For much of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Reigate stood on one of the busiest coaching routes between London and Brighton. Royal carriages regularly passed through the town, stopping to change horses before continuing their journey south. One local woman claimed to have seen several monarchs with her own eyes.
On 23 March 1928 the Surrey Mirror published a letter from a correspondent who had known an elderly lady, Mrs Henry Joyes. He recalled her stories of seeing George III, William IV and Queen Victoria as they passed through Reigate.
A correspondent writes: ‘There was living in June, 1897, at the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, in St. Mary’s Road, Reigate, an old lady, Mrs Henry Joyes, who remembered having, at different periods, seen Queen Victoria and three predecessors the throne, pass through Reigate. Mrs. Joyes was born in June, 1812, and when a little girl on her way to school one afternoon she stopped at the Castle Gate in London Road, to see King George III pass by in his coach on his way from Brighton to London. Her next glimpse of royalty was getting sight of George IV as he passed through Reigate on his way to Brighton. She also saw William IV and Queen Adelaide driving from Brighton to the Metropolis. She was very pleased at remembering the arrival of the Prince Consort and Queen Victoria at the White Hart, Reigate, where they stopped on their way to lunch, having with them their first child, the Princess Royal (Empress Frederick of Germany), who was then in long clothes.’
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Her first recollection deserves closer examination.
Mrs Joyes was born in 1812, yet King George III was no longer travelling by the time she was old enough to remember events. Following a severe relapse of mental illness in November 1810, he became permanently incapacitated. Blind, increasingly deaf and suffering profound delusions, he was declared unfit to rule in 1811 when Parliament established the Regency.
For the remainder of his life, he lived in seclusion at Windsor Castle and never again travelled to Brighton, or anywhere else, before his death in 1820.
It is therefore extremely unlikely that Mrs Joyes ever saw George III.
The person she almost certainly remembered was his son, George, the Prince Regent, who became King George IV in 1820. The Prince Regent adored Brighton, transforming it with the spectacular Royal Pavilion, and travelled frequently between London and the Sussex coast, passing through Reigate.
The Prince Regent regularly stopped at the White Hart Hotel while his horses were changed before continuing south. Built in 1774 on the site of two earlier shops and a corn store, the White Hart became the centre of Reigate's coaching trade until the arrival of the railway in the mid-nineteenth century. It was demolished in 1933.
It is easy to imagine a young girl watching the splendid royal coaches arrive in Reigate before setting off once more for Brighton. Many years later, it would have been understandable if she confused the Prince Regent with his famous father.
Stage Coach outside the White Hart Inn, Reigate
Mrs Joyes' later memories are much more convincing.
William IV, the "Sailor King", genuinely loved Brighton and visited the Royal Pavilion almost every year of his reign. Unlike many monarchs, he was remarkably informal, often travelling in open carriages, acknowledging cheering crowds and even walking through towns without an escort. William's horses would have been changed at the White Hart, giving spectators in Reigate an excellent opportunity to see the King at close quarters.
Mrs Joyes also remembered Queen Victoria passing through the town. Soon after her accession she briefly stopped in Reigate while travelling to Brighton. On another occasion she paused for lunch with Prince Albert and their infant son, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.
Although Mrs Joyes almost certainly misidentified George III, her recollections still ring true. They remind us that before the railway transformed travel, Reigate was an important stopping place on the royal road to Brighton. For generations of local people, the arrival of a royal coach at the White Hart was an exciting spectacle, and one that remained vivid in memory for decades afterwards.
Surrey Mirror 13 April 1900 and 23 March 1928
Illustration by the artists J. & G. Temple from Brighton and its Coaches. A history of the London and Brighton Road (1894) William C. A. Blew.