LIFE was hard but Charles Elms was making a living out of the small bus company he had started after he was repatriated from a German Prisoner of War camp until he was undercut and driven out of business by the United bus company, which was much larger and had much deeper pockets.
Charles was not unique in this experience. Between the wars, United gobbled up scores and scores of smaller operators as it grew into the biggest bus company on the east coast, from Berwick down to Lowestoft.
A wonderful lament penned by Harry Rawe, a driver with George T Osborne’s buses based in Toft Hill, tells how the big company was bullying the smaller ones off the road.
In the case of Charles Elms, he started his Progress bus service in 1919 when he returned from the PoW camp. He attended a bus maintenance course in Hexham and then bought his first vehicle on hire purchase to run between Willington and Crook.
Employing as many family members as possible, by the 1930s, he had three buses – a Garner, a Vulcan and a Princess.
His main competition was United, which had been formed in East Anglia in May 1912 by Londoner Ernest Boyd Hutchinson, who took tourists to the coast.
In late 1912, with the holidays over, Mr Hutchinson moved some buses to Bishop Auckland – he kept two in Stable Yard, North Bondgate.
No one knows why he chose a location 250 miles away from Lowestoft, except that perhaps he thought there was year-round traffic among the mining communities.
All early United buses wore AH plates because they were registered in Norwich, Norfolk.
United had a route from Durham to Crook which ran along some of Mr Elms’ roads.
In late 1933, United altered its timetable so its buses arrived at the stops a few minutes before the Progress bus was due and so it hoovered up all the passengers. It also cut its fare to just 1d between Willington and Crook whereas Progress was charging 3d each way or 5d return.
Progress couldn’t compete. In early 1934, Mr Elms secured jobs with United for his two brothers and a nephew who worked for him, and then sold the remains of his business to it. He got a job working with the enemy in its Bishop Auckland depot, which meant he had to cycle in every day from Willington – difficult for a former PoW who had sustained injuries to his shoulder and ankle.
In May 1934, he moved his family into Leopold Place in Bishop so he could be closer to his work, his dreams of having his own little charabanc empire steamrollered by the bus giant.
- Leopold Place is next to Albert Hill off Albion Street in Bishop Auckland. We guess this development of largely terraced houses must get its street names from a patriotic builder. Prince Albert was Queen Victoria’s husband and Prince Leopold was their youngest son, born in 1853.
Be Loyal
The Private Busman’s Song.
I remember, I remember and I don't think you’ve forgot
About the run to Spennymoor, when feeling got quite hot,
A penny all the way they cried and then you got it cheap,
But as you sow, you know the tale, you must expect to reap.
The private man was run off there,
And now you have to pay;
The price has gone, an eightpenny fair,
Is the price on that route today.
If the castle at Barney you would see
The fare to there is two and three;
Have a ride to Raby the Castle fine,
They only charge you one and nine.
And now on Woodland they make a splash,
And for cheap rides some people dash,
It's only sixpence return they say,
That fare’s too cheap, how can it pay.
On Toft Hill route they also try;
They tried five times in days gone by,
They’ve pulled it down to twopence return,
You’d almost think they had money to burn.
If the private man they get off the road,
They'll make some money on every load,
The twopence now they ask you to pay,
Will rise to eightpence when they get their way.
To Woodlands won’t the day be fine,
When you pay the fare, say one and nine;
Take you to Butterknowle, if you want to go,
No opposition – pay one and four.
The people at Lands what will they do,
Smile and get in and pay one and two;
It's all very well, you say to me,
Well! Stop it now – Be Loyal to George T.
He served you well and is willing to try
To do better than ever as days go by;
So stick your bus and loyal be,
Say the private bus is the bus for me.
Now for Toft Hill we’ll have a line;
The passengers here are behaving fine.
Some days they're standing, sad and folorn,
Then see their faces light up – Oh, here’s Osborne!
We do say this – we won't let you down,
Because 18 times a day we go to town;
You have not longer bus to seek,
We go there and back up 128 times each week.
