Excelsior Holidays 323 (A16 XEL) at the Smoke House Inn, Beck Row – 11 Jul 1994 (230-17A)

Monday 11 July 1994 – Excelsior Holidays 323 (A16 XEL), a Plaxton Première bodied Scania K113 new in May 1992, seen arriving at the Smoke House Inn, Beck Row when on a five day ‘Historic and Rural England Tour’.

That tour was featured four times in the 1994 tour programme with departures on Mondays 13 and 27 June, July 11 and August 8 returning home on Fridays five days later. During the three days between there were trips to Norwich & the Norfolk Broads and to Newmarket & Cambridge. On the remaining day there was an ‘optional’ trip to the villages around ‘Constable Country’. The tours on the other three dates featured in the 1994 programme were all worked by similar coach 320 (A13 XEL).

Excelsior had expanded its catchment area to cover most of the South of England bordered by Exeter, Taunton, Bristol, Swindon, Oxford, London and Brighton.

The company was founded in 1920 by Walter Maitland and latterly managed by his son Vernon Maitland O.B.E. who became a well-known figure in the British coaching industry who sold the business in 1997.

Originally titled Excelsior European Motorways before being re-named, the coaches of Excelsior Holidays had a very distinctive livery which featured the names of different countries along the sides plus a range of cherished registration numbers in the XEL and EXC series.

The company name lives on in the ownership of the Go-Ahead Group’s Go South Coast business.