Some of our yesterdays

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Payling has been looking at films about the coach industry on YouTube and begins by travelling back in time to look at a bygone age of coach travel.

Initially when I was thinking about this feature, I was just looking for old videos of the coach trade. So, are you sitting comfortably? Computer on? Got a hot drink? A biscuit? Good. Now you can sit back, put your feet up for a minute and have a look at a few of the films about the coach trade that I have discovered on YouTube.
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I have started by going back in time because of the enthusiasm in the industry for historic vehicles and the way they are lovingly preserved and treasured. Hopefully, footage of the world as it was when such vehicles were actually in service gives younger people who never experienced those days a real insight into an era we have lost. For those who were actually there, it might be a case of ’gosh, I remember that/those/him/her,’ ‘I haven’t seen one of those for a long time,’ ‘I remember going there’ or ‘those were the days.’

Before the first film I have chosen begins, there is neither commentary nor subtitles to advise the viewer about what’s happening on the screen. I think that’s unfortunate because I take the view this particular film is such an important historical record of an industry and a country that was so very different from today. I might be wrong about this, but it appears to me to be pretty unique given the range of coaches featured and the variety of locations included, not to mention, in places, the really good quality of the film making.

So I set myself the task of trying to identify as much as I could about the people, the coaches and the locations that feature. I have long wanted to be a CSI, so the following is the result of some time consuming research. There will be parts of the film that I could not identify and no doubt, things that I have got wrong, so, please feel free to correct me or add additional information if you can. I feel it would be really helpful to anyone who watches this in future if all relevant information was included in sub-titles. I say that rather than suggest a commentary because the musical soundtrack is just so good and wholly appropriate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifties Coach Travel

The best historic video I found is called ‘Fifties Coach Travel’ and it’s a real gem. It can be found at youtu.be/0oFEPTgaKrY and starts with a driver called George splendidly attired in a brilliant white dust coat and cap – Daz or Omo, George? He and an inspector are filmed checking the passengers on board at a busy bus station – it has been suggested that this could be a Hants & Dorset bus station in either Southampton, Bournemouth or Poole? – and then doing line of route pick ups in places like Elmbridge, Kingtson or Headley. George is driving a Bristol LL6G, MXB 740, which was operated by Tilling Transport of Chelmsford from 1952 to 1963.

In a lovely period touch, the film is accompanied by a fine period musical soundtrack. Other parts of the soundtrack are so good that as George is driving along, when I heard the Bristol’s engine revs slowly dying down, I actually lifted my left leg and noticed my left hand was looking for the gear stick to drop it smoothly into gear – old habits never die. Turn the sound up and if you’ve used a crash box you’ll see what I mean. And George’s coach, wow, don’t miss that, it looks absolutely magnificent as it cruises through the quiet English countryside particularly as this video was made in colour.

First port of call is Stonehenge where the passengers could get right up close to the stones at that time and George, in a profile shot in his whites, does a fine impression of an ancient druid. The next port of call is the White Swan Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon. After what I presume was the lunch stop and a drink by the River Avon and a visit to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, they visit Chatsworth House to take photos of the Chatsworth Cascade. Either George got his toe down, the roads really were quieter then or this film is not exactly following a coherent sequence. But at least George had a chance for a smoke and to do his pools before everyone got back on board. And speaking of smoking, the film not only shows people smoking on George’s coach but smoking a pipe too: I say, by Jove!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Style on the Tilling Express

Looking at George’s passengers, it reveals a time when folk took a bit more care over their appearance. This was a world of slacks, blazers, suits, sports jackets, collars and ties, panama hats, cravats, Bryclreem, dicky bows and the odd handle bar moustache for the men. And of course, being gentlemen, most of the men kept their jackets on even though, with a glass roof, it must have been sweltering inside the coach. Even George looks a bit warm as he pushes his cap back. It brought to mind the famous Noel Coward song these passengers would have been very familiar with as we still had a bit of an empire when this video was made: you know the one, ‘Mad Dogs & Englishmen.’ If you don’t it’s on YouTube too. As for the ladies, I’m not the best person to comment on women’s fashion, particularly from the 1950’s, but I don’t recall ever seeing many ladies with pearls, brooches, a twin-set or a suit getting off a coach these days. In other words, the coach passengers on George’s coach had some style, glamour even verging on the chic in some cases, not something you get at Sports Direct. Those really were the days. In fact, if someone had told me that the passengers on George’s coach were the cast for a film based on an Agatha Christie novel, ‘Murder on the Tilling Express,’ I would not have questioned them.

