Charles Bianconi (1786-1875).
1.EARLY LIFE
Carlo Bianconi was born in the village of Tregolo in
Northern Italy on the 24th September 1786. He had three
brothers and a sister called Barbara. He had a happy,
carefree childhood on the family farm where he looked
after the animals and enjoyed the outdoor life. His father
also had a small silk mill. Carlo was not very interested in
school and did not make much progress there.
When he was 15 he fell in love with the local landlord’s
daughter. Her name was Giovanna although Carlo
always called her Vanna for short. When her father
found out that they were in love he was livid. He had
arranged for Giovanna to marry a wealthy noble man
and he did not want her to marry a poor boy from the
village. He called to the Bianconi house and advised
Carlo’s parents to send him away, far away.
Carlo’s family thought that it was time that he made his
own way in the world. It was decided that he and some
other boys from the village would travel to London to
find work there with a family friend.
2.CARLO LEAVES HOME.
In the Summer of 1802 Carlo left his village. Before
leaving he promised Vanna that he would return some
day as “a great man”. She gave him a peacock’s
feather to keep as a reminder of their happy times
together .He would keep it with him for the rest of his
life.
Carlo was handsome, tall, charming, cheerful, polite and
hard working. His parents had taught him to believe in
God and to be fair and honest in everything he did. He
was also determined to make something of himself. He
had a good way with people and all these qualities
would be an important part of his future success. Carlo
and his friends did not stay in London but for some
reason came to Dublin instead.
3.CARLO COMES TO DUBLIN.
Carlo arrived in Dublin with his friends in July 1802. He
could not speak any English at all. He and his friends
found work with a family friend who sold sacred pictures
and picture frames in a shop. Every day Carlo was sent
out around the streets of Dublin to sell pictures and
engravings to passers-by. As his English improved he was
sent further and further away from Dublin to Wicklow,
and Wexford. He would set off walking on a Monday
and return to Dublin on the following Saturday evening.
He would hand over whatever money he had earned to
the shop-keeper he worked for.
Although Carlo got some pocket money for the week
he was often cold and hungry. He sometimes had to
sleep at night under hedges and in barns . He was also
lonely and homesick.
On his travels he made friends easily. Shop-keepers in
the different towns he went through would sometimes
take his pictures to sell in their shops .As they got to
know him they would give him something to eat and a
bed for the night. It was a hard life .
4.CARLO
DECIDES TO WORK FOR HIMSELF.
After about eighteen months of this Carlo decided to
work for himself. He got a wooden box made to put his
pictures and frames into and carried it on his back . He
now extended the area he covered to Tipperary and
the surrounding counties. He trudged the highways and
byways of these counties for four years in all kinds of
weather, hail, rain snow and sunshine.
On one occasion he had to take shelter in a barn from
a heavy shower. Afterwards, the sun came out and in
the distance he could see a magnificent three storey
building. This was Longfield House. He felt compelled to
go to the house. When he arrived on the doorstep to
enquire who lived there the servant who opened the
door took one look at his scruffy appearance and shut
the door in his face. Carlo promised himself that one
day he would own a magnificent house like this. Forty
years later he would buy Longfield .
He continued to make friends wherever he went. One of
his good friends advised him to change his name to
Charles and he did so.
As Charles travelled along the roads of Tipperary, Carlow,
Waterford, Wicklow and Wexford he learned a lot
about the Irish people and their ways. He would put this
information to good use at a later time.
5.CHARLES OPENS HIS FIRST SHOP.
Charles realised that he would never earn enough
money to become “a great man” walking from town
to town as a pedler selling pictures. He decided that it
was time to open his own shop. His first shop was in
Carrick on Suir. It wasn’t very successful so he tried his
luck in Waterford. This shop did moderately well but
Charles wanted to do better.
He moved next to Clonmel in County Tipperary. Charles
knew that a lot of wealthy people lived there and they
would have money to spend on mirrors ,ornaments etc.
