Reliving the moment a Darlington coach driver died at the wheel

“On the other side of the road was a drop and then the water. It still affects me now. We are so lucky to be alive.”

Because, in his last moments, as he passed out, driver William Hardy (below) saved his passengers’ lives by steering them to safety.

The traumatic drama on September 19, 1965, started as the crowded coach – 28 members of St Mary’s Youth Club in Cockerton on a 30-seater – reached the top of Kirkstone Pass, which is the Lake District’s highest pass. From there it is downhill all the way; from there the A592 begins its one-in-four descent, dropping 1,000ft into Patterdale and Ullswater.

Kirkstone Pass in the Lake District

“At the top of the pass, the radiator started to boil up,” remembers Denis Bradley. “There’s a pub up there and as I had a bottle I got some water. We’d put it in the radiator and were sitting on the bus steps and the driver said ‘I don’t feel too good. I’ve got indigestion’.”

The Kirkstone Pass Inn

The driver was William Hardy who ran a successful coach company in Cockerton.

“We were on the youth club committee which organised the trips,” says Mike Brown who was on-board with his then girlfriend Dorothy Eccles. “We always used Mr Hardy's coaches and Mr Hardy was the usual driver.”

Mike also remembers Mr Hardy complaining of indigestion at the top of the pass.

“He said it was probably caused by a pie he had eaten for lunch," says Mike.

Radiator replenished, and with daylight fading, the bus began its descent. It negotiated much of the winding drop on the narrow road, but as it reached Brothers Water, Mr Hardy, 59, must have known he was seriously unwell. With the lake on his left hand side, he spotted a layby coming up on his right, and, with great presence of mind, put out his trafficator (the old-fashioned drop-down indicator), and pulled sharply across the road.

“It was getting dark, and suddenly the bus veered over the road into a layby and into the bankside,” says Mike. “Luckily there were no cars coming towards us, and John Todd jumped up, grabbed the steering wheel, pulled on the handbrake and turned off the engine.”

The rear of the coach struck the embankment which helped slow it down, but its back end was still sticking out.

“We got people off the bus, and as I had a white jumper on I tried to stop the traffic,” says Mike. “The first car I stopped contained a doctor, and he had a walkie talkie through which he could talk to the police.”

The doctor immediately confirmed that Mr Hardy had died, and then turned his attention to the passengers.

“I think I was the last person off the bus,” says Monica. “We all had to step over poor Mr Hardy and I was frightened that I would step on him. When eventually I got over him, my next memory is coming to on a grass verge with a doctor nearby.”

The teenagers were escorted into the nearby village. “I remember being taken to Patterdale Village Hall and being given hot drinks and soup and blankets by the villagers,” says Janet Bowerbank (nee Brown). They spent the night in the hall and next morning, another Hardy’s bus, probably driven by Mr Hardy’s son Syd, arrived to take them home.

The narrow escape made most of the national newspapers, as well as The Northern Echo (above), with Mr Hardy and 18-year-old John Todd, who died fairly recently in Cockerton, praised for their efforts.

The brush with fate had quite a profound effect on many of those who were onboard.

“I’m 74 now and when people talk of the Lakes they romanticise it,” says Denis, “but I just remember a traumatic experience of being on a bus and being very, very lucky that I wasn’t in a bus disaster.”

“We were very, very lucky we didn’t go over the edge into Brothers Water,” says Mike, “and the heroes were Mr Hardy and John Todd, as far as I was concerned.”

FROM March 1961 to November 1964, Hardy’s buses operated the scheduled service 451 from Stockton to Northallerton on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was a market day service and it collected passengers at Yarm, Appleton Wiske, East Harsley and Brompton.

And this splendid looking bus was photographed by RC Davis somewhere on that journey.

It is a 1955 Bedford SB with Duple Vega coachwork. It was one of three identical 36-seater buses that were bought in the summer of 1959 by Percival’s of Richmond (UMB 4) and Alderson’s of Woodhall in Wensleydale (UMB 2 and UMB 3).

In the summer of 1962, Percival’s sold UMB 4 to William Hardy. This picture has been kindly sent in by Reuben Frankau.

CHRIS MILLS very kindly sends us this remarkable picture of a Hardy’s bus which has been converted into a mobile shop.

Between 1947 and 1950, Hardy’s bought eight buses from the coachbuilders Santus of Wigan. Most of them, like LHN 869, were Commer Commandos.

Mr Hardy bought LHN 869 new from Santus in 1949, and after he had finished with it, it became a shop. Can anyone tell us where it is parked in the picture?

WILLIAM HARDY had worked extremely hard to build up his coach business and to re-gather his family around him.

“He had seven children with his first wife, Merrell, who died during the war,” says his grandson, Paul Hardy. “She was standing in front of the fire, cradling their youngest baby, when a spark jumped out and her night-dress was set on fire and she died of her injuries.”

The seven children were taken into care and grew up in orphanages across the north of Britain, but in the mid-1950s they were all brought back together again and lived on Cockerton Green.

“It was a bit of an upscuttle for my father,” says Paul, whose father Syd had been just 18 months old when his mother had died. “You are living in a Barnardo’s home in Scotland, you think you are an orphan, you think you are Scottish, and suddenly you learn you are not an orphan and you are actually English!

“He came back to Darlington when he was 15 with a strong Scottish accent. He’d been the first to pass the 11-plus from his Barnardo’s home, but he went to the Central School in Gladstone Street where he was called ‘Jock’.”

William's son Syd, and his wife Freda, with a Hardy's bus

The family moved to Wooler Street, in the shadow of the Odeon cinema, where the coach business was based. Several of the sons got their licences and became drivers.

“My father was one of two of them who went over to the Lake District to retrieve the coach, and also, he told me, to identify the body, which had been brought to Appleby,” says Paul, who was 11 months old when his grandfather died.

The business, run by William’s second wife, Margaret, continued until the early 1970s.

William Hardy's brother, Maurice, also ran coaches and this is one of his apparently in his garage in Chesnut Street, Darlington, with the houses of East Mount Road behind. "It is a 1946 Leyland Tiger, which Maurice bought secondhand, when it was still fairly new," says Reuben Frankau. "The coachwork is by Santus Motor Bodies of Wigan, who were well regarded quality coachbuilders in their day, so it was really a high class coach. 
"This Tiger, FFY 260, was later sold to Sunter Bros of Northallerton, the hauliers, who ran a fleet of 20 or so coaches during the 1950s, mainly transporting National Servicemen from Catterick Camp. Maurice Hardy was also involved in this work - he had than nine licences for Catterick Camp weekend leave services."
Maurice, who lived in Blackwell, had several lines of business in Darlington, including property development.

• With many thanks to everyone who has been in touch about this story