A World Of Wheels -The Story Of Birch Bros Ltd Firm And Family 1580s – 2020s

The Birch family dominated the parish of Chesham, Bucks and that of Stoke Damerel in Devon. Their landlords were the Tothills; Under Sheriff of Devon William Burch pioneered stagecoaches from Exeter to London and cowkeeper William Birch moved his herd from Stoke Damerel to Pimlico, Tothill Fields & the Milk Fair. William Manley Birch launched London cabs, widow Betty ran buses to Mansion House and designed the knifeboard bus, then sons William Samuel and John Manley formed Birch Bros at Royal Mail Yard, carried Royal Mail, invented bus brakes, and put the world’s first motorbuses on the road. Birch Bros pioneered See Britain Tours, airflow coaches, taxi power, and the first motorway services; Birches bought a Tothill Chesham property and saw Carmen’s Hall open on Tothill’s historic Fleet Street site. Birches bridge four centuries of transport in Devon, Bucks and London