Car park was once thriving hub of coach travel in the UK
» A GENERATION of people has grown up thinking that the car park in Cheltenham bordered on one side by St Margaret’s Road and the other by North Place has always been there.
In fact until the 1980s this was the buzzing, thriving hub of coach travel in the UK. It was known to all locals simply as the Black and White, even after the name of the company was changed to Associated Motorways.
In 1976 the Echo revealed that in the previous 12 months, 1.3 million passengers and 50,000 motor coaches had passed through the coach station.
Many of the travellers, no doubt, availed themselves of the facilities.
These included a cafeteria, waiting lounge, a newsagent and other shops, washrooms and a garden area to the front with seats where it was possible to sit in comfort and breath in diesel fumes pluming from the exhaust pipes of Bristols, Leylands, Commers, Bedfords and other such denizens of the road.
There were extensive workshops where mechanics changed oil, filled radiators and tested brakes, along with a coach wash where whirling scrubbing brushes brought the single deckers back to pristine condition.
During peak holiday season, particularly summer and Christmas time, many dozens of coaches were all scheduled to leave the St Margaret’s Road site at 2pm.
People will remember the resulting gridlock as the passenger packed vehicles attempted to crawl out of the town centre.
As the company was called Black and White, it will come as no surprise to learn that the smart uniforms worn by its drivers reflected the name.
This led to an international incident in the 1950s when a service was introduced that carried passengers from the Cheltenham hub, across the Channel by ferry to France and on to Paris.
Shortly after the service began the Black and White received a request from the Parisian authorities requesting that the uniforms be changed as they reminded people in the city of the Gestapo officers who had not too long before peacocked their way up and down the Champs Elysees.
From that time on, drivers doing the Paris run wore light grey suits.
Motor coaches were made in Gloucester by a number of firms, the largest being the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. Among its customers was the Red and White Coach Company, which had its HQ in Lydney and continued in business until the late 1970s.
Some will remember its booking office in Westgate Street, Gloucester.
Gloucester’s first coach station stood in India Road and later moved to Market Parade. The city’s first taxi and coach firm arrived 1913 in the shape of the The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company, which announced itself with a procession of its vehicles.
There were 11 Clement-bayard taxis, two charabancs and a pair of private cars and the cavalcade drove slowly through the city centre led by spirited um-pa-paas from a military band conveyed in another open charabanc. The vehicle at the vanguard also sported a banner that bore the slogan ‘Advance Gloucester – we have come to stay’.
The company’s livery was blue, which is why the
firm was known locally as the Blue Taxis. This name continued to be used by people in the city long after the firm had changed its name to the Bristol Omnibus Co. Leisure coach travel virtually ceased during the 1940s because of wartime, then post-war fuel shortages.
But in the 1950s Coach excursions enjoyed burgeoning popularity. Few people owned cars, coach travel was a little less expensive than the train and there were plenty of local operators offering bargain priced days out.
Bill’s Coaches of Dymock promised ‘Luxury with safety’, while Jones Brothers of Upton-on-severn boasted ‘Radio coaches’.
Warner’s and Williams Coaches of Coney Hill Road, Gloucester ran daily summer excursions, while Swaddle Valley Coaches of Linden Road, Gloucester styled themselves ‘The specialists in modern luxury coaching’ and Ribble Motor Services of Northgate Street offered ‘Easy way holidays’.
In the early 1960s two of the most popular coach excursions were Coventry cathedral, consecrated in 1962, and the Severn Bridge.
Weekends and summer evenings church groups, works outings, schools and societies flocked by the coach load to see these symbols of the modern age.