Launched at the end of 1959, the Cavalier was ahead of the opposition in many if not all respects. Certainly its outside appearance was of classic beauty combining curves, sharp angles and peaks in harmony, which combined with understated use of bright trim in a way that made it stand out from the opposition by combining style with good taste, the double curvature windscreen was not only wholly in line with the style of the body but it helped night-time coach drivers by dispelling interior reflections. The Plaxton Panorama (launched in production guise in 1959) had a basically rather boxlike shape and a very flashy grille, but it did pioneer
Smiths Instruments 'jet-vent' forced ventilation system allowing fixed windows and a cleaner side outline. The Duple Britannia (1956, on its third facelift for the 1960 season) had an excessively droopy outline and tiny windows, and was very little different from Duple's gaudy Super Vega/Yeoman/Corinthian for cheap coach chassis. Duple probably didn't care, the Brittania was not where the jam lay. The Duple (Midland) Donington was really just a bus tricked out with more chrome. The Willowbrook Viscount (new for 1960) had puzzling trim lines stopping and starting in the middle of nowhere and an overly-bulky outline whilst the optional reverse-rake rear glass was a feature that was already dated at the time of its launch and today simply looks odd. Alexander sold coaches south of the border to North Western and
Barton Transport and had a pair of fairly conservative (though aluminium-alloy framed) designs. The curved-waist style which Barton had taken since 1954 was discontinued in 1959 after its other major customer
Western SMT had stopped ordering it, North Western took the straight-waisted variant for most of its coach applications, even taking its first batch of 36 ft (see later) Leopards to this outline. Weymann built its Fanfare design for sale through MCW from 1954 to 1962 without alteration, at the end of its run it was a dated looking body. Roe had during the 1950s a coach renaissance, selling versions of its Dalesman style to independents and company fleets almost exclusively on the
AEC Reliance, in 1959 the Dalesman IV had trapezoidal glazing and a straight waistrail; the biggest customer for this style being Black & White Motorways of
Cheltenham. The masterly execution of the Cavalier stood out most against Burlingham's Seagull 70, its closest contemporary and a body very similar in construction and basic outline. Comparing the two the Seagull 70s detailing was crude and over-emphasised whereas that of the Cavallier was sharply delineated, making the whole coach look lean and sculpted by comparison with the Burlingham style. Some would say that they summed up the difference between Blackpool and Hove. During that season Duple purchased Burlingham and renamed it Duple (Northern). The Yeates Europa (from 1958, on first facelift for 1960) combined a similarly dumpy volume to the Willowbrook, made in the same town, with deliberately tasteless detailing and riotous paint schemes in a way that operators and passengers either loved or loathed, but it was easily the brashest option.
1960 sales The Cavalier was initially offered at 30 ft long by 8 ft wide to fit any suitable underfloor engined chassis. As was normal with Harrington the previous Wayfarer Mark 4 coach remained available (if requested) for the next couple of years, but it was clear the advantage was with the Cavalier. By the time Lloyds of
Nuneaton's 3857UE was shown at the 1960 Commercial Motor Show at
Earls Court 68 Cavaliers had been sold to seven BET fleets, ten independents and local charity St Dunstan's Home for the Blind. These were mainly on
AEC Reliance, but Charlies Cars of Bournemouth took six
Albion Aberdonian,
East Yorkshire Motor Services took five on
Leyland Tiger Cub and Ellen Smith of
Rochdale took the sole
Leyland Leopard. The Cavalier was a clear success already, with a number of influential customers well out of Harrington's heartland. Sales were both more geographically widespread and in many cases to customers who had not taken Harrington bodies before. The output from Hendon on equivalent chassis that season was 81.