He rented a corner shop with a bow window. To attract
attention to his shop he placed a huge mirror with an
elaborate gold frame in the window. Then he draped a
red velvet curtain over the top of the mirror. His window
display caused a sensation in the town and people
came from far and wide to see it. They also wanted to
see themselves in the mirror. Not many people owned
mirrors at the time.
The shop attracted a lot of customers and business
began to thrive. Orders for mirrors, pictures and
ornaments came from as far away as Dublin. Charles
Bianconi was on his way to becoming a wealthy man.
Local people could not pronounce his name correctly so
the Corner Shop became known as Brian Cooney’s
shop.
As the orders continued to come in Bianconi had to
think of a way of delivering the goods to his customers.
He bought a gig and a grey mare called Daisy for that
purpose. As he travelled about in his yellow gig he
noticed that people had to walk everywhere. As a
business man if he wanted to travel to a nearby town
or Dublin he would have to travel by river or canal boat
or hire a horse for the day. Renting a horse for the day
was very expensive and travel by canal and river boat
often took days. Bianconi realised that at that time in
Ireland there was no convenient, affordable public
transport system.
6.CHARLES BIANCONI SETS UP A TRAVEL
BUSINESS.
By 1815 an idea was beginning to take shape in
Bianconi’s head. He wanted to set up a fast, reliable,
regular and affordable public transport system. At that
time horses, feed and carts were not as expensive as
they had been during the Napoleonic wars. He bought
a horse and “car”. The “car” was not a car as we
understand it today but a jaunting car/cart that could
seat up to six passengers sitting three aside.
On the 6th July that year the first Bianconi car took to
the road from Clonmel to Cahir carrying His Majesty’s
Mail. It was a distance of about twelve miles. However,
not many passengers used the service. It was
Summertime and people didn’t mind walking in good
weather. A less determined man would have given up
but instead Bianconi bought a second horse and car. He
pretended it was a rival company selling cheaper fares.
This provided publicity for his cars as well as
encouraging excitement and interest. Little by little
people began to book seats on the “Bians” as they
came to be called. Bianconi’s dream of becoming “ a
great man” was about to become a reality.
7.THE TRAVEL BUSINESS EXPANDS RAPIDLY.
By the end of 1815 the coach business had expanded
through all of Tipperary and into the neighbouring
counties. Bianconi closed his shop in Clonmel and
focused all of his attention on organising his growing
business. He employed Dan Hearn as his right hand man
to buy more horses , feed and cars and to employ
more drivers .He himself set up a network of paid agents
in all the towns that his coaches passed through. These
agents took bookings for passengers and goods and
had to keep “way bills”.The way bill showed;
Driver’s name
Name of the horse
The towns en route
The arrival and departure times at each place
The names of the passengers
Starting points and destinations
The amount of fares paid
Details of any goods or parcels.
Every three days the Agents had to send this paperwork
directly to Clonmel where Bianconi would personally
scrutinise the way bills for any discrepancies.
Bianconi looked after his horses well. He insisted that
each horse be given 15 pounds of oats a day in three
feeds and 16 pounds of hay. He also insisted that none
of his staff own poultry for fear that some of the oats
for the horses would be diverted to feeding their hens.
He knew the name and personality of all his horses .He
favoured the Irish Draught horse because of their
strength, stamina and their docile temperament. They
were also a uniform size and this facilitated a quick
change over of horses at the different staging posts as
the harness did not have to be readjusted for height.
There were some legendary horses who took to the
road. Among them was a horse called Pender who
though completely blind was the lead horse for years on
the Clonmel to Waterford route.
Bianconi also set up stables, coachyards, repair shops,
forges, harness makers, and granaries all over the
country to maintain and repair his coaches. Each of the
buildings had the Bianconi sign which was a wheel. At
each staging post where the horses were changed
ostlers would groom and feed the horses and provide
them with straw bedding for the night.
