Dawlish Coaches GIL 1693 at the Smoke House, Beck Row – 28 Apr 1995 (262-19A)

Friday 28 April 1995 – Dawlish Coaches of Dawlish, South Devon GIL 1683, a Van Hool Alizée bodied Volvo B10M, seen at the Smoke House in Beck Row, near Mildenhall when operating a tour on behalf of Majestic Holidays.

Before its closure circa 2008 the Smoke House regularly had a couple of coach tours based there each week. Companies large and small from different areas of the country used it as a base for their five day tours to different East Anglian tourist spots like Cambridge, Constable Country, Norfolk Broads, Suffolk Villages etc. The coaches tended to arrive on Monday afternoons and leave on Friday mornings.

Part of the original building, which is now Grade II listed and occupied by a different business, can be seen in the background. On the left is a newer extension wing constructed in the late 1970s which housed a Conference Centre and most of the bedroom accommodation (around 100 bedrooms). This block, some ancillary buildings and the parking area plus adjacent open land became redeveloped with housing.

Built close to the U S Air Force occupied RAF Mildenhall air base the Smoke House mainly served visiting Americans but following the terrorist attacks in September 2001 such visitors found alternative on base accommodation. This resulted in a serious downtown in business although the coach tour business went some way to reverse the decline for a few years until final closure.