• Home
  • Audio/Podcasts
  • Austensites
  • AV/E-Texts
  • History
  • JA Novels & Bio
  • Links
  • Original Sources/19th C. Texts
  • Social Customs During the Regency
  • Teacher/Student
  • Writer/Literature Resources

Jane Austen's World

This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Regency Ball at the JASNA AGM in Brooklyn
Interview with Susannah Fullerton, Author of A Dance With Jane Austen, and Book Giveaway »

The Shifting Lancaster Sands and the Dangers of 19th C. Travel

November 11, 2012 by Vic

I’ve previously discussed the difficulties and dangers of travel in the Regency era in a number of posts on this blog, but the Lancaster Sands in Lanchashire presented a variety of difficulties for even the most knowledgeable traveler. My first introduction to this region was via a William Turner painting, Lancaster Sands, painted ca. 1826. I was struck by the laborers and villagers walking alongside a coach in shallow water. Why would a coach travel so slowly that pedestrians could keep pace?

Lancaster Sands, William Turner. Image @Wiki Paintings. Birminham Museum and Art Gallery

Thumbnail showing truer colors of Turner’s painting.

As it turns out, the crossing over the Lancaster Sands to reach Ulverston was fraught with danger, especially after heavy rains. In the early 19th century travelers crossed this watery passage in the Lake District at low tide, for this was the shorter (but more dangerous) route.

The sands forming the Bay of Morecambe, covered by the sea at high water, are crossed every day by travellers whose time or inclination leads them to choose this route rather than one more circuitous, and nearly thrice the distance, inland. – The Sands, John Roby

The crossing was extremely hazardous due to shifting sands and the timing of the departure had to be perfect:

“Coach services, scheduled to accommodate the changing tides, ran between hotels in Lancaster and Ulverston. In 1820, one traveller relates, he was rudely awakened in his Lancaster hotel at five in the morning when the coach driver burst into his bedroom shouting, “For God’s sake make haste! The tide is down … if you delay we shall all be drowned.” – The Pleasures and Treasures of Britain: A Discerning Traveller’s Companion (Google eBook)David Kemp Dundurn, Jan 12, 1992 – p. 307

Otley Map, Lancaster Sands, 1818. Image @Portsmouth University.

Today, as over 150 years ago,  the Sands Road requires a guide to help travelers negotiate the dangerous tide floods.

Before the railway was made, the old way of crossing the sands from Lancaster to Ulverstone must have been very striking, both from the character of the scenery around and a sense of danger, which cannot but have given something of the piquancy of adventure to the journey. The channels are constantly shifting, particularly after heavy rains, when they are perilously uncertain. For many centuries past, two guides have conducted travellers over them. Their duty is to observe the changes, and find fordable points. In all seasons and states of the weather this was their duty, and in times of storm and fog it must have been fraught with danger. These guides were anciently appointed by the Prior of Cartmel, and received synodal and Peter-pence for their maintenance. They are now paid from the revenues of the duchy. The office of guide has been so long held by a family of the name of Carter, that the country people have given that name to the office itself. A gentleman, crossing from Lancaster, once asked the guide if “Carters” were never lost on the sands. “I never knew any lost,” said the guide; “there’s one or two drowned now and then, but they’re generally found somewhere i’th bed when th’ tide goes out.” A certain ancient mariner, called Nuttall, who lives at Grange, on the Cartmel shore, told me that “people who get their living by ‘following the sands,’ hardly ever die in their beds. They end their days on the sands- and even their horses and carts are generally lost there. I have helped,” said he, “to pull horses and coaches, ay, and, guides too, out of the sands. The channel,” he continued, “is seldom two days together in one place. You may make a chart one day, and, before the ink is dry, it will have shifted.” I found, indeed, by inquiry, that those who have travelled the sands longest, are always most afraid of them ; and that these silent currents, which shimmer so beautifully in the sunshine, have been “the ribs of death” to thousands. – Over Sands to the Lakes by Edwin Waugh, 1860, Internet archive

Today, signs warn visitors about the passage, stating: “This route has natural hazards, seek local guidance.”  The following link shows modern images of the route (Lake Guide Sands Road), which is still crossed today with experienced guides.  A 19th century visitor related that:

It is safest to cross at spring-tides; the water then is more completely drained out, and the force of the tide sweeps the bottom clean from mud and sediment. – The Sands, John Roby

Many who took this route in days of yore, such as William Wordsworth, found the trip to be so memorable that it lived in their memory for a long time. Turner created a number of striking images of the dangerous crossing. In all of them, the pedestrians and riders stayed close to the coach as guides gauged how and where the sands had shifted with the last tides or storms. Brogs, or broken branches of furze, left by previous guides visually led the way. You can see a few of them placed in the lower right corner of Turner’s painting below.