1961 sales Between January and November 1961, 114 Cavaliers were sold, there were repeat orders for the Cavalier from eight operators including St Dunstan's. Of the six BET operators three were new customers for the style, both of the largest taking Leopards for their most prestigious touring duties. Southdown's first order was for forty bodies and
Ribble Motor Services, who had favoured local builder HV Burlingham for the past decade took 35. The largest repeat order was from Northern General who again took ten touring coaches, this time on Leopard, and independents adding further Cavaliers were Abbott of Blackpool, Ellen Smith of Rochdale,
Flight of
Birmingham and Harris of
Greys. The most important new independent customer was Yelloway (a conquest from the Duple group) taking six Reliances. In terms of chassis on which to build Harringtons fortune had definitely swung in the direction of Farington, with 86 Leopards and a Tiger Cub being bodied in contrast with only 26 Reliances, the Albion Aberdonian had been discontinued the previous year, so it would from now on be a straight fight between Lancashire and Middlesex. Duple's 1961 season total for the Brittania on its final facelift was 77, all but five on Reliance. The Donington had got bigger windows and Brittania-like trim but between them the expanded Duple group were building not only the Brittania and the Donington but also the Viscount and the Seagull 70, the differences were not just skin-deep either, all the Duple bodies had steel-reinforced hardwood frames, also Plaxton's structural method, The Loughborough-built Donington and Viscount both used frame-sections made from rolled steel tubes, whilst Burlingham's bodies (like those of Harrington and Yeates) were of jig-built aluminium. Plaxton had refined the Panorama with subtler detailing and inward sloping pillars above the waistrail for the 1961 season. Like Harrington they also offered a more conservative option, in their case an Embassy body with twice as many side windows. A more conservative option definitely wasn't Yeates' style, instead they introduced a more radical one, if the Europa was insufficiently in-your-face they could offer you the Fiesta, now with trapezoid glazing. Yeates was always going to be a minority choice, and as Yeates sold everyone else's coachwork (their core business being dealership) perhaps they wanted it that way. 1961 proved though that on the premium chassis, Harrington was now second only to Plaxton, although Duple vastly outstripped either (and the Burlingham operation they now owned) in the market for lightweight day-trip coaches. During 1961 the legal maximum width and length limits for buses and coaches was relaxed, new maxima were 36 ft by 8 ft 2½in, to take effect from 1 January 1962. Leyland and AEC had suitable models on the stocks by the end of the year whilst continuing production of the shorter-wheelbase models. These could legally carry a slightly longer body than 30 ft and the first 1962-season Cavalier delivered in December 1961 (a repeat order for Keith Coaches of
Aylesbury on Reliance) was the first Cavalier 315, so called because it was 1 ft 5in longer than the previous model which enabled Harrington to fit 43 of its own seats into the coach, rather than the previous maximum of 41. Duple and Plaxton had offered a 43-seat plan within the older length limits, but their seats were a bit skimpier on padding and even so came close to infringing legal minimum length requirements. During 1962 the original Cavalier was still offered as was the Cavalier 36, to the new maximum length. The 315 carried most of its extra length in a longer first side window, whilst the 36 ft version had this plus an extra shallower window just aft of the first bay which unlike the rest of the side glazing had a horizontal lower edge, the waistrail now resuming its dip at the third bay, this saved on the cost of extra tooling and made the Cavalier a truly modular range of coach bodies although it certainly did not look that way, the longer first bay window, to the same depth as the windscreen and with a forward sloping pillar made the front of the 315 coach look better balanced. Although the longer version was not as happy as the extended Panorama, tending to look slightly 'droopy' it neither looked as fussy as Blackpool's Continental, or Addlestone's Castillian nor was it quite as distracting as the Europa or Fiesta at the new length. Harrington's cleverness in construction was necessary for as well as three variants of the Cavalier Old Shoreham Road had to find space for car and minibus conversion work, production of Mark 2 Crusader and bus bodies on AEC Reliance and
Albion Nimbus chassis. It was perhaps good news that Maidstone and District had finally been weaned off the Wayfarer Mark 4 and that model could be buried after a good innings. Still the end of the Wayfarer Mark 4 meant that the less timid customers would be wanting something more up to date than even the revised Cavalier Also plans came from
Luton for a
Bedford chassis for the new maximum length market sector; this was going to be radical in concept and not suitable to the Cavalier outline, nor that of any Cavalier Mark 2, still less would it suit an extended Crusader, so not only was the factory floor busy so were the designers in the drawing office.
