty had access to a car and, in theory, could travel anywhere she wished. Following her retirement from work, she did take holidays in many parts of the British Isles and abroad, but for the majority of her life she was content to remain within the limited geographical area that contained most of her family and friends. She rarely travelled more than about 50 km (30 miles) from home, and she seemed to be perfectly content with her relatively restricted mobility. Other studies have also demonstrated the dominance of short-distance mobility in everyday life (Pooley et al. 2005), and in that sense much of the population is relatively immobile for a significant proportion of their time.

 Ibid., Sunday September 7, 1940.

49

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References Adey, P., K. Hannam, M. Sheller, and D. Tyfield. 2021. Pandemic (Im)mobilities. Mobilities 16: 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2021.1872871. Banister, D. 2011. Cities, mobility and climate change. Journal of Transport Geography 19: 1538–1546. Beaven, B., and J. Griffiths. 1999. The blitz, civilian morale and the city: Mass-­ observation and working-class culture in Britain, 1940–41. Urban History 26: 71–88. Bell, A. 2009. Landscapes of fear: Wartime London, 1939–1945. Journal of British Studies 48: 153–175. Birtchnell, T., and M. Büscher, eds. 2011. Stranded: An eruption of disruption. Mobilities 6: 1–102. Bissell, D. 2007. Animating suspension: Waiting for mobilities. Mobilities 2: 277–298. Bonjour, S., and M. Schrover. 2015. Public debate and policy-making on family migration in the Netherlands, 1960–1995. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41: 1475–1494. Boulton, J. 1986. Residential mobility in seventeenth-century Southwark. Urban History 13: 1–14. Brockington, C. 1965. Public health in the nineteenth century. Edinburgh: E & S. Livingstone. Caestecker, F. 2003. The transformation of nineteenth-century West European expulsion policy, 1880–1914. In Migration control in the North Atlantic world: The evolution of state practices in Europe and the United States from the French Revolution to the inter-war period, ed. A.  Fahrmeir, D.  Faron, and P.  Weil, 120–137. New York: Berghahn. Dennis, R. 1977. Intercensal mobility in a Victorian city. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2: 349–363. ———. 1982. Stability and change in urban communities: A geographical perspective. In The structure of nineteenth century cities, ed. J.  Johnson and C. Pooley, 253–283. London: Croom Helm. Department for Transport. 2020a. Transport statistics Great Britain 2019. Moving Britain ahead (Table TSGB0805-0807). London: DfT. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/file/870647/tsgb-­2019.pdf. Accessed 9 Sept 2021. ———. 2020b. Reported road casualties in Great Britain: 2019 annual report. London: DfT. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/922717/reported-­r oad-­ casualties-­annual-­report-­2019.pdf. Accessed 22 Sept 2021. ———. 2020c. Vehicle licensing statistics: Annual 2019. London: DfT. https:// assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/

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attachment_data/file/882196/vehicle-­licensing-­statistics-­2019.pdf. Accessed 22 Sept 2021. Department for Transport, Scottish Executive and National Assembly for Wales. 2007. Road casualties Great Britain 2006. London: The Stationery Office. https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20100209123301/ http://www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/162469/221412/221549/227755/ rcgb2006v1.pdf. Accessed 22 Sept 2021. Dickinson, J., and L. Lumsdon. 2010. Slow travel and tourism. London: Earthscan. Dickinson, J., L. Lumsdon, and D. Robbins. 2011. Slow travel: Issues for tourism and climate change. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 19: 281–300. Doughty, K., and L. Murray. 2017. Understanding everyday mobilities through the lens of disruption. In Experiencing networked urban mobilities, ed. M.  Freudendal-Pedersen, K.  Hartmann-Petersen, and E.  Perez Fjalland, 78–82. London: Routledge. Freedman, J. 2014. Whistling in the dark: Memory and culture in wartime London. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Hannam, K., M. Sheller, and J. Urry. 2006. Mobilities, immobilities and moorings. Mobilities 1: 1–22. Hershberg, T. 1976. The Philadelphia social history project: An introduction. Historical Methods Newsletter 9: 43–58. Johnson, B. n.d. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Historic UK. https://www. historic-­uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-­Spanish-­Flu-­pandemic-­ of-­1918/. Accessed 24 Sept 2021. King, E., and M.  Andrews. 2014. Second World War rationing: Creativity and buying to last. In The home front in Britain, ed. M.  Andrews and J.  Lomas, 185–200. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Knights, P. 1971. The plain people of Boston, 1830–1860: A study in city growth. New York: Oxford University Press. Marsden, G., J. Anable, T. Chatterton, I. Docherty, J. Faulconbridge, L. Murray, H. Roby, and J. Shires. 2020. Studying disruptive events: Innovations in behaviour, opportunities for lower carbon transport policy? Transport Policy 94: 89–101. Murray, L., and K.  Doughty. 2016. Interdependent, imagined, and embodied mobilities in mobile social space: Disruptions in ‘normality’, ‘habit’ and ‘routine’. Journal of Transport Geography 55: 72–82. Phizackerley, G., ed. 1999. The diaries of Maria Gyte, 1913–20. Cromford: Scarthin Books. Pooley, C. 1979. Residential mobility in the Victorian city. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 4: 258–277. Pooley, C., J. Turnbull, and M. Adams. 2005. A mobile century? Changes in everyday mobility in Britain in the twentieth century. Aldershot: Ashgate.

