Having served his motor vehicle apprenticeship at Victor Morralls in
Evesham Ernie Dudley moved to Evesham’s Ford dealer Coulters.
As a number of local residents were not car owners Ernie was often
persuaded to give people lifts in his car (and on at least one occasion
lent his car to someone in order that they could take their driving
test).
However it was not until 1954 that the company had its first
proper involvement in passenger transport. At this time Mr. Hugh
Stanley from Rous Lench had the contract from the Worcestershire
County Council to transport children from Abbotts Morton and Radford
to Rous Lench School. On his retirement the vehicle, an orange
Cheverolet school bus was purchased by Ernie, and Dudley’s had their
first school contract.
By 1956 a Bedford Dormobile had been purchased, and the contract
for transporting pupils to Prince Henry’s Grammar School Evesham
from Abberton and Bishampton was taken over from Mr. Hutchins of
Bishampton.
In 1960 the first PSV specification vehicle was purchased. Supplied
new by Wakefields of Worcester the 14 seater Karrier with Reading
body (Reg. No.810 AUY) was painted in black and silver (the only
Dudley’s coach ever to receive this livery). During these early years
many different makes were added to the fleet including chassis from
Sentinel, Commer, Bedford and of course Ford. With bodies by
Plaxton, Duple, Burlingham, Churchill and a rare 24 seat King &
Barnes body.
to Lilac and Cream. In 1968 Ernie’s son Christopher left school and
joined the company. In 1973 the fleet colours changed to Blue
and White. The early 1970’s also saw changes to the buildings an old
Nissan hut which had been used as workshop was demolished and a
new workshop built in its place.
coach was purchased, he may not have had his father’s mechanical
ability but Chris did share his affection for Fords and in September
a 53 seater Ford R1114 with Plaxton Supreme body was collected
from Scarborough. This Heralded a change in colour scheme and the
current company colours of green and cream were adopted.
when the narrowing margin in petrol sales persuaded the company to
discontinue retail sales of petrol. It was during this period that
vehicle repairs for outside customers started to dwindle and the
workshop was almost wholly committed to maintaining Dudley’s
fleet of coaches.
concentrate on his forecourt sales at his Studley Road site. The
amalgamation of the two fleets led to changes at the Radford
premises a large parking area was made at the rear of the workshop
and in 1988 new offices were built on the site, replacing the original
workshop which had now become redundant.
At the dawn of the new century the fleet livery was changed, still
retaining the Green/Cream theme ‘wavy lines’ were introduced along
the sides of the vehicles. At this time the Royal Motorways name
was revived with a distinctive Union Jack livery featured on one vehicle.
At this time we also ceased operating two long running services.
Firstly our school coach service, which ran from the Evesham area
to The Worcester Private schools, which had been operating for over
20 years. The second service was the Redditch to Longbridge route,
which we took over from Royal Motorways. The exact original start
date of this service is unknown but it had been running for over
50 years.
a requirement from Worcestershire county council for a nearly new 70
seater for a specific school run led to the purchase of PR06 BET,
a Volvo B7R with Plaxton Profile body, factory built as a 70 seater
with a side mounted wheelchair lift. This brought the number of 70
seat vehicles in the fleet up to 3.
2010 saw a move forward with the purchase of a brand new Volvo 9700 Prestige Plus, the
first brand new coach since the 1980's. A full executive vehicle with chassis and body
built by Volvo. This new vehicle also saw a subtle change to the fleet colours with the
introduction of metallic greens to replace the previous base greens.
In addition to this a 2 year old Volvo B7R with Sunsundegui Sideral body
was purchased, with 43 seats it sits in the middle of the size range.
to keep 2 vehicles with 70 seats. With changes to London's low emission zone, it was decided
to invest in another brand new vehicle, a Volvo B9R with Plaxton Panther body. This one a
standard 53 seat vehicle to fulfill the need to convey a larger number of passengers in
comfort and add to the 2 existing vehicles complying with the new emission requirements.
in 2012 and now has a modern take on the Royal Motorway's livery.