"Blue Bird Motors" or "Stretford Tours"

Can anyone please help with old photos or information of "Blue Bird Motors" or "Stretford Tours" from the 1940s to the 1950s. They had their offices in Oldham, Rhodes Bank and Hollinwood. They did a Service to a Sanatorium at Market Drayton during the war years and a daily service to Blackpool and Cleveleys as well as other northern seaside resorts. After the war 1945-6 they came to The Polvillion Hotel North Quay Newquay Cornwall my father was a tour driver, George White and my mother Beryl was the cook and manager of the Hotel. My father-in-law was the proprietor T. H. Parker and I would be pleased if someone has memories of myself and those happy times.

Thanks

Mrs Marian B. Parker

T H Parker traded as Blue Bird Motor Services from 419 Manchester Road, Oldham. I believe that he bought his first coach about February 1932 - a Leyland, the first of many. The company may have sold out to Yelloways of Rochdale in January 1956, with the vehicles being sold separately in April 1956. The Hyde to Cleeveleys express service was shared between Yelloways, Ribble, North Western, Lancashire United and Standerwick. The Excursion & Tours license passed to The Creams, a Yelloways subsidiary and the Express service to Loggerheads Sanatorium at Market Drayton passed to North Western.There was some sort of association with Stretford Motors, initially based at the Old Cock Garage at Stretford, but later at 419 Manchetser Road, Hollinwood - presumably the same (Oldham) address as given for Blue Bird. Stretford Motors were still operating in 1965, possibly much later, but by then at 912 Chester Road, Stretford.There was considerable movement of coaches back and forth between the two companies, which may have had a shared ownership at some stage.I trust that this helps.

Peter Tulloch

I think that Peter Tulloch may be confusing two entirely separate companies here. Stretford Tours was a wholly owned subsidiary of Mr Parker's main Blue Bird operation and had a registered office in Oldham at the same address as Blue Bird. The reason for the choice of name remains unrecorded, but Stretford Tours was far from the only coach company with a geographically inappropriate name (Timperley Coaches was based in All Saints, an inner-city suburb of Manchester rather than in the leafy Cheshire area suggested by its name). Stretford MOTORS on the other hand was actually based in Stretford as Peter describes, but was associated with the Lingley family's Sale-Away Touring Company. Vehicles of both companies were garaged at Sale-Away's depot next to Sale Station. Does anybody know what eventually became of the two Lingley companies? I lost track of them when I moved away from Sale in the early 1970s. The other two coach companies with garages in Sale (Altrincham Coachways and Pride of Sale) both ended up as subsidiaries of the Godfrey Abbott Group. Godfrey Abbott really were based in Timperley, unlike Timperley Coaches!

Neville Mercer

In answer to Neville, I lived in Sale from 1976 to 1981. Godfrey Abbott were just about to sell out to GMT, but were based at a yard on the A56 close to the (then M63) M60 junction. I once hired an ex Black and White (Perkins) Roadliner/Elite, for my choir, from Sale Coachways - at a yard by the station. Whether this was the final gasp of Lingley's Saleaway I do not know. It was in either 1978 or 1979. Split operators proliferated. On the other side of the Pennines too. Kirkby's (of Plaxton fame) were operators in Harthill [near the M1 and A57]. They also owned J O Andrew in Sheffield. They had a similar fleet but in blue (K) and green (A).

David Oldfield

David is quite correct in saying that Godfrey Abbott operated from a yard near to the A56/Motorway junction (although on the Sale side of the River Mersey) in the period when he lived in Sale, but this yard originally belonged to Pride of Sale who had outgrown their three-vehicle premises closer to the town centre on the A56. Godfrey Abbott started operations in 1947 from a site in West Timperley (on the A56 close to the Pelican Hotel) and remained there until the Pride of Sale acquisition in the late 1960s. Does anybody have any photographs of Godfrey Abbott's early fleet which contained many fascinating oddities?

Neville Mercer

10/01/11

Hi there, was browsing the net and found the above reference to my family's old coach company the Sale-Away Touring Company (my granddad was Bill Lingley). In answer to Neville Mercer's question on what happened to the coach company, it was sold (I believe to a firm called Jacksons?) in the mid to late 70s, if he's still interested I can probably find out.
How nice someone remembers it!

