PLYMOUTH
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The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

HORSE BUS SERVICES

PLYMOUTH, STONEHOUSE AND DEVONPORT

'Carriages first began to ply for hire between the towns in 1775 and were licensed by the turnpike trustees.  In 1800 there were 41 of these "Dock diligences" but the imposition of the stage coach duty stopped them all in 1828.  In the April of that year, however, the foundation of the old bus system, replaced by tramway in 1871, was laid by starting six hackney coaches to run at stated times.' 

Thus was summed up the history of Plymouth's tram and bus routes by historian R N Worth in the second edition of his "History of Plymouth".

Until the early years of the 19th century, the roads --- if indeed they could be termed as such -- were but muddy tracks, well worn by horses and rutted by the wooden wheels of the few farm wagons that existed.   In 1815 a new road across the marshland between Plymouth and East Stonehouse was constructed in order to save the tortuous journey along Stonehouse Lane.  Aptly named as Union Road, the trustees were granted authority to levy tolls at the gate on the Plymouth / Stonehouse boundary, where the Palace Theatre was later built.

Further improvements were made to the link between Plymouth and what was by now called Devonport in 1828 when the gradient from Stonehouse Bridge up to Devonport was lowered.  As this coincides with the start of the regular hackney cab service mentioned by Worth, it must have been an important and significant action.

It would appear from what few contemporary press reports still exist that the local hackney carriage operators had decided to accept individual passengers paying individual fares on journeys between Plymouth and Dock.  This was not legal.  A carriage driver was obliged to take however many passengers appeared at the same collective fare.  By taking individual fares they incurred the wrath of the Government authorities, who announced their intention of enforcing the Stage Coach Duty on them.  The Plymouth Herald reported on Saturday March 29th 1828:-

 ‘In consequence of the intention of the Government authorities, to enforce the duty on Hackney Coaches, running between this town and Devonport, it is the intention of the proprietors to discontinue them, as this increased expense could not be met, if the intention be carried into effect'.

However, swift action must have been taken to solve this problem because on Thursday April 17th 1828 it was reported by the Plymouth & Devonport Weekly Journal that the proprietors of the hackney coaches had licensed six vehicles as stage coaches.   Three of them would be stationed at Whimple Street in Plymouth and the other three at Fore Street, Devonport.  One would leave either end every half-hour even if it did not have any passengers.  The fare was to be 6d each and presumably it was possible to board or alight at places on route, although this was not made clear in the announcements.  It was felt that 'This arrangement will be a great convenience to the public'.

Enthusiasm was evidently short lived because on Thursday August 7th 1828 the Plymouth & Devonport Weekly Journal reported that:-

'The hackney coaches between Plymouth and Devonport, being found a losing concern have ceased to run but there is reason to hope that the inconvenience arising to the public will not be of long duration for an arrangement to run twelve coaches, for which limited number it is thought will pay, is about to be made'.

Things were not quite that simple.  The main reason the service was uneconomic appears to have been the tolls charged by the Stonehouse Turnpike Trust.  The Trustees held a meeting on Saturday August 23rd 1828 but seem to have been rather unsympathetic.  Consequently an even larger meeting was held in the Plymouth Guildhall on the following Thursday.

At this meeting Mr W D Sole, a solicitor, stated that:

'The first step which led to the discontinuing of the Coaches was the commencement of proceedings by the Stamp Board against the proprietors, in order to oblige them to submit to the clauses of the Stage Coach Act, they considering the coaches to be stage coaches, and demanding from them the duty of 2½d per mile, which was to be collected from the returns made by the driver.  In addition to this 2½d per mile, the post horse duty was also to be paid, which amounted to 5s per week....'.

He also reported that the Trustees of the Stonehouse Turnpike had written to the Stamp Board about this but they had responded that they were only responsible for the Stage Coach duty and were not interested in the post horse duty.

Mr Sole further reported that three Acts of Parliament had authorised the use of these coaches, namely 24th George III, allowing them from town to town, a second allowed them to run a greater distance, and the third, 3rd George IV, repeated the provisions of the second.

A solution was put forward in a letter from HM Treasury, dated October 21st 1828, which suggested that they should take out a Stage Coach licence for a specified number of journeys per week from Plymouth over Stonehouse Bridge to Devonport and back, estimated at 2 miles, and that duty should be paid only in respect of journeys actually performed. No duty would be payable if there were no passengers.