1962 sales In its final year the 30 foot Cavalier sold 17, all on Reliance. Maidstone & District took ten, South Wales two and
Trent Motor Traction, another BET subsidiary, took five, one of which was a replacement body on an accident-salvaged chassis built in 1958. 13 of the 31 ft 5in version were sold, all to existing customers. In the BET group Southdown took 3 more Leopards, Greenslades had three Reliances and Thomas Brothers of
Port Talbot added a further Reliance; of the independents Gliderways took another Tiger Cub, Keith of Aylesbury, Harris of Greys and Summerbees of
Southampton took more Reliances. A further Reliance was sold to Stanley Hughes, the Bradford dealer, who leased it for the 1962 season to
Wallace Arnold of
Leeds. As well as these 30 short Cavaliers a further 26 of the 36 foot model were sold. Harrington also sold-off RNJ900, the original Cavalier demonstrator, replacing it with a 36-foot Reliance 470 registered VPM898, which in turn was sold in 1964 to Hall Bros of
South Shields. There were two different sorts of long AEC Reliance, the 470 (type 4MU) used the 7.68-litre engine of the shorter version, at a peak rating of 130 bhp, whilst the 590 (type 2U) used a 9.6-litre 140 bhp engine as in the export
AEC Regal VI chassis. Southdown chose two 49 seater Leopards to the new length, whilst Greenslades added to its collection of Cavaliers with three Reliance 590s and a new BET customer was Neath and Cardiff Coaches with two long Reliance 470s, seating the maximum 51. The independent buyers of the Cavalier 36 in its first season placing repeat orders for the style were Abbot, Ellen Smith, Yelloway and Hawkey of
Newquay and new Cavalier customers included Grey-Green, Hudson of Horncastle, Ayres of
Dover, Liss & District in
Hampshire and Straws of
Leicester, formerly a Plaxton loyalist. Grey-Green had its first 36-foot Cavalier on express service a month after the length was legal. The benefits of longer coaches were clearer for express services than for tours, especially tours to more remote scenic areas. Yelloway's 36 footers had an option peculiar to the operator of additional destination displays over the second and fourth nearside windows. For express work there was also an optional destination box in the roof dome, as well as
Yelloway Motor Services, Grey Green were among the operators who specified this. Fifty-seven Cavaliers sold new was exactly half the 1961 performance but the coach market was in a downturn, in comparison Duple sold only nineteen Britannias on short Reliances and four on short Leopard, two of the AECs and one Leopard had old-fashioned central entrances. Blackpool built no further Seagull 70s but built 27 of its 36 ft Duple (Northern) Continental on Reliances, 12 on Leopard (including six for Ribble) and one
Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster (a cancelled export order) for Happiways of
Manchester.
1963 sales In the 1963 season the Cavalier faced internal competition from the Grenadier (see below) but 21 of the 31 ft 5in version and 49 of the 36 ft were sold. Existing customers who placed repeat orders for the short Cavalier were Southdown (4 Leopard L2), Greenslades (another Reliance), Grey Green's orders included a short Reliance and ten Leopard L2 and Harris of Greys, Summerbee of Southampton and McIntyre of
Aberdeen all took further Reliances, Harris' being a rebody of a 1958 chassis damaged in an accident. New customers for the 31 ft 5in Cavalier were Munden of
Bristol (Leopard L2) and Crump of Pinner (Reliance). A new option was fixed side glazing and forced ventilation. Southdown having this on its Leopards. All but one of the BET customers for the long Cavalier had taken the style before, Neath and Cardiff had two Reliance 470 and East Yorkshire four Leopard PSU3, Ribble had 22 on Leopard PSU3 with the new forced ventilation option, the other three were for a newly acquired Ribble subsidiary, Scout Motor Services of