Leaving George for a while, we then see a series of short sequences. A Guy Arab UF, FAG 92, operated by Western SMT out of Kilmarnock arrives at the Cliff Hotel on Queens Promenade in Blackpool where the cases are swiftly unloaded by the booted and suited hotel staff. The action moves to Princes Street in Edinburgh where an Eastern Counties Bristol LS5G, UNG 766, out of Norwich, is filmed turning into Waverley Bridge heading for a visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Things move fast as we trundle briefly through Cheddar Gorge before rolling up to board a ferry for Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye at Kyle of Lochalsh on a Bedford OB Burlingham Baby Seagull, FFS 862, of Eastern SMT. George then re-appears but in a different coach. This time he’s driving one of Tilling’s Bristol LS6Bs, PYO 757, around what was in George’s day London Airport. It is of course now London Heathrow, but the airside security appeared to be a lot less stringent then than it is today.

We then have a spin round what I assume was the Pennines in a Bristol LS6G, PNN 772, operated by Mansfield District Traction. Clearly the company was not in the AA as their patrol man passing on the opposite side of the road on his motorbike and sidecar combination did not salute as they used to when they saw members passing. That is, of course, unless there was a police speed trap ahead. Back then, if an AA patrol man saw a member but didn’t salute, it was a warning to observe the speed limit. A Daimler CVD6DD, JAO 749, operated by Hartness of Penrith is seen driving slowly through what I have assumed is a town in the Lake District – Keswick?

We then head off for a look at the Lakes themselves in a Bedford OB, CFV 66, run by Brown’s Luxury Coaches of Ambleside. We pause at the Swan Hotel in Grasmere, once a popular coach stop which to this day still has the same sign. Blink and you’ll miss the Leyland TS8, FT 4544, run by Wakefields as it flashes by and what looks like another of Tilling’s Bristol LL6G’s, MXB 739, is seen departing the hotel. There’s a stop for refreshments for a group on board a Northern General Guy Arab III 6DC, BCN 23, at the Kirkstone Pass Inn, still the ‘Traditional Inn with Altitude’, on the A592 Ambleside to Patterdale road.

Next we see a couple of coaches I couldn’t accurately identify off for a spin together round the Lakes. The scene changes again and we arrive at Bowness Pier at Bowness-on-Windemere where, in what I assume is still the nearby coach park in Rectory Road, a Leyland PS2, FBU 973 belonging to Shearings, can be seen parked up amidst a fine array of coaches. The boat operators on Lake Windemere – and the drivers, no doubt – must have been having a very good day looking at how busy it was.

The scene moves down to South Devon where a Hants & Dorset Bristol LS6G, MLJ 146, can be seen having parked up or just stopped for a moment above Labrador Bay on the coast road from Teignmouth to Torquay to enjoy the view of Hope’s Nose, the northern tip of Torbay. Not a great place to stop as even then it looked like a busy road. The journey continues on the A379 just past Starcross at the turning for Cockwood Harbour and Dawlish Warren where the coach carries on towards Dawlish. What I am presuming is the same coach then stops by the sea to drop everyone off for walk along the prom. Where that might be I can only speculate: my best guess is Swanage? The End.

And there we take leave of this historic gem. While I think it’s an impressive visual record and says a lot about coach travel in the bygone age, it’s not wholly typical. For example, I didn’t see any of George’s crowd loading crates of brown ale and Mackeson stout in the boot. Nor did it look like any of his group were having a sing song. Also, in the industrial part of the old West Riding of Yorkshire that I grew up in, if you went away on a ‘chara’ you didn’t go to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon – nay lad, you went to Cleethorpes, ‘Brid,’ ‘Skeggie’ or the mecca for the whole of the north, Blackpool. George’s group, being from the Homes Counties, even then, appeared to have a bit more brass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community spirit

