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horse drawn and the very first charabanc in Britain,
presented to Queen Victoria by Louis Phillipe of France,
is today on public display at the Royal Mews.
W C Standerwick of Blackpool acquired its first motor
charabanc in 1911, Bournemouth’s Royal Blue got its in
1913. Before the First World War motor charabancs with
pretty much solid wheels were used for day trips.
In the wonderful
Cider With Rosie
Laurie Lee describes
a charabanc outing from his Gloucestershire village of
Stroud to Weston-super-Mare where the women sunbathe
on the beach, the children amuse themselves in the penny
arcades on the pier and the men disappear down the side
streets into the pubs. Open to the elements, albeit with
folding canvas hoods for rainy days, they were limited
to summer use and were deadly if they turned over and
being somewhat top-heavy they had a tendency to do just
that. Some of the very first motor coach companies began
life as the summertime charabanc operations of rural
agricultural haulage companies with the charabanc coach
body removed at the end of summer and a truck fitted for
winter work.
The Minister of Transport Eric Campbell Geddes who
would later become famous for the quote “We shall
squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak!”, was a
fan of charabanc outings. In 1920 he was quoted in Punch
magazine as saying “I think it would be a calamity if we
did anything to prevent the economic use of charabancs”.
But the coach industry only began to expand when safer
motor coaches replaced open charabancs in the 1920s.
To this day an old sign survives at Wookey Hole in
Somerset warning that the road to the nearby village of
Easton is unsuitable for charabancs.
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