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 Life expectancy of NGT single deck and D/P vehicles was around 15 years, some of the touring coaches were withdrawn after about 10 years, but many were used for the longer express routes and lasted as long as their service cousins. This wasn’t the case with these Bedford’s. I started at Percy Main in 1967, and if memory serves, they were withdrawn at the end of the 1968 season.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

27/05/13 – 06:50

Thanks, Ronnie: I appreciate your trouble but it seems that Richmond and Leyburn are mysteries that have us all stumped.
Sadly, we’ll probably never know now.
I’ve dug out an old timetable from that era (1959, as it happens) which shows the hospital services which were licensed to Northern and Wakefield’s (no other group members), but nothing from as far away as Richmond or Leyburn features. As a matter of interest, the ones from the North Tyneside area (presumably the ones which were operated by Wakefield’s) were North Shields to Prudhoe Hall Colony – what a dreadful name, Wallsend to St George’s Hospital at Morpeth and North Shields to Earl’s House Hospital near Durham.
I think that’s my earliest Northern Group timetable but I have others from the ’60s which are stored at my mother’s house. I’ll look them out next time I’m there on the off chance that they may lead us to the solution.

Alan Hall

04/06/13 – 06:49

Ronnie, I’ve now checked the 1960, 1961 and 1962 timetables and there isn’t anything in any of those to indicate why Richmond and Leyburn might have been on Wakefield’s blinds.
I wonder if it was simply wishful thinking. You’ll remember that Newcastle’s trolleybus blinds included several places South of the Tyne, such as Dunston, Gateshead and Low Fell, in the hope/expectation that the wires would eventually cross the river as the tram wires had. I suspect that this may have been a similar example of ‘ready in case ever needed’.

Alan Hall

05/06/13 – 10:58

Alan, I have no evidence to back up this theory, but the only thing I can think of is perhaps Northern applied for an additional alternative route for the Leeds service, but this was United territory, and no doubt they would have objected strongly unless it was going to be a shared service.

Ronnie Hoye

30/12/13 – 07:13

Just discovered your sight today while searching for pics of the type of coach I drove during my service at R.A.F College Cranwell. Exactly what I was looking for, in fact as my coach was 27AC58. My home town was Scarborough which was very lucky for me as I was given the job of taking the college band to Scarborough for their annual fortnight visit.

Robert Robinson

10/04/15 – 07:27

I have a couple of photos of Wakefields vehicles showing Scarborough as a destination. That would not be a normal destination for a Northern Group Express coach unless it was the practice to hire them to United on Summer Saturdays for their Newcastle-Scarborough service. However, Scarborough was a destination for day tours. On the assumption that Ripon, Leyburn and Richmond was also a day tour, I have visited North Shields library to look for Wakefields Adverts for their tours in the local newspaper, and can confirm that this was indeed a Wakefields day tour.

John Gibson

Vehicle reminder shot for this posting

08/03/16 – 05:26

I knew I wasn’t imagining this, SDO had two identical vehicles, 3730 & 3731 UP – 330/1, and Northern had eight Bedford’s with C41F Harrington bodies, PCN 1/8 – 2601/8. I dont know about the rest, but the two for Wakefields were sold on after three years, and went to Hylton Castle Coaches of Sunderland

Ronnie Hoye

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

Wakefields Motors Ltd
Leyland Titan PD3/4
1958
Metro-Cammell ‘Orion’ H41/32R

This 1958 Metro-Cammell Orion bodied Leyland PD3/4 was one of 12 in the Tynemouth and Wakefields fleet. They were AFT 924/35 fleet numbers 224/35; the last two carried the Wakefields name. The Northern General Transport group had quite a number of these and although ‘livery apart’ they all looked much the same, the Percy Main vehicles had a much higher interior spec. 235 ‘seen here parked alongside one of the earlier Orion Guy Arabs’, is for some reason missing a front wheel trim, most unusual for the normally very high standards of the depot. I started at Percy Main in 1967 and by then these vehicles were nearly 9 years old, but by all accounts they had lost none of their original sparkle. They weren’t the most handsome half cab I’ve ever driven, my vote for that title would go to the 1956 Park Royal Guy Arab IV’s, the 1957 Willowbrook PD2/12’s with the same O.600 Leyland engine were livelier, but the heavier PD3 was, in my opinion a much better vehicle. But lets not kid ourselves they were not perfect, the brakes left a lot to be desired, by todays standards they would probably be considered underpowered, and they didn’t have power steering. However, they were well maintained and regular application of grease to the steering linkage meant that it was always light and positive, they were also very forgiving and treated with respect they were fun to drive. To a young lad of 21 the thing I loved about them was that wonderful raucous throaty sound they had, and once you got them wound up they could clip on a bit, conductors liked them as well because they stayed reasonably upright, so they never had the sensation that they were at times practically walking on the windows when you went round corners. All things considered, apart from an occasional reluctance to stop, they were a good honest reliable workhorse, and many drivers, myself included, preferred them to the Atlantean PDR1/1.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Ronnie Hoye

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02/11/12 – 07:32

Excellent. I worked in the North-East in the 1970s but, by then, Wakefield’s and several other subsidiaries of Northern General had disappeared. I think only Sunderland District and Gateshead were left.
Can you still shop at Binns?

