By the early 1980s when I joined the senior management team, Southdown was one of the National Bus Company's largest subsidiaries and certainly one of the most renowned and respected. Its operational portfolio included urban and interurban networks along the coastal towns of Sussex and east Hampshire including arrangements with the municipally owned undertakings in Portsmouth, Brighton and Eastbourne; rural services inland towards Petersfield, Crawley and Heathfield; express services in conjunction with National Express and a large coach fleet operating holiday tours, excursions and private hire. Its uninspiring six-storey head office building in Freshfield Road, Brighton occupied the same site as a garage devoted exclusively to coaches and another older building known affectionately as 'The Vicarage' where scores of roofs were taken off Leyland Titan PD3 'Queen Marys', Bristol Lodekkas and VRTs each spring ready for the annual pilgrimage to the Derby at Epsom.
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