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Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010. Growing up on Merseyside in the late-­ nineteenth century: The diary of Elizabeth Lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Robb, G. 2014. British culture and the First World War. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Rode, P. 2013. Trends and challenges: Global urbanisation and urban mobility. In Megacity mobility culture, ed. Institute for Mobility Research, 3–21. Berlin/ Heidelberg: Springer. Schrover, M., and D. Molony, eds. 2013. Gender, migration and categorisation: Making distinctions between migrants in western countries, 1945–2010. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Sheller, M. 2020. Ten years of transfers: Mobility studies and social change during a pandemic. Transfers 10: 22–34. Smith, H. 1986. War and social change: British society in the Second World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Spinney, L. 2017. Pale rider: The Spanish flu of 1918 and how it changed the world. New York: Public Affairs. Straughan, E., D. Bissell, and A. Gorman-Murray. 2020. The politics of stuckness: Waiting lives in mobile worlds. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 38: 636–655. Tacoli, C. 2009. Crisis or adaptation? Migration and climate change in a context of high mobility. Environment and Urbanization 21: 513–525. Tight, M., P. Timms, D. Banister, J. Bowmaker, J. Copas, A. Day, D. Drinkwater, M. Givoni, A. Gühnemann, M. Lawler, and J. Macmillen. 2011. Visions for a walking and cycling focussed urban transport system. Journal of Transport Geography 19: 1580–1589. Tzanelli, R. 2021. Cultural (im)mobilities and the virocene. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Vozyanov, A. 2014. Approaches to waiting in mobility studies: Utilization, conceptualization, historicizing. Mobility in History 5: 64–73. Wohl, A. 1983. Endangered lives: Public health in Victorian Britain. London: JM Dent and Sons Ltd.

CHAPTER 10

Conclusions

10.1   The End of a Journey All journeys must come to an end, and arrival at a destination is an important part of all travel. Depending on the purpose of a journey, arrival may be eagerly anticipated or viewed with dread. For instance, compare the emotions expressed by Gillian Caldwell in two entries from her diaries. In 1952 when she was age 15, she expressed nervousness at visiting her boyfriend and going to stay in his parents’ house for a New Year’s party, although this apprehension soon changed to pleasure. In contrast, in 1955 as she returned to Edinburgh by car with her father, she expressed impatience at the slow journey and delight at her reunion with Ranald, her boyfriend of the moment. Gosh, I was so scared that between Hest Bank and Lancaster both my knees and my teeth were chattering like nothing on earth. When I saw Sam though, looking cool, calm and collected I wasn’t scared any more.1 Away from the peace and solitude on my lovely hills again and to return to the restless turmoil of the brown city. We left after lunch and it was obvious Father was in no hurry! We pottered all round the borders and finally wound up at the Cross Keys in Kelso for dinner. By this time I was frantic and had to phone Ranald. Pa thought I was quite mad and was a little 1

 Diary of Gillian Caldwell, Wednesday December 31, 1952. BIA (GDP/1).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0_10

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peeved. Stopped for more drinks first … and finally reached the big city at eleven. Wonderful, wonderful to see Ranald again and I feel I have come home at last. Oh Randy I do love you so.2

Both departures and arrivals are important elements of most journeys and they may significantly influence the nature and experience of everyday travel. Evidence from the diaries, and the ways in which diarists represented both the start and finish of their everyday travel, suggest that the nature and experience of both ends of a journey should be viewed as integral parts of all mobility. The journey itself is only part of the overall experience. Diaries themselves also have beginnings and ends and, as outlined in Chap. 2, these are often indeterminate. In this sense they are very different from journeys for which, in most cases, a specific reason for leaving and intended destination are clear. Reasons why someone started to write a diary are rarely stated explicitly, although they may be inferred from other entries; and endings can be either abrupt or just fade away with fewer and fewer entries. Only two of our diarists continued to keep a diary into their old age (Leeson and Charnley), with their writing curtailed by death and serious illness respectively. In other cases the end of a diary often coincided with a change of state within the life course, for instance marriage or new family responsibilities, but others end for no obvious reason at all. Indeed, diary writing may have continued but the diaries have not survived. This indeterminacy is also reflected in the life histories of the diarists we have quoted in this volume. We are aware that the information provided about each diarist is limited. This is partly due to lack of space, but it also reflects the fragmentary details that we have for many diarists. We know what they chose to write about during the course of their diary, but other aspects of their lives remain a mystery, apart from such details as can be deduced from records that are publicly available through family history websites. As with almost all historical research, there remain many unknowns. As we stated in Chap. 1, this book had two principal aims: first, to examine the extent to which personal diaries could reveal the extent, nature and experience of everyday mobilities in the past in ways that are not apparent from other sources; and, second, to use these data to interpret past mobilities in the context of some of the key themes explored through contemporary mobilities theories. To what extent have these aims been achieved? Certainly, the diaries have provided a rich and varied 2

 Ibid., Sunday December 4, 1955.

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picture of everyday mobilities in the past. Everyday mobility, at least at the local level, was frequent and mostly unproblematic for the travellers we have studied. The ability to move reasonably freely using the means of transport available at the time was taken for granted by women and men of all ages and from all social groups for which we have information. There were, of course, differences in mobility opportunities and experiences based on, among other factors, time, location, family circumstances, gender, income and class, but for the most part the diarists we studied appeared to be able to negotiate their circumstances and to utilise available transport in ways that enabled them to carry out most of the everyday activities that they desired. Technological changes were important, but they did not necessarily determine how people travelled. Rather, the diarists studied demonstrate a high degree of individual agency in determining how they utilised the different transport technologies available to them. However, while the data provided by many diaries are detailed, none reveal everything, and some provide only scanty entries for many journeys. The diaries do contain details of past mobilities that are rarely found in other sources but, as with almost all historical documents, the information we have remains partial. Many aspects of any individual’s life, including their mobility, will always remain hidden. The new mobilities paradigm, as defined originally by Mimi Sheller and John Urry (2006), together with the large volume of research on mobilities that has developed since their seminal work, has many dimensions (Faulconbridge and Hui 2016; Sheller 2021). For the purposes of this volume, five key concepts are particularly significant, and material presented in previous chapters enables assessment of the relevance of contemporary mobilities theories to past mobilities. First, we assess the core argument that mobility is a central, and previously neglected, part of the system that links together economy, society, and culture. Without mobility in all its forms—and here we focus only on the movement of people not of goods or ideas—society and economy simply would not function. Second, we examine in an historical context the focus that mobilities research has on the significance of a journey itself. Travel is not only a means of moving from place to place; it also provides new experiences in and of itself. In other words, the journey becomes the centre of attention. Third, we recognise the ways in which new forms of mobility and mobility experiences could work to reconfigure space both physically and perceptually. Faster and more readily available transport brought places closer together and altered connections between people and regions. Fourth, we examine the

