ABSTRACT
James Pickford's history during the first half of the nineteenth century reads almost like the script of a classic business drama. The old heads which had guided the firm to fame and fortune had passed on, leaving young men of little experience to take up their inheritance. The north-south line of Pickfords' road and canal operations is clearly spelled out, and with a number of interesting features. One of these is the distribution of horse strength, which it will be noted related only to wagons. A map of Pickfords' services, published in 1835 by way of advertisement, illustrates the maximum extent of the firm's activities at the peak of the pre-railway transport system. Two features stand out, the heavy concentration of agencies and services within the traditional territory between London and Lancashire, but with outriders to Bristol, Worcester and the West Riding, and the continued employment of road transport as feeder to, and parallel with, canals.
