BY this time a century ago, the development of railways in Victorian Britain was not seen as having been a total blessing.

"Crowquill", in his Journal comment column for this week of 1903, wrote: "There was lamentation in many places when the railways drove the old coaches from the roads. Inns at which the coaches had stopped saw them no more.

"The enormous development of railway travelling has benefited the licensed trade in cities and towns, but from Bromyard comes a sorry tale in the wake of the extension of the Worcester and Bromyard line to Leominster.

"An innkeeper in the town has suffered a sharp drop in his business and has become insolvent. In his statement to the Bankruptcy Court, he said that goods which used to be fetched from Bromyard for the district around are now sent to the smaller stations, and custom at his inn has consequently fallen off.

"No doubt there are similar circumstances all around the kingdom but generally, of course, the advantage of railway facilities is very great. There are compensations even on the ways from which some vehicular traffic has been withdrawn. Cyclists are welcome where coaches and carts formerly called."