Past and Present, c.1860 (wood engraving on paper)

By Leighton Bros (1858-1895 (fl.)) Depicts a mail coach of William Chaplin on the Manchester - London, Northampton, Stockport. Leicester route in a state of dereliction in a farmyard, being used by farm animals. In the background is a new railway station with signals, telegraph and a 2-2-0 tender steam locomotive pulling train of passenger carriages. The mail coach service was almost immediately affected by the arrival of the railways in the 1830s. The GPO quickly took advantage of this new and faster method of transport to replace the mail coaches. The last of the London based coaches ceased in 1846, although this method of conveyance continued for cross post services between some provincial towns until the 1850s. The last coach in the Midlands ran out of Manchester in 1858. Leighton Bros (1858-1895 (fl.)). Leighton Bros. was a partnership of two brothers who founded a firm of printers of colour wood-engravings and lithographs. George Leighton trained under George Baxter; printed and published the 'Illustrated London News', 1858-1885; and patented a process of colour printing invented by Dean Wolstenholme, junior.