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impact of new mobile materialities. Transport networks and associated human mobilities could fundamentally alter the shape and form of cities as new transport options became available and their infrastructures replaced existing structures. In turn, such innovations—railway stations, tram terminals, airports—acquired their own systems of operation and associated norms of behaviour to which travellers had to adjust. Finally, we recognise the significance of mobility inequalities. Almost all individuals travelled, but they did not all do so in the same way or with the same levels of comfort and speed. Power dynamics within society are as central to mobility as they are to most other aspects of social and economic life. The nine chapters of this volume have addressed these issues by focusing on selected key themes. Here we briefly reprise these and assess the extent to which the contemporary mobility theories outlined above are equally relevant to past mobilities. The diaries have provided ample evidence of the extent to which all our diarists were mobile, and the ways in which these mobilities constructed their everyday lives. Clearly, how people travelled changed, but the ability to move relatively freely and easily around a neighbourhood and, when necessary, to travel further afield, was taken for granted in most people’s lives. In Chap. 4, we stressed the easy availability of transport in London, and an extract from the 1871 diary of an anonymous male Londoner repeatedly demonstrates the ease with which he travelled around the city. Not all places were as well served as the capital, but this did not prevent frequent and relatively trouble-free mobility. Morning to East End, by rail to Crouch End and to Mr. Rock’s, Hazellville Road, with him to Goswell St, then I went and saw Mr. Dowie, Charing Cross, Covent Garden and Kings Cross, by rail to East End and home. Rails: 7d.3

The extent to which diarists commented on a journey itself varied considerably. In many cases, including the example above, we get little information about the traveller’s experience of the journey. We simply know that it took place and can assume from the lack of comment that it was viewed as routine. However, other diaries do provide much more detailed accounts of the experience of a journey and the ways in which it might have impacted on the traveller’s life. Not surprisingly, longer and more 3

 Diary of an anonymous male, Saturday May 13, 1871. BIA (GDP/87).

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unusual journeys seemed to have the most impact on our diarists. These, at least, were the ones that were most likely to have been commented upon in detail. Longer diary entries tended to be stimulated, first, by journeys which became difficult due to bad weather, mechanical failure or other reasons; second, by those which took the traveller to new and interestingly different places; third, by those which utilised a novel mode of transport or, lastly, by those which included encounters with other travellers who caught the diarist’s attention for some reason. For instance, the winter journey that the 14-year-old Raleigh Trevelyan made in 1814 from his home back to his boarding school clearly made a deep impression on him, while a later entry for a more routine trip local to his home was recorded much more briefly with few details of the actual journey. Unsurprisingly, reactions to travel varied with the nature and novelty of the journey. Got up at 5 Was in the chaise at 7 & at St Lawrence in 20 minutes. The snow there is 4 feet deep the road cut through it. Past the turnpike the snow is very deep in a road not used in winter & a deep chalk pit is full of water on account of the snow having melted into it. in another place the snow is 2 feet deep & the road cut through it. By 2 mills we went a little out of the road into a field for some way on account of the snow. in another place the snow is 5 feet & the river has overflowed several fields. The snow by Faversham is 3,4,5,6 feet & about the same depth all the way to Gravesend particularly on Chatham hill w[h]ere it is almost 7 feet & the road cut through almost all the way. Arrived at Charlton at 6 PM (when we dined) having had the same chaise all the way from Canterbury with a crack at the bottom you could put your fingers through.4 Wednesday 13 Called on Lady Frazer, Aunt Arden, & Mr Cummings who was not at home – Went in the carriage to see the illuminations. Went in the park & called on Lady Hay.5

The diaries provide ample evidence of the ways in which new mobilities could potentially transform space, enabling people to travel faster and more comfortably over long distances. However, it can be argued that for most diarists such changes were less dramatic than is sometimes implied. As demonstrated in Chap. 3, long-distance journeys could be accomplished using traditional and slow forms of transport, with the 4 5

 Diary of Raleigh Trevelyan, Tuesday February 1, 1814. WA (EHC/191).  Ibid., Wednesday April 13, 1814.

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journey by Joseph Yates from London to Leominster (Herefordshire) in 1838 (quoted in Chap. 9) providing one good example. Moreover, although opportunities to utilise new and faster means of transport became available to most diarists during the nineteenth century, in practice most of the diaries continued to record a life that was contained within quite a circumscribed area, with most travel remaining local, and relatively few journeys of any great distance. Perhaps the greatest change occurred in the twentieth century with the opening-up of low-cost international air travel from the 1980s. Although some of our diarists did travel abroad a century or more before this period, and passenger air travel had become increasingly accessible from the 1930s, such mobility was largely restricted to the most affluent sections of the population, and/or to very occasional journeys. Cheap flights from the 1980s enabled far more people to take holidays abroad and to experience cultures and climates which in the past they would scarcely have considered. However, the extent to which they engaged with these cultures when they travelled may have been limited. As soon as she retired in 1988, Betty Charnley started taking couriered holidays to the Mediterranean in January or February. She always travelled with friends and others from her neighbourhood, and rarely strayed far from the hotel when she was abroad. As the following extract from her trip to Sousse (Tunisia) in 1989 shows, she expressed nervousness about the escorted excursions that she did take, although she was clearly interested in a landscape that was new to her. Went on a coach, picked up at hotel door, we went to museum at Carthage to see the mosaics, then to the Roman ruins … then on to Sidi Bau Said for a coffee, lunch at a restaurant … arrived at Tunis at 2 pm, but we dare not go far, we clung to some of the men in our party, we left at 3.30, was we glad to see the coach, the experience was worth a lot, men minding sheep and cattle on the planes [sic].6

While visiting new places was clearly of interest to Betty, her diary entries paid at least as much attention to the novelty of air travel and all its associated requirements and inconveniences as she did to the places that she visited. These entries from January and February 1991 when she flew from Manchester to Malta for her winter holiday are typical of her reactions to air travel. 6

 Diary of Betty Charnley, Tuesday January 24, 1989 (authors’ collection).