And now my tale I bring to a close,
What the result will be the wise passenger knows;
We know you will help us right to the end,
Many thanks to you all from your obedient friend.
Harry Rawe, Osborne Service
- The pictures of the Progress buses and the printed lyrics to The Private Busman’s Song are from the remarkable collection of Derek Ward, of Bishop, to whom we are most grateful.
READ MORE: CENTENARY OF WEARDALE MOTOR SERVICES
MEMORIES 771 looked at the centenary of Weardale Motor Services (WMS) and touched upon Heather Bell buses, which was founded in Tow Law by two men, Dobson Baldwin and Thomas Barlow, who fought alongside each other in the First World War trenches on the Somme.
The “Bonnie Heather Bell” service connected Stanhope with Crook and Bishop Auckland, and it remained private until bought by the Weardale in 1962.
We’ve always been intrigued by the feminine name of this bus company, but Brian Poole in Kirk Merrington points out that it probably comes from the “bell heather” which grows all over the dale.
“Bonnie” or “bonny”, of course, is a very Weardale word which is most famously used to describe the moor hen – the red grouse – that lives there which the bishop of Durham claimed as his own but which the leadminers took pride in poaching.
“THANKS for a very evocative article, for me at 90 at least, on ‘Weardale Muck Shifters’ and ‘B and B’ as we used to call Baldwin and Barlow buses between 1947 and 1954 when I was at Wolsingham Grammar School,” writes David Armstrong. “Our bus to Billy Row was always last in the line of five in Leazes Lane outside the school and we were always desperate to know which one we had as Harperley bank was quite an obstacle in those days.
“After university and national service, I started teaching at the Alderman Cape in Crook. Colleague Harry Brook quickly recruited me into Durham City hockey team whose captain was Harry Barlow. When I got the deputy headship at Ushaw Moor, Harry was my fellow deputy and I discovered that Charles Henry Beecham Barlow, to give him his full title, was part of the family which ran Heather Bell at Tow Law.
“I remember on one occasion after an after-school activity, I travelled back to Crook on a very overcrowded WMS bus standing on the bottom entry step holding on to the bars either side of the open door. There was not much health and safety in those days!”
- The Alderman Cape Secondary Modern School opened in Crook in 1950 and was named after Alderman John Moordaff Cape, a Labour councillor who dedicated many years in the 1930s and 1940s to improving education. In July 1937, as chairman of the County Agricultural Education Sub-Committee, he was due to lay the foundation stone for Houghall Agricultural College, but his wife fell ill. He was from Crook, but wherever did he get the middle name “Moordaff”?
DOBSON BALDWIN was born in Tow Law in 1891 and he formed Heather Bell in 1926 with his former trench-mate, Thomas Barlow.
Mr Baldwin was a town councillor in Tow Law for several decades. He raised money to buy an ambulance, he was heavily involved in the Second World War campaign to Grow More Food, and through his garage, bus and retail businesses, he tried to employ as many local people as possible during difficult economic times.
He was a big fan of the inter-war Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and named his son after him.
Mr Baldwin retired from the buses in 1962 and died in 1968.
His son Stanley Baldwin had become a barrister down south and took no interest in his father’s home of 5a Station Street, which was just left exactly as he’d left it.
Only 28 years later after Stanley’s death in 1996 was the house opened up. His dinner suit and white scarf were still laid out on the bed; his early television set still worked when connected to the electricity supply and tuned in.
Oddly, a tree had grown in the kitchen and its branches touched the ceiling.
Among 340 photographs found in the house was one from The Northern Echo showing Mr Baldwin with King George IV and Queen Elizabeth when they opened an unemployed miners’ social centre in Tow Law on February 23, 1939. That was part of the three-day royal tour of working areas of the North East, intended to raise morale with a war on the horizon, which finished when they joined the royal train in Bishop Auckland station.
As recent Memories have told, the royal train was under the control of West Auckland shed superintendent JRS Middlewood whose photos we will hopefully return to next week.
- If you have anything to add to any of today’s topics, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
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