THE position of south Bucks, a day's coach ride from London, had a such an enormous influence on the region's pubs that you can still read the history of the region in our inns.

In the 18th century a coach and horses could travel about 25 miles a day. That led to towns like Beaconsfield, High Wycombe, Amersham and Chesham becoming great centres for travellers.

Julian Hunt, Heritage Manager at Bucks County Council, says: "Many of these inns were huge and lavishly furnished. They were designed for travellers, and locals could not afford to go in except on business."

The Red Lion on High Wycombe High Street was one such inn. An inventory from 1680 lists each bedroom, each with names such as the King's Room, Duke's room and so on.

An 18th-century inn would make Heathrow or Marylebone look like a picnic. Big inns might have 60 or more stables. Julian says: "Imagine the logistics of housing the horses, drivers and passengers, then providing fresh horses and hitching them up four at a time.

"Inns would have post boys who would travel 15 miles with the coach (the next 'stage' for a stagecoach) then bring the tired horses back.

"An inn might also rent out horses for private coaches.

"In Jane Austen films you see them set off with four white horses and arrive in London with the same horses. They would be dead. They would have hired fresh horses from inns along the way.

"Servicing the needs of travellers was an enormous industry and the wealth of many Buckinghamshire towns depended on it."

The Crown, The King's Arms and The Griffin in Old Amersham are typical coaching inns, with a huge archway leading to a long alleyway and stables, probably with bedrooms above. They must have been chaotically crowded travel terminals.

Other inns can been seen with lower entrance arches. These were waggoners' inns, which had stables and plenty of space for carts to park. Yes, parking has always been an issue. And imagine the traffic jams.

Those who rode on top of the stagecoach went into the public bar, while those who paid more to ride inside were invited into the innkeeper's private parlour or salon which became known as the saloon bar. By 1900, urban pubs might have five or six bars for different types of customer.

In the early 1800s roads and coaches improved in quality, and coaches could now race along covering 50 miles in a day. They could get to Oxford or beyond Aylesbury, so town centre inns in the Chilterns were reduced to town pubs, busy just on market days.

These affluent, upmarket inns were a world away from countryside or back street pubs, where labourers could spend their meagre wages. Income was small, and often the landlord would have another job to make ends meet. Pub names such as the Crooked Billet or The Blacksmiths Arms reflected this other role.

Ramble through the many commons on the top of the Chilterns and you'll find lots of remote pubs even today, with records of many more in earlier days. Why did they open them in these way-out places?

Julian explains: "In some ways these areas were beyond the law imagine trying to apply excise measures in these remote places. So these pubs attracted the average rogue who could enjoy drinking all night and doing what they liked, compared to town pubs which were under the eye of the local magistrate."

Lowest in the pecking order of pubs was when people sold their own brew from the house. Sometimes they sold beer through an open window. Tired travellers might be asked in to drink in the living room. Julian says: "I can remember walking uphill to a remote pub where you would sit in the landlord's front room and have your drink.

"The beerseller's license was different from a proper publican's license. When the laws were tightened in about 1920 lots of these beer sellers were put out of business."

Over the past 50 years the demise of the pub has often been predicted. But despite competition from cinemas, discos, night clubs and restaurants, not to mention drinking at home in front of the TV, the British still visit their pubs. More than 12m visit at least once a week, and nine out of ten overseas visitors make a point of a visit. Even today about 27 per cent of the British meet their future wife or husband in a pub.

There are more types of pub than ever music pubs, pubs for families, games pubs, theme pubs, and the biggest trend of all, pubs as places to eat, from the inexpensive to the sophisticated gastro-pub.