Photograph by ‘unknown’ if you took this photo please go to the copyright page.

Wakefields Motors Ltd
1963
Bedford SB5
Plaxton C41F

The coach fleets of Northern General Transport and its subsidiaries was pretty much as you would expect from a BET company, usually an AEC, Guy or Leyland chassis, and a mixture of high quality bodies from several different Coachbuilders, so the arrival of these C41F Paxton Embassy II Bedford SB’s in 1963, came as somewhat of a surprise. I’m not suggesting that the SB was a bad vehicle, far from it, the gave many years of loyal service to a multitude of operators, but Bedford’s never played a significant role in the make up of BET group fleets, any that were around had either been bought for a specific purpose or had come in through the back door as the result of a takeover, so your guess is as good as mine as to why two of them came to be at Percy Main? As well as the Wakefields pair, HFT 264/5 – 264/5; I believe Sunderland District also had a some, and I presume all of them would have been either 8′s or 13′s with the Leyland engine, but I’m not aware of any others in the NGT set up. Life expectancy of NGT single deck and D/P vehicles was around 15 years, some of the touring coaches were withdrawn after about 10 years, but many were used for the longer express routes and lasted as long as their service cousins. This wasn’t the case with these Bedford’s. I started at Percy Main in 1967, and if memory serves, they were withdrawn at the end of the 1968 season. As far as ‘coaches’ were concerned, they were the last to carry the Wakefield’s name as all subsequent vehicles were D/P’s, and the name became defunct in 1970. As a footnote, the photo was taken outside The Gibraltar Rock Pub, located at Tynemouth terminus of what was at the time the service 11 to Newcastle, the location is only about 5 miles from Percy Main depot, and to me this photo looks like a publicity shot and the passengers are probably Percy Main office staff.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Ronnie Hoye

15/05/13 – 09:22

Nice view, Ronnie. Thanks for posting. I know of other operators who used office staff in their publicity photos, so your theory in this case could well be correct.

Pete Davies

15/05/13 – 09:23

Yes, Ronnie – a strange choice of coach for a BET company. However, if they did want some lightweights then there was not much choice at the time, other than Ford Traders. I wonder if they were on lease hire, hence their short life with Wakefields?
This scene definitely looks staged. It was a common practice to enroll office staff to act as passengers for publicity shots. I remember one such occasion with Wallace Arnold when we were supposed to be tourists on a Swiss holiday (in the depths of a suburban Leeds country lane). I never saw the resulting pictures. Nobody minded, of course, as it got us out of the office for an hour or two.
Mind you, they couldn’t do this today as HSE would object to those two protuberances which could have someone’s eye out! (Sorry, but this was the age of The Likely Lads and Carry On films!)

Paul Haywood

15/05/13 – 10:57

Bedford? Very strange. Why? Because all the quality mainstream operators at that time tended towards the Ford 510E for their minority lightweight purchases – keeping them no longer than three years, often for only one season. [SUT, Yelloway, Wally Arnold, Hebble, Woollen - all ran Fords rather than SBs. SUT only ran SBs from operators who they had taken over.] OK; NGT ran non mainstream vehicles, including Guy Arab LUFs – but Wakefield ran Reliances, instead.

David Oldfield

17/05/13 – 07:17

"Oh, what happened to you? Whatever happened to me?" Well, Rodney Bewes – his voice at least – was the door announcer for the lifts in the last place I worked!

Pete Davies

18/05/13 – 08:15

Notice anything about "Bob’s" accent, Pete? Yorkshire, if not all that broad – Rodney Bewes is from Bingley. I think its called "auto-suggestion": you’re told the sitcom is about two "likely-lads" from Tyneside – as and long as one of them has a Geordie accent then you simply don’t hear the Yorkshire tones of his partner. The Northern Fleetline/Atlantean-Alexanders (which would it have been?) in the opening titles have gone, are the Scotswood Road flats still standing? The Dunston Rocket, of Tudor Crisps fame (also now gone), has gone. And I’m not even going to mention Manor steps, aerial ropeways, and multi-storey car-parks from a certain cult gangster film.
From the mid to late 60s there seemed to be more of an interest in lightweight coaches from certain BET and THC operators. Perhaps this reflected a desire to be able to compete more effectively against independents for private hire business as stage-carriage work declined.