Preston, to the same specification as the Ribble examples. Grey Green had one Leopard PSU3 and one Reliance 470, the latter with forced ventilation. The other repeat orders from independents were from Yelloway who took 5 Reliance 590 with the jet-vent system, as well as the additional side destination screens and Ellen Smith, also of Rochdale, with a Leopard fitted with 45 reclining seats, Yelloway standardising on this luxurious option on its Reliances, the short ones seating only 37 as a result. New purchasers of the Cavalier 36 in its second season were Anglo-Continental of
Tunbridge Wells (5 Reliance 590) Valliant of
Ealing (4 Reliance 590) and Regent of
Redditch with a single Reliance 590. In 1963 Duple had three new styles for underfloor-engined chassis, the Alpine Continental was a longer-windowed version of the Continental whilst the Dragonfly was a 36 ft central entrance coach, both were built at Blackpool, the latter having a steel reinforced hardwood body frame. For the shorter AECs and Leylands the Britannia was finally replaced by the Hendon-built Commodore, which was a modification of the mass market Bella Vista body being 1 ft 10in longer with a front entrance and a maximum capacity of 45. Total Continental/Alpine Continental sales were 17, while only six Dragonflies were built, two Leyland demonstrators on Leopard and four for BET coach operator Samuelson of Victoria. The Commodore was also a sales disappointment, eight Reliance and three Leopard L2 being sold. Willowbrook however were gaining express-coach orders for its version of the BET-standard single decker. In coach form four main bays were fitted as was fixed glazing and forced ventilation and there was an optional solid coach door and brightwork grille. Marshall and Weymann also built BET style express coaches. In contrast Plaxton had a further revised Panorama, with barely perceptible waist curvature and only three main side window bays on the 36 ft body, the dome was refined and thinner trim strips were used producing a body of unusual restraint for a Plaxton, it was an instant sales success. Ribble, for one, placing large orders. Another competitive body was
Alexander Y Type, first shown in 1961, which in coach form had four trapezoid windows on each straight-waisted side and double curvature glazing front and rear. As well as selling massively to the Scottish Bus Group, BET fleets who took the style from 1962/63 were North Western and East Midland, followed in later seasons by Trent,
Potteries, the Northern General Group, Hebble,
Yorkshire Traction, Yorkshire Woollen and Stratford Blue, whilst three independents purchased the style over its lifetime, Scottish co-operative Wholesale Society had four Reliances, Venture of Consett took 12 Reliances and 26 Leopards, with eight more on order when Northern took them over, whilst Premier Travel of
Cambridge had sixteen on Reliance. BET favoured steel-tube body framing and, as introduced, the Y type featured this Alexanders reverting to aluminum framework from 1972/73.
1964/65 sales and totals The 1964 season short Cavaliers for BET fleets Greenslades (10 Reliance) and Devon General Grey Cars (8 Reliance) were notable in being to 7 ft 6in width and having Grenadier style dash panels. Grey-Green took eleven, Leopard L2, Crump of Pinner took another Reliance and Hutchings & Cornelius with one Reliance became the last new customer for the Cavalier. 31 of the short version were built in its final season. There were eleven of the longer version, six were for Yelloway on Reliance 590, Grey Green took four Leopard PSU3, Valliant of Ealing had two Reliance 590 and Ellen Smith took a 49-seat Leopard PSU3. The only BET customer was Thomas Brothers of Port Talbot with a 49-seat Reliance 470. In 1965 Yelloway took the last six 36-foot Cavaliers on Reliance 590. In all 359 Cavaliers had been built, one 30 ft demonstrator, one 36 ft and 357 coaches sold of which 199 were 30 ft, 65 31 ft 5in and 93 36 ft. There were 99 30 ft Cavaliers sold (plus a demonstrator) on AEC Reliance 2MU chassis, 87 on Leyland Leopard L2T, seven on Leyland Tiger Cub PSUC1/2T and six on Albion Aberdonian MR11L. Cavalier 315 sales totalled 37 Reliances and 28 Leopards. Cavalier 36 sales comprised 39 Leopard PSU3, 52 Reliance 590 (2U) and 13 Reliance 470 (4MU) plus the demonstrator, which was sold after a year to Hall Bros. of South Shields who became a loyal Grenadier customer. ==The Grenadier, an apotheosis==