Once again this prompted a meeting, this time on Monday November 3rd which must have been in favour of the suggested action as the hackney coaches were to be licensed on Saturday November 15th 1828 and presumably started operating either on that date or the following Monday.

It is not clear who the operators of these vehicles were.   It is said that a Mr West, proprietor of the Royal Hotel in Devonport, started the first omnibuses between Plymouth and Devonport.  The fare was sixpence.  Soon the service was increased to every 15-minutes and the fare reduced to 3d. Then additional buses were run by Mr Avent and Mr George Pritchard.  Later still, Mr George Radmore of the Globe Hotel, Plymouth, came on the scene followed by Mr Anthony Toms.  Eventually the service was being run every 7-minutes from 9am until 9pm by just three operators, Mr Isaac Watts, Mr George Temple and Mr George Moreton.

In 1836 there were known to be two omnibuses operating between the Towns every half-hour from 9am until 9pm except Sundays.  The "Excuisite" started from Rowe's King's Arms Hotel, Bretonside, near Plymouth's main post office in those days.  The premises still stand today (1997).  Meanwhile the "Red Rover" ran from Kingwell's Maritime Inn, opposite the Custom House on the Barbican.  There may have been other vehicles as it is thought that one called "Hero", of which there is a model in the City Museum, dates from this time.

One surprise was that in 1836 it was announced in the local trades directory that there was a proposal for Mr Gurney's steam omnibus to run between Plymouth and Devonport in 7 minutes.  There are no reports that this ever happened, however.

The following year saw the completion of the South Devon Railway into Plymouth proper when, on Monday April 4th 1849, the section from Laira Green to Millbay was opened.  A total of seven omnibuses met the trains at Millbay, of which the Royal Hotel, Devonport, and Townshend's London Hotel, also in Devonport, each ran one to and from Millbay Railway Station.

William White's 1859 Directory of Devon lists the omnibus services then running around and from Plymouth and Devonport.  The King's Arms Hotel to Devonport service ran every 10 minutes so the must have been several vehicles in use.  The fare was 3d.   The Royal Hotel and other principal hotels ran their own vehicles to meet every train arriving at Millbay Station.

The situation is in 1860s is not yet entirely clear.  It would seem from some of the reminiscences of the time that there were several operators on the Plymouth to Devonport route.  Walter Stephens, writing in 1942, recalled:-

'Daily from the corner of Duke Street and Tavistock Street, outside the Inland Revenue Inn, two horse buses started at 9am, going through to Stonehouse and Devonport and vice versa. There were twelve persons inside and sixteen outside. Twelve persons on the top would sit six each side, back to back, with two each side of the driver. When they came to the Halfpenny Gate, as most people called it, another horse would be put on in front to help up the hill. When you passed over the drawbridge and through the arch the front horse would be taken off. The fare, so well as I remember, was 4d inside and 3d outside; the conductor stood on a round step either side, holding on to a leather strap, shouting where the bus was going.'

'Mr Moreton, who I believe was the father of our worthy City Organist, Mr Temple of the Octagon and Mr Isaac Watts of the Globe Hotel owned the various buses. There was a Mr Toms who ran a bus to Devonport from the bottom of Bilbury Street, now included in Treville Street.  There was a bus from Bedford Street by way of George Street, Union Street and Manor Street to Albert Road, Stoke, run by Mr Mill.'

Walter Stephens was perfectly correct in stating that Mr G H Moreton was the father of the organist of St Andrew's Church.  Mr Moreton was also to become the manager of the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Tramways Company and when he died in 1920 it was reported in his Obituary that he had been born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, and had moved to Devonport in 1860 to manage the brewery of Hicks & Company in William Street.  At the age of 24 (in about 1862) he married the daughter of a Mr John Avent, iron merchant and bus owner, of Devonport, which is doubtless how he came to develop an interest in transport matters.   The Obituary continued that at that time there were three bus owners: Mr Anthony Toms was the longest established and was based in the King's Arms Yard off White Cross Street; Mr George Temple had the most vehicles; Mr Isaac Watts was a newcomer.  This would seem to suggest that it was George Moreton who had encouraged John Avent to start a vehicle on the Plymouth road or perhaps transfer his existing one from the Tavistock road.

