Buses and Coaches in Sale

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Part Four - Local Coach Operators

When I lived out in the middle of Cheshire and made monthly shopping trips to Manchester with my parents, the number 36 passed the garages of three coach operators as it travelled along the A56 through Altrincham and Sale. The first was the premises of Godfrey Abbott Motor Tours on Manchester Road in West Timperley, but that operator is outside the scope of the current article as the garage was technically in Altrincham. Mr Abbott cannot entirely be excluded, however, as he was a cousin to the Sykes family. Sykes was one of the earliest operators of char-a-banc excursions in Sale and expanded into local bus services during the General Strike of 1926. Its route from Halebarns to Manchester via Altrincham and Sale wilfully abstracted business from the Manchester Corporation tram (and later bus) routes along the A56, and also made a dent in the takings of the parallel commuter railway. Despite these considerations Sykes received licences from the new Traffic Commissioners and sold out to Manchester and North Western in 1934 for a princely sum.
The Sykes brothers continued to trade as coach operators, from their premises at the junction of Washway Road and Barwick Place, until 1954. In the post-war era they aimed the business very much down market, specialising in contract work (for schools, factories, construction sites, and cleaning firms) at rock bottom prices. Their low bids were enabled by a fleet of very tatty pre-war vehicles including AEC Regals (from Standerwick and PMT) and Tilling-Stevens B10As (from North Western) The chassis of the latter had been built in 1928 (although later fitted with 1935 bodies) and at least one survived until the end.
Meanwhile, cousin Godfrey had helped to hasten the end by setting up in business for himself in late 1946, and bidding for exactly the same kind of low-price work as his kindred. While the Sykes decided to call it a day in 1954, Godfrey Abbott went on to more glamorous ventures, operating extended tours in both the UK and Europe, initiating an express service from Manchester to Paris, and providing one of the first "ring and ride" minibus services in Britain (under contract to the pte). The business was eventually taken over by the pte's Charterplan coaching division.
Godfrey Abbott had shown no interest in acquiring his cousins' premises at Barwick Place, and the garage there was soon sold to another local coaching firm, Altrincham Coachways. The registered office of the business remained in Altrincham, but the site in Sale became the main depot, replacing the firm's original very cramped premises close to its namesake railway station.