Jo Lingley

25/01/11

It’s nice to hear from a member of the Lingley family after all these years! The company always made me welcome at their garage next to the Queens Head in Hope Road, Sale (adjacent to the station) even though I was a slightly bus-obsessed teenager at the time. Any information that you can supply would be most welcome, Jo, as my files on the Lingley enterprises are almost non-existent when compared to my files on their competitors at Altrincham Coachways, Godfrey Abbott, and Pride of Sale. If they were taken over by Jacksons then I presume that this was the company based at Moss Lane in Altrincham which later merged with Shearings and Pleasureways to form the basis of the enormous Shearings group of the 1970s/80s. Despite keeping the Shearings name this group was very much the creation of the Jackson family and they remained the dominant shareholders and directors until the merger with the Blundell group broadened the ownership. I lived in the USA from 1974 until 1980 and so have no personal records of this period, but Sale-Away/Stretford Motors had definitely gone by the time that I got back. Going off at a slight tangent, a friend has reminded me that Timperley Coaches’ main garage was in Levenshulme, although the registered office of the company (and a small two-vehicle yard) were in All Saints as I stated.

Neville Mercer

29/01/11

Nigel Mercer is not quite correct in assuming that I have confused Stretford Coaches and Stretford Motors. I have copies of the Omnibus Society/PSV Circle Operator Record Cards for the NWTA and it clearly shows that (a) Stretford Motors at one time were based at 419 Manchester Road Hollinwood, the same address as is given for T H Parker (Blue Bird). In addition there were at least eleven coaches that passed between the two companies in one direction or the other, sometimes back and forth! All of this would suggest that there was some connection between the two companies, though I will admit that I am not aware of what that connection might have been.

Peter Tulloch

29/01/11

I think Neville may be slightly off track, my understanding is as follows:
Stretford Motors Limited of The Old Cock Garage, Chester Road, Stretford was registered in 1931. Vehicles new to them were usually registered in Lancashire County.
Around 1938-9 the business was taken over by T H Parker of Hollinwood who already traded as Blue Bird Motor Services. In post war days new vehicles for both companies were registered in Oldham.
Parker operated both companies until 1953 from 419 Manchester Road, Hollinwood, vehicles sometimes moved between the two fleets - Stretford Motors vehicles usually carried the 'Stretford Tours' fleetname.
In 1953 Parker sold the Stretford Motors business to Johnston Bros of Middleton, who operated it until c1957, when it passed to Lingleys of Sale (precise date would be of interest!).
The photo from my collection shows the combination of the Oldham registration and the Stretford Tours fleetname on an AEC Regal III with Harrington metal framed body, ordered by the late Tom Parker junior. His father is said to have been unhappy with the styling which was different from the artist's impression in the Harrington brochure!

Peter G Greaves

14/05/11

I was working at Godfrey Abbotts when Lingley's joined the fold, A similar situation to Mid-Cheshire/Crosville/North Western purchase applied, Shearings (Jacksons) thought they'd purchased Lingleys!! One Bedford (Owens) was painted in their livery in preparation, in the meantime Abbotts purchased Lingleys "from underneath them" - There was a lot of upset from Shearings.
Meantime this leads to a corker of a trivia question! which vehicle owned by G.M.P.T.E company was painted in Shearings livery?
More fun about the yard! the registered office of Godfrey Abbott was 209 Cross Street Sale, at that time a terraced house, Abbotts had a fine and impressive maintenance facility built, however Mr Bullock of concrete fame objected about there access there was a lot of rancor between him and us, eventually the Secretary of State was somehow involved!

Pete Bradshaw

14/05/11

I'm afraid I nothing about this group of operators, but from Peter Greaves' photo I have to say that its almost impossible to imagine this coach, FBU 119, having any connection with the usual superb Harrington output. While in fairness it could be described as "plain" rather than "ugly", it certainly lacks any form of style, and gives the impression of some kind of modernising conversion from something else. By coincidence, a comparison can be made with a superbly handsome contemporary vehicle, FBU 77, a Leyland PS1/Plaxton C33F, bought later by Samuel Ledgard from Ralph Renton of Oldham. On a larger production scale, the final editions of the Burlingham Seagull were a poor and undignified successor to the original beauties.

Chris Youhill

16/05/11

Fearful of making another of my uneducated guesses, I propose that the style of FBU 119 has a hint of Beadle. Weren't they linked with Harrington in the early fifties?

Paul Haywood

25/06/11

When I first saw this photo, I thought that this vehicle must have been a 'one off' but apparently not! Amongst my photo's, I find that Feather Bros of Bradford had an identical coach but oddly with a Manchester registration. I have no details other than the registration which was CNF 841. Could it have come from the same source? although if, as stated, Blue Bird/Stretford had been dissatisfied with theirs, it seems unlikely that they would have had another. Does anyone have any details for CNF 841? I thought it was interesting that despite it's utilitarian appearance, it was apparently not a one off!

Chris Barker

26/06/11

Just one general point about 'Registered Offices', assuming we're not talking about the legal owners name on the side of vehicles. RO's are often the name as the solicitors office where the company name was registered and has nothing to do with its operational workings or buildings.