The Royal Hotel in Boyle was one of the staging posts
for the Bianconi coaches which came from Dublin via
Athlone and Castlerea.
The hub of his coach business was at the back of Dan
Hearn’s Hotel in Clonmel . There were 8 blacksmiths
working around the clock as well as coach makers,
wheel wrights, painters,(his coaches were yellow and
crimson).There was also a hospital stable for up to 15
horses where they could rest and recuperate from any
injuries.
Bianconi picked his drivers carefully. He picked drivers
who were good with horses and people. He demanded
the highest standards of truthfulness and honesty from
them. He issued all his drivers with pocket watches to
ensure punctuality.
He frequently employed “spies” to travel
to make sure drivers were not giving lifts
for free. However, he instructed his drivers
whenever there was room to the elderly
woman carrying “ a babe in arms”.
on his coaches
to their friends
to give free lifts
or infirm or any
Soon the yellow and crimson “Bians” were a familiar
sight all over the country. At the peak of his coach
business Bianconi owned over 1,300 horses and over 100
passenger vehicles and his coaches travelled through
the four Provinces of Ireland . Bianconi himself was
constantly on the move visiting Agents all over the
country, buying horses, and constantly checking his ever
increasing way bills .He had worked very hard and was
now an extremely wealthy man. His thoughts began to
turn to Italy and to Vanna.
8.CHARLES BIANCONI RETURNS TO ITALY.
Charles was now forty and had lost all contact with his
family in Italy .A chance meeting with a childhood friend
brought him some devastating news. His mother had
died and shortly after Carlo had left his village to go to
London Vanna had married the wealthy noble man that
her father had chosen for her. Vanna’s husband was still
alive. Charles knew that he could never marry Vanna
now although he still loved her .He decided to return to
Italy to meet his family and Vanna.
Charles met Vanna but he never spoke about what was
said between them. He always remembered her and
always kept the peacock feather she gave him in a
box.
He shared some of his great wealth with his family. Then
he returned to Ireland and decided that it was time for
him to marry and have children of his own.
9.BIANCONI BECOMES A HUSBAND AND
FATHER.
Charles Bianconi married Eliza Hayes on St. Valentine’s
day in 1827.It was an arranged marriage.They had three
children.
Catherine was born in 1828
Charles was born in 1832 and
Mary Ann was born in 1840. Her father always called her
Little Minnie.
They lived for a few years over the stables in Clonmel and
then moved to a renovated school- house outside the town.
They seem to have been happy there. Then in 1846 Charles got
an opportunity to realise yet another one of his dreams.
10.LONGFIELD HOUSE.
In 1846 Bianconi bought Longfield House near
Boherlahan, Cashel, Co. Tipperary. The previous owner
had run out of money because his tenants could not
pay their rents and he had to sell the house. This was
the same magnificent house that forty years earlier he
had seen in the distance on his travels as a pedler. It
was also the same house where he had been so rudely
treated by the servant who opened the door. Bianconi
set about decorating it with tapestries, pictures , mirrors
and glassware that he had collected over the years.
The garden was laid out with white and yellow roses to
represent the Joyful and Glorious Mysteries , and Red to
represent the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. Bianconi
was a devout Catholic and went to daily Mass
whenever he could.
Many of Bianconi’s friends were of different religions and
some like Daniel O’Connell had become famous. It
didn’t matter to Bianconi what religion a person was.
They all came to Longfield to enjoy his company.
1846 was also the height of the Potato Famine in
Ireland. The tenants at Longfield had nothing to eat and
were destitute. Bianconi immediately set up a soup
kitchen to feed his hungry tenants. His coaching business
provided him with enough money to feed thousands of
people from the surrounding area as well as the tenants
at Longfield. He did this for several years.
His eldest daughter Catherine worked to the point of
exhaustion to feed the hungry on a daily basis. She
brought food to the houses of those too weak to come
to the soup kitchen. All of this extra work took a toll on
Catherine’s health and she developed tuberculosis which
was at the time an incurable disease of the lungs.
