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Palmer Holidays
The Travel Office,Wakefield Road,
Normanton,
WF6 2BT
It hasn’t been an easy journey to where we are today – In 1972 David & Margaret bought a corner shop in Crofton and thought they would soon be ‘ASDA’ - they were more like ‘Open All Hours’ and soon realised they wouldn’t be able to earn their living relying on the shop; Their treasured Viva estate car became the deposit on their first 12 seat mini bus and in 1973 and the story began.
They ran the coach hire business from the corner shop, whilst also working in Margaret’s parents’ fish and chip shop in the evening; their first customer was Mick Lumb of Streethouse, who hired the mini coach to take his staff to their Christmas party. All types of private hire work then followed and a good client base was established.
Contracts then followed, transporting mill workers, miners, school children, bingo players, darts and dominoes teams, etc. By 1975 business had grown so much, they bought yet another vehicle and Margaret took her test to drive coaches and the business continued to expand.
Following the 1980 Transport Act, it became possible for all Coach Operators to offer holidays to individuals and this is when the business really took off…
Margaret read an article, in one of the trade magazines, offering a ‘free weekend in Torquay’. As they hadn’t managed a holiday for some 8 years, they arranged ‘baby sitters’ for Andrew and Jonathan and off they went for a relaxing weekend away – not! They now know, of course, there is no such thing as a free weekend - They had to work for it! Torquay Hotels Association was selling their products to Coach Tour Operators and all member hotels were hosting delegates. David & Margaret were staying in a hotel which Margaret thought left a lot to be desired even though she had, at that time, no knowledge of hotels BUT towards the end of the visit, tours of various hotels took place and Margaret walked into the Warren Park Hotel and immediately knew this was the quality of hotel she would want to work with at that time. The hotel owners, who she still works with to this day at their hotels in Bournemouth and Torquay, informed her that they had had a cancellation in six weeks time and could offer a very competitive price. Margaret held her hands up and said they had only come for the free weekend and wouldn’t know what to do; the hotel owners encouraged her and gave her an idea of what to do;
Every Wednesday, David or Margaret used to drive one of the coaches through Crofton and transfer passengers, free of charge, to and from the Crofton Darby and Joan Club; Margaret suggested to David that he announce details of the Torquay holiday to the Darby & Joan members before the meeting started; this he did – they were queueing to book a five day tour to Torquay costing £59.00!
As the business grew, and more and more customers learned of the quality of a holiday with David Palmer’s, a more varied tour programme had to be developed; Margaret decided that the type of customer the business was attracting would be willing to pay a little more for quality hotels. Even though it was unheard of at the time for coach companies to offer four and five star hotels, David & Margaret saw this was the way forward and their innovation proved to be a huge success, which continues to the present day.
Margaret is passionate about the coach tourism industry and has served on several national committees covering both legislation and tourism matters and was for several years, Vice Chairman of the Coach Tourism Council; She has received two national awards and also attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party in recognition of this work.
Although son Andrew and daughter in law Lisa are now running the business, working very hard to maintain the high standards set all those years ago, David & Margaret still take a very active roll in the day to day running (Andrew calls it interfering !!).