In this dramatic painting, Turner shows the Lancaster coach struggling across the sands and being overtaken by the incoming tide in a rainstorm. (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). One can imagine the panic of the passengers upon seeing the incoming water, and the struggles of the horses as they pulled their heavy loads along the soft sands.

Painter David Cox also painted the Lancaster Sands crossing. His images are less romantic than Turner’s, but dramatic nevertheless:  Lancaster Sands by David Cox, 1835. The route through the sands were ever-changing. The guides tested the way daily, looking for shifts in the channels and for quick sand, but even the most experienced could not prevent the drowning of carriages and coaches and the deaths of people who were caught by the incoming tides or who were trapped in quagmires. Graves in local cemeteries are testament to the many lives that were lost during these crossings.

David Cox, Sketch for Crossing Lancaster Sands. Image @Tate Britain

By the mid-19th century, the railroads provided a safer and faster route. Today, the crossing over the sands is a voluntary one and taken for the experience or thrill, not out of necessity.

Image of a carriage traversing the Sands in high tides from Waugh’s book.

More on the topic:

This site shows modern images of the Lancaster Sands: Sands Road at Low Water

Old Cumbria Gazzeteer: Lancaster Sands Road 

Share with others:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in 19th Century England, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Transportation, Regency Travel | Tagged David Cox, Lancaster Sands, Lanchashire, William Turner | 20 Comments

20 Responses

  1. on November 12, 2012 at 00:01 Nancy

    Wow! How extraordinary that mention of this hasn’t come my way before. Great sleuthing.
    I can just see some young men having bets about who could cross safely in the most perilous of times. Also, can see some young heir losing his life because he thought he didn’t need a guide.


  2. on November 12, 2012 at 00:40 suzan

    fascinating but scary.


  3. on November 12, 2012 at 02:10 margy66

    Elizabeth Gaskell knew spent time at Silverdale near Morecambe Bay and did some of her writing there. The Sexton’s Hero – a short story, features the sinking sands. My grandfather was riding a horse on the sands when a fog came down (in 1920’s or 30’s). He was able to find his way to safety when he heard a train going over he viaduct so then knew which direction he was facing. Prince Philip took a coach and horses across the sands in the late 70’s I think. They are still treacherous and require a guide if you want to cross them. Thank you for all your fascinating posts Vic. I poach and post them often onto Jane Austen Circle Singapore. Please check us out.


  4. on November 12, 2012 at 02:28 LordBeariOfBow

    Google Earth show the trip from Lancaster to Grange is 27.9 miles and the journey takes 41 minutes, that’s 2012, I can’t imagine how long the trip would have taken back in the 19th century and beyond.

    I also can’t imagine why people would be making this journey back then. Obviously by crossing the sands they cut off many miles it must have been of great necessity for them to attempt the crossing.

    Remember how aghast Elizabeth is when Mr Darcy suggests that Mrs Collins must find it agreeable being so close to her family. 50 miles of good roads.

    I doubt that the roads in the north of Lancashire were so good, so what would induce them to take such a perilous journey is beyond me.

    I think you’ll have to do some more digging Vic and let us know who and why these people made the crossing and how often, which is only fair since you’ve aroused our curiosity and you can’t leave us suspended :o)


    • on November 12, 2012 at 08:51 Vic

      Excellent question! You will find most of your answers in this delightful short account: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/54230/. Your question prompted me to make a few changes in my post to address these issues.

      As you know, travel was slow going even with improved roads. Heavily laden coaches for horses walking on soft sands must have made their journeys even more difficult. One cannot imagine how tired these beasts of burden must have felt at the end of their journey, especially if pushed to pull harder due to incoming tides.

      I suppose that people took this route rather than the longer one on land to save time and money. As the passage stated, only those guides who survived the longest feared the journey the most.


      • on November 12, 2012 at 19:41 LordBeariOfBow

        Thank you Vic, it was a good short story but the first part stopped shopped short of telling us why people elected to cross the sands. Coward that I am nothing would have induced me to make that voyage back then.

        I would however have enjoyed making the crossing with the Duke of Edinburgh with all the back up safety measures in place. Although I have no doubt that he would have braved the trip without them.


  5. on November 12, 2012 at 07:41 Diana Birchall

    A perfect post…fascinating, fresh historical research, and luminous paintings! What more could anyone ask.


