Passengers often wrote their will before undertaking a stagecoach journey. Not only were the flinty roads dangerous, but they were also beset by ruthless highwaymen.

There has been a coaching inn in this Surrey village since 1453. Christopher Columbus was merely a two-year-old toddler, and the Wars of the Roses hadn’t even begun.

Passengers risking journeys on the London to Portsmouth Road, were relieved to arrive at the cosy Talbot Inn, 25 miles from London. Pulling in through the tall carriage archway, for the horses to be changed for the next 10 to 15 mile leg, guests would be relieved to feel the warm, cosy hug of The Talbot. They needed a pint of ale and a hearty meal.

Visitors arriving at the Talbot Inn today, with its ancient beams, some sourced from ships’ timbers, and dark wood panelling, still sense a sanctuary.

The welcome

Although parking is a challenge in busy Ripley, the hotel has plenty of spaces for patrons.

At reception, our restaurant dinner booking is checked, and the key handed over.

The room

Trafalgar, otherwise known as Room 1, is one of the fourposter rooms, up creaking stairs, on the first floor of the original inn. A dark wood fourposter bed matches the antiquated colours of the ceiling beams. Ivy fringes windows that are now doubled glazed.

Two armchairs sit either side of what was once a chimney breast, now filled with a small ornamental trunk. Prints of pencil-drawn grand buildings of The Regency era, hung on pale cream walls, take guests back to the stagecoach era.

Fourposter rooms are equipped with both kettle and…

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