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The coach Silver Fern’ picked us up at 7pm, the last to be picked up, went on M6 at Hampson Green, and went to Manchester airport, went up the revolving staircase which was dangerous, got our tickets, I was frisked, sat in the lounge, made to gate 24, boarded the plane by a tunnel, no steps. We took off at 11.45. Travelling at 33,000, and very smooth, an Air Europe AE168.7 Arrived at Luga airport at 4.15am – Maltese time …. Taken by transport to a terminal, had to wait quite a while for our luggage coming, and there was no trolleys, went to a waiting coach, our luggage went by van, half an hours ride through floods, Hotel Quwra Palace, St Paul’s Bay, there was a long slow service and a poor reception.8 Sat in the foyer of the hotel until 12.45am, then made ready to be picked up by coach at 1.45am, to take us for our return home, to Luga airport, had our bags opened by security, then went to the luggage desk, then through for a boarding ticket, and through the scanner, there was a delay so we went to the cafeteria for a free snack … waited until 10am, we were then taken by coach to … [a hotel at St Julians, c9k from airport] at 12.30, had lunch … I went to bedroom we had been allotted, made a cup of tea, layed [sic] on the bed and had 2½ hours sleep. Had a wash, a cup of tea, went down for dinner at 6pm … made our way to the foyer, made our way to the coach parked up another street, and left for the airport at 8pm. Had to get our passenger ticket, boarding ticket, and through the scanner, then to gate 1. At 10.20pm we were on the plane and were off at 10.30, arrived in Manchester at 1.45am [Monday], the coach was waiting for us and we had a good ride through to Lancaster.9

In undertaking such travel, the diarists we have studied necessarily came into contact with the new material structures associated with the transport they were using. As shown above, Betty Charnley appeared to be both curious about, and at times nervous of, the infrastructure that she encountered as she moved through international airports. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, comparable new material structures associated with travel by trains, trams, motor vehicles and planes developed, but, for the most part, diarists engaged with them with relatively little comment or concern. New innovations that were viewed as especially convenient might invite comment—for instance, John Leeson noted with approval the opening of a new station in London in 1862: ‘I saw the new  Ibid., Saturday January 26, 1991.  Ibid., Sunday January 27, 1991. 9  Ibid., Sunday February 10, 1991. 7 8

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railway station facing the Crescent  – large and convenient  – to connect the railways on the north and south of the Thames. To be opened 1st June’10—but for the most part new material structures passed almost unnoticed in diarists’ comments unless, as with the airports that Betty Charnley passed through, they were especially distinctive and unusual. Past mobility inequalities largely reflected the social and spatial inequalities that existed within society. The rich had more mobility options than the poor, and large urban areas were for the most part better provided with transport networks than were smaller communities. The ways in which people travelled differently according to their means, their age, their gender and their location have been demonstrated in Chaps. 4, 5, 6 and 7. Diary entries rarely expressed strong dissatisfaction with the transport options that were available. Even though all diarists must have been well aware of the mobility disparities that existed, these seemed to be taken-for-granted aspects of everyday life, with complaints about travel mostly confined to unexpected delays or similar problems. The diary entries also only rarely hinted at any sense of envy or longing for different or better transport opportunities. Where these emotions occurred, they were mostly expressed by young people in the twentieth century who were eager to own a motor car. In the 1930s, the young Ronald Joskey spent much of his time tinkering with his father’s car, and even considered buying a car at the age of 16 before he could drive. However, he decided this was not practicable, and he eventually settled on a motor bike as a means of transport to get him to and from his home in south London to his likely place of work. Idears [sic] about buying old Austin 7 about 1927 and putting own body on it. Total cost about £5.11 Will not buy car till I can drive.12 Have letter from Woolwich Equitable at Dartford for interview at 2.30 on Wednesday. I hope very much that I get it. Am thinking of a motor bike. So cheap.13

The diaries we have studied clearly demonstrate that themes developed in contemporary mobilities research are equally relevant to past mobilities.  Diary of John Leeson, Saturday May 17, 1862. BIA (GDP/8).  Diary of Ronald C. Joskey. Saturday March 27, 1936. BIA (GDP/350). 12  Ibid., Saturday April 4, 1936. 13  Ibid., Monday May 23, 1936. 10 11

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Many of the same themes emerge, though with obvious differences related to technological and societal change. Perhaps the key message to take from the diaries we have studied relates to variability. There was not one form of mobility at any time in the past, but many different possibilities and experiences. These varied not only from place to place, from person to person, and over time, but also within the everyday experiences of a single individual. For instance, the means of travel adopted for one journey early in the day may have been different from that used for a later journey. The form that mobility took varied in response to many factors, including the weather, journey purpose, travelling companions and the intended destination. This variability has been demonstrated in the diary extracts used throughout the book, but one final example from the diary of Elizabeth Lee (born 1867) emphasises the ways in which different transport modes might be combined in a single day. Usually, domestic or other commitments would limit the number of different journeys that Elizabeth made, but in May 1892 Elizabeth and her mother travelled the short distance from their home near Birkenhead (Merseyside) to see friends who lived near Ellesmere Port. From there they had an excursion to Chester, and seamlessly combined travel by train, waggon, boat and on foot during the day. This mixture of transport modes was not unusual for nineteenth-­ century diarists when they had multiple journeys to undertake; however, once a twentieth-century diarist owned a reliable motor vehicle, this tended to dominate most everyday travel. Ma and I went by 10a.m. train to L. Sutton. We all went in a waggonette to Chester, were we had a ‘barge’ up to Eccleston Ferry, were we had tea and such fun, then they all went up to Eaton Hall by boat, but Percy and I walked there. Came back by boat,- I tried my hand at rowing- Got back to Chester 8.30.pm. Miss Atkinson, Fred E., Percy and I, saw Ma off by train, then went by train ourselves as far as Ledsham, then walked home to Sutton.14

The diaries we have used are also highly varied, and no two diaries are precisely similar. While some provide long descriptive entries, others give scant details. The style of writing also varies from factual details to more expressive writing that conveys emotions. Diaries also vary in form, from tiny pocket diaries, usually with cramped writing, to large, lined pages that are easy to read. Not surprisingly, during this volume we have quoted  Diary of Elizabeth Lee, Saturday May 14, 1892. (Pooley et al. 2010).

