Carriages and Travel in Regency England
WITH Allison LaneRegistration ends October 11, 2025!
Class Description
Does your hero drive a curricle, a sporty phaeton, or a cabriolet? What is the difference between a barouche and a landau? How does a man transport his family and staff to London for the Season? Is there a better way to track down your runaway than quizzing ostlers at coaching inns? How do you get to countries across the sea? Carriages and Travel in Regency England will answer these and many other questions. Allison Lane will cover styles and fittings for all period carriages, where to buy them, how to maintain them, and the ins and outs of land and sea travel during the Regency period. So let’s step back in time and discover how our characters moved from place to place.
Allison’s class consists of 16 lessons posted Monday through Thursday for four weeks. She encourages questions and answers them as they arise. The class includes images but no video. Lesson topics are:
- Lesson 1: Introduction, vocabulary, & bibliography
- Lesson 2: History of carriages & travel, pre-19th century Lesson
- Lesson 3: British road construction & conditions during the Regency Lesson
- Lesson 4: Regency land travel – horses, driving, inns, tollgates Lesson
- Lesson 5: Hazards of land travel – accidents, weather, breakdowns, highwaymen
- Lesson 6: Distance, travel speed, carriage affordability, parking
- Lesson 7: Carriage specs – dimensions, prices, finish choices, buying used
- Lesson 8: Stage coaches – style, routes, prices, the reality of stage travel
- Lesson 9: Mail coaches – style, routes, mail service, where to board one
- Lesson 10: Other hired transportation – post chaises, hackneys, et
- Lesson 11: Private carriages – coachman/postilion driven
- Lesson 12: Private carriages – owner driven
- Lesson 13: Caring for horses & carriages – stables, mews, staff & their duties
- Lesson 14: Crossing the sea – packets and ships
- Lesson 15: London traffic – commercial & utility vehicles that clog the streets Lesson
- Lesson 16: Carriage collections in England
About the Instructor
Allison’s resume is decidedly eclectic, with degrees in applied math and computer science, plus a minor in astronomy. Her first career was in computer software design. Her second was teaching classical piano. Her third is writing. So far she has published nineteen traditional Regency romances, three Regency historicals, and seven Regency novellas, mostly for Signet, many of which won awards. [Her entire backlist is available digitally from regencyreads.com, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, applebooks.com, kobo.com, etc., with the most recent novella available in the anthology A Regency Holiday, print, digital, and audio.] But her interest in 19th century vehicles and travel began in childhood, triggered by tales told by her grandfather, who was born in 1870 and became a blacksmith, wheelwright, and wagon maker, following in his father’s footsteps.
Class Delivery
Class Format
4-WEEK COURSE
Written Lectures: A
pdf file for every lesson plus a second pdf containing additional information for all pictures used in the class
Pictures: Images for each lesson will be compressed into a .zip file for easy downloading
Video Lectures: none
Audio Files: none
Writing Exercises: none
Class Fees
$40 for RFW members
$55 for non-members
Registration ends October 11, 2025!
Scholarships are available for members