Philip Rushworth

18/05/13 – 16:57

David O – Yelloway was not an operator that ran Fords rather than SBs, the opposite was the case. They bought Fords only in 1961, 3 in total, including subsidiary fleets. They bought SBs each year from 1960 to 1965, excluding 1961, a total of 16.

David Williamson

19/05/13 – 07:18

But my point was that they ran Fords, not that they didn’t run Bedfords…..

David Oldfield

21/05/13 – 14:48

There has recently been some discussion on the SCT61 website about a photo of Wakefield’s Motors Beadle-bodied AEC/Beadle rebuilds 191 and 192 (FT 7791/2). The blind on 192 shows ‘PRIVATE’ with ‘RIPON LEYBURN AND RICHMOND’ in smaller capitals underneath. There has been much speculation as to what this destination was intended for and the North-East based followers of that site are mystified. Eric Bawden has suggested that it might have been used for forces’ leave services but I have no recollection of Wakefield’s doing such work and so I’m not convinced.
I wondered if anyone – obviously, I’m particularly thinking of Ronnie Hoye as the Tynemouth/Wakefield’s expert – would know why this particular destination appeared on a Wakefield’s blind.
The photograph was taken in 1960 in Whitby so it doesn’t offer any clues.

Alan Hall

22/05/13 – 07:24

Can’t say for certain, Alan. I know a fair bit about T&W but I’m by no means an expert, but my opinion would be that Wakefields coaches all had the longer Northern express route destinations on their blinds, and vehicles with Percy Main crews could often be found being used as duplicates on some of the routes. If memory serves, the Newcastle Liverpool route ran through Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds, but I cant remember any that went via Richmond or Leyburn.

Ronnie Hoye

23/05/13 – 07:54

I’ve been talking to a friend who was at Percy Main when I was, and he too is at a loss as to why Leyburn and Richmond should be on the destination blind. Wakefields had two batches of AEC Beadles, FT 7275/80 – 175/80 and FT 7791/2 – 191/2; 175/80 were FC35F and classified as coaches, whereas 191/2 were FC39F D/P’s, they also had slightly different fronts, the coaches had more bright trim under the windscreen and no number section on the destination layout. The coach blinds carried all Northern express route destinations, but the D/P’s had a shortened version of the stage carriage blind with the express section added.

Ronnie Hoye

Copyright R H G Simpson

Booth & Fisher
1948
Bedford OB
Allsop C29F

Boothies ran a wonderful eclectic collection of O type Bedfords built by a range of different firms. MNU 80 is an example of less common Allsop bodywork, and is seen, I think, outside Sheffield’s Midland Station.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Les Dickinson

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30/11/12 – 07:49

MNU is a Derbyshire registration from 1948. I suppose it would have been new to B&F.

Geoff Kerr

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30/11/12 – 13:32

According to the Booth and Fisher fleet history on the Peter Gould site, this vehicle is described as C29F. The vehicle was new in 1948 and withdrawn in 1968. The location is Sheffield Midland Station and the vehicle would probably be operating on hire to British Railways to ferry train crew etc to Tinsley or other locations in the Sheffield area.

Stephen Bloomfield

Thanks Stephen ?s corrected

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01/12/12 – 07:33

Greyhound (Alexander) used to have that contract I think, but not sure if that was before, or after, Boothies. Thanks for the info.

Les Dickinson

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01/12/12 – 11:49

East Midland and Sheffield United Tours also operated this contract. For a time in late 1968 BR ran ex Mansfield District AEC Regal KRR 261 operated the service. It was still in green and cream but carried the BR double arrow symbol. See previous discussion on this site re this operation

Stephen Bloomfield

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02/12/12 – 07:26

Fascinating stuff! Does anyone have details of who had contract year by year? It obviously got shared around a bit over the years.