14

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more extensively from those diaries that provide the most revealing information about mobility. The variability of the diaries we have used also makes direct comparisons difficult. Although it is possible to draw out the broad trends we have outlined in various chapters, it is important to remember that each diary is an individual record of one person’s view of their life as they saw it at the time the diary was written. Each diary is a unique document, and any broader generalisations must be made with great caution. The end of one journey almost inevitably leads at some point to the start of another. Likewise, at the conclusion of this book, we urge other researchers to initiate further research on past mobilities. We have demonstrated that personal diaries can provide illuminating details of past everyday mobilities, information that is rarely available elsewhere. There will be many more diaries hidden away in archives or kept by relatives of a diarist. We hope that the material discussed in this volume will encourage other researchers to turn to personal diaries, written by people who had no public profile and no intention to publish their memoirs, and to use these materials to examine not only everyday mobilities but also the myriad other aspects of everyday life that a diary may reveal. To conclude, we emphasise the potential richness of at least some diaries for the study of many other aspects of everyday life in the past with one further daily extract from the diary of Elizabeth Lee, written when she was just 16 years of age. I got a new umbrella at shop today. Beautiful weather. I went to Birkenhead tonight. Ma stopped in bed this morning, and went to see Mrs. Montgomery this afternoon. I have not been to the Library for nearly 2 years for books, so I thought I would go tonight. I got such a funny book called “Christopher Tadpole”. The style of the book is very like Dickens’s. Went to see Tamar H. after. Her Grandmama’s nearly dead she says. They have a lot of painters in the house, and Lottie and 4 of the children have gone to West Kirby today, to stop till they have finished. Tamar is going next week. Saw Herbert Kidd in library.15

 Ibid., Monday March 10, 1884.

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References Faulconbridge, J., and A. Hui. 2016. Traces of a mobile field: Ten years of mobilities research. Mobilities 11: 1–14. Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010. Growing up on Merseyside in the late-­ nineteenth century: The diary of Elizabeth Lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Sheller, M. 2021. Advanced introduction to mobilities. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Sheller, M., and J. Urry. 2006. The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A 38: 207–226.



Appendix: The Diarists

We provide an alphabetical list of all the authors of diaries and life histories used in our research, together with brief biographical details relevant to the period of the diaries, and information about the location of the sources. The amount of personal information we have about each diarist varies considerably. For some we have almost a whole life history, but for others only the most minimal information. For female diarists, the family name used is the one they had at the time the diaries were written. If the diaries include their marriage and name change, then both names are given. The following abbreviations are used for the two most commonly occurring archive collections: WA—Wigan Archives, Leigh, Greater Manchester (Edward Hall Collection); BIA—Bishopsgate Institute Archive, Bishopsgate, London (Great Diary Project). Although not all the sources listed have been quoted directly, they have all informed our research. Anonymous (female). Date of birth not known. Travel journal covering January to September 1833. Home probably Brighton or Lewes (Sussex) but travels to London, Wales, Derbyshire and elsewhere. Seems to have many friends and contacts, and must be of independent means. WA (EHC/96).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0

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Anonymous (male). Date of birth not known. Diary covering April to November 1871. Lives in London and probably works in building trade. BIA (GDP/87). Anonymous (male). Date of birth not known. Diary for 1875. Lives near Malvern (Worcestershire). Of independent means and has property in London. BIA (GDP/176). Anonymous (male). Date of birth not known. Diary for 1930. Probably lives in Southend but works in London, possibly in publishing. Seems affluent and well-connected. BIA (GDP/78). Awdry, Susan V. Born c.1850. Travel diary July–August 1863. Susan is the daughter of Charles Awdry, vicar of Seagry, Wiltshire. Susan travelled with her mother and other adults by yacht from Dartmouth round the coast of Britain to the Isle of Man and Ireland. WA (EHC/104). Barlow Brooks, Joseph. Born 1874. Published autobiography covering the period 1875–1948. Lived in Lancashire and worked variously as a cotton weaver and elementary school teacher. J.  Barlow Brooks Lancashire Bred. An Autobiography (no date), Church Army Press, Oxford. Bennetts Williams, James. Born 1856. Diaries 1883–1887. James worked in the Cornish tin mining industry, but in September 1883 left to take up work in South America. The diary covers his journey (with others) from his home in St Agnes (Cornwall) to Liverpool, his voyage to S.  America, much of his time working away, and his return to Cornwall in November 1887. BIA (GDP/57). Berry, Ida. Born 1884. Diaries cover the period November 1902 to January 1907. Ida lived in West Didsbury (south Manchester) with her widowed mother and two siblings. She did not have paid work and she had an active social life, including frequent cycle rides with friends. BIA (GDP/28). Black-Hawkins/Pennefather, Verena Vera. Born 1885. Diaries cover the periods 1907–1908 and 1913–1939. Verena initially lived with her parents near Andover (Hampshire), but in April 1908 married William Pennefather, a London solicitor. They lived in London until 1919 when they moved to Walton on Thames. Verena had no paid employment, but was actively involved with household and childcare responsibilities. BIA (GDP/51). Blake, Saima. Born 1856. Fourteen diaries covering 1903–1926, but with several gaps. Lived in Hammersmith (London) with her husband

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229

(a solicitor) and their two children. Saima was widowed in 1903 and thereafter she seemed to have a limited income. BIA (GDP/100). Brindley, David. Born 1856. Life history written up from diaries, 1856–1891. Covers migration from Cheshire to Liverpool and life on Merseyside. Worked initially in an urban dairy and then as a porter at Canada Docks goods station. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs N. Chesters. Brown, George. Born 1804 in Baltimore (USA), lived in Liverpool from 1829. Memoir and diaries cover period 1806–1861. Worked as a merchant, stockbroker and banker. Liverpool Record Office (LVRO 920 MD 376). Caldwell, Gillian. Born 1937. Diaries cover her teenage years 1952–1958. Initially she was at boarding school, then lived at her parental home in Eskdale (Cumberland, now Cumbria), and later in Edinburgh, where she worked in an accountancy office. For a few months she worked abroad in Zurich (Switzerland). BIA (GDP/1). Charnley, Betty. Born 1928. Diaries (1942–2017) cover almost her entire life from the age of 13 until shortly before her death. She lived with her parents, initially on an upland farm in north Lancashire. During this period, she was at school then helped on the farm. In 1952, she moved with her parents to a small community near Garstang, Lancashire, and lived there all her life. She never married and worked at a wide range of different occupations. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs J. Bland. Chew, Stanley. Born 1914. Brief diary for 1941. Employed as a police constable in Manchester. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mr S. Chew. Cox, Irene. Born 1906. Diary of holiday with parents, July/August 1920, in Boscombe (Dorset). Home in Surrey. Dorset History Centre, Dorchester (D1974/1). Davis, Miss. Date of birth not known. Diary for 1810 whilst living in Ambleside, Westmorland. WA (ECH/78/M847). Dunn, Frederick. Born 1859. Diary January–April 1881. Lived with parents in London and employed as a civil service clerk. BIA (GDP/135). Fern Smith, Irene. Born 1902. Diary January–June 1941, Wolverhampton. No paid employment. BIA (GDP/18). Foley, Henry. Born 1805. Diary of travel to Switzerland, via Paris, August–September 1865. A retired army officer living in Canterbury (Kent). WA (EHC/45).