11.GRIEF AND DISAPPOINTMENT COME TO
LONGFIELD.
Catherine’s health declined and Bianconi realised that
his daughter was dying. Doctors advised him to take her
to a warmer climate. In a desperate attempt to prolong
her life he took her back to Italy but she died in Pisa
on the 24th of May 1854.She was 24 years of age. Her
body was brought back to Ireland and buried in the
Mortuary Chapel at Longfield.
His only son Charlie had the charm and good looks of
his father but not his work ethic. He knew how to spend
money but not how to earn it . He ran up debts
everywhere. Bianconi or Bian as he had became known
settled his debts but then cut off all contact with him.
While in England Charlie died unexpectedly at the age
of 30. His body had to be smuggled home to Longfield
in a piano box in case it would be seized for payment
of debts. He was buried beside his sister Kate.
There was now nobody to carry on the Bianconi name.
Two years later in 1866 his right hand man and friend
Dan Hearn died.
Bianconi had planned to leave his coaching business to
Dan but after Dan died Bianconi decided to split up his
coaching business and sell it off to many of his agents
and drivers.
He was Lord Mayor of Clonmel at this stage as well as
Deputy Lieutenant for the County and he was busy with
these political duties.
12.THE FINAL YEARS.
Bianconi saw that the railway was the future of transport
in Ireland. He bought shares in the railway and enjoyed
travelling around the countryside by train.
Throughout his life Bianconi had helped the poor and
this continued in his old age. Many of his drivers were
given free retirement cottages in Longfield. Many an old
horse also saw out its days at Longfield.
He donated money to build schools and provide food
and clothes for the poor. His daughter Minnie says that
he was happy in his old age knowing that he had
done his life’s work to the best of his ability while at the
same time helping others.
He was busy up to the end of his life. A few days before
he died he had a stroke and was confined to bed
although his mind was still active. Beside his bedside was
a little wooden box with a peacock’s feather inside. It is
said that as he lay dying surrounded by his family and
friends his horses came to fetch him. As dawn broke the
unmistakable clatter of galloping horses could be heard
on the stony avenue outside. When his startled family
looked out there weren’t any horses visible. As the
sound grew fainter and fainter he quietly slipped away
and died.
Charles Bianconi died on the 22nd of September 1875
two days short of his 90th birthday.
He was buried in the Mortuary Chapel in Longfield
beside his daughter Kate and his son Charley.
His wife Eliza died on the 16th January 1891 aged 85
years and his daughter Minnie died on the 28th March
1908 aged 68. Both are buried beside him.
13.BIANCONI’S LEGACY.
Charles Bianconi was a towering figure in nineteenth
century Ireland.
He rose from being a penniless peddler to owning a
public transport system that ran the length and breadth
of Ireland. His “no frills” coaching system allowed Mail ,
Goods , and passengers to travel quickly and cheaply
from town to town. Tourists could travel conveniently and
safely also.
He opened up the country and promoted prosperity
and employment.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Early Life.
Chapter 2 Carlo leaves home.
Chapter 3 Carlo comes to Dublin.
Chapter 4 Carlo decides to work for himself.
Chapter 5 Charles opens his first shop.
Chapter 6 Charles Bianconi sets up a Travel Business.
Chapter 7 The Travel Business expands rapidly.
Chapter 8 Charles Bianconi returns to Italy.
Chapter 9 Bianconi becomes a husband and father.
Chapter 10 Longfield House.
Chapter 11 Grief and Disappointment come to Longfield.
Chapter 12 The Final Years.
Chapte 13 Bianconi’s Legacy.
Charles Bianconi
King of the Irish Roads.
References.
Bianconi, M.O.C. and Watson S.J.(1962) Bianconi King of
,
the Irish Roads Allen Figgis,Dublin.
O’Connell,Mrs . Morgan John (1878) Charles Bianconi,
Chapman and Hall, London (available free online).This
book was written by his daughter Minnie.