In
the days before the great Victorian railway network was built people had
to travel around by coach or on horseback.
As journeys took a lot longer this meant that travellers needed somewhere
to stay overnight. All across Britain there were a great number of inns
which gave people food and
accommodation.
Pigot's
Directory of South Wales lists the inns and their landlords
in the Hay area in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. The inns
which put up travellers by stage coach (like the
White Swan listed here) needed to employ a lot of local people
to run them.
Servants were needed to clean
the rooms and look after the guests. There would be boot boys to clean
the travellers' boots and shoes, and grooms to look after the horses.
A cook and her assistants would be busy in the kitchen cooking for the
guests. From this you can see that the inns of the area would be an important
source of employment
for local people in Victorian times.
Some
found drink a way to forget their harsh lives, and in Victorian times many
were worried about drunkenness. This could lead to men mistreating their
wives or poor families having much of what little income they had spent
on drink, instead of food and clothing for the children. Temperance
Societies were set up to encourage men to avoid drink, and the
members of the Methodist Church were not allowed alcohol at all.