Chris Hebbron

27/06/11

In the Crossley book (Eyre, Heaps and Townsin) there is a photo of a Crossley SD42 coach with a Harrington straight-waisted metal-framed body (EM 4654 for Wright, Bootle), although it is rather less severe-looking than FBU 119. The accompanying narrative states that the model was originally developed for export, but "some were sold in Britain".

Peter Williamson

16/07/11

There must be someone out there who has a photo of these coaches from those dates. They were owned by T. H. Parker 419 Oldham Rd. Hollinwood untill approx. 1957? when he sold them to Rentons?? They used to do a daily service to Blackpool and tours after the war years to Newquay Cornwall

Kenneth W.Parker

26/08/11

Forgot to mention that at the time of the GAG takeover, Lingley's garaged their coaches at Ayres Road Old Trafford opposite where the Metro depot now stands, it was rather small! It was for a time used to park spare vehicles and Dial a Rides. The office was at 906? Chester Road in the row of shops next to The Gorse Hill Hotel. Pete Lingley had photos of a "pink" Leyland Tiger which he drove with a collection of United players and a cup on the roof (sliding!)

Pete Bradshaw

02/09/11 - 21:06

Hi loved reading the wrangles about who was who on this page.
Any how who am I well my grandfather set up Sykes coach tours way back and operated out of a small yard somewhere near the M60. His father set up a garage in Sale but was non plussed when my grandfather set up his coach business so sugared all the tanks. My Grandmother was an Abbott and I have an inkling we have a connection or are related to the Godfrey Abbott mentioned.

Dave Sykes

04/07/12 - 05:36

I thought of Lingley's when I came across the word "chara" whilst doing a word puzzle today. I recalled that it was a Sale-Away bus that took me on my first chara ride, back in the 1940s. I can't recall the colour scheme, but Pete Bradshaw's mention of pink, sounds vaguely familiar. I suspect the Man United players were the 1948 FA Cup winners. I certainly do remember that to catch the Sale-Away bus to Blackpool we walked from our home in Kings Crescent a long way down Ayres Road, to somewhere near St Alphonsus. I think we got on the bus outside a newsagent's shop. One of their rivals in the area was Fingland's; what has become of them?

Peter Turnbull

05/07/12 - 16:09

Boarding a coach outside a newsagent's shop was of course quite normal in those days, as newsagents acted as booking agents for local coach firms. My experience was about ten years later than Peter Turnbull's, and on the opposite side of Manchester. We used to get on the Makinson's coach at their depot in Barnes Green (Blackley), but we then had to do a time-consuming tour of newsagents in Crumpsall and Cheetham Hill before we could go anywhere.
The answer to "what became of Finglands" is "quite a lot" See all at this link.

Peter Williamson

21/10/12 - 10:08

I found this a very interesting thread, not least because I can remember traveling, as a small child, on Blue Bird's service from Hollinwood to Cleveleys. I have a vague recollection of two or three elderly half cabs loading in a cobbled yard behind the operator's office, presumably behind 419 Manchester Road. This would have been around 1950. A few years later, in 1956, Yelloway purchased the goodwill of the business. The Hyde-Cleveleys express service was added to the recently established Fylde Coast Pool as the X69. This was later combined with the X59 Stalybridge-Blackpool service and extended at both ends to become the X49 Glossop-Fleetwood, a service Yelloway continued to operate until its demise in the 1980s.
A fleet list and brief history of Blue Bird is included in 'the Yellow Road', Judith and Peter Deegan's history of Yelloway Motor Services. This gives Blue Bird's first coach as a 1928 Lancia (BU 5342), rather than a 1932 Leyland as suggested by Peter Tulloch, which would have been their sixth coach.
The caption to Peter Greaves' photo of FBU 119 (which incidentally is a Leyland PS1 rather than an AEC Regal) reports that Mr Parker was unhappy with the styling of the Harrington body. Perhaps this explains why they had it quickly rebodied, by Plaxton, in 1952.
Regarding Chris Barker's query about CNF 841, this was a Leyland TS7 which started life in 1937 with a Plaxton C32F body. By 1949, it was in the hands of the dealer Lancashire Motor Traders. They commissioned the rebodying by Harrington ( a practice they indulged in with a number of pre-war chassis) before selling it on to Feather Bros.
I think perhaps this style of Harrington body was not as rare as some correspondents have thought. Maidstone and District had five on AEC Regal chassis, a photo of one, KKK 836, appearing in the PSV Circle's recently published Harrington body list.

