Excelsior Holidays 508 (A9 EXC) at the Smoke House Inn, Beck Row – 31 May 1995 (269-16)

Wednesday 31 May 1995 – Excelsior Holidays 508 (A9 EXC), a Plaxton Première bodied Volvo B10M new in April 1995, seen at the Smoke House Inn, Beck Row when on a five day ‘Historic and Rural England Tour’.

The tour departed on Mondays 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’.

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.