There were eight buses running a service from the King's Arms in Bilbury Street through Bedford, George and Union Streets to Morshead's Royal Hotel in Fore Street, Devonport.  They paid 1d per mile in tax.  This route soon proved unprofitable so the Plymouth terminus was moved to the Harvest Home public house.  The fare was 3d all the way and the buses ran from 9am until 8pm. The fares were shared between all the operators.  A Mr R S Smith of Devonport ran buses from the Royal Hotel, Devonport, as far as Stonehouse for ½d but the venture failed.

Messrs Penfound & Uren

It would seem from later reports that this then was the situation that existed when the 'speculative, enterprising and spirited firm' of Messrs Penfound and Uren entered the story.  It is a situation we would recognise today, over a hundred years later.  Messrs Penfound & Uren considered that the existing operators were 'an organised job', a monopoly in other words.  They were able to charge whatever they wanted and provide whatever inferior a service they desired.  The new company proposed to crush the existing operators and evidently adopted an aggressive policy towards them.  For one thing their fare was only 1d and for another there were reports of panel smashing, pole breaking, street racing and what the Press described as 'other little eccentricities of a like nature'.

The competition from Messrs Penfound & Uren encouraged the old company to purchase newer vehicles.   This in turn forced Penfound & Uren to put on two more vehicles of their own.  But as a result of this so-called competition the situation actually got worse and the public 'came to be badly served', one press report stating that:

'When a rival was met on the road, a race ensued, which for the most part involved the chances of a collision.  If no rival appeared, the pace, like that of Goldsmith's traveller, became "melancholy slow".  In fact a person wanting a bus had as much difficulty in finding one on a pinch, as a policeman ..... .'

Unfortunately, so enthusiastic were Messrs Penfound & Uren that all they succeeded in doing was 'to drive themselves and their 'buses on to the kerb of the Bankruptcy Court'.  The old company, 'proceeding on the old jog-trot system', managed to survive.  Further humiliation was to come, however.

The "Volunteer" Omnibus Company

The antics of Messrs Penfound & Uren may have been dangerous but there were obviously others in the Three Towns who realised that a monopoly on transport was a bad thing, so they proposed to form a new company to purchase the business carried on by Messrs Penfound & Uren and to expand it.  The "Volunteer" Omnibus Company was thus launched at a public meeting in the Royal Hotel, Plymouth, on Monday November 25th 1861.  The first directors were Mr William Henry Miners, Mr William Joll, Mr Nathaniel Barker and Mr William Pearson.  Four thousand £1 shares were on offer, of which only some 1,000 had been subscribed.

Mr Barker reviewed the financial implications.  He stated that the Volunteer buses earned £1 19s 3d per day for a six and a half day week (there were no services on Sunday mornings).  The receipts from the ancillary business of hiring out Hearses and Mourning Coaches, Hacks and Flys was £21 13s 7d per week, producing total receipts of £65 9s 5d a week over an average year of 48 weeks.  He was not in a position to say what the previous company had expended each week but felt that the new owners could look forward to profits of £11 14s 3d per week.

Although a few more people took shares it would appear that the move was a failure and the final humiliation was when the original company, whom Penfound & Uren had so enthusiastically tried to crush, acquired the remaining shares.

The Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Omnibus Company

Fortunately the new "old" company had learned its lesson.  On Monday December 2nd 1861 they -- now known as the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Omnibus Company -- started the new service and laid down a fixed timetable for its 10 buses.  The fare was lowered to 2d for the full journey, either inside or outside (i.e. on top).  The first bus left Plymouth at 9am and Devonport at 9.18am.   There was then a vehicle every six minutes thereafter from each terminus until around 9.30pm, which meant that buses departed at the same time from each end of the route, i.e. on the hour and at 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, and 54 passed each hour.  That kept it nice and simple for the local population.  In fact, they became so strict about time keeping that ‘the slightest infraction ... on the part of the employees will be visited with prompt punishment'.

