When I first became interested in coaching history about forty years ago, there was one picture that I found particularly inspiring. It was of a coaching team on a high open road with a pair of cock horses ridden by a traditionally jacketed postillion hitched in front.  I eventually discovered it to be a photograph of Lewis Priestman’s ‘Venture’ Road Coach taken near Shotley Bridge in County Durham. It was a picture that struck a chord. Here was a full-size Shanks Road Coach with a stylish yet very workmanlike appearance being presented as not so much a showing turnout, but as a practical and effective working vehicle maintaining old fashioned values.  The postillion in his ball button coat, the whip in a grey bowler and the guard on the back with his long coach horn all just exuded professionalism and attention to detail.

Over the years I have learned a lot more about this coach, its owner and his staff. The coaching revival was established in the south of England in the 1860’s when several gentlemen who enjoyed driving four horse teams set out nostalgically to recreate the excitement of travel in the ‘Golden Age’ prior to the 1830’s. Lewis Priestman was among them and eventually he brought the movement back north to his home countryside.

Initially in 1891 he ran a Cowlard and Selby Coach that he named ‘Venture’ from Newcastle to Shotley Bridge. He went on to coach on the Yorkshire coast and by 1908 was using a Shanks Road Coach that he also called ‘Venture’ on the Scarborough to Harrogate Road.

After the First World War coaching took time to re-establish but around 1923, Mr Priestman began to run the Venture from his home at Derwent Lodge in Shotley Bridge to Blanchland, three days a week through the summer. Around 1930 he shortened the run to reach ‘The Punch Bowl’ Inn at Edmundbyers. The Venture continued this regularly until 1939.

The Venture would leave from Derwent Lodge and at Derwent Dene bridge a pair of posted cock horses were put on for the long pull up to Meerburn crossroads. From there it went through Shotley Field to Unthank where a fresh team were put on to reach Edmundbyers.  On the return journey the cock horses met the Coach at the Derwent Bridge and pulled up to Carterway Heads with another change of team at Unthank for the return to Derwent Lodge.

The regular staff on the Coach were Lewis Priestman’s manager, John Elliott, seen in a grey bowler in almost all of the many photographs, and Harry Elliott who was the postillion.  The guard was Will Payne who was the ring guard once at the annual Olympia Horse Show and also guard on Sylvia Brocklebank’s successful and much travelled ‘Wonder’ Road Coach.  Mr Priestman drove the Venture whenever he could but on other occasions George Burgess, Tom Easy or Will Payne might be seen on the box.

When Mr Priestman passed away the Venture went to the Nicholson family, proprietors of the Newcastle Vaux brewery and keen coaching people. Then it was sold and ended up in Australia for a while before being brought back to the UK and restored in its Scarborough to Harrogate livery by the late Brian Wicks and his son John.

In 2025, John Wicks generously loaned the Venture to Chris Thomson at the Beamish Open Air Museum for their annual horse-drawn weekend on the museum roads. He did stipulate that because there had been a grey team on the Coach in so many of the pictures, it would be nice if the Venture could be horsed with a grey team again. So David and Emma West brought their grey team up from Woburn in Bedfordshire and  I was loaned a horn reputed to have been played on the Coach.  For two days we put the Venture on the road at the museum.  While we were up there, we were taken to see the Venture’s old route and took the opportunity to visit both Will Payne’s unmarked burial place and Lewis Priestman’s headstone.  Afterwards the Coach remained at the museum. I was pleasantly surprised at the enormous amount of community interest it generated, with many recalling their links to it and the people who worked alongside it.  Many stories were added to the collection.

Back in the 1930’s when Lewis Priestman was linked to a bus company, also called ‘the Venture’, a promotional photograph was taken at this spot. With the help of a lovely vintage bus from the museum the 2026 version was recreated.

In 2026 there was a much more ambitious plan, to run the Venture on some of its old roads.  David and Emma West travelled north to Beamish with nine horses and a second coach, their own St. David Road Coach, to put on the museum roads for the horse-drawn weekend. But this year we went up a day early, and on the Friday before the event we loaded the Venture on the lorry and took it to Shotley Bridge.

While this was not an advertised event and was primarily an opportunity for the museum to recreate some of the old pictures and for some descendants of Priestman’s staff to witness, a big crowd of well-wishers had assembled at the Crown & Crossed Swords to see us off. In Priestman’s time it was the Commercial Hotel and Livery Stables. Some posters and coach cards had been produced for the day and were distributed. Harry Elliott’s grandson brought the posting coat that his grandfather used to wear on the Coach. It was made by a local tailor in Gateshead, and was tiny, in bright scarlet, and in remarkably good shape.

We set off down the road to Derwent Dene Bridge where Emma was waiting with a pair of cock horses, then we hitched them and went for the pull up Blue House Bank.  I’d never previously been on a Coach with a cock horse pair that really had to work. The power they added was tangible to the degree that one felt ‘held’ in one’s seat! We breezed up the hill to the Meerburn crossroads in tremendous style.

From here the Coach continued to the site of the old change at Unthank where again, several local people assembled to see it and recounted memories of it on the road. The original stone water troughs used for the horses were all still there. Here we boxed the horses to Derwent Bridge before setting off on the last uphill leg with the greys to Edmundbyers where the Punchbowl is now the Derwent Inn. We were met with another great reception and some welcome refreshment before setting off back to end the day at the waterside at Derwent Bridge.  On the way home we paused at St John’s church at Snods Edge where Lewis Priestman is buried. We took the cock horses into the cemetery and I played ‘Home’ at the grave.

This Coach has a tremendous and heart-warming local community following which continued to surprise us all day.  For me, it was a day to tick off many items on the bucket list of coaching ambitions!