were 20 coaches passing through Eaton Socon daily, "some of them going straight up the Great North Road after changing horses at The White Horse and others taking the loop through St Neots. At The Cross Keys Inn mail was collected as well as passengers". The routes converged again at Alconbury Hill with stagecoaches using the Old North Road, the stretch from there to Norman Cross was the busiest length of road in England. Stagecoaches passed along this section at the rate of one every 20 minutes day and night, and the Bell Inn at Stilton, where teams of horses were changed, had stabling for over 300 horses. The carriage of goods was by river, and the River Great Ouse was navigable up to Eaton Socon. Some medium distance goods transport was by stage cart, or by pack horse. The Cock Inn The Cock Inn stood to the north of Eaton Socon Green, between the church and the corner of Peppercorn Lane. It was a large, elegant building of brick with a clay-tiled roof, and double bay windows. It was a well-known hostelry in the 18th century, with a reputation for good food. Lord Torrington, writing in his diary in 1794, was very complimentary about it. His bill came to 9s 10d and consisted of 4s for dinners, 1s 3d for wine, 1s 4d for brandy, 4d for beer and 6d for coffee. There was also 1s 9d for servants and 6d for horses. The Cock was a posting house, meaning that horses could be hired there; The Cock was never a stagecoach inn. The Cock also acted as a meeting place for official business. In a letter recorded in Letters to William Frend, Mr Reynolds of Paxton Hall tells of "a very full meeting of the Commissioners of Biggleswade Turnpike Road at The Cock Inn, Eaton" in 1800, where the builder of Hail Heston bridge was reprimanded "for his neglect in repairing the breach caused by the flood". The Cock Inn disappeared some time in the 1920s, although its signboard is said to have survived a few years longer. Reference in Nicolas Nickleby In Dickens' novel Nicolas Nickleby, Squeers and some boys are making their way from London to Yorkshire by stagecoach. They stop at a place named Eton Slocomb, evidently a pseudonym for Eaton Socon: So the day wore on. At Eton Slocomb there was a coach dinner