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Gayler, Catherine. Born 1919. Diary 1933–35 whilst at school. Home in Carlton Scroop, Grantham, Lincolnshire. Father worked as a gardener. BIA (GDP/16). Gray Fitzmaurice, Gerald. Born 1901. Diaries 1926–27 whilst living in London and working as a young barrister. Travelled quite widely. BIA (GDP/52). Gyde, Elsie. Born 1883. Diary for 1917 while husband away on war service. Lived in Epsom (Surrey). No paid employment. BIA (GDP/26). Gyte, Maria. Born 1857. Diary 1913–1920. Lived in village of Sheldon near Bakewell (Derbyshire). No paid employment. Phizackerley, G. (ed.), 1999. The diaries of Maria Gyte, 1913–20. Cromford: Scarthin Books. Hall, Edward. Born 1898. Autobiography and diaries 1926, 1934–35, 1937, 1939. Dealer in ancient manuscripts and collector of diaries and related documents deposited in Wigan Archives. Lived in Barnsley and Surbiton. WA (EHC/8, EHC/88). Hall, William. Born 1858. Diaries 1884–1913. Worked as a Quaker missionary in East London. BIA (GDP/74). Harradence, Thomas. Born 1801. Diaries 1844–1854. A bookseller living in Camberwell, London. BIA (GDP/49). Holt, William. Born 1897. Autobiography 1897–1938. Lived in west Yorkshire, various occupations. W. Holt, I haven’t unpacked. An autobiography. G Harrap, London, 1939. Holtzapffel, Charlotte. Born 1800. Diary 1813–1814. Lived with parents in central London. Father a mechanical engineer and toolmaker. WA (EHC/127). Horner, Joshua. Born 1812. Diary for 1867. Lived in Halifax and worked as a portrait painter and art restorer. WA (EHC/90). James, John. Born 1822. Diary 1847–1880. Lived originally in Cornwall as a tin miner, but worked extensively elsewhere in Britain and overseas in mining-related trades. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mr M. Smith. Jaques, Henry. Born 1842. Life history written up from diaries, 1842–1907. Lived in London and worked as tailor and shirtmaker, and in related retail trades. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs A. Giller. Joskey, Ronald. Born 1920. Diaries 1935–1938. Lived in London with parents, father a compositor. Initially at school, then employed in accounts departments of various firms. BIA (GDP/350).

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Kniveton, Amos. Born 1835. Life history 1835–1937. Lived in Lancashire and worked as a boot- and shoemaker. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mr W. Melling. Lee, Elizabeth. Born 1867. Diary 1884–1892. Lived in Prenton, Birkenhead (Cheshire) with parents. Father proprietor of a gentleman’s outfitters. No paid occupation but sometimes helped in father’s shop. Pooley, C., S. Pooley, and R. Lawton. 2010. Growing Up on Merseyside in the Late-Nineteenth Century: The Diary of Elizabeth Lee. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Lee, John. Born 1842. Diary 1859–1864. Lived in north Lancashire and then Merseyside. Worked in draper’s shop. Father to Elizabeth Lee (above). Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs J. Roberts. Leesmith, Mary. Born 1870. Diary 1894–1896. Lived in North Yorkshire and Bushey (Hertfordshire). Worked as a portrait painter with a studio in London. BIA (GDP/95). Leeson, John. Born 1804. Diaries 1846–1865. Lived in central London with income from property portfolio. BIA (GDP/8). Leggatt, Frederica. Born 1843. Diary 1862–1864. Lived with parents in central London, father a surgeon. WA (EHC 176/M968). Little/Ward, Rhona. Born 1919. Diary 1932–1959. Initially lived with parents in Londonderry/Derry (Northern Ireland) then worked in London as a secretary with the Inland Revenue. Married in later diaries. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs R. Ward. Madin, Annie. Born 1893. Diaries 1916–1922. Graduated from Edinburgh University medical school in 1916 and then lived mainly in the West Midlands. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mr J. Smith. Osborne, George. Born 1820. Diary 1841–1842. Records travel from Northampton to Sydney (Australia) to seek work, and back to England. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs S. Moyle. Potts, Mollie. Born 1902. Life history 1902–1978. Lived in Cheshire, London and travelled abroad. Worked as a private secretary. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs D. Webster. Powell, Cliff. Born 1902. Diaries 1940–1942. Employed as a colliery accountant in Caerphilly, south Wales. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs W. Angrove. Prout, Mary Anne. Born 1861. Diary April–August 1882. Lived in St. Agnes, Cornwall. No paid employment. Father a coal merchant. BIA (GDP/58).