Altrincham Coachways

Norman Juckes began operations as a private hire and excursion operator in the early 1920s, and by 1929 was trading as Altrincham Coachways although the business remained a sole proprietorship until 1948 when the name was finally formalised as a limited company. The earliest recorded vehicles, both second-hand Albions, were acquired in 1929. By then Juckes was also operating a works service from Altrincham to Trafford Park and was awarded a licence for this by the Traffic Commissioners in January 1932. Other pre-war vehicles included a Leyland SKP Cub and an AEC Regal acquired from Standerwick. In 1939 the Trafford Park service was sold to Manchester Corporation.
The return of peace in 1945 resulted in a mad scramble for anything with wheels and among Altrincham Coachways "finds" were ADH 740, a Maudslay SF40 coach, and GMA 904, a utility-bodied Bedford. They were soon replaced by a veritable flood of new vehicles as Juckes sought to meet the post-war demand. In the two years 1947-48 Altrincham Coachways took delivery of seven Bedford OBs (most with Plaxton bodywork), a Plaxton bodied PS1 Tiger, three Plaxton bodied Commer Commandos, and six Crossley SD42s (three Santus, two Trans United, and one Burlingham). Two more Crossleys arrived in 1949 (one Santus, one Burlingham) along with another five bonneted Commers (three Santus, two Plaxton). The momentum continued in 1950-51 with many of the 1947-48 vehicles already being replaced by new stock such as Plaxton bodied Commer Avengers (NLG 762/763/945), the first Bedford SB for the company (Plaxton bodied NMB 848), and the first (and only) Altrincham Coachways Royal Tiger, NMA 1 with Plaxton Venturer bodywork.
Norman Juckes decided to retire in the summer of 1950 and sold the business to an upcoming coaching entrepreneur, Frank Ford. Ford's modus operandi was to buy a coach company at a relatively low valuation, increase its efficiency, and then (after a few years) sell it on for a profit. It was immediately noticeable that more second-hand vehicles began to join the fleet. The only additions in 1951 were four fully-fronted PS1 Tigers with Duple bodywork, acquired from Hants & Sussex in July. In 1952 there was a new SB (OLG 54) and a new Atkinson Alpha (OMA 600), both , inevitably by now, with Plaxton bodywork while 1953 saw the arrival of three new Plaxton bodied Regal IVs (RMB 158/159/240). A more curious occurrence during 1953 was the sale of the four fully-fronted PS1s to Spencer of Oldham in exchange for three (pre-war!) TS8 Tigers with Harrington bodywork. All three TS8s were then withdrawn and scrapped at the end of the 1953 summer season.
Many of the more interesting members of the Altrincham Coachways fleet were eliminated in the spring of 1954 by the arrival of a batch of 10 Plaxton bodied Bedford SBGs, SMB 20-29, which received fleet numbers 1-10. A rarer beast was 14-seat Plaxton bodied Karrier 32A NXJ 858, acquired second-hand in April 1954. There were no new arrivals in 1955, but 1956 brought four more Bedford SBs (WMB 591, WTU 214/215, and XMB 550. The following year saw the purchase of another smaller coach, Bedford A4/Plaxton 29-seater YMA 950 which arrived in June 1957, but larger moves were already in progress. In March 1957 Ford had transferred four Plaxton bodied Bedford SBGs (MRV 400/500/600/700) from his Portsmouth based Triumph Coaches business to Barwick Place, supplanting native SBGs from the "SMB" batch which were sold. In November 1957 there was a sudden influx of five Plaxton bodied AEC Reliances (VUP 441-445) from Gardiner of Spennymoor (another Frank Ford company) which replaced all the remaining locally-purchased SBGs except for XMB 550. At the end of December the Karrier and the Bedford A4 were sold, meaning that the fleet consisted of Bedford SBGs XMB550 and MRV 400/500/700 (MRV 600 had already been re-sold) and the five Reliances.
Despite all of this frantic activity, presumably at the direction of accountants privy to Mr Ford's plans, few suspected that the company was about to be sold. It came as something of a shock, therefore, when people in Sale and Altrincham discovered that Altrincham Coachways would pass into the ownership of the North Western Road Car Co at midnight on the 31st of January 1958. No vehicles were included in the deal and North Western vehicles were used to meet short-term commitments until new deliveries could be diverted to Barwick Place in the shape of Burlingham Seagulls, Harrington Wayfarer IVs, and Weymann Fanfares. These were later joined (briefly) by Reliances with Willowbrook Viking bodywork from the RDB 827-831 batch, surely the most attractive bodies for underfloor engined coaches ever produced by the Loughborough firm.
Another surprise was afoot. In 1961 a batch of eight Bedford SBs with Duple Super Vega bodywork (UDB 101-108) was delivered in full Altrincham Coachways livery. Only the Stockport registrations gave the game away. They replaced all of the heavyweights except for two Seagulls which lingered on until the arrival of three further SBs in 1964, on this occasion with Bella Vega bodywork (AJA 987-989B). In 1966 two of the 1961 Bedfords were transferred to North Western's other coaching subsidiary, Melba Motors of Reddish, and their spaces in the Barwick Place premises were taken by two Bedford VAL14s with Duple Vega Major bodywork (FJA 990/991D). The two VALs were to be short-lived tenants, as in 1967 North Western decided to merge its two coaching subsidiaries into the parent business. The remaining 1961 Super Vegas were transferred into the main fleet while the Bella Vegas and the two VAL14s were sold.
Godfrey Abbott bought the Altrincham Coachways name and kept the separate limited company (and operator's licence) for several years although most of the vehicles which continued to carry the company's legal lettering were elderly double-decker buses used on schools contracts. The few which were repainted carried "Godfrey Abbott Group" fleetnames and Abbott's new livery of ghastly green despite what the legal lettering said. The premises at Barwick Place were never used by coaches again, and for many years the old Sykes garage traded as a "Charlie Brown's Auto Centre", offering MOTs and replacement tyres to local car owners. Frank Ford went on to bigger things, running Plaxton for many years (he had always liked their bodywork) before joining with George Hughes to buy control of Plaxton's great rival, Duple, in 1970. He died in 1976.