Geoff Kerr

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02/11/12 – 10:48

BINNS were part of the House Of Fraser group, and there is still a store in Gateshead. No doubt one of the "local" readers can tell us if it still has the same trading name, but the group’s branch in Skipton is still called RACKHAMS.

Pete Davies

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02/11/12 – 15:22

The only proper MCW bodied NGT PD3 I ever saw was a late survivor in NBC "knicker pink" and white and it still looked good! My favourite Northern Group Titans were the Burlingham bodied ones of Sunderland poetry in motion.

Chris Hough

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02/11/12 – 15:23

As Geoff says, by 1970 all vehicles based at Percy Main were ‘Tynemouth’ by 1975 that name along with all the other Northern General subsidiary names and their liveries had also disappeared to become Northern which by then was part of NBC.
On the BINNS subject, they had outlets at most of the larger towns an Cities throughout the North and into Scotland, ‘including one in Edinburgh’ but as Pete points out they became part of ‘The House of Fraser’ group, and as far as I’m aware the BINNS name has also gone.

Ronnie Hoye

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02/11/12 – 15:24

When i was a youngster I went to stay with my sister and her husband who lived in Darlington. The Shop At Binns was on nearly every bus of the day, I have just googled Binns and all I got was The House Of Fraser.

David J Henighan

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02/11/12 – 15:26

Rackhams, Skipton: I bet that was once Brown, Muffs of Bradford, the K5G of the retail world. Alas! Rackhams were originally a Birmingham store, and the name was later transferred to Walsh’s in Sheffield.

Joe

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09/11/12 – 13:05

I worked at Percy Main as a conductor in 1971 and by that time the early Atlanteans had really lost their sparkle; they were very sluggish and the steering could be very stiff. The PD3s still gave a good account of themselves, though, even though they were older. PD3s were the end result of the long evolution of the front-engine half-cab, while early Atlanteans had hydraulics and other new features that were worn out after 10 years.
I think that there were 6 PD3s at Percy Main in 1971 because the other 6 had been transferred to other parts of the Northern group in exchange for single-deckers used on service 15 when it became OPO in 1968. When other routes became OPO in 1971 and other single-deckers got drafted in, the vehicles that were transferred out were Atlanteans, some of them to scrap. The PD3s carried on and, while some went elsewhere in the group, other PD3s came in.
They were stable and good for a conductor. They also did have a good turn of speed. There were a few duplicate trips on the New Coast Road that were often a PD3 and they could get up an impressive speed even with a full load. Fuel consumption was high though.

P Robson

26/06/13 – 06:00

Were the reds of Tynemouth, Wakefield and Northern during 1950/60s officially different. I was a regular user of all three then I have always been convinced they were. Certainly I remember seeing Tynemouths standing next to Wakefields at Northumberland Quay many times and they WERE different, all three of them. Or is this case like LNER Doncaster and Darlington Apple Green, the same – but different!

Don T

26/06/13 – 11:50

All NGT group vehicles came out of the same Paint shop, Don, so it may be a case of one batch of paint being a slightly different shade to the next. Percy Main vehicles, Tynemouth and Wakefields, were painted at three yearly intervals, and red is of course notorious for fading, add to that three years of going through the wash every night and that may be the answer.

Ronnie Hoye

29/06/13 – 07:34

I’m delighted to see Wakefield’s Motors getting their due recognition, thanks to Ronnie. As easily the most ‘obscure’ of the Northern Group subsidiaries, they are often forgotten. Tyneside was scarcely any bigger in terms of total fleet strength but Wakefield’s fleet included coaches – some of which have recently been discussed on here – and so their service buses were much rarer.
As an avowed Orion aficionado, I think this photograph is quite magnificent and, to me, the epitome of what a ‘proper’ bus should look like. I know that Orions are not universally popular but I’m particularly interested in Mr Robson’s comments vindication of Tynemouth’s in view of his experience ‘on the back’.

Alan Hall