  6. on November 12, 2012 at 09:02 margy66

    Check this You tube clip of Prince Philip’s horse-drawn crossing (1985 – I was wrong with the date in my earlier comment). It gives an insight of what it was like in 19th Century.


    • on November 13, 2012 at 01:07 Vic

      Thank you for this fascinating video, Margy!


      • on November 13, 2012 at 01:36 Diana Birchall

        Have to register yet another “Wow” moment. I couldn’t access the Prince Philip clip from this website, and thought it was blocked to the U.S., but strangely, when you, Vic, wrote a reply thanking Margy, I could see it via that link. Watched with my jaw dropping out of my head. What an incredible thing to do. I know a bit about such tides, because when I was on an island called St. Agnes in the Scilly Isles, there’s a causeway where the water rushes in so fast a person crossing a bare sand 20-foot stretch, could get cut off on the twin island (if not worse). I started walking across, and a man on the other island shouted to me, “Go back! Run!” I thought he was nuts but the next second I was knee deep in water and went back fast, all right! I’d have had to spend half the night on a island with only two houses, and no doubt this had happened to him before. :-)


  7. on November 12, 2012 at 09:23 amanda

    Thank you for this. It brings back childhood memories as my grandparents lived at Lancaster and tales of lost coaches – and even better ghostly lost coaches – in the bay struck a deep chord with me as a kid. The bay’s latest most famous victims were Chinese immigrant cocklers swept away by the tide only a few years back. The area also has some other fascinating historical links with the early Quakers and with slavery – the grave of Black Sambo is certainly worth googling. I never knew Turner had painted these scenes, thanks again!


  8. on November 12, 2012 at 12:36 ellaquinnauthor

    Wow. Just amazing. I’m surprised they even did it


  9. on November 12, 2012 at 12:39 Gerri Bowen

    A very interesting post, but scary for me. Just reading about the crossings, shifting sands and incoming sea had my stomach churning and hands clenching!


  10. on November 12, 2012 at 23:29 Andrew Capes

    Vic, this is fascinating. The sands are more usually known as Morecambe Bay and are still treacherous, not least because they look so inviting when the tide is out. The cockle picking tragedy claimed 21 lives in 2004. I visit Lancaster regularly, and I live near another tidal basin (Montrose, in Scotland) which is almost equally dramatic – it is well known for its wildlife, being visited by around 50,000 migrating pink-footed geese each autumn, which make a fine sight and a deafening noise.


    • on November 13, 2012 at 01:11 Vic

      Andrew, I found a link to the tragedy on The Guardian, 2004. It’s tragic how many young Chinese lost their lives. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/feb/06/china.uk


  11. on November 12, 2012 at 23:49 Diana Birchall

    Andrew, I only just realized why Dorothy L. Sayers, in her “Have His Carcase,” which is certainly all about shifting sands, calls the villain “Morecambe.” Hilarious! Your comment made me want to live in England (as I always have wanted, do want, and will want) more than ever. Something about a people who know about 50,000 migrating pink-footed geese…


    • on November 13, 2012 at 01:08 Vic

      Count me in as one among many US citizens who would love to live in England, Diana, if even for a short time. Such a fascinating, varied, & rich heritage!


  12. on November 13, 2012 at 00:27 kfield2

    Fascinating! I’ve never heard anything like this before. If money, or the lack thereof, was an inducement. wouldn’t that be mitigated by the amount of money they’d have had to pay the guides? It all sounds so strange to me.


  13. on November 14, 2012 at 05:21 Sophy

    Thanks for your research, Vic and Margy. It’s amazing to me that people would have risked the tides and quicksand.


  14. on November 18, 2012 at 17:33 JuneA**

    It is absolutely amazing what I learn from Jane Austen lovers! Great post!!



Comments are closed.

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 7,126 other subscribers
  • Items of Interest

  • Follow Jane Austen's World on WordPress.com
  • Blog Stats

    • 16,638,175 hits
  • RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND RESOURCES

  • Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen's England is now available! By JAW contributor Brenda S. Cox. See Review. Available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.
  • Praying with Jane: 31 Days through the Prayers of Jane Austen, Rachel Dodge, and a bookmark with the quote "A whole family assembling regulary for the purpose of prayer is fine!" Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
    We also recommend JAW contributor Rachel Dodge's devotionals based on Jane Austen's prayers and classic literature. Reviews:
    Praying With Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen;
    The Secret Garden Devotional;
    The Anne of Green Gables Devotional;
    The Little Women Devotional.
  • Book cover of Bath: An Adumbration in Rhyme by John Matthews
    Bath -An Adumbration in Rhyme. Edited by Ben Wiebracht. Read the review of the book at this link. Click to order the book on Amazon US or Amazon UK
  • In Sri Lanka lies the grave of Rear Admiral Charles Austen CB, Jane Austen’s Brother

    The neglected tombstone found in an overgrown burial ground.