Pride of Sale

Pride of Sale Motor Tours, tenant of the third coach garage passed along the A56, was founded by Frank Brazendale in the 1920s, although details of the early fleet have, as they say, proven elusive. In 1931 the firm applied for excursions and tours from Sale, a seasonal "period return" express service to Blackpool from a dozen or more local pick-up points (most of them newsagents), and a network of works services from the Sale area to Broadheath, Salford Docks, and Trafford Park. The works services were not granted, the Traffic Commissioners preferring the rival applications from Manchester Corporation. The only pre-war vehicle showing in my records is FV 1840, an AEC 0642 Regal 4 acquired from Standerwick in August 1938. It was sold on to Worth of Enstone in 1942.
Details of vehicles from the early post-war period are equally scarce, so if anybody can fill in the gaps please step forward. New deliveries in 1947 included JTU 244 (a Maudslay Marathon III with Duple FC37F bodywork) and JTU 381 (a Bedford OB/SMT "Vista lookalike"). The fully-fronted Marathon lasted until 1959 and I can remember seeing it one Sunday morning at Pickmere Lake. There is then apparently a missing sheet in the local PSV Circle Editor's notes which would have covered the period up to 1956, and the only other vehicle I've managed to uncover from this period, second-hand Commer Avenger I/Plaxton EBA 268, had already gone by the time I moved to Sale.
From 1956 onwards the majority of the fleet was always made up of Bedfords with Duple bodywork, although there were also Commers (Avenger III/Plaxton YMA 460 of 1957 and Avenger IV/Duple 785 WLG of 1962) and a pair of Bedford SBs with Yeates Europa bodywork (731 CMA/554 FMB of 1958/59). Notable among the Bedford/Duple combinations were 730 CMA, a C4Z2/Super Vista 29-seater delivered in 1958, and the company's first 36 ft vehicle, 129 TU, a VAL14/Duple Vega Major which arrived in 1963. The other arrival in that year was even more interesting, being a "multiply pre-owned" Royal Tiger with Harrington Wayfarer bodywork, LFD 552, which turned up in May. This vehicle was never repainted into Pride of Sale's green and cream livery and was returned to the dealer from whence it came at the end of the summer season. Its replacement was 4950 NA, an additional SB/Duple, acquired fourth-hand from Roberts of Crewe in October.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Pride of Sale operation came to an end in 1963 as a result of events in faraway Wiltshire. From the early 1950s onwards vehicles belonging to Silver Star Motor Services of Porton Down, operating their "military leave" express service from Salisbury Plain to Manchester, had spent the weekend in the care of Pride of Sale and operated "on hire" on local excursion work and "doubly on hire" to North Western – primarily on the Scarborough services. Silver Star coaches from Tiger Cub/Harringtons MMR 552/553 onwards even carried the words "On hire to Pride of Sale" on their destination blinds for their weekend holidays in sunny Manchester. This arrangement came to an end when Silver Star was swallowed up by Wilts & Dorset.
As the decade wore on the Bedford/Duple theme continued to dominate, although two Bella Vegas (GTU 433/434C) replaced two of the older Super Vegas in 1965, and further Super Vegas were replaced by a pair of VAM14s (NTU 219D/RLG 733D) in 1966. The first VAL14 was replaced by a new one with Duple Viceroy bodywork (UMA 615E) in March 1967, and two months later a VAM14 with similar Viceroy bodywork (UTU 427E) continued the cull of the Super Vegas. Meanwhile the solitary Super Vista had been sold in June 1966, leaving Pride of Sale with no coaches with fewer than 41 seats. This situation was rectified in April 1968 by the arrival of DLG 651F, a Bedford VAS1 with 29-seat Plaxton bodywork. The same month brought another Viceroy bodied VAL in the shape of DLG 652F. This was of the more powerful VAL70 type and was followed in March 1969 by identical machine JMB 399G.
The arrival of 129 TU in 1963 had emphasised the inadequacy of the company's premises at 147 Cross Street, which included a booking office and a small garage. The only way to get a 36 ft long vehicle into it was by halting traffic in both directions on the busy A56 trunk road and reversing it in. Once inside there was no room left for a second vehicle. The operator's open parking yard just off Glebelands Road was no better, and a larger base was desperately sought. This materialised in 1965 when a lease was taken out on a piece of land to the rear of the Crossford Garage petrol station – as the name suggests, within stone-throwing distance of the River Mersey and Sale's northern boundary. Two flat-pack buildings were quickly assembled on the western part of the site (providing room for five vehicles) and the open yard on the eastern half could hold a further seven or eight. The new base was still clearly visible from the A56 and the line-up of Viceroy variants in the yard made an interesting sight if compared to the relatively dumpy Super Vegas of only a few years previously.
At the end of the decade the Brazendale family decided to sell up and Pride of Sale followed Altrincham Coachways into the hungry maw of Godfrey Abbott. The legal lettering remained for a while and Abbott kept the depot behind Crossford Garage to supplement his own relatively cramped garage and yard in West Timperley.

