This coach (Charabanc) was George Edward Hodge’s first new coach it was supplied by the dealership A.C.Barnes Wokingham, George named his coach “Venus” as this was the name of the R.N. ship on which father served. (The coach body could be removed, and a lorry body fitted as required).

This picture shows George Hodge’s garage he built in the late 1920’s, his truck is just leaving to join the other floats in the parade celebrating the Coronation of King George the VI 1937.

Two of George Hodge’s coaches with some excited passengers waiting to depart the Royal Oak Public House, Branksome Hill Road, Sandhurst which is now The College Town Montessori School.

The coaches were starting to get a bit more streamlined in the 1950’s, this coach with its butterfly front radiator was waiting to pick up it’s passengers at Earls Court.

In 1962 Peter Hodge took over the day to day running of Hodge’s Coaches and he took this picture of our coach picking up passengers in the hangar (TBB) at Heathrow airport, parked behind is a BOAC (British Airways) Boeing 707.

This photo was taken at the Transport and Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne and shows one of our Ford coaches waiting in between shuttling VIP’s around the test track.

The 1980’s saw the arrival of our first foreign make of coach an MAN SR280, it was the first of our heavy weight vehicles. By today’s standards it’s lacking in luxury features!

The late 1980’s early 90’s saw us replace the old blue and ivory colour scheme, that George Hodge started using in the 1930’s, and change to metallic blue and gold which we have stuck with to the present day.

Our latest vehicles are light years away from the vehicles our granddad started with all those years ago. We now have double glazing, air-con/climate control, reclining seats, ABS, ASR, Automatic Gearboxes, air suspension – we think he would be impressed.