Highway Robbery - GCSE History Definition

In GCSE History, highway robbery means stealing from people travelling on roads, usually by armed robbers on horseback. It was a big problem in England between the 1600s and early 1800s, during the time known as the ‘Age of the Highwayman’. Highwaymen, like the famous (and often romanticised) Dick Turpin, would stop stagecoaches or carriages in quiet, rural areas and rob travellers of their money and valuables. These crimes were common because roads were poorly lit, isolated, and there weren’t many police around to stop them. Studying highway robbery helps GCSE students understand the difficulties of law and order in the past, and how better roads, coaches, and the growth of policing eventually made these crimes much rarer.