Basic HTML Version
The Motor Coach
Like the charabanc companies the early motor coach
companies often developed from other types of haulage
companies such as removal men and coal merchants. But
every now and then a young man with an entrepreneurial
soul was motivated by sheer love of all things engine.
One of the companies that City & Village Tours has
worked with throughout our 25 year history is Lodge
Coaches of High Easter in the beautiful Essex Rodings.
Lodge Coaches is very much a family business formed in
1920 by the late Joseph Walter Lodge. Whilst serving in
the Army during the 1
st
World War Joseph had picked up
the skills of driving and maintaining motorised vehicles.
Borrowing seven and six from his mum he bought a
Model T truck at an Army auction and with the help of a
local carpenter converted it into an 8 seater bus to start
the first motorised schedule service between his home
village of High Easter and the town of Chelmsford. When
Jospeh died in 1960 his two sons Terry & Tony Lodge
took the reins until the late 90s when the third generation
of directors took over the running of the business. One of
the current directors, Robert Lodge, gives talks about the
company history to local groups and societies. The Lodge
Coaches fleet now includes four vintage coaches of the
type used by the company in the forties and fifties which
are in growing demand for proms, parties, weddings, TV
& film work, including the Only Fools & Horses spin off
Rock & Chips. Clockwise from top left on the facing page
are the four ages of Lodge Coaches from Joseph’s first
Model T through to their newest vehicle.
The Professional Tourist Guide
As early as 1683 a French Hugenot refugee, Francis
Colsoni, who kept a chocolate and billiard room in the
City near Walbrook (very close to today’s Mansion
House) published a guide for visitors to London. Colsoni
suggested a five day recommended route that, in addition
to the city sights, included excursions to nearby villages
such as Stepney and Islington as well as longer trips to
Windsor and Chatham. In the booklet Colsoni says that
once the reader has used his guide to their profit he hopes
they might recommend him as a diligent and respectful
guide to London for people from all over Europe.
In 1785 an anonymous author, clearly working as a
paid tour guide, published an historical account of the
curiosities of London, in which he criticised other guides
for leading their guests from one curiosity to the next
without giving them time to fix in their memory what they
had seen. This guiding pamphlet focuses on the three must
do sights of Georgian London that remain top of the list
at least for overseas visitors today: Westminster Abbey, St
Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London.
In 1851 Thomas Cook had brought 150,000 people to
London for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. One
hundred years later when the Festival of Britain was to
be held in 1951 it was decided that properly trained tour
guides were needed. In 1999 Mehmet Topol, archivist for
the Guild of Registered Tourist Guides interviewed Frank
Buckley who was one of the original Festival of Britain
guides. Mehmet asked him about the very first guide
training and examination.
12
The Kettle
is a free monthly online magazine - subscribe now