David Williamson

08/04/13 - 08:22

I don't know all the answers or all the history but I can tell ya'all this: In the 1930s my late father, Joseph Whitehead, who then traded as Lancashire Motor Traders from Olympia Garage, Knott Mill, Manchester was involved in running two coach operating companies. One was called Osborne Motors and the other was Stretford Motors which was based at The Old Cock Garage, on the main Chester Road just north of the River Mersey. Regrettably I have lost my only photo of one of Stretford Motors' coaches about to depart on an extended tour to Devon/Cornwall. The proprietor of that garage (and presumably partner in Stretford Motors) was his brother-in-law, Albert Warburton. Post war, as a child, I would visit "Uncle" Albert at the Old Cock Garage but he no longer operated coaches. My father remained Chairman of Lancashire Motor Traders which continued to operate various coaches(through subsidiaries) and to sell new & secondhand vehicles until circa 1975. He passed away in 1977.

J David Whitehead

20/08/13 - 08:08

I am answering an old query by Jo Lingley, regarding her Grandfathers company Lingleys coaches, I was a casual driver for the Godfrey Abbott Group of Sale from the mid 1960's until the company finished in the mid 1980's and remember Lingleys being bought by Abbotts in the early 70s and moving to their new premises in Sale, Lingleys carried Manchester United team and the coaches were in MUFC colours. There was Bedford Plaxton executive I think it may have had the 466 engine, nice vehicle but sluggish and Bristol RE 53 seater, Leyland powered I think a 600, it went very well! Bill and his brother moved to Abbotts offices, and integrated within the group they were both old time gentlemen, there is a photo of the Bedford still in MUFC colours as spare vehicle for the team on Flickr in GAG vehicles

Alun Bevan Powell

27/10/14 - 07:01

I have just been reading the posts above about Godfrey Abbott Group and John Sykes Coaches. I am particularly interested in a post by Dave Sykes saying that his grandmother was an Abbott and he thinks he might be connected to the same family who had the coaches. I can confirm that his grandmother Winifred was the sister of Godfrey Abbott, and was my Aunty (I am Godfrey Abbott's daughter). Her husband John Sykes started a coach company, and dad and my mum worked for him.

Liz Abbott

29/10/14 - 16:59

What a fascinating link of comments on these Manchester area companies very interesting, and good to hear from a member of the Abbott family, the company name lives on I had a pint of your wonderful Abbott Ale last night!!! ...
Liz I am stage and transport manager for Manchesters Halle Orchestra you may well remember Godfrey Abbott transported the Halle on concert tours, we can bring in more names here prior to Goddfrey Abbott, Altrincham Coachways did the work until absorbed into Godfrey Abbotts ownership, Charterplan the coaching arm of Greater Manchester Transport took over having purchased Godfrey Abbotts and now old established Bullocks of Cheadle are the preferred operator.
Going over to Oldham road as mentioned in the postings, before Altincham Coachways Wilsons of Newton Heath/Failsworth transported the Halle not only the orchestra members, Stan Wilson also provided a van for the instruments Wilsons operated two wonderful Yeates bodied Bedfords always spotless.
Going back to coach company families and hearing from Liz Abbott further down Oldham road at Miles Platting Finches coaches could be found and Robert Finch is a friend of mine, grandson of Bill Finnch more information would be welcome if anyone out there can help with Finches vehicles etc.
Back up to Old Church street off Oldham road F & H Dean (Fred & Harold) had a depot and booking office I am still trying to find any photos of this local company and their green and cream vehicles if anyone can help!! A Mayne and son bought out the company and licences in 1960.

Mark Mc Alister

21/11/14 - 16:41

I stumbled across this thread whilst cataloging some of our earlier Hustwitt photos and thought the attached shot of FBU 119 with the Plaxton body and Bluebird logo might be of interest.
Taken at Wembley on the 7th May 1955 and, from the direction of the crowd in the background, I think after Newcastle United beat Manchester City 3-1.

Bob Jenner Hobbs

18/08/17 - 07:05

I made a number of trips with Lingleys Salaway Touring Co. To Blackpool, Llandudno, Scarborough. and others. I remember that Arthur Lingley drove their Bedford OB while Peter drove a Commer KTU 333. As I remember,the fleet was composed of 2 elderly flat floor Leylands, 2 newer later Leylands with the then fashionable sloping floor, Two Commer, driver within,followed by I think a further two slightly updated versions. The Commers were all Blue while the rest of the fleet were pink and cream. The depot at Sale was behind the Queens hotel in Hope road with an office in Stretford.
I was a school lad then and now am just into my eighties so if there any details amiss, then forgive due to the passing of time and dotage! I did travel to Blackpool once with another Sale company 'Sykes' who had a fair size fleet, red on grey, but stuck with Lingleys. Happy memories! Hope I have added something.

Julian Wontner

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