Royal Blue Coaches in the 1960s

[ViscountFan]

As a child I had several holdiays with my parents which involved a journey to Stoke Fleming, near Darmouth in Devon, by coach. As I recall, we boarded in Basingstoke, and changed coaches in Exeter. In those pre-motorway days it was a bit of an all day jaunt, leaving Basingstoke at 10:30 or so, and arriving in Stoke Fleming at around 19:00. A 'comfort break' was taken at a railway station in Yeovil (Pen Mill, I think) where the buffet and toilets both did a very good trade!

I'm pretty sure there was another break on the way to Exeter. Can anyone shed any light on where this might have been please?

 

[Gloster]

There are a couple of relevant timetables on Timetable World: the most useful one seems to be the 1967 Wilts & Dorset, which has Royal Blue services down the bottom. The departure time from Basingstoke was 10.50; there appears to be a lengthy break in Salisbury and a call at Yeovil Town station.

 

[farwest]

I can remember getting the Royal Blue coach from Salcombe to Torquay and going over the ferry in Dartmouth. All very exciting for a micro human in the 1950s.

 

[Mike99]

On a similar vein, I was only talking to Mrs Mike today about Bristol Greyhound in the late 60's when I recall the M4 only went as far as Reading, and then the route was the old A4 through to Hungerford, Chippenham Bath and Bristol. It was always exciting as a young lad having the Meal Break stop at a cafe in Marlborough High Street. I can recall being very disappointed if we landed up on a Wessex of Bristol duplicating and not be on a Bristol Greyhound RELH vehicle.

 

[Snow1964]

My mums old school friend (who was my Godmother) used to visit us using Royal Blue coach, from London. I remember being taken to the stops in Barton Court Avenue, New Milton to meet her. Would have been late 1960s or early 1970s.

Not sure why she preferred it to the train from Waterloo, especially as it was before M3 opened (which initially was just section from J3 to J8)

 

[ViscountFan]

Firstly, many thanks for both replies. I had looked on Timetable World, but under Royal Blue rather than W&D. The 10:50 departure must have been the one I remembered. Having said that, with numerous duplicates as well as Saturday summer congestion on the A30 and A303, the timetable tended to be a bit theorotical!

The usual ferry used by coaches in Dartmouth was the larger Upper Ferry, which was and is chain operated. However, I do remember that on one occasion we returned via the Lower Ferry as the queue for the Upper was too long. There were 2 coaches on the Lower Ferry. These were balanced back and front. However, their length made it impossible to close the rear gate. I suppose the risk was minimal as the fact the ramps were raised would have prevented an mishap. However, I suspect that in this day and age 'Health & Safety' would dictate otherwise!

 

[ViscountFan]

Should anyone be interested, I've now found the timetable on Timetable World in the form of the ABC Coach & Bus Guide for Summer 1961.

 

[randyrippley]

The stop at Yeovil would have been at the Town station, which also served as the Southern National bus station (and so also used by Royal Blue and Assciated Motorways)
National services to Pen Mill were bus-only and I believe cut in the 1960s to stop outside the pub, not the station. That left Hutchings & Cornelius as the only bus service to the station itself

 

[ViscountFan]

I had overlooked the now closed Town Station. Many thanks for the correction.