Victory Tours was another long established Dorset business, based for many years in the quaintly named village of Sixpenny Handley up on Cranborne Chase in the north east corner of the county. The Adams family were builders and carpenters in Handley whilst the Coombes family were bakers and grocers there. Cyril Adams was a driver-mechanic with the Victory buses in Salisbury (also known as Salisbury and District) run by Maurice Coombes. But that business was sold by its proprietor to Wilts & Dorset Motor Services in June 1921 after only fifteen months of operation. Cyril Adams acquired a Thorneycroft bus instead of money he was owed and brought it back to his home village of Handley. He adopted Victory Coaches as his trading name when, as eldest son, he set up in business with his father Albert Adams in that same year. Confusingly another Salisbury operator Sparrow & Vincent also operated as Victory Motor Services running city routes in and around Salisbury from 1922 to December 1933 until they too sold out to Wilts & Dorset. Mr Sparrow would have known Cyril Adams as he too had driven for Coombes. Additionally there was A W Alner's Victory Motor Service of Fordingbridge in Hampshire, also working into Salisbury from their home town.

The original routes operated by Adams were from Handley to Salisbury on Tuesday and Saturday; Handley via Blandford and Bere Regis to Dorchester on Wednesday; Handley to Blandford on Thursday. A second vehicle was obtained in 1923 and this enabled the introduction of a Thursday service to Salisbury as well as a new route to Wimborne on Tuesday. Adams is also shown as serving Bowerchalke on Tuesdays in the mid 1920s. Wilts & Dorset were also operating from Handley to Salisbury at this time and Albert Adams bought the goodwill of their routes in April 1922, the purchase price of £225 also including their garage in Handley. Albert died in 1925 and his widow Edith took over the reins. The following year the younger son E E Adams became old enough to help with the driving.

In 1946 the route of C A Oddy from Ashmore to Shaftesbury was purchased and extended back to work through from Handley. One of the Blandford routes ('c' in the list above) was reorganised in December 1946 to start from Wimborne St Giles and operate via Gussage All Saints  before rejoining the original route through Tarrant Gunville. From April 1947 to May 1949 a Wednesday market bus was operated from Handley to Ringwood via Farnham, Gussage All Saints and Horton.

The two routes to Wimborne Minster were merged into one late in 1948, starting from Wimborne St Giles and running via Monkton St Giles (instead of Cranborne), Handley, Cashmoor, Gussage St Michael, Gussage All Saints and Horton Inn.  This was at the time of introduction on 5th December 1948 of the Hants & Dorset 97 service from Poole via Wimborne, Gussage, Cranborne and Fordingbridge to Salisbury six times a day. The main route into Salisbury from Tollard Royal and Handley acquired daily morning and evening workers journeys from 1st September 1948.  The double-run diversion to Martin had already been discontinued by now, Martin being served exclusively by the buses of Charles Flemington of that village.

As with many operators, excursions, tours and private hires provided a welcome change from the day to day bus services for both passengers and drivers.  A range of excursions had been operated from Handley and surrounding villages since the early days of the business, as well as from Broadchalke and Martin. This type of activity grew in 1952 with the take over of the business of  J Robins & Son of Shaftesbury and their tours licences. In 1955 the Adams fleet comprised eleven vehicles, primarily Bedford OBs, plus a couple of Bedford SBs and a solitary Dennis Lancet. Further growth came in April 1957 with a similar take over of the tours licences of W Otton & Son of Cranborne (they had been bus operators too until 1952). Acquired from Otton was a 29-seater Bedford OB EFX337.

In January 1957, with fuel rationing restrictions, the Saturday afternoon services were withdrawn from the St Giles - Wimborne Minster, Handley - Blandford and Handley - Shaftesbury routes.  Also the pattern of travel was changing by this time and late Saturday afternoon return trips from the villages to the market towns were no longer serving their traditional purpose of enabling shoppers to obtain bargain food purchases as the shops and markets closed for the weekend. The Shaftesbury route lost its Sunday journey too at this time. Withdrawal of lightly used Saturday services released more vehicles for private hire work.  In the spring of 1957 the Shaftesbury service initiated a double run to serve East Melbury.  On the way to Shaftesbury the route negotiates the appropriately named Zig-Zag Hill. Then in 1959 the loop on the Salisbury service was extended to include Ashmore on Tuesdays.  

The Victory business was incorporated as a limited company in 1964 as Adams Bros (Handley) Ltd.  At that time the fleet numbered fourteen full sized vehicles, all petrol engined Bedfords, ranging from 29-seater Vistas to 41-seater Super Vegas. Taxis and road haulage still played a part in the overall business. Figures from 1963 show average stage service revenue of 10.75 old pence per mile against average costs of 27.75 pence per mile. Best performing routes were the two once weekly Blandford market services, then the daily Salisbury service; followed by the Shaftesbury and Bournemouth routes.  Poorest performer was the Wimborne service. Although uneconomic in operation loyalty to customers and villages that had been served for many years had ensured their continuation despite being unsubsidsed except internally within the business by school contracts and private hire work. The Bournemouth route lost its Monday service in 1963 and in 1967 the Wimborne Minster route was withdrawn completely. After decimalisation the fare chart for January 1972 showed the fares from Handley to Salisbury as 16p single or £1.28 for a five day weekly ticket (20p and £1.60 respectively from Tollard Royal).  The corresponding single fares for spring 1978 were 36p and 42p, with other single fares Handley - Blandford 30p, Handley - Shaftesbury 30p, St Giles - Blandford 32p and Handley - Bournemouth 42p. In 1978 the total revenue from stage services for the year was stated to be £11,000. 

