LOOKING BACK - When charabancs ruled the roads

CHRIS ROBINSON RECALLS A POST-WAR BOOM FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT BY ROAD

- CHRIS ROBINSON

ALTHOUGH horses had proved invaluable during the 1914-18 war, their presence on the public highways and byways of Britain was in terminal decline.

What is more, although many survived the war, so too did a huge number of large army vehicles, many of which were deployed after the war as charabancs.

Servicemen returning home with driving experience invested their savings in whatever vehicle they could get hold of, and sought to further their driving careers behind the wheel of a private hire charabanc.

Often unregulated and generally quite competitive, operators would target different markets, some providing regular services, others offering rides across Dartmoor or the newly fashionable mystery trips... "with the added spice that probably the driver was also not too sure where he was or even if the vehicle would make it!" (R C Sambourne, '100 Years of Street Travel').

Commander ET Hare's Devon Motor Transport Company had started up in 1919 with three ex-army lorries but, with wooden seats, solid wheels and poor road surfaces, it was not an instant success.

In 1923, he started again with a fleet of Bristol saloon buses, which he garaged at West Hoe. The following year, he bought out A C Turner's coach interests and took on the Embankment Company.