Royal Mail parcel was a dead weight

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The arrival of the Royal Mail stagecoach, pictured below, at The Lion Hotel always caused great excitement.


But 187 years ago today a delivery caused unexpected hustle and bustle at the inn.

On December 7, 1824, two boxes from Dublin arrived on the Holyhead coach bound for London.

When the boxes were taken down to be weighed at the Lion coach office, the cord round the box broke and the box fell to the floor.

As the startled staff looked down there was the head of a dead man.

A crowd gathered and the coach office owner ordered the boxes to be taken to the Guild Hall where the body of an elderly thin man was found in one box and the body of an elderly thin woman in another box.

A surgeon was called who confirmed that the two had died of natural causes and a jury later agreed with him.

It is believed that the boxes were allowed to continue to London for dissection.

But as The Salopian Journal commented: “We trust the parties will think it is necessary, for the sake of decency, to pack their treasures a little more carefully.”

The paper continued: “In the present incidence no blame can be attached to the coach proprietors for conveying such luggage as there was not the slightest smell, nor from the appearance of the boxes could anyone have supposed that they contained such articles as were found on them.”

There’s more about the stagecoach service in Shrewsbury in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

Autographed copies can be bought at the special Christmas price of £6 including postage in the UK by emailing John@jbutterworth.plus.com