In 1980 there were twenty vehicles in the fleet, all Bedford / Plaxton except for a Mercedes minibus. In that year Cyril Adams MBE, the founder, died in January aged 78. He had been awarded his MBE for work with the Dorset Army Cadet Force, retiring with the rank of Major. He is buried in St Marys churchyard in Handley. Victory withdrew the remaining Friday operation on the route to Bournemouth in 1983 (after a period of alternate weekly Friday operation to Poole instead of Bournemouth starting in May 1982) and the route was then taken over by Stanbridge & Crichel and operated intermittently by them for a few more years (the average passenger loading was one per week for a thirty mile journey each way!).

On 10th May 1982, following deregulation of express coach services under the 1980 Transport Act, a new Capital Link route was started from Handley, Salisbury and Andover to London twice a day.   The morning workers journey into Salisbury (started in 1948) was now provided by the London express coach.  The London service only ran for a year. By the time of the 20th June 1983 timetable the morning workers run from Tollard Royal operated only to Handley Cross where it connected with the Wilts & Dorset bus to Salisbury. At this time the teatime return run from Salisbury still ran as a through journey.  1982 also saw Ashmore gaining a Saturday morning shoppers service to Salisbury, whilst the St Giles to Blandford via Handley service on Thursday was altered to run as Handley to Blandford via St Giles.

Changes following bus deregulation meant that from 27th October 1986 the daily workers services on the Salisbury route were discontinued and replaced by diverting the Wilts and Dorset 184/185 Weymouth - Dorchester - Blandford - Salisbury service off the main A354 road and into Handley village for the first time. A connection was still provided by Victory for workers to and from Tollard Royal but the connection was now made in Handley village. Otherwise the Victory service to Salisbury was now just a three days a week market and shoppers service, but still serving the loop through Tollard Royal, Ashmore and Farnham.  Fares charged from Handley in November 1991 were £1.10 single and £1.80 return to Salisbury; £1.00 single and £1.75 return to Shaftesbury or Blandford.  The Thursday service to Salisbury was next to be withdrawn and finally from 3rd April 1999 the main Salisbury route (now one return journey on Tuesday and Saturday only) was lost after seventy eight years operation through county council retender and was then operated by Shaftesbury and District.  The route was amended slightly for operational convenience to start from Ashmore and serve Farnham and Tollard Royal on the way to Handley and Salisbury, whereas the traditional Victory route started at Tollard Royal and then served Ashmore and Farnham. It was also diverted at the city end to serve Salisbury District Hospital.

The business had been under the management of Nick Adams, Albert's grandson and Cyril's nephew, for a good number of years, since 1963.  Nick, now in retirement himself,  often said that it was his grandmother Edith who was the power behind the throne in earlier days!  By 1993 there were 22 vehicles in the fleet, but bus services were by now a minor part of the business.  The parking site for coaches besides Handley church was sold for housing development and operations were moved from Handley to Stanbridge near Wimborne (to the ex Stanbridge & Crichel yard) in 1998, although an office was still maintained in Handley,in a bungalow opposite the original garage site. The garage stood on the north side of the main street, between Handley's two pubs, the Roebuck (still open today) and the Star (closed some years ago). Houses were built on the garage site in a cul-de-sac appropriately named Adams Lane.

There were then only the three Thursday market routes left in operation by Victory (the two routes to Blandford and the Shaftesbury service).  These finished during June 2000, with the Blandford services passing to Damory Coaches as a one route combination of the two former routes, and the Shaftesbury route passing to Shaftesbury & District.   After nearly 80 years, Victory Tours were out of the bus business.  But still a thriving coach business well into the millennium with a fleet size of 18 vehicles, including Neoplan Skyliners and Beulas bodied Euroriders, the operations of Victory Tours included a wide range of private hire, touring, student and contract work.

Autumn 2004 saw the retirement of proprietor Nick Adams and the sale of the Victory business to the owners of Blueways Coaches of London who formed a new company Blueways Victory Limited.  The yard at Stanbridge was given up and operations moved to St Leonards near Ringwood, from where the new owners had plans to continue to expand the operation from the new base.

Sadly on 17 May 2005 Dorset County Council was informed that Blueways Victory would be unable to fulfil school contract commitments from the following day because of financial difficulties.  Liquidators were appointed on 2nd June.  It seems that the demise of Victory was brought about by loss of contracts by the new parent company.  Events are a little unclear, as there was an association with Blueways Coaches of London and also with South Dorset Coaches of Swanage at the time (then recently acquired from the founding Sheasby family). Some operations continued from St Leonards as Blueways Dorset Ltd.  Blueways ceased trading in Dorset altogether in September 2007. The Victory Tours name passed then to Mark Self of Roadliner of Poole until his company was acquired by Cavendish Liner in August 2009, whilst the South Dorset Coaches name had been revived by Nick Hubbard of Swanage Taxis and LinkRider in autumn 2007. To clarify: the founding Adams family retired in 2004 and were not connected with the Blueways businesses and subsequent developments in any way.