One Hundred Years of Motor Buses in Tavistock

When: 24 March 2018 to 31 October 2018
Where: Tavistock Museum
Time: 11.00am - 3.00pm
Cost: Free, donations welcome
Suitable for: Any age

Until the end of the First World War 1914-1918 the Tavistock area was dependent on steam railways and horse-drawn vehicles for public transport.

The first major operator of motor bus services in the area was the Devon Motor Transport Company founded in late 1919. The following year they began a market day service from Okehampton via Lew Down and Lamerton to Tavistock, other services from Tavistock to nearby towns followed. With the merger of the Great Western Railway Road Motor services with National Omnibus Company in 1929 the newly formed Western National became the predominant provider of services around Tavistock.

During the 1920s and 1930s car ownership was the exception and the bus was an essential part of everyday life. It provided a lifeline to the towns for many rural communities.   It gave housewives a wider choice of shops as well as conveying the agricultural community to market. Children were taken to and from school. There were trips to the cinema, village events and sporting events as well as sabbatical school treats. Buses not only carried people but also a wide range of goods for local markets and businesses.

Many of the independent bus operators came and went but for many years the local villages were served by Bertram Cole who operated out of The Garage, Peter Tavy, Percy Down who operated out of the The Garage, Mary Tavy, Horace Goodman who operated out of 7 Callington Road, Lumburn, the Pridham Brothers who operated out of Down Garage, Lamerton, and the Sleep family who operated out of Station Road, Bere Alston. Such small bus operators were very much an essential part of the fabric of rural life. There was a very close camaraderie between all of these companies and they frequently helped each other out should there be a need.