Everything about Southdown Motor Services totally explained
Southdown Motor Services Ltd was formed in 1915 and operated
bus and coach services in East and West
Sussex and part of
Hampshire,
England. The company was acquired by the
Stagecoach Group in 1989.
Early years
Southdown Motor Services can trace its history back to a pair of steam buses which operated between
Pulborough and
Worthing. However the company itself was formed in 1915 abandoning plans to call itself South Coast Motor Services (a similar name had been registered by a
Folkestone operator).
British Electric Traction took an early interest in the company as did Thomas Tilling. The original registered office was in Middle Street,
Brighton and in 1916, a garage was built in Freshfield Road. The operating area of the company was bounded by
Eastbourne,
Portsmouth and the
Sussex border.
In 1921, joint services with
Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd were started between
Brighton and
Hawkhurst (later service 18) and
Eastbourne and
Hastings via
Hailsham (15). Similar services to
Southampton and
Winchester (joint with
Hants & Dorset) began in 1922, although the Winchester service was truncated at
Fareham in 1926.
Horsham marked the boundary with Aldershot & District, Southdown later abandoning its operations in
Haslemere in favour of the
Aldershot company. Southdown also began to establish a programme of local long distance tours throughout the twenties and it was in 1921 that the famous Southdown scroll logo was adopted. Southdown pursued a policy of purchasing rival operators to consolidate its business. Companies acquired included Royal Red Coaches of
Hove and
Eastbourne operators Foard's, Cavendish, Southern Glideway and Chapman & Sons.
Expansion
Regular express services began in 1924, initially between
Brighton and
London (Lupus Street). It was a Southdown coach which was the first vehicle to enter
Victoria Coach Station on
10 March 1932 (fleet number 202 - a Tilling-Stevens). Southdown turned to
Hove coach builder Harrington for coach bodies, an arrangement that continued until the 1960s.
In 1929 the company started a coastal express service between
Bournemouth and
Margate, joint with
East Kent Road Car Company and Wilts & Dorset in competition with an existing
Royal Blue service. This service later known as the South Coast Express (and eventually joint with Royal Blue) continued until
National Bus Company days.
Southdown's early orders favoured
Tilling-Stevens chassis until the outbreak of
World War II, although some all-
Leyland Titans provided the company with its first closed top vehicles in 1929. The Titan continued to be the favoured double deck chassis until the end of BETs interest in the company.
Oil engines were favoured and bodywork provided by a number of different coachbuilders, although
Park Royal provided the majority of bus bodies, a relationship which continued into the NBC period.
Southdown benefitted from the establishment of the
London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, gaining services previously operated by East Surrey and Autocar in the
Weald south of
East Grinstead and
Crawley. This also extended the company's eastern boundary to
Heathfield.
Southdown became associated with BET following the division of Tilling and BAT in 1942. The war was a difficult time in many ways for the company, although the casualties from enemy action remained low. Southdown's assistant traffic manager devised a scheme to overcome delays caused by the black out on country routes by extending journey times on evening services, ensuring that connections would be maintained.
In 1946, a co-ordination agreement with
Portsmouth Corporation was reached, splitting mileage and receipts on a 57:43 share, Southdown being the minority. This replaced an earlier agreement dating from 1931 involving protective fares on Southdown routes within the city. The co-ordination of services, dubbed Portsmouth Area Joint Transport Services lasted until deregulation in 1986.
After the war, Southdown started its first overseas tours with a 17 day tour to
France and
Switzerland in 1950, operated by
Leyland Tiger number 1223. This coach was transferred to
Ulster in 1951 where it became the first to operate a programme of Irish tours for the company. 1950 also saw the introduction of scenic open top services from
Brighton to
Devil's Dyke and
Eastbourne to
Beachy Head, operated by decapitated war time Guys.
Beacon Motor Services of
Crowborough was fully acquired in 1954 (although it had been controlled by Southdown since 1949). The company also controlled three services operated by Sargents of
East Grinstead although these passed to M&D in 1951. In 1957 Southdown also entered into the Heathfield Pool agreement (also known as the Heathfield Cycle) with M&D by which all services through Heathfield became joint operations.
In 1958, mileage agreements were reached with the
London Transport Executive for services in
Crawley and with Brighton, Hove & District and Brighton Corporation for services in
Brighton - establishing Brighton Area Transport Services (BATS), similar to the arrangements in
Portsmouth established in the previous decade. The post war building programme continued with garages established at Crawley, Hassocks, Moulsecoomb and
Seaford, while bus stations were opened in
Chichester,
Haywards Heath and
Lewes.