For a taste of the community spirit that made itself apparent when close knit communities from the north went out for the day, see the film ‘1960’s Children on School Coach Trip to the Seaside.’ The title is not entirely accurate as it’s clear that this is a day out from a village or town possibly in North Yorkshire or Teesside that didn’t end up at the seaside but on a playing field. Everyone is, of course, in their Sunday best, and the children in their school blazers – in those days, the same thing. The operator that provided the two Bedford OBs seen in the film is probably Saltburn Motor Services. One of the coaches is filmed turning the corner at the bottom of Saltburn Bank before being seen on the road that goes along the sea front there and then past the Ship Inn in Saltburn-on-Sea, which is filmed from inside one of the coaches. There is then a stop at the Bungalow Cafe – any ideas? – before one of the passengers clears a herd of cows from a playing field. Everyone disembarks to have their sarnies and a cuppa on the grass – I bet the drivers were pleased about that – before the fun begins. And talk about simple pleasures. Everyone has a high old time in the games that take place. You’ll spot the enthusiasm of those taking part in the egg and spoon races, the sack races, the three legged races and finally, the tug-of-war between the boys and the girls – which the girls won. I bet they were talking about that day out for a long time afterwards, but it does show the role the coach played in close knit communities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butlin’s here we come!

More happy days are recalled in ‘1960’s Children on Coach Trip to Butlin’s, Summer Holiday.’ Well, need I say any more about why the mixed group on the coach look so happy – they’re off to Butlin’s. After Blackpool itself, heaven on earth for so many in the 1950’s and 1960’s. After a short run from Stockton-on-Tees down to Filey in one of D.R. Rennison’s Bedford SB1’s, 466 FUP, the happy campers can be seen queueing for their cases. Note the wannabe teddy boy with the quiff and the cigarette behind his ear in the queue for cases while the young ladies in their frocks were kept waiting behind him. Not many young gentlemen on this coach!

The simple pleasures of a swing make themselves apparent but some of the buildings in the background do indeed look like the huts holiday camps were (in)famous for then. Happy, smiling, smartly dressed family groups are also seen arriving on a Leyland PS1, GTF 575, listed as belonging to Mills & Seddon of Farnworth near Bolton. No doubt the clothes all came from a catalogue, the ‘online’ shopping emporiums of the 1960s. It’s nothing new. And, of course, the gentlemen of Greater Manchester kept their jackets on. After that, well, it’s all swings and roundabouts, a bit of jiving and for the ladies, a dip in the pool. Not many of the men take a plunge. After all, it would mean taking their jackets off. Then it would have been back to Bolton where the chimneys that Fred Dibnah later knocked down still belched out smoke all day long.

Speaking of which, the last video I will mention is called ‘THE FILM ROOM film scan sample video 1’ which is part of a short promotional film for Wallace Arnold in the 1950s. I include this short extract because it does indicate one reason why coaches were so appealing back in the day. If you lived in the north in the 1950s, you will recall how grim it was due to the smokey industry. Clue: that’s why they even called London ‘The Smoke.’ That applied in many places. If you never saw it, the north was black and the smoke would blot out the sky at times. Even the rain was black. Travelling on a bus from my birthplace of Rawmarsh into Rotherham meant going past the gates of hell that was the Park Gate Iron & Steel Works. Have a look at the very early opening sequences for Coronation Street when it was called a gritty drama. There was a lot grit there all right. But then when you went to meet your WA coach, it was like a yellow and orange cloud had descended to whisk you away from all the grime. Even grubby British Railways couldn’t compete with the vivid colour that coaches brought to town. The only other place that people saw any colour in their day to day industrial urban lives was watching the films of Hollywood in the picture palaces. As an example, I was watching John Ford’s 1956 film ‘The Searchers’ the other day. The colour is still outstanding. So in this video, when you look at the line of dazzling Burlingham Seagulls contrasted against a smoky, grimy Leeds – just to make the point, note the passing steam train rubbing soot in the wounds – seeing it through the eyes of someone back in the 1950s, it must have looked like you were going from Coronation Street to California. This was travel in Technicolor VistaVision. And then you would be whisked away not to the la la land of Hollywood, but Butlin’s! Ah, now those were the days, even if you did have to keep your jacket on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to John Wakefield for his expert help with identifying coaches for this piece but any mistakes are all down to the author.

Film images from ‘Fifties Coach Travel’ via youtu.be/0oFEPTgaKrY
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