From January 20th 1862 there were some minor changes.  The service now started at 8.54am from Plymouth and 9.12am from Devonport and the fare for travelling inside was increased to 3d in either direction.   'The Proprietors of these Omnibuses are induced to hope, that the efficient accommodation afforded to passengers -- which no expense in Carriages or Horses has been spared to effect -- will continue to secure to them in the future the support of the public'.  The said owners were Isaac Watts, George Temple, John Avent and Anthony Toms.

The Plymouth & Devonport Omnibus Company

In September 1863 the Plymouth & Devonport Omnibus Company announced their intention of starting a service from the King's Head, Bilbury Street, to Fore Street, Devonport, leaving each end of the route on the hour and half-hour.  It would appear that this was to replace the service which formerly terminated at the King's Head but which was moved to the Harvest Home Public House some two or three years earlier.

Before the Courts

Two incidents were brought before the magistrates at the Plymouth Guildhall on August 3rd 1866.

One Mr William Barrett, an omnibus driver in the employ of Mr G H Moreton, was accused of 'driving an omnibus and horses furiously in Union Street'.  Police Constable Ryder stated that the defendant drove a short distance at the rate of 10 miles per hour.  However, the Mayor did not believe that the defendant drove so fast as that but the offence of racing having been proved, Mr Barrett was fined 30 shillings plus costs.

The second incident involved Mr Henry Dean, the driver of the "Napoleon" omnibus for Mr G Temple.  He was accused of causing his omnibus and horses to remain in Old Town Street longer than was necessary to take up and set down passengers.  PC Denning stated that the defendant had remained at the corner of Drake Street for 10 minutes.  Mr Dean was found guilty and fined 10 shillings and costs, following which the magistrate said that the police were 'doing a good service in endeavouring to check a practice which is not only dangerous and inconvenient to the public but is ruinous to the bus proprietors themselves'.

By 1867 only three horse-bus owners were listed in the local directories although there were obviously more.  There was T Ellis & Son of 7 Clarence Street and of Sutton Road, Plymouth; Mr G Temple of 6 Flora Place, off Union Street, Plymouth; and Mr A C Toms of 18 Vauxhall Street, Plymouth.  It will be noted that neither Mr Baskerville nor Mr Doney are mentioned.

As it turned out, the early years of the 1870s turned out to be the beginning of the end for horse omnibuses.

Plymouth and Stonehouse Tramways Bill

The draft of the Plymouth and Stonehouse Tramways Bill was published January 11th 1870.  As a direct result of the the Tramways Act receiving the Royal Assent on August 9th 1870, a local Act passed in the same year authorised the construction of a tramway from Plymouth through Stonehouse to Devonport, 1 mile 74 chains in length.

Feeder horse bus services to the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Tramway

On Monday June 24th, 1872 the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Tramway Company started some new services to feed traffic to the tramway.   The routes were from the Plymouth end of the tramway in Union Street through George, Bedford, Old Town, Tavistock and Cobourg Streets to Bellevue Place at the junction with North Road.  The service then returned via Portland Square and Old Town, Bedford and George Streets to meet the tramcars.

Likewise, horse buses were added to the Devonport end of the tramline to run from Ker Street through Chapel and King Streets and Morice Square to Newpassage Hill.  It is not clear if this was the top or bottom of the Hill, for easy connection with the Torpoint Ferry.  I suspect it was only to the top, although as will be seen later, some journeys may have been extended even as far as the Torpoint Ferry.  They then returned through Marlborough and St Aubyn Streets to the end of the tramway system.

On Monday November 4th 1872 a new service was introduced.   This ran from the tramway terminus at Ker Street through St Aubyn Street and Tavistock Street to the top of Ford Hill.  It returned via Stoke Terrace and Havelock Terrace.

Enter Solomon Andrews

Between the opening of the tramway from Plymoutn to Devonport and the early 1880s the tramway seems to have been the sole method of public transport between the Three Towns.  But in 1882 a Mr Solomon Andrews, of Cardiff, started to cause trouble when he obtained a patent for 'a new type of horse bus, constructed with springs outside the wheels, enabling the bus to be built to the same gauge as the tramcars.'  This meant that the buses could run on the tramlines, giving a smoother ride with less effort on the part of the horses, but at the expense of the tramway company.

Solomon Andrews was something of an entrepreneur in Cardiff.  Born in Trowbridge in Wiltshire in 1835, he had moved to Cardiff by 1856 and set up shop as a baker and confectioner.  Within two years he had also entered the transport business and in due course ran horse bus services and a coach building works, not to mention a building concern, tramway operator and the founder of Messrs David Evans, the drapery store.

