Devon General


Devon General was the principal bus operator in south Devon from 1919. The name was first used by the Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company which was created in 1919. In 1922 it was purchased by the National Electric Construction Company which merged with British Electric Traction in 1931. Nationalisation in 1969 resulted in 1971 with the company being merged into Western National. In 1983 a new Devon General Limited was created which became the first operating subsidiary of the National Bus Company to be privatised in 1986 when it became the first company of Transit Holdings. It was sold to the Stagecoach Group in 1996 and renamed Stagecoach Devon in 2003.
Coaches were operated under various names, principally Fleet Cars from 1925 until 1933, and Grey Cars from 1932 until 1971.
Its main principal depots were in Exeter and Torquay, but the area of operation covered most of south, east and mid Devon.

History

The Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company started operations in south Devon in 1919 with two bus routes from Exeter to Torquay. In 1922 Torquay Tramways bought the company for £36,000, although it was operated as a subsidiary of the National Electric Construction Company and the motor buses already owned by the tramway company were transferred to Devon General. Some charabanc tours had been operated by the Torquay Tramways and this continued under Devon General. A local independent company that traded as Fleet Cars was purchased in 1925 but continued to operate as a separate business for a few seasons, during which time a number of other small operators were also acquired and merged with Fleet Cars.
In 1931 the NECC became a part of British Electric Traction. The Torquay tram network was closed in January 1934. The Tramways company was sold to Devon General, the fleet of which was enlarged by 24 buses to allow it to operate the former tram routes.
Devon General had turned down the chance to buy local independent coach operator Grey Cars in 1930 so it had instead been purchased by A Timpson & Sons of Catford in 1931. Timpsons sold the business to Devon General in 1932 and the following year both Grey Cars and Fleet Cars, which had been operated as separate businesses, were merged into Devon General. Most coaches continued to operate under Grey Cars' name, although some small operators that were subsequently bought out by Devon General continued in their old names for a while.

National Bus Company

BET's bus operations, including Devon General, became part of the National Bus Company when it was formed on 1 January 1969. Devon General had worked closely with the Corporation of Exeter's bus services since 1947. In April 1970 the Corporation's buses and routes were transferred to the NBC and merged into Devon General. The city's unusual use of route letters continued.
In January 1971, the NBC transferred the bus operations of Devon General to neighbouring Western National but the Devon General name was retained as a brand, while the Grey Cars coaching operation was transferred to Exeter-based Greenslades. NBC split Western National into four new companies on 1 January 1983, one of which was Devon General Limited. This operated in south and east Devon as the old Devon General had done, but the Tiverton area became a part of a new North Devon operation.

Transit Holdings

On 19 August 1986, Devon General became the first NBC operating subsidiary to be privatised under the Transport Act 1985 by being sold in a management buyout led by managing director Harry Blundred.
An experimental high-frequency service using 22 minibuses had been introduced in Exeter on 27 February 1984. By the time the company was privatised in August 1986, the minibus fleet had expanded to more than 200 vehicles, more than half the buses in service. By the end of 1990 all regular services had been converted to minibus operation using a mixture of 16 and 24-seat vehicles.
The new owners of Devon General formed Transit Holdings to operate number of other bus companies, most of them in southern England:
Bayline was established in 1992 for the operations in Torbay and Newton Abbot, after which Devon General operated in the Exeter area. Both companies were sold to the Stagecoach Group in 1996, and became Stagecoach Devon in 2003.

Area of operation

Devon General quickly expanded beyond its original routes between Exeter, Newton Abbot and Torquay. A number of small operators were bought out, but area agreements with larger neighbours set out the company's area of operation. While the boundaries changed in detail from time to time, the area was largely set out in two agreements.
Most of the directors of the Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company came from the London area and so the company offices were established in a house Kilmore Road, Forest Hill, London. The first buses were housed at the Exeter Garage Company's premises in Paris Street, Exeter. In 1921 the offices were moved to the new garage that was being constructed at Blackboy Road in Exeter, but the takeover by the NECC the following year saw the office moved back to Queen Street in the city of London.
The merger of NECC with BET in 1932 saw the Queen Street office closed in favour of BET's headquarters in Kingsway, London. At around this time work started on the construction of a new large garage and central workshops at Newton Road in Torquay. The BET headquarters were moved across London to Piccadilly in 1952 but in 1956 the registered offices of Devon General were moved to the garage at 87 Newton Road, Torquay.
When Devon General was absorbed into Western National in 1971, all the office work was moved to the latter company' offices in Queen Street, Exeter. The newly independent Devon General Limited of 1983 chose to remain in Exeter, but moved into offices in Belgrave Road where a new bus depot had opened in 1975.
Buses were based in garages or open yards at
One or two buses were also kept at a number of other towns and villages such as Axminster, Budleigh Salterton, Crockernwell, Cullompton, East Budleigh 1921–1931, Kenton, Okehampton, Ottery St Mary, , Uffculme.

Livery

The first buses were painted in red with cream relief. Coaches were generally grey with deep red relief and open top buses were given a cream livery with red relief.
In 1972 NBC imposed a standard poppy red colour with white relief, but from 1979 Devon General buses started to be painted in leaf green and white, the same colours as the parent Western National fleet. Six months after the operation became independent of Western National in 1983 a red livery was again adopted. The first minibuses were painted in bright red and yellow colours with a black skirt.
To coincide with privatisation in 1986 a new livery was introduced. Buses were painted an ivory colour with red skirt and lower deck window surrounds.

Amalgamated companies

Over the years many rival operators were purchased and their fleets and/or routes were amalgamated into Devon General.
YearOperatorLocationVehicles
1922Torquay TramwaysTorquay36
1924Croscols LimitedTiverton6
1925Fleet Cars5
1925Comfy CarsPaignton4
1926WhittonCullompton1
1927Torquay–Chelston Car CompanyTorquay2
1927Blue SaloonAshburton11
1928White HeatherPaignton2
1929Great Western RailwayTorquay to Paignton route2
1933Grey CarsTorquay42
1936Teignmouth Motor Car CompanyTeignmouth3
1936H.J. LeeOttery St Mary0
1937G. & W. HarrisIpplepen0
1940W.J. AbbottExmouth0
1948Witheridge Transport Witheridge1
1952W.A. HartBudleigh Salterton5
1952Balls Bus ServiceNewton Abbot1
1954A.E. TownsendTorquay8
1954Balls ToursNewton Abbot5
1955H.D. Gourd and SonBishopsteignton1
1957Falkland CoachesTorquay4
1966Court GaragesTorquay5
1970Exeter City TransportExeter65