LAST Monday’s Hear All Sides pages featured a true titan – a 1949 Leyland Titan, running through the rain at Beamish Museum.
It has an almost legendary place in Weardale history. When it arrived at Weardale Motor Services in Frosterley on August 31, 1949, it was the dale’s first ever double decker.
But that brought height problems.
The bus had a special “lowbridge” body, which featured a “sunken upstairs gangway” to reduce its height. The upstairs gangway was built over the heads of the passengers seated below, and it meant that the top deck passengers had to step up from it into their bench seats, where they were unable to stand up because the ceiling was too low.
The lowbridge body helped the Leyland Titan negotiate many of the dale’s low bridges, but there were lots of low tree branches, as well, and before the bus could run, gangs of workmen had to go out and raise the tree canopy which had previously only had single deckers passing beneath it.
“The bus was always used to transport pupils to Wolsingham secondary school,” remembers Judith Bainbridge, of Frosterley. “At first, it could not go beyond Stanhope Market Place as there was a footbridge from the castle over the road to what were the castle gardens. It was only when the bridge came down that the bus could go up into Weardale.”
The Leyland Titan KPT 909 was owned by Weardale Motor Services which, by coincidence, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
It was founded by Oliver Gibson, whose family still run it under the name Weardale Travel.
He was born in Frosterley in 1897, and worked on the land and as a clerk at Pease & Partners’ Rogerley quarry.
In 1921, he acquired his first car, a Ford, and began running a taxi service.
Then in 1924, he bought a Dodge eight-seater bus. This big American vehicle, made in Michigan, must have been an exotic beast to see on the rural run from Stanhope to Crook.
In 1926, he adopted the name Weardale Motor Services, and by 1929, he another Dodge bus plus a Studebaker bus, from Indiana, in his garage beside the main road in Frosterley, and he had three employees plus his sister, Isobella, working as a conductress.
From the beginning, Mr Gibson’s buses ran in red and white livery – could that be because the dale had Sunderland as its team?
In those early days of motoring, every medium-sized village had its own bus company. WMS had rivals in the Safety Coach Service, which was also based in Frosterley, and Heather Bell Services, from Tow Law, plus Thomas Cook in Consett ran his coaches down the dale. Then in 1933, Stanhope Motor Services began operating.
Various Road Traffic Acts tried to cut out wasteful competition between the operators, and WMS was given 50 per cent of the route along the dale with Safety and Heather Bell both having 25 per cent.
WMS began offering excursions and gradually bought out it competitors so that after the Second World War, it felt confident enough to buy a double decker. It also had a 1949 Leyland single decker, YUP6, with 33 seats. In 1958, WMS added a top deck, so it could seat 65.
WMS still owns YUP6, which it calls “The Old Girl”. She is available for weddings, although bride’s should never be late if they are travelling on her, as her top speed is 35mph. There’s also “The Old Boy”, a 1960 London Routemaster double decker with 64 seats and a top speed of a whizzy 40mph.
The Leyland Titan lasted in Frosterley until 1970.
“When I was a teenager,” says Judith, “I had a weekend job at the Weardale offices at Frosterley and worked there when I was at home for from university. I was at the garage when the bus was sold.”
A collector took it down to Worcestershire, where it worked alongside the Severn Valley Railway. It was then donated to the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland in Lancashire before, in 1993, going into storage with the Science Museum. On November 27, 2024, Beamish Museum brought it home and now it dashes through the puddles as part of its fleet.
- With many thanks to Judith for the illustrations.
THE Heather Bell bus company was founded by two Tow Law men, Dobson Baldwin and Thomas Wren Barlow, who fought alongside each other in the trenches of the Somme.
Their garage was in Tow Law High Street – since 2006 it has been the site of a supermarket – from where they also sold wireless sets, gramophones, and paraffin for lighting and heating.
Their livery was initially chocolate brown and green separated by a purple band, although they soon became a more conservative beige and brown.
WMS took over Heather Bell in 1962.
Heather Bell once had a driver who kept a shotgun in his cab. Whenever he saw a rabbit in his headlights, he’d stop the bus, jump out and take a potshot at it.
- Any more stories of old buses? We're always delighted to hear them. Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
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