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Roberts, Thomas. Born 1814. Life history 1814–1865. Lived in Conway, North Wales. Worked variously as a farmer and shop keeper. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs D. Webster. Rudolph (Rudoff), Annie. Born 1905. Diary 1923–1983, but only detailed for 1923. Lived in London. Father a tailor and second-hand clothes dealer. Annie worked in his shop and also attended art and design evening classes at college. BIA (GDP/31). Sealy, Rev. William. Born c.1820. Diary for 1880. English vicar but diary written mainly whilst in Paris. BIA (GDP/109). Shaw, Benjamin. Born 1772. Family history 1772–1841. Lived in north Lancashire and Cumbria. Worked mainly as mechanic. Lancashire Record Office, Preston (DDX/1154/1 and DDX/1154/2). Simpson, Leonora. Born 1839. Diary 1878–1880. Diary covers travels in various parts of British Isles. Home seems to be on the Isle of Wight. Independent means. WA (EHC/53). Smith, Freda (Winifreda Apsley-Smith). Born 1887. Diaries 1904–1914. Initially at boarding school in London. Father a colonel in the British Army; family affluent and well-connected. Lived with parents in London (1905–8), Wiltshire (1908–9) and, after her father’s retirement, Gloucestershire (1909–14), but also stayed for prolonged periods with relatives in Oxfordshire, Northumberland and London, and travelled abroad with parents. No paid employment, but became V.A.D. nurse at start of First World War. BIA (GDP/99). Staniforth, Samuel. Born 1769. Diaries of travel around Britain. Lived in Liverpool. Occupation described as a distributor of stamps. Liverpool Record Office (920 STI). Thomas, Rev. Thomas. Born 1788. Life history 1788–1870. Baptist minister working mainly in Yorkshire. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs M. Hann. Trevelyan, Raleigh. Born 1800. Diary 1813–1814. Lived with parents in London and attended boarding school in Brentford (Middlesex). WA (EHC/191). Walker, E. Date of birth not known. Diary March–April 1915 whilst a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. WA (EHC/208/M1011b). Weeton, Ellen (Nelly). Born 1776. Letter books 1807–1825. South Lancashire, Liverpool and Westmorland. Worked as a schoolteacher and governess. WA EHC/165a/165b/165c.

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Wharton, Richard. Born 1866. Travel diaries 1896–1924. Lived in Liverpool and worked as a grocer and cashier. Liverpool Record Office (920 WHA). Worrall, Thomas. Born 1872. Diary 1894. Lived in Horwich (south Lancashire) and at that time worked at Horwich railway works. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Dr R. Jones. Woolley, Albert. Born c.1894. Diary 1908–1915. Lived with parents in Nottingham and worked as a printer. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs B. Jenkins. Yates, Joseph. Born 1826. Life history compiled from diaries 1826–1896. Originally in London then Leominster (Herefordshire). Worked as a clerk. Authors’ collection. Thanks to Mrs J. Watson.

Index1

A Accident, 197–199 Air raids, 209, 210 Air travel, 66, 155, 156, 220 Anonymous, 116, 117 Arrival, 215, 216 Autobiographies, 10 Automobility, 9 Awdry, Susan, 170 B Bamburgh, 90, 90n31 Bennetts Williams, James, 118, 157 Berry, Ida, 1, 63, 86, 144, 147, 204 Bicycles, 56, 62, 63, 65, 68, 86, 90–92, 97, 134, 146, 147 Birkenhead, 83 Bishopsgate Institute, 27 Black-Hawkins, Verena, 63 Blake, Saima, 110, 160 Boat, 83, 95–97

Brindley, David, 117 Brown, George, 71, 72 Bus, 83, 86–90, 92, 94–98 C Caldwell, Gillian, 26, 66, 74, 92, 93, 98, 120, 163, 164, 164n13, 166, 167, 182, 183, 188, 190, 199, 201, 205, 215 Camberwell, 95 Car, 56, 57, 63–65, 67, 68, 70, 73–76, 81, 84–87, 90–93, 90n32, 95, 95n53, 98 Caring, 105, 110–113 Carriage, 58, 59, 70, 71, 88, 88n22, 90, 91, 95, 131, 131n4, 134, 142, 143, 146, 146n47, 148n54, 198, 198n2, 199, 201, 202 Cars, 5, 6, 8, 30, 37 Chaperone, 129, 136

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 C. G. Pooley, M. E. Pooley, Everyday Mobilities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Diaries, Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12684-0

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INDEX

Charnley, Betty, 5, 25, 36, 45–47, 75, 109, 112, 145, 149, 175, 182, 183, 185, 191, 199, 207, 211, 216, 220–222 Children, 105–111, 106n2, 114, 118, 120–122, 128, 133, 135, 142, 148, 175, 176, 180, 183, 187 City of London, 97 Class, 24, 33, 35, 36, 128–131, 136, 156, 164, 165, 168–171 Climate change, 196 Comfort, 146, 155, 156, 163, 164 Commuting, 177, 178 Computer-based analysis, 32 Conflict, 165 Contagious Diseases Acts, 133, 134 Convenience, 146 Cornwall, 82 Cragside, 90, 90n31, 92 Cumberland, 92, 93, 98 Cycle, 30 Cycling, 2, 155 D Davis, Miss, 130 Death, 105, 110, 120, 121, 216 Delay, 196, 197, 199–201 Departure, 216 Dependence, 104, 105, 122 Dependent mobilities, 106–110 Destination, 215, 216, 223 Diaries, types of, 21–24 Diary of an anonymous male, 96 Discretionary travel, 184–191 Disrupted mobilities, 7, 119–123 Driving, 142, 146, 148, 148n54, 149 Driving licence, 142, 149 Dunn, Frederick, 97, 97n65, 179 Dunn, William, 203

E Edinburgh, 92–94, 163–167 Edward Hall diary collection, 27 Elite mobilities, 30 Employment, 177–182 Environment, 155 Ethics, 24 Ethnographic, 28 Experience, 216–218, 220, 223 F Family, 24, 30, 33, 36, 36n19, 39, 103–123 Fear, 143 Female, 127–150 Female diarists, 26, 30 Female drivers, 84 Fern Smith, Irene, 209 Ferry, 61, 62, 72 Financial difficulties, 160 Fitzmaurice, Gerald Gray, 65, 73, 73n50, 98, 117, 180, 199 Foley, Henry, 169 Forced car ownership, 81 G Gayler, Catherine, 86 Gender, 176 Gender inequality, 127, 128, 149, 150 Grantham, 86, 87 Great Diary Project, 27 Gyde, Elsie, 120 Gyte, Maria, 208 H Harassment, 129, 142, 143, 145, 150 Hardship, 162 Harradence, Thomas, 95 Health, 128, 133