By the time Mr Andrews first appeared in Plymouth in 1886 he was already operating his vehicles in Cardiff and Portsmouth, in direct competition with the Provincial Tramways Company Ltd.  The S Andrew Patent Omnibus Company had a depot for nine buses and 56 horses in Edgcumbe Street, Stonehouse, and a meadow at Mannamead where the horses could be turned out to rest.  He operated ten or twelve of his special buses over the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Tramway and also used them to run between Derry's Clock and Compton before the tramway was extended to there.   His fare was 2d from Bedford Street to Devonport, a 1½d from Derry's Clock, or 1d from the Octagon. 

His trading war with the Provincial Tramways Company went on for several years, with him demanding a price of £80,000 to be bought out.  This would include his stables at Plymouth and Cardiff, the factory at Newport Road, Cardiff, and the working plant at Portsmouth.  Initially the Provincial Tramways Company offered him £60,000.

Negotiations started in July 1887 and although at the time the local press thought it was all over barr the shouting, it went on until the following year, when a price of £65,000 was agreed.  On May 7th 1888 the stables at Stonehouse, with nine horse buses and 26 horses, was handed over to Mr Moreton, the manager of the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Tramway Company.  There were apparently twice that number of horses but upon examination half of them were considered unfit for further work.  The buses continued to work between Plymouth and Devonport and Plymouth and Mannamead, with a promise that there would be no alteration in the fares even though the PS&D now had a monopoly again.

As one might expect that promise did not last very long and on Friday May 18th the following announcement appeared in the Western Morning News:

‘PLYMOUTH, STONEHOUSE & DEVONPORT TRAMWAY -- NOTICE -- The Public are respectfully informed that on and after SATURDAY, 19th May, the OMNIBUS FARES between Bedford-street, Plymouth, and Fore-street, Devonport, will be similar to those now in force on the Tramway Cars.  G H Moreton, Manager, Dated Tramway Office, 6 Edgcumbe-street, Stonehouse, May 17th 1888.'

On December 5th 1888 it was announced that another business, the Plymouth General Omnibus and Carrying Company Ltd, was to go into liquidation.

Mr Moreton's monopoly on the Devonport route was not to last, as reported in the Western Morning News for Monday May 6th 1889:

'Much curious interest was caused in Devonport on Saturday by the announcement that a service of halfpenny 'busses would be run between Devonport and Stonehouse.  During the afternoon one of the 'busses made its appearance, with placards stating that the new departure would be inaugurated on Monday.  The project is fathered by Mr R S Smith, of Devonport, who says he is not running the 'busses in a spirit of opposition to the Tramway Company, but as a protest against the tax put upon pedestrian traffic over the halfpenny bridge.  In order to break down this monopoly it is proposed to carry passengers through the gate and back for a halfpenny, the 'busses taking up passengers at the Richmond-walk corner at the bottom of Devonport-hill, or at the Anchor Brewery, on the Stonehouse side of the gate, and convey them over the bridge, where they will alight.  To each passenger a return ticket will be issued available any day of the week, and transferable.  It is also intended that the 'busses shall ply between the Military Chapel, Raglan Barracks, and Edgcumbe-street tram siding, the fare being one halfpenny for the single journey each way, the return ticket scheme for those desirous of riding instead of walking through the gate being carried out en route.  When the project is in full swing there will be five 'busses running between Raglan Barracks and Edgcumbe-street, giving the public a three minutes' service.  The double journey is calculated to take about fifteen minutes.  A feature of the scheme will be the issue of perforated cards, each containing twelve tickets at a cost of 3d.  The offices of this new venture are in Edgcumbe-street, and the stables near the Marine Barracks.  The 'busses are spoken of as roomy, and will be drawn by two horses, a leader being put on when the 'bus is making the ascent of Devonport-hill.  The proprietor does not anticipate that the scheme will be in full working order for some days, but a commencement will be made this morning with two 'busses.'

This was followed at the end of the week by the following report:

And then on Saturday June 29th the Western Morning News reported that:

Copyright: Brian Moseley, Plymouth, UK

Page updated:  8 May 2007

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