Lingley's Saleaway

When I moved to Sale I rapidly discovered that there was another coach operator in the town, one whose depot had not been visible from the top deck of a number 36 bus. This was Lingley's Saleaway Touring Co Ltd, which had a yard on Hope Road, adjacent to the Queens Hotel and Sale Station. The business had two different strands in its early history, later joined by a third strand of even more convoluted ancestry. The Notices and Proceedings of the North West Traffic Commissioners show two separate operators at the time of Road Service Licence hearings in 1931. John James Bennett of 22 Bangor Street, Hulme, Manchester (trading as "Saleaway Touring Co") was successful in obtaining Excursions and Tours from the Sale area, while Mr AE Lingley of Stretford applied for E&T from his home town. At some undetected point the two operators merged their interests, although Mr Bennett seems to have left by the end of the 1930s when the business was being run by AE Lingley and his son Bill.
Until 1946 all vehicles operated were second-hand and included a petrol-engined Regal (from Standerwick|), a normal control AJS, five Leyland Tigers, and a Bedford WTB. There may well have been others unnoticed by the enthusiast community. In the post-war era this purchasing policy was reversed and almost all vehicles were brand new. The first to arrive, in November 1946, was Santus bodied Guy Arab III JLG 970, followed by a Plaxton bodied Bedford OB (CDB 322) in June 1947, and a Santus bodied PS1/1 Tiger (JMB 637) two months later. In January 1949 Lingley's became one of the first operators of a new Commer Avenger when Plaxton bodied KTU 333 was delivered, and in March of the same year added two new Crossley SD42s with Bellhouse Hartwell bodywork (LLG 590/591). A second Plaxton bodied Avenger (LTU 836) joined the fleet in October while a third (NLG 762) came from Altrincham Coachways in August 1951 when less than twelve months old. Another new example arrived in the same month as OLG 468.
In July 1954 Lingley's tried an Avenger II in the form of Plaxton bodied TLG 800. It was soon followed by two of the TS3 powered Avenger III model, TMB 555 in October 1954 and VLG 769 in June 1955. Both had Plaxton Venturer bodywork and all three of these Avengers were still in use when I first moved to Sale, the latter two giving me a taste for the sound of a two-stroke engine. Lingley's were apparently less impressed as no more were ordered and the next deliveries were both Plaxton bodied Bedfords, Leyland-powered SB8 666 CMA in April 1958, and Bedford-powered SB1 444 HTU in October 1959.
Meanwhile, the Lingley's had doubled the size of their business by acquiring Stretford Motors Ltd, based at The Old Cock garage in Stretford. As detailed elsewhere on this website, the business had originally been a partnership of Lancashire Motor Traders' supremo Joseph Whitehead and his brother-in-law Albert Warburton – proprietor of The Old Cock garage. In the late 1930s it was sold to TH Parker of Hollinwood near Oldham (and who traded there as Blue Bird Motors), and then in 1953 resold to Johnston Brothers of Middleton. It kept its separate identity (and operator's licence) throughout the changes in ownership and in 1957 was sold yet again, to the Lingley family. The registered office of Lingley's Saleaway Touring Co was then moved to Stretford Motors' address, mainly because it offered a better environment than the rather filthy and squalid environs of the Hope Road premises. The vehicles, however, remained amid the grime and Stretford Motors' coaches were also frequently to be found there while undergoing maintenance.
Lingley's tried a Plaxton bodied Thames Trader in May 1960 (1 MMA) but returned to Bedford for an SB5/Plaxton Embassy II (241 YMB) in March 1963. The company's first 36 ft vehicle, VAL14 BMB 199B, arrived in April 1964 and signalled a switch to Duple bodywork. This was confirmed by the arrival of SB5/Bella Vega GTU 765C in February 1965 and Ford R226/Mariner RTU 962D in June 1966, but in the following two years Lingley's returned to Plaxton for the bodywork on VAM70 YMB 374F and their first ever Bristol, LHL6L (Leyland engined) LLG 340G.
By 1971 the Lingley's fleet had been reduced to the three newest vehicles (the R226, the VAM70, and the Bristol) while the associated Stretford Motors fleet was also down to three (an SB/Bella Vega bought new in 1964, a second-hand VAL, and a second-hand VAM). It soon became apparent that the Lingley family were looking to sell and Jacksons of Altrincham appeared to show the greatest interest. At the last moment Godfrey Abbott stepped in and added the Lingley businesses to his own – he now had a virtual monopoly of coaching activity in Sale although this would soon be challenged by new start-ups. Eventually, of course, the Godfrey Abbott Group would itself be taken over, though few could have predicted that its buyer would be the pte.

