One of the Most Admired and Crafted Motorcoach Designs of all Time! [UK Bus History] 

Thanks Jeffrey for another interesting video. As a child I remember the Cavaliers lined up at Victoria coach station, London in the early seventies. We were travelling to Colchester in Essex. They were operated by Grey Green a now defunct inter city coach service. The thing I remember vividly as a child was the unique 'smiley' moulding on the front. I also remember the revving and diesel fumes. Marvellous!

Beautiful design. Drove a few of these at one time or another. Thanks for a very well researched. Thank you.

I recall the day when a National Railway strike was on. My dad a Railway man had booked his holiday well before the strike. We went by bus excursion coach to Blackpool and I could not believe the number of coaches. Now the British Coaches had 2 different type of operators. There was the Service bus operator and the other was private. The coach depot in Blackpool muat have had 250 coaches in the Coach park. To help you remember you had Coaches marked A,B,and C all from the same departure point run by the same coach/bus compny. Fortunately for me our Bus Coach operator service was a small one so we would get just a coach A & B. You would all these luxurious coaches from Plaxtins, Duple and Harrinton all with panoramic windows and all bejewlled with chrome chrome work, squeezed into the coach park.

Sculptured beautys on wheels.

I travelled hundreds of miles on Leyland Harrington Cavaliers of Grey Green coaches in the 1950’s/60’s a very good coach at the time.

Excellent informative video. Sadly I never got to travel in one

Thanks again for an interesting video, and your focus on the UK bus history. It's fascinating to see the buses we used to have here, especially with them all looking a bit dull in comparison today

Southdown Motors had the cavalier coaches on Leyland chassis with 4 spoke steering wheel, i remember them as a child, lovely coaches, as i lived in sussex,

Thomas Harrington was owned by the Rootes group when it closed. Very good coverage, one way to identify them is by the top of the windscreens. The cavalier screen in lower and the roof dips slightly whereas the Grenadier has a more peaked roofline and a taller screen.

Wonderful - I went to grammar school in Hove, which was the home of Harrington, and frequently saw Harrington-bodied Southdown coaches on the seafront at Brighton

Such good looking coaches.

Thumbs up, great video, if they did not make coaches anymore, then would have been insparation for the next company in line to take over

Thanks for another great video featuring a very nice coach body, have you considered featuring the rare Duple Continental another quality coach built at Blackpool in the Burlingam factory

An interesting and informative video....well done! I have owned 4 Grenadiers in my lifetime. I think one of them MMY991C still survives in 2024

Excellent job Jeffrey. Well done.

Yes its fun to play the what if game. Certainly an elegant coach. Too bad they couldn’t find a buyer. Regardless another interesting and informative video Jeffery.

Strange story, really. The company had produced the Cavalier/Grenadier which were very widely liked and sold well, and the Legionnaire which was quite ground breaking and sold decent numbers - and yet they shut up shop! And it was in the 60s when the general economy and coach market were doing pretty well, not in the 70s when problems began. Well, they say 'leave them wanting more' !! Thanks

Ribble and Abbott's coaches, local to me, had a number of Cavaliers. They were nice coaches and had the opportunity to ride on them a number of times. I think Abbott's had the AEC engined version while Ribble had the Leyland engines.

Thanks for the video. As the creator of the Wikipedia article you've cited I can only see one omission. There were six Cavalier bodies that weren't on AEC or Leyland, these were Albion Aberdonians supplied to Charlie's Cars of Bournemouth. Charles Pounder only bought two coaches that weren't Harrington bodied Albions in his lifetime. Although the company was based in Bournemouth it's registered office was at Mr Pounder's accountant in Brighton, so the six were registered there, 1175-80CD and delivered in June 1960

Yet another great video from Geoffrey.

Thomas Harrington was the Rootes Group agent in Hove before being taken over by Rootes themselves, and built more than coaches, they also produced a fastback conversion of the Sunbeam Alpine sports car, now very rare and much sought-after. I still remember a family holiday in Newquay which included a trip on the immaculate Hawkey's AEC, now thankfully in preservation.

Great video Jeff 😊 these coaches are truly art on wheels 👌

Hi Jeffrey, you may take a look at Carry on abroad film, which shows a Harrington and is amusing. There's lots of interior shoots.Enjoyed your video. Thank you.

Another bus I would not normally delve into on first sight you made into interesting viewing - yet again. Great job considering your limited sources. I've never seen a factory with an ornate office block frontage emanating a factory section behind it. They shut up shop just when modernising designs was about to ramp up. Love that so many were built on AEC chassis with the kidney dashboard visible on the outside. Interesting to see the London Transport style rear wheel cover used on these coaches.

Aside from the irreplaceable windows, these Harrington's were easy on the eyes. One Alfred Hitchcock movie shows a lot of busses. Sabotage, recommended by the Humanities Film Forum.

I believe the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport (Queen St.) has a perfect operating Harrington Cavalier, which is still used for running days.