It was during the late 1950s and 1960s that Southdown purchased many of the vehicle types most commonly associated with the company, notably the
Leyland Titan PD3 'Queen Mary' vehicles. Southdown didn't take any deliveries of rear engined double deck vehicles until 1970 when it purchased a batch of
Daimler Fleetlines with
Northern Counties bodywork similar to that on later PD3s for Brighton & Hove and a number of
Bristol VRTs with
Eastern Coach Works bodies painted in green and cream livery. A further batch of Fleetlines with ECW bodywork were delivered in 1972.
In 1964, Southdown moved into new headquarters of Freshfield Road, which also became the headquarters of Brighton Hove & District in 1969 when that company passed to Southdown. The only visible difference at first was the addition of 2000 to the fleet numbers. Later vehicles were painted in Southdown's green and cream livery with the fleetname 'Southdown BH&D'. With the advent of NBC, green/white livery was adopted and the BH&D suffix dropped from the fleetname, although by 1985 most Brighton area Southdown vehicles carried Brighton & Hove fleetnames, being operated as a dedicated section of the company within the former BH&D area.
National Bus Company
In 1969 Southdown became part of the
National Bus Company. Little change was noticeable at first, the corporate green and white livery not appearing until the early 1970s. There was however an influx of rear-engined double decker vehicles into the fleet, starting with Bristol VRTs and later
Leyland Atlantean AN68s with Park Royal bodywork. The
Leyland National became the standard single deck bus while the
Leyland Leopard fulfilled coach orders. Southdown succeeded in maintaining a certain individuality during its NBC years, even painting some coaches in traditional livery and fleetnames (albeit with a small NBC logo).
1971 also saw the transfer of most Crawley services to and from
London Country - a newly formed organisation within the National Bus Company.
1975 saw the forerunner of the 'Stagecoach' limited stop services with the 51 mile
Brighton to
Portsmouth 'Coastliner' service (700). The following year saw the introduction of the 'Solenteer' between
Portsmouth and
Southampton (X71), operated jointly with Hants & Dorset. On the launch of both these services, messages were exchanged between the mayors of the terminus towns. This was followed by the Regency Route (729) in 1977 between
Brighton and
Tunbridge Wells, operated jointly with
Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd.
These routes were rebranded (somewhat ironically) as Stage Coach in 1982. The network included services from
Brighton to
Worthing,
Bognor Regis,
Chichester and
Portsmouth (700),
Newhaven and
Eastbourne (712),
Lewes,
Uckfield and
Tunbridge Wells (729),
Haywards Heath (770) and between
Eastbourne and
East Grinstead (780) and
Rye via
Hastings (799). The Stage Coach brand was also applied to occasional services to
Winchester and
Salisbury (710),
Hawkhurst and
Canterbury (718),
Windsor and
St Albans (735),
Oxford (738).
Southdown shared the operation of the Flightline 777 Service between Crawley, Gatwick Airport and London Victoria with London Country's Green Line operation. This service initially used Leyland Leopards, and latterly Leyland Tigers, and was one of four "airport network" service connecting Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted with Central London.
Privatisation
Southdown celebrated its 70th anniversary in 1985, the year before deregulation and buses carried a special logo (shown above) which also appeared on publicity. With deregulation, the company adopted Southdown East & Mid
Sussex and Southdown
West Sussex fleetnames, while the Brighton & Hove operations became a separate company (
Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company). The
East Sussex division registered a fairly basic network from the outset, linking a number of services together to form trunk services linking the major towns, sometimes by fairly circuitous routes. A version of Southdown's traditional livery was adopted, albeit with less cream than on the pre-NBC incarnation. The scroll fleetname returned on minibus operations and eventually the operations (except
Brighton) were re-unified as Southdown.
Southdown was acquired by the
Stagecoach Group in August 1989. A few vehicles (mainly Leyland Nationals) soon received the original Stagecoach white and stripes livery, albeit with the fleetname bearing "SOUTHDOWN - Part of the Stagecoach Group". Southdown's existence ended effectively in 1992 when the company changed its name to South Coast Buses Ltd, although recently Stagecoach have adopted the fleet name to "In East Sussex" and "Coastline Buses" for the west. Upon the closure of the depot in Eastbourne in 2003 operations were split with the Eastern end becoming "Stagecoach in Hastings" and the western division becoming "Stagecoach Coastline". Until 2005 Stagecoach had 4 depots remaining in East Sussex (Eastbourne Outstation, Lewes, Seaford, Uckfield). The business in this area was sold to Brighton & Hove Bus & Coach Co. Ltd along with 15 buses and 66 staff.
Vehicles and artefacts of the old company are preserved at
Amberley Working Museum by the Southdown Omnibus Trust.
Further Information
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