 INDEX 

Holiday, 175, 177, 178, 184, 185, 187, 188 Holt, William, 158 Holtzapffel, Charlotte, 33, 131, 203 Horner, Joshua, 72 Horse, 58–60, 198, 201, 202 Horseback, 146 I Illness, 104, 105, 109, 110, 119, 158, 160, 216 Immobility, 119, 195–211 Income, 128, 129 Independence, 104–106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 122 Inequalities, 218, 222 Infirmity, 196, 205 Influenza, 208, 209 Ireland, 67, 68 J James, John, 157 Japan, 31 Jaques, Henry, 161 Jewish, 120 Joskey, Ronald, 65, 115, 222 Journey purpose, 175–191 L Landscapes, 175, 186, 191 Lee, Elizabeth, 25, 38–40, 62, 72, 83, 111, 134, 136, 143, 146, 147, 180, 185, 188, 200, 204, 206, 223, 224 Lee, John, 34, 35, 39, 61, 197, 198 Leeds, 186 Leesmith, Mary, 88, 90, 109, 163 Leeson, Charlotte, 106, 106n2, 107, 133, 142, 143

237

Leeson, John, 60, 71, 72, 95, 96, 106, 106n2, 107, 163, 167, 198, 203, 205–207, 216, 221 Leggatt, Frederica, 167 Leisure, 131, 133, 142, 147, 157, 163, 166, 167, 176–178, 181, 184–187, 191 Letter book, 27, 32 Letters, 10 Life course, 103–123, 216 Life cycle, 103 Life writing, 10 Literacy, 24, 34 Little, Rhona, 67, 98, 181, 209, 210, 210n47 Liverpool, 117, 118, 130, 134, 135, 140 Local travel, 220 London, 81, 86, 88–91, 94–100, 95n53, 131, 133, 134, 136–139, 142, 144, 145, 148–150, 156, 160, 161, 163, 166–171, 179–181, 187–189 M Male diarists, 25, 26 Manchester, 84–86, 94 Mass Observation, 22 Material structures, 221, 222 Men, 127–130, 135, 138, 139, 141, 142, 146, 149, 150, 181, 188–190 Merseyside, 83, 84 Middling sort, 160 Migration, 4, 5, 7, 197 Migration history, 29 Mobilities theories, 29, 216, 217 Mobility, 216–220, 222–224 Modernity, 98 Money, 105, 117, 123, 155–172 Motor, 84, 85n9, 88n22, 90, 98, 198–200, 203, 204, 209

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INDEX

Motorbus, 62, 63 Motoring, 146–148, 148n54, 155, 156, 165, 166 Mourning, 120–122 The mundane, 3–5, 10, 12 N National travel survey, 8, 177 New mobilities paradigm, 217 Northumberland, 189 Nurse, 106–108, 111 O Old Bailey, 108 Old technologies, 67–76 Omnibus, 62 Oral history, 10, 11 Oxfordshire, 90, 91 P Pedestrians, 130, 141, 144, 198 Pennyfather, Verena, 64, 107, 109, 199 Porter, R., 117 Potts, Mollie, 84, 86n10, 197 Poverty, 156–162 Powell, Clifford, 209 Power, 58, 59, 156, 162, 165, 166, 172 Private, 129, 130, 142, 146, 147 Private transport, 142, 146 Prout, Mary Anne, 82–84, 211 Public, 129, 130, 136, 139, 142–146, 148, 149 Public transport, 130, 139, 142–146, 148, 149, 155, 156, 168, 169 R Rail, 56, 57, 60–63, 156, 197, 203 Railway, 83, 92

Residential mobility, 159 Rhythmanalysis, 57, 58 Ringway airport, 66 Risk, 130, 139, 141, 142 Romance, 31, 178, 186, 188, 190, 191 Routine, 178–184, 187, 191 Rudolph, Annie, 35, 36, 36n19, 43, 44, 112, 120, 121, 137, 138, 141–143, 145, 150, 187, 200 Rural communities, 82, 88, 92 S School, 106–108, 114, 121, 175–177, 183, 184 Seamless travel, 144 Second World War, 108 Separate spheres, 129 Shaw, Benjamin, 158 Shopping, 175, 184, 185 Sibling, 108, 111, 112, 120 Simpson, Leonora, 134 Slow travel, 202 Smallpox, 206 Smith, Freda, 89, 90, 134, 136, 166, 170, 204 Snow, 203–205 Social media, 2 Social norms, 171 South America, 118 Speed, 155, 165–167 Stability, 196 Stagecoach, 114 Staniforth, Samuel, 201 Summer, 167–170 Sustainable mobility, 196 T Technological change, 56, 58–67, 76 Thomas, Rev. Thomas, 159 Time, 55–76

 INDEX 

Time-space compression, 57 Time-space convergence, 57 Topography, 81 Tourist mobility, 30 Train, 196, 197, 199–205 Tram, 83–85, 88, 92–94, 96–98 Tramway, 61 Transport, 104, 106, 110, 114, 116, 123 Transport history, 6, 6n5, 28, 29 Transport technologies, 55, 56, 58, 59, 67, 76 Travel, 155–157, 159–165, 167–172 Travel journal of an anonymous woman, 81–82 Travelling lifestyles, 177 Travel on foot, 83, 86, 88, 90, 92, 95, 155, 159, 160 Travel restrictions, 195 Travel to school, 4 Travel to work, 4, 8, 97 Trevelyan, Raleigh, 114, 219 Tricycle, 62 U Underground railway, 88, 90, 94, 98 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 128

239

V Variability, 223, 224 Vehicles, 198, 199, 209 W Waiting, 196, 197, 200, 211 Walk, 30, 61, 71–75, 90, 92, 95 Walker, E., 66 Walking, 7, 8, 58, 70–75, 130–143, 149, 155, 159 War, 208, 209, 210n47 Watson-Armstrong, 90, 90n31, 136 Weather, 196–198, 200, 202–207 Weeton, Nelly, 59, 130 Wharton, Richard, 62 Wigan Archives, 27, 31, 33 Women, 127–142, 145, 146, 148–150, 178, 179, 181, 185, 188, 190 Wordsworth, Dorothy, 131 Work, 128, 148, 175–186, 188 Y Yates, Joseph, 202 Yorkshire, 88