I remember as a child a company named N & C coaches. Neath and Cardiff, operated out from a depot in Britton Ferry. The buses were called the brown bombers, their livery was chocolate brown and red. The design of the coaches can only be described as beautiful. However the colour brown and red didn't do the caches justice. They had the Harrington Cavaliers in their fleet. I bought a V.H.S. video about the company N & C. If anyone is interested in acquiring this video free of charge please leave a message on here.

The Cavalier that I travelled to school on was 1632 NO. This was new to Frank Harris of Grays in 1958 with a Duple Britannia C41C body. It was rebodied in 1963 with a Harrington Cavalier C43F body.

Any one of your viewers, anyone of your viewers, Jeffrey! 😉 Nice video! Keep them coming!

In my eyes any coach beauty contest is easily won by a Cavalier, even better in Southdown livery.

Another excellent video, especially so since it was produced so far away from the subject matter.

Nice little documentary on this bus type. Always thought they were very stylish and the AEC version were great since AEC's are a favorite of mine. Wondered where the name came from as they were both are soldiers. The lines of these vehicles are very classic and stylish.

I suppose as Harrington was based in Hove, it was inevitable that Southdown would use the coachworks just down the road. As a kid in Southsea I saw plenty of Southdown buses and coaches- many being bodied by Harrington.

Where are you finding all these brilliant classic coaches? Absolutely love your videos Jeffrey

i had no interest in coaches until I came across your channel. Now I want to own one!!- and an american has caused this...amazing!!👍🤣🤣

The 1964 Bedford VAL14 Harrington Legionnaire was famously used in the 1969 comedy caper The Italian Job starring Michael Caine, also co-starring Noel Coward in his last acting role and Benny Hill. At that time Bedford was GM’s British bus & truck division which used the Vauxhall logo, Vauxhall was GM’s British division from 1925 until 2017 and Opel was GM’s division in Germany from 1929, PSA (Citroen & Peugeot) purchased Vauxhall & Opel in 2017 and merged with Fiat/Chrysler to become the Stellantis group in 2021, before the late 1970s Vauxhall & Opel had different vehicles from each other and by 1980 all Vauxhalls & Opels were all the same designs, Bedford ended production in 1986 and the truck division became AWD after new owners continued production of Bedford’s heavy trucks, the bus division wasn’t continued, light trucks were continued under the Bedford brand until 1990. The last new models were the Bedford Midi (a rebadged Isuzu Fargo) and the Bedford Rascal (rebadged Suzuki Carry)

Superb series on UK coaches Jeffrey one question what was the usual specification for the USA Greyhound long distance buses were any on Flxable chassis and what was the cruising speed? Why not look up the Midland Red coaches designed for 100 mph cruise on the newly opened M1 for the Llandudno to London service?

I much prefer the Wayfarer.

I've often wondered how (motor) coaches and buses got to be distinct things. Both are passenger vehicles with many seats. Both can be used for a single journey or regular route. Is there a textbook distinction?🤔

Interesting that in South America repainted "school busses" are used by cities for public transportation... sometimes when I'm driving my blue & white bluebird in Tucson (on the wrong side of the tracks) groups will stand up & become upset when I go past.

Thank-you! Beautiful! A point on pronunciation. Here in the UK, we pronounce 'chassis' as 'shash-ee'. Among my favourite Caveliers were those of Maidstone and District and Southdown. But they *all* looked superb, what-ever the livery: a credit to the design. Again, thank-you. Ps do I recall correctly that 7' 6"-wide models were made for Grey Cars for us on nartow Devon and Dartmoor lanes. Models also?

Better than AI but reading Wiki? "The Grenadier was the last coach built by Harrington before they closed their Sackville factory in North London in 1966." Several coach builders in West London so do not know what you are conflating there. Harrington were based at their HQ and factory in Hove. In 1930 a purpose-built factory known as Sackville Works was constructed at Old Shoreham Road. (The south coast of England next to Brighton in Sussex.)

The Cavalier front panel moulding line at 12:15 is not unlike the front of the Hillman Imp with the brows over the lights apparent on both vehicles. As both were owned by the Rootes Group it's perhaps not surprising but production periods didn't overlap and obviously they are completely different classes of vehicle.

Going out with a big show-piece is always a satisfying thing for legendary companies, like i much rather the company tried their damndest and failed after they presented something memorable and incredible than just peeter out trying to make boring boxes without personality (okay its more of a car manufacturer reference to several once respectable carmakers who completly lost their way but it has happened in busses too i am sure). i do not know what their scale (certainly quite a bit was expended on development and tooling so minimum sales might have been some hundered or so busses but both passee that mark) was for sales projected but it looks like both models were successful enough so they did not bankrupt right? it was merely a choice of moving away from bus building for whatever reason the management chose. Pretty busses both of them, tho i am sucker fro older dessignes with more bulbous aesthetics i can see appeal of both.