Roving around Europe

Written by Melvyn Wilkins, ‘From Stroud Valleys to Alpine Passes’ covers 70 years of two beloved Gloucestershire tour operators, Beavis Alpine Tours and Rover European Travel. These two iconic family coach operators opened up a whole new way of travel and holidays for the people of the Stroud area and far beyond. Melvyn presents a few short excerpts from his new book

I first had a taste of coach travel in 1965 when I went with Beavis to Switzerland. In the 1970s I gained my PSV licence with Rover and did many trips to Switzerland myself. Photographs and memories from these trips encouraged me to write this book. Meticulously researched, I hope my new book gives an insight into the rise of tourism, and particularly coach travel, for the people of the five Stroud Valleys and further afield, complete with photos and numerous quotes from those who used them, as well as many from coach enthusiasts.

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Beavis

Brian Beavis joined his father to run a taxi business in 1934, alongside an already existing school contract. After military service he took over the business and in 1950, partnered by his wife Madge, introduced coaches. Initially they operated a Ford ET6 29-seater and then, in 1951, a 33-seat Dennis Falcon. Brian’s policy to buy British ended in the 1980s after he had difficulty obtaining a replacement fuel pump from Leyland when his Leyland Leopard coach broke down in Italy; he was told it was not available! From then on all his new coaches would be built in Europe and come from DAF, MAN, Scania, Neoplan or EOS.

In 1981 Brian bought an MAN coach which was among the first PSVs in the UK to carry a personalised registration, ALP 2. It was originally taxed as a private vehicle to get around the rules that PSVs could not carry personalised registration numbers.

“In the early days to operate a Continental tour you had to go to a court where other operators could approve or reject you being granted a licence to do so. We had taken a group of Catholic nuns from the next village on a pilgrimage, it was not a public tour but another operator took us to court to complain. They were not very polite about the Catholics which did not go down well with the judge, himself a Catholic! We won the case.” Anita Baxter (Beavis)

During this time 54 PSVs were bought new and only five second hand, and Brian always got his way if he needed changes or improvements.

“Brian told me that RAD 432G was the first coach to be fitted with tinted windows. He asked Plaxton if they could do it. They said no, so he went direct to Triplex who said they could. It was therefore fitted with them.” Nick Helliker

Brian Beavis was passionate about the turn-out of his coaches. To take this to the next level he competed almost annually in the Brighton Coach Rally. In 1991 Colin Hook won the top award, Coach Driver of the Year, and received a car as his prize – a magnificent Seat Marbella! In 1994 he won Coach of the Year with L11 ALP, a Scania K113CRB Irizar Century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rover

Established in 1947 Frank Hand ran a private hire business and following receipt of several road service licences he grew the business starting with runs for factories in the Stroud Valleys. His first coach was a 1939 26-seat Bedford WTB, followed by a 33-seat Bedford SB first registered in 1952. Over the following years he acquired local operators Cotswold Queen in 1959 and AM Davis in 1976 to further increase his business.

Sadly, like so many other coach operators, Rover suffered severe financial loss brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, recovering from which would have taken many, many years. So David Hand, now running the business with fellow director his wife Carole, took the very sad decision to close in September 2020.

“I am so very saddened by this. Such a lovely operator that I have been honoured to supply coaches to. David and Carole are true legends of the industry who have always maintained an immaculate fleet of coaches and offered the best service to their passengers. I will really miss my visits to your beautiful part of the country, the warm welcome and a hot beverage!” Julie Hartley, Irizar UK (2020)

Brian Beavis had a liking for European-engineered coaches over UK ones whereas it could be said that David felt differently! They had a super tour to Poland and were staying overnight in Dresden, Germany on the way home. Unfortunately, the coach developed a clutch problem which couldn’t be sorted immediately. The next morning, having hired a replacement vehicle from an operator in Dresden, Carole accompanied the group on the homeward journey. In the meantime, David remained in Dresden with the coach with Mercedes-Benz attempting to source the required parts. Unbelievably there were no parts available in the whole of Germany for their German-built vehicle. In the end he had to fly out parts from the firm’s own workshop in Horsley before the coach could go into the workshop in Dresden for repair.

In the 1980s I bought tickets from Rover to go to France with my daughter, who would have been about 12. We waited at the bus stop at Woodchester but the bus didn’t come. We had arrived in plenty of time. We walked back home and rang Rover. There had been a mistake. Carole Hand came to pick us up in her own car and drove us all the way to Dover to catch up with the coach and the rest of the passengers. I think the best you’d expect today would be an offer of a refund!” Sylvia Humphrey

The book is available now direct from the author at [email protected].

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