Roads were made pretty much at will, and were repaired at pleasure. Covered waggons, like Crowley’s, drawn by 4 or 6 heavy horses, crept along the rough circuitous roads. It was not till 1763 that turnpike-gates were established, to raise money to keep roads in repair. Stage coaches then ventured into districts they had not visited before. Previous to a road being made along the Wharfage, coaches had to toil up the hill at the back of the Swan, but after the bridge was built they went under it and turned up by the stables to the front of the Company’s Inn, the Tontine. Afterwards they ran somewhere at the back and came into the old road at Lincoln Hill. Ultimately the present road was made by Styches pit to the top of the bank. At one time four coaches ran through the town; two from Shrewsbury to Cheltenham, L’Hirondelle and the Hibernia; and two from Shrewsbury to Birmingham; the Salopian and, we think, the Emerald. The two latter belonged to the brothers Hemmings, who drove them; but who afterwards quarrelled and ran in opposition to each other. Taylor of the Lion started the “Young Salopian” in opposition; and Hemmings then called his the “Old Salopian.” When the Birmingham and London railway opened, Taylor got a petition numerously signed to the Post Master General, asking in an apparently disinterested way to be allowed to carry the mail bags gratuitously to Birmingham, at the same time binding himself to forfeit a heavy sum if he failed to be in time. He obtained his wish and immediately called his coach the Royal Mail; which not only brought him custom but saved him £1 4s. 0d. per week at Tern Gate, 18s. at Watling street, £1 4s. 0d. at Priorslee, 12s. at Shifnal, and tolls at all the other gates to Birmingham. John Peters took a fancy for driving the Hibernia, thinking he could take it down the steep hills between Shrewsbury and Ironbridge without stopping to have the wheels looked. The first steep descent was the Wyle-cop, and this he managed to get down without accident; but in trying the experiment down Leighton Bank, shortly before the first change of horses, the coach, driver, and passengers came to grief, and were pitched right over into a field at the bottom of the hill. Peters was seriously injured, and some of the passengers were badly hurt; but Peters never tried a similar experiment to the end of his days.