    Rear Admiral Charles Austen CB

    Died off Prome, the 7th October 1852, while in command of the Naval Expedition on the river Irrawady against the Burmese Forces, aged 73 years.”

    The grave after restoration

    Read the full article in The Sunday Times. June 27, 2021.

  • The Obituary of Charlotte Collins by Andrew Capes

    Click on image to read the story.

  • Comments

    “My idea of good company…is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion

     

    Gentle readers: Please feel free to post your comments and continue the conversation! Due to SPAM, we will no longer accept comments on posts after 30 days of publication. In some instances, links will be removed from comments as well.

  • Administrators and Contributors

    Vic Sanborn, founder of this blog, is supported by a team of talented and knowledgeable writers about Jane Austen and the Regency era. They are:

    • Brenda Cox
    • Rachel Dodge and
    • Tony Grant, who now contributes his photos from London and England

    Click on their names to enter their own blogs.

    In addition, we thank the many experts and authors who frequently contribute their posts and opinions, and who continue to do so freely or at our request.

  • Pin It!

    Follow Me on Pinterest
  • Top Posts

    • Regency Fashion: Men's Breeches, Pantaloons, and Trousers
      Regency Fashion: Men's Breeches, Pantaloons, and Trousers
    • Social Customs During the Regency
      Social Customs During the Regency
    • Men's hair styles at the turn of the 19th century
      Men's hair styles at the turn of the 19th century
    • Highclere Castle Floor Plan: The Real Downton Abbey
      Highclere Castle Floor Plan: The Real Downton Abbey
    • Dressing for the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice: Regency Fashion
      Dressing for the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice: Regency Fashion
    • The Servant's Quarters in 19th Century Country Houses Like Downton Abbey
      The Servant's Quarters in 19th Century Country Houses Like Downton Abbey
    • Dancing at the Netherfield Ball: Pride and Prejudice
      Dancing at the Netherfield Ball: Pride and Prejudice
    • Regency Hygiene: The Bourdaloue
      Regency Hygiene: The Bourdaloue
    • Captain Wentworth’s Love Letter
      Captain Wentworth’s Love Letter
    • Winter, Regency Style
      Winter, Regency Style
  • Recent Posts

    • Winter, Regency Style
    • Book Review: Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
    • Tracing Jane Austen’s Royal Ancestors Via Her Parents, by Ronald Dunning
    • Happy Birthday, Cassandra Austen!
    • Segmented Sleep: A common Phenomenon Before the Industrial Revolution
  • Links to Jane Austen Blogs

    Click here to enter the page. Topics include Regency fashion, historic foods, Jane Austen societies, British sites, related topics. Click on image.

  • May we suggest?

  • Hello, my name is Vic and I live in Maryland, USA. I have adored Jane Austen almost all of my life. I am a proud lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me and my team. We do not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we do accept and keep books and CDs to review.

    If you would like to share a new site, or point out an error, please email us. (Yes, we are fallible. We'll own up to our mistakes and will make the corrections with a polite smile on our faces.) Write us at

    gmailbw

    Thank you for visiting this blog. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

  • Project Gutenberg: eBook of Stage-coach and Mail in Days of Yore, Volume 2 (of 2), by Charles G. Harper

    STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE: A PICTURESQUE HISTORY
    OF THE COACHING AGE, VOL. II, By CHARLES G. HARPER. 1903. Click on this link.

     

  • Top Posts & Pages

    • Regency Fashion: Men's Breeches, Pantaloons, and Trousers
    • Social Customs During the Regency
    • Men's hair styles at the turn of the 19th century
    • Highclere Castle Floor Plan: The Real Downton Abbey
    • Dressing for the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice: Regency Fashion
    • The Servant's Quarters in 19th Century Country Houses Like Downton Abbey
    • Dancing at the Netherfield Ball: Pride and Prejudice
    • Regency Hygiene: The Bourdaloue
    • Captain Wentworth’s Love Letter
    • Winter, Regency Style
  • Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape
  • Disclaimer: Our team makes no profit from this blog. We may receive books (physical or digitized) and DVDs for review purposes.

  • Copyright Statement: © Jane Austen's World blog, 2009-2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owners is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jane Austen's World with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Jane Austen's World
    • Join 7,126 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Jane Austen's World
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: