VICTORY TOURS The buses of Sixpenny Handley

Another long established Dorset business was Victory Tours, based for many years in the quaintly named village of Sixpenny Handley up on Cranborne Chase in the north east corner of the county.  A family business run by several generations of the Adams family, the origins of the business go back to the end of the first world war.  Cyril Adams was a driver with the Victory buses in Salisbury, but that business was sold by its proprietor E M (Maurice) Coombes to Wilts and Dorset Motor Services in June 1921 after only fifteen months of operation.   Cyril acquired a Thorneycroft bus instead of money he was owed and brought it back to his home village of Handley.  He adopted Victory Coaches as his trading name when, as eldest son, he set up in business with his father Albert Adams in that same year.  Confusingly another Salisbury operator Sparrow & Vincent also operated as Victory Motor Services running city routes in and around Salisbury from 1922 to December 1933 until selling out to Wilts and Dorset.  Mr Sparrow would have known Cyril Adams as he too had driven for Coombes.  Additionally there was A W Alner's Victory Motor Service of Fordingbridge, also working into Salisbury!

The original routes were from Handley to Salisbury on Tuesday and Saturday; Handley via Blandford and Bere Regis to Dorchester on Wednesday; Handley to Blandford on Thursday.  A second vehicle was obtained in 1923 and this enabled the introduction of a Thursday service to Salisbury as well as a new route to Wimborne on Tuesday.  Albert Adams died in 1925 and his widow Edith took over the reins.  The following year the younger son E E Adams became old enough to help with the driving.

The first bus, a Thornycroft acquired in 1921.  Body built by Salisbury Carriage Works.  Cyril Adams on the left of the group.

Apart from the Salisbury service from Handley and area, Adams is shown as serving Bowerchalke on Tuesdays in the mid 1920s.  A longer route went from Handley via Winterbourne Kingston and Bere Regis to Dorchester on Wednesdays for some years, from February 1922 to 1928.  This had been started by H R Bartley (Roy) and his "Handley Express" in 1913 using a Scout 24-seater bus built in Salisbury.  After the Great War the route passed to Wilts & Dorset but they relinquished it to Adams, but Adams in turn gave it up when Wilts & Dorset reintroduced regular services on the Salisbury - Blandford - Dorchester - Weymouth road.

New Canal, Salisbury, in the 1920s - could that be Albert Adams leaning against the bonnet of their Thorneycroft FX8251 ?

Goddard had also operated a parallel route to the Adams service between Handley and Salisbury.  Cox & Macdonald of Handley had also operated between Handley and Salisbury in the 1920's in a red painted Dennis bus.  Even earlier were the operations of H R Bartley (Roy) on this route with a Scout bus between 1911 and 1914.   Bartley abandoned Handley and set up a Tidworth - Amesbury - Salisbury route instead.   Kellys directory for 1927 lists the following services from Handley.  Adams is shown as running to Salisbury on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; to Wimborne on Tuesday; to Dorchester on Wednesday; to Blandford on Thursday.  Goddard is also shown as running to Salisbury on Tuesday and Saturday; Blandford on Thursday; Wimborne on Friday.  But details of the routes and the intermediate points served are not given.

Victory garage in Handley in the 1930s - the vehicles include Bedford WLB TK7254 (in middle) and Thornycroft A2 HB2940 (on right).  The latter was new in 1927 to Davies of Merthyr and was also in the fleet of Merthyr Tydfil Corporation Transport briefly in 1929, and is believed to have been a 20-seater. 

By the time road service licencing was introduced by the Road Traffic Act of 1930 the firm had grown further and Victory Coaches were operating services from Handley to (a) Salisbury via Tollard Royal, Farnham, Handley and Martin on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (b) Blandford via Farnham, Chettle and Pimperne on Thursdays and Saturdays (c) Blandford via Dean, Cashmoor and Tarrant Gunville on Thursdays (d)  Wimborne Minster via Cranborne and Wimborne St Giles on Tuesdays (e) Wimborne Minster via Cranborne and Horton Inn.  The latter service was taken over in 1931 from Frank Goddard, the other operator in Handley in the 1920's.   In May 1934 the villages loop on the Salisbury service was extended to include Farnham Newtown and Woodley Down (for Ashmore).  A Saturday evening cinema bus from Handley to Shaftesbury was operating by 1934 and a Monday shoppers bus from Handley to Bournemouth via Tarrant Monkton, Tarrant Keynston and Wimborne Minster was started shortly after (a Friday service was subsequently added post-war).

 Victory timetable for Salisbury route, dated January 1936, including some journeys proceeding via Martin

  Oddy's 1936 timetable for the Ashmore to Shaftesbury route taken over by Victory Tours in 1946.

In 1946 the route of C A Oddy from Ashmore to Shaftesbury was purchased and extended back to work through from Handley.  From April 1947 to May 1949 a Wednesday market bus was operated from Handley to Ringwood via Farnham, Gussage All Saints and Horton. One of the Blandford routes (`c' in the list above) was reorganised in December 1946 to start from Wimborne St Giles and operate via Gussage All Saints  before rejoining the original route through Tarrant Gunville. 

The two routes to Wimborne Minster were merged into one late in 1948, starting from Wimborne St Giles and running via Monkton St Giles (instead of Cranborne), Handley, Cashmoor, Gussage St Michael, Gussage All Saints and Horton Inn.  This was at the time of introduction on 5th December 1948 of the Hants & Dorset 97 service from Poole via Wimborne, Gussage, Cranborne and Fordingbridge to Salisbury  six times a day. The main route into Salisbury from Tollard Royal and Handley acquired daily morning and evening workers journeys in 1948.  The double-run diversion to Martin had already been discontinued by now, Martin being served exclusively by the buses of Charles Flemington of that village.

Handley garage seen about 1950, with Bedford OB's BJT 943 (on left) and DFX 144 (on right), with Bedford OWB  BJT 217 in the middle.

ROUTE LIST (1949) Tollard Royal - Handley - Salisbury       Daily (extended to Woodley Down and Farnham on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) Handley - Tarrants - Bournemouth       Monday and Friday Handley - Ashmore - Shaftesbury       Thursday, Saturday, Sunday St Giles - Handley - Gussage - Wimborne       Tuesday and Saturday St Giles - Gussage - Blandford       Thursday Handley - Farnham - Blandford       Thursday and Saturday Handley - Gussage - Ringwood       Wednesday   (Discontinued May 1949, not shown on map)

As with many operators, excursions and tours provided a welcome change from the day to day bus services for both passengers and drivers.  A range of excursions had been operated from Handley and surrounding villages since the early days of the business, as well as from Broadchalke and Martin. This type of activity grew in 1952 with the take over of the business of  J Robins & Son of Shaftesbury and their tours licences. Further growth came in April 1957 with a similar take over of the tours licences of W Otton & Son of Cranborne (they had been bus operators too until 1952).

In January 1957, with fuel rationing restrictions, the Saturday afternoon services were withdrawn from the St Giles - Wimborne Minster, Handley - Blandford and Handley - Shaftesbury routes.  Also the pattern of travel was changing by this time and late Saturday afternoon return trips from the villages to the market towns were no longer serving their traditional purpose of enabling shoppers to obtain bargain food purchases as the shops and markets closed for the weekend. The Shaftesbury route lost its Sunday journey too at this time. Withdrawal of lightly used Saturday services released more vehicles for private hire work.  In the spring of 1957 the Shaftesbury service initiated a double run to serve East Melbury.  On the way to Shaftesbury the route negotiates the appropriately named Zig-Zag Hill. Then in 1959 the loop on the Salisbury service was extended to include Ashmore on Tuesdays.  

The Victory business was incorporated as a limited company in 1964 as Adams Bros (Handley) Ltd.  At that time the fleet numbered fourteen full sized vehicles, all petrol engined Bedfords, ranging from 29-seater Vistas to 41-seater Super Vegas. Taxis and road haulage still played a part in the overall business. Figures from 1963 show average stage service revenue of 10.75 old pence per mile against average costs of 27.75 pence per mile. Best performing routes were the two once weekly Blandford market services, then the daily Salisbury service; followed by the Shaftesbury and Bournemouth routes.  Poorest performer was the Wimborne service. The Bournemouth route lost its Monday service in 1963 and in 1967 the Wimborne Minster route was withdrawn completely. After decimalisation the fare chart for January 1972 shows the fares from Handley to Salisbury as 16p single or £1.28 for a five day weekly ticket (20p and £1.60 respectively from Tollard Royal).  The corresponding single fares for spring 1978 were 36p and 42p, with other single fares Handley - Blandford 30p, Handley - Shaftesbury 30p, St Giles - Blandford 32p and Handley - Bournemouth 42p. In 1978 the total revenue from stage services for the year was stated to be £11,000.  In 1979 there were twenty vehicles in the fleet.  Cyril Adams MBE, the founder, died in January 1980, aged 78.  Victory withdrew the remaining Friday operation to Bournemouth in 1983 (after a period of alternate weekly Friday operation to Poole instead of Bournemouth) and the route was then taken over by Stanbridge & Crichel and operated intermittently by them for a few more years (the average passenger loading was one per week for a thirty mile journey each way!). 

New Canal, Salisbury in the 1960's - A Victory Tours Bedford OB (JLJ 128) waits in the rain to depart for Handley

On 10th May 1982, following deregulation of express coach services, a new Capital Link route was started from Handley, Salisbury and Andover to London twice a day.   The morning workers journey into Salisbury from Handley was provided by the London express coach.  The London service only ran for a couple of years.  Also in 1982 Ashmore gained a Saturday morning shoppers service to Salisbury.

With the changes following bus deregulation in 1986 the daily workers services on the Salisbury route were discontinued and replaced by diverting the Wilts and Dorset 184/185 Weymouth - Dorchester - Blandford - Salisbury service off the main A354 road and into Handley village for the first time. The Victory service to Salisbury was now just a three days a week market and shoppers service, but still serving the loop through Tollard Royal, Ashmore and Farnham.  Fares charged from Handley in November 1991 were £1.10 single and £1.80 return to Salisbury; £1.00 single and £1.75 return to Shaftesbury or Blandford.  The Thursday service to Salisbury was next to be withdrawn and finally from 3rd April 1999 the main Salisbury route (now one return journey on Tuesday and Saturday only) was lost after seventy eight years operation through county council retender and is now operated by Shaftesbury and District.  They have amended the route slightly for operational convenience to start from Ashmore and serve Farnham and Tollard Royal on the way to Handley and Salisbury, whereas the traditional Victory route started at Tollard Royal and then served Ashmore and Farnham.

The business has been under the management of Nick Adams, Albert's grandson and Cyril's nephew, for a good number of years now, since 1963.  Nick, now in retirement himself,  often said that it was his grandmother Edith who was the power behind the throne in earlier days!  By 1993 there were 22 vehicles in the fleet, but bus services were now a minor part of the business.  The parking site for coaches besides Handley church was sold for housing development and operations were moved from Handley to Stanbridge near Wimborne (to the ex Stanbridge & Crichel yard) in 1998, although an office is still maintained in Handley, in a bungalow opposite the original garage site (long disposed of).

There were now only the three Thursday market routes left in operation  (two routes to Blandford and the Shaftesbury service).  These finished during June 2000, with the Blandford services passing to Damory Coaches as a one route combination of the two former routes, and the Shaftesbury route passing to Shaftesbury & District.   After nearly 80 years, Victory Tours were out of the bus business.

In 2005 the Blandford route was operated each Thursday by Damory Coaches starting at Gussage St Michael, then via Gussage All Saints, Wimborne St Giles, Handley, Dean, Farnham, Chettle, Tarrant Hinton and Tarrant Gunville to Blandford.  The Salisbury service is still with Shaftesbury & District but now Tuesday only, and the Shaftesbury service is operated each schoolday except Thursday on a route from Cranborne via Handley, Tollard Royal, Woodley Down and East Melbury.  Ashmore is no longer served, and the route does not operate on Thursday, the traditional shopping and market day at Shaftesbury, and the bus only proceeds beyond East Melbury to and from Shaftesbury on request.  How things change!

Still a thriving coach business well into the millennium with a fleet size of 18 vehicles, including Neoplan Skyliners and Beulas bodied Euroriders, the operations of Victory Tours included a wide range of private hire, touring, student and contract work.  Autumn 2004 saw the retirement of Nick Adams and the sale of the business to Blackgate Enterprises of Portsmouth.  The yard at Stanbridge has been given up and operations moved to St Leonards near Ringwood, from where the new owners had plans to continue to expand the operation from the new base. Sadly on 17 May 2005 Dorset County Council was informed that Victory would be unable to fulfil school contract commitments from the following day because of financial difficulties.  Liquidators were appointed on 2nd June.  It seems that the demise of Victory was brought about by loss of contracts by new parent Blackgate.  The future is unclear, and there is an association with Blueways Coaches of London and also South Dorset Coaches of Swanage.  Some operations continue from St Leonards as Blueways Dorset Ltd.  The founding Adams family retired in 2004 and are not connected with the present business in any way.  Finally it is reported that Blueways ceased trading in Dorset in September 2007.

======= With many thanks to David Gillard for use of the black and white pictures above =======

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