Les Dickinson

Copyright Michael Wadman

Leather’s Coaches of Maiden Bradley
1951
Bedford OB
Duple C29F

The ubiquitous Bedford OB / Duple Vista of course, but GWV 101 is interesting in that it spent its entire operational life with Leather’s Coaches of Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire. Leather’s was one of the last surviving traditional village bus operators with origins as horse-drawn hauliers. Basil Leather was still the proprietor when he bought GWV 101 new in 1951. He sold the business to Donald Newbury, one of his drivers, in 1962, and it subsequently passed to Don’s son-in-law and daughter, Len and Sylvia Cooper, but the fleetname of Leather’s Coaches was retained throughout. In latter years GWV 101 was only used on special occasions. On 17th October 1992 it operated, by prior arrangement, on the “small bus” duty on Leather’s bus service between Gillingham, Frome, and Warminster. Len and Sylvia were driver and conductress for the day, and are seen here with the coach after arrival in Warminster.
Len and Sylvia retired in January 1998 but kept GWV 101 as a preserved vehicle.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Michael Wadman

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29/07/12 – 16:31

Yet another pristine example of this most legendary model. I absolutely loved them for their utter honesty – economical, gutsy beyond belief, handsome, and the providers of some of the finest acoustic delights one could wish for. I’m sure many, like me, simply drooled over the pure but sharp "top of the scale" whining and howling in the lower three gears – occasionally including a forgivable "back fire" – before settling into the trolleybus like top gear. Thereafter one would sail along with a bit of timpani, not annoying in the least, from the twittering rear springs that very one of these little gems displayed. Oh, for a trip to the seaside in one right now, or perhaps a ride to Town in one of the utility service bus variants whose unbelievable performance when often grossly overloaded was yet another legend.
I make no apology for this glowing accolade – our little heroes richly deserve it.

Chris Youhill

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30/07/12 – 07:02

Still in a lovely condition. I saw it on Wednesday 25th July at a gathering at Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire.

Paragon

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30/07/12 – 07:03

Chris, I’ll ‘second’ every word you’ve said. The OB sound still sends shivers up my spine. The only other things to do that are the sounds of a straight cut geared manual AEC box and a fly past by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight!

Eric Bawden

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30/07/12 – 11:07

I have a special soft spot Eric for one little Bedford in particular – this was in the RAF and was 00 AC 62. It was stationed, like me, at RAF Patrington and for some odd reason, especially at a top secret establishment, was driven usually by a civilian driver, Sam, who lived nearby in the Village. Our daily journeys to and from shifts at the radar site, some five miles away at Holmpton, were on board Bedford QL lorries (acoustic divas in their own right), or brand new Bedford SB petrol/Mulliner buses (coach, service, convertible to ambulance, Bedford 4 x 2, Mulliners Ltd.^) or the little star of the Station. Sam drove it exceptionally well with skill and affection and, as in many other cases, why on Earth didn’t I take some pictures. I can though still picture those well worn light green canvas type seats.
To avoid any confusion, our living quarters at Patrington Haven are now a rather fine holiday home village, and the Radar site at Holmpton is now the National Defence Archive and is open to the Public – but you will have to just imagine those glorious Bedford sounds as you make you way there by car !!

Chris Youhill

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30/07/12 – 11:08

And for those such as myself who live a long way from the nearest active OB there’s always EFE’s 1/76 scale model of this very vehicle. Haven’t bought it yet due to financial constraints – I also want one of EFE’s Silver Star double-deckers to go with it!
Looking at the picture I suddenly realised that it’s been 45 years since I last rode on one of these lovely machines in ordinary everyday service – during a two week holiday in Cornwall in 1967 I rode on them at least twice each day on Hawkey of Wadebridge’s services to the coast. Good times.

Neville Mercer

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30/07/12 – 15:59

I’ve never seen a bus empty so fast as when stationed in Nicosia in 1957 the driver of our Mulliner SB admitted he hadn’t done a bomb check that morning!

Jim Hepburn

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30/07/12 – 16:00

I can still remember the ride I made with my Dad to go on holiday in 1951 to Bridlington from Bradford. The coach was a Bedford OB on a private hire trip from a local textile mill. My sister, who suffered travel sickness and my Mum went by train but I jumped at the idea of going by coach. As Chris Y says the music from the Bedford transmission was something never to forget. Happy days.

Richard Fieldhouse