PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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The earliest known operator of a motor bus service in Plymouth was the Plymouth Motor Company. In 1900 they were running a service to Salisbury Road, St Jude's but it did not last beyond 1901. In September 1904 the Great Western Railway had entered the motor bus business by opening a road motor service from Plymouth's Millbay Station to Roborough. On the occasion of the funeral of Mr William Mumford in March 1959, it was stated that Mr Mumford had started the first motor bus service to Crownhill in 1908, using a De Dion Bouton vehicle. The validity of this statement is uncertain, given that no further information has come to light and that the Great Western Railway were already running a service through Crownhill to Roborough in late 1904. Then in October 1909 the Peverell Road Car Company started a service from Tor Lane, Peverell, to Fore Street at Devonport. It may seem odd today that the service ran to Devonport but Tor Lane was within the Borough of Devonport and was also being served by the Devonport & District Tramway Company. While the outbreak of the First World War interrupted any further growth of motor bus services, it also provided a catalyst for the massive expansion of services once the War had ended. Many demobilised troops returned home to find that their jobs had been taken over by women. They had to find new employment opportunities. When the military services sold off their redundant lorries, many old soldiers bought them and started their own carrier businesses. From this evolved the country bus service, where wooden benches were placed in the backs of the lorries and passengers as well as goods carried to the nearest town. It would appear that this was how the independent motor bus services from Tamerton Foliot into Plymouth started. It is not clear whether Messrs Sharpe & Company, who ran from Devonport to Crownhill and Roborough, or Mr Peachey, who ran from Honicknowle into Plymouth, were also one of these enterprises. Plymouth Corporation Tramways Department started to run motor buses in 1920, first from the Theatre Royal to Ford (Warleigh Avenue). They quickly expanded their services as they purchased more vehicles. The Devon Motor Transport Company had been founded in Okehampton by an ex military man. It was originally for carrying goods but quickly found that there was a market for carrying people instead. They moved into motor bus services between Okehampton and Exeter and ran a service southwards to Tavistock. In April 1922 this Service 12 was extended into Plymouth, introducing competition for both the Great Western Railway and the London & South Western. At around the same time Palace Motors started running motor buses from Plymouth to Plymstock, Oreston and Hooe, and the Plymouth & District Motor Company started a service to Totnes, which was later extended to Torquay. The folks of Plympton were not to be left out and Messrs Goad Brothers, who owned a garage at St Mary Bridge, started a service to Plymouth and later to Cornwood. And down on the coast, at Wembury, Mr J W Newton used an old lorry to start carrying passengers to the market in Plymouth: the business later became the Star Motor Services. By 1925 the Devon Motor Transport Company was running services to Ivybridge, Ermington, Wembury, Totnes, Bigbury-on-Sea, Ugborough, Cornwood, Dousland and Walkhampton, and Noss Mayo. But the main road to Exeter was very attractive to other operators and in 1926 a newcomer, HB Buses, started running to Ivybridge. On January 1st 1928 the National Omnibus Company took over the Devon Motor Transport Company. On August 3rd the Royal Assent was given to the Great Western Railway (Road Transport) Act 1928, which allowed the Great Western Railway to take a share in motor bus companies operating within their territory. As a result, on Thursday February 28th 1929 the GWR and the National Omnibus Company jointly formed the Western National Omnibus Company. In time they in turn took over the Plymstock and Hooe services previously operated by Palace Saloons. During the 1930s, after giving thought to running trolley buses, Plymouth Corporation finally decided to start a tramway replacement programme. The programme would have been complete by the end of the decade had not the declaration of War in September 1939 stopped the closure of the final stretch of tramway from the Centre to Peverell Corner. The destruction of vehicles, lack of manpower and need to conserve fuel brought about discussions on co-operation between the Corporation and Western National, who were the only other major operator in the area by then. Those discussions resulted in the Plymouth Joint Services Agreement being signed in October 1942. When the Second World War ceased in 1945 the decision was taken to finally scrap the tramways altogether and Plymouth's last tram ran on September 29th 1945. On December 31st 1949 the Thomas Tilling Group, who had taken over Western National, was wound up and the business was transferred to the newly formed British Transport Commission. December 1959 saw the end of Plymouth's last totally independent bus operator, the Heybrook Bay Motor Services Co Ltd, successors to the Star Motor Services, which was sold to Western National and the services integrated into the Plymouth Joint Services. Life continued peacefully along until October 24th 1982, when, as the result of a Market Analysis Project, the services were completely revamped and bore very little resemblance to the network that had been growing since 1920. The final big change came on October 30th 1985 when the Conservative Government's Transport Act received the Royal Assent and introduced two new buzzwords -- "privatisation" and "competition". In the name of the first, Plymouth City Council was forced to transfer its undertaking to a private company, named Plymouth Citybus Ltd, and they took over the services on October 26th 1986. In the name of the second, Western National, with whom the Council had co-operated since the dark days of the Plymouth Blitz, were now the competition. The Plymouth Joint Services Agreement just disintegrated: it has never been formally closed. It should be pointed out that the Plymouth Data Website does not concern itself with any bus services in Plymouth after January 1st 1980.
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