Acknowledgements

Much of the information on the vehicles of local coach operators came from unpublished PSV Circle records, kindly provided by John Kaye. Most of the other research was done in the Archive of the Greater Manchester Transport Society and my thanks go to archivist George Turnbull for his assistance and forbearance.

Neville Mercer
04/14

16/03/15 - 08:34

Fascinating reading regarding Sale area coach operators. Altrincham Coachways was owned at least partly prior to Sale to North Western by a Frank Ford who had let's say an interest in many coach operators in the 50s such as Roberts of Crewe who were also associated with Florence and a Grange? From Morecambe. I believe he was also connected with Duple. Somewhere I have a box of old documents from Fieldsend Coaches with some interesting correspondence regarding their empire in the 50s which included Shearings when they were based in Oldham. There were very many wheelings and dealings back then and I only wish I had made notes of the many conversations I had with Jim Hackett part owner of Fieldsends regarding these when I worked with him in the late seventies and early eighties.

Tim Presley

23/06/15 - 09:52

Hope you may find these old pics interesting to your members, link to Preston Digital Archive Flickr site page
Coaches shown are "MRV 600" and "YMA 950" in August 1960 on Blackpool Road in Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston, Lancashire.

Phil Sullivan

26/04/17 - 07:35

Pride of Sale Coaches 147 Cross St Sale demolished 2017. Only just found site brilliant, I have lots of memories of all local operators in sale but only one photo the day after we picked it up from duple.

Fred Brazendale

04/03/18 - 09:53

I wanted to see if there was any trace on the internet about Lingleys as I remember their coaches picking up from shops near where I lived as a boy in Hulme during the 1950's.
It was really interesting to read all the comments in the old stream. The thing I recall most is that the Lingleys coaches I saw were sky blue and silver. Am I correct or is that a mistake?
Some people are talking about pink?

David Doolin

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