John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015
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John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 Contents John Fishwick & Sons - Fleet History 1907 - 2015 Page 3 John Fishwick & Sons - Bus Fleet List 1907 - 2015 Page 8 Cover Illustration: Preserved 1958 Leyland PD2/40 with Weymann lowbridge 58-seat bodywork. (LTHL collection). First Published 2018. 2nd edition May 2020. With thanks to Roy Marshall, RHG Simpson, Joe Gornall (courtesy Malcolm Jones), Frans Angevaare and Alan Sansbury for illustrations. © The Local Transport History Library 2018. (www.lthlibrary.org.uk) For personal use only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise without the express written permission of the publisher. In all cases this notice must remain intact. All rights reserved. PDF-119-2 Page 2 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 After a spell working with the Leyland Steam Motor Company in Leyland, John Fishwick decided to start his own haulage business. In 1907 he purchased a steam wagon from his former employers and began hauling rubber from the local works to Liverpool and Manchester. In 1910 he purchased another Leyland vehicle - this time a Leyland X-type with petrol engine that was used as a lorry but could be fitted with a very basic style of wagonette body seating 30 passengers for a Saturday only service to Leyland market from Eccleston, that commenced in 1911. More vehicles followed, most of which had interchangeable bodies for use as a lorry as well as a bus. Soon John Fishwick was operating a number of routes serving Preston, Chorley and Ormskirk. The first purpose built bus joined the fleet after the First World War and more followed. Leyland Council had authorised Fishwicks, along with Bridges (another local operator) and Ribble Motor Services to operate out of Leyland and the mainstay of the business became the service to Preston, with up to 130 journeys a week being provided. Other routes were established as more purpose built buses arrived. In 1930 the Road Traffic Act was passed which brought in route licensing in an effort to stop the free for all that occurred with many operators vying for passengers along the same route. John Fishwick was granted licences for routes serving Preston, Leyland, Chorley, Ormskirk and Page 3 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 Bamber Bridge (8 in total). In 1931 the first double-deck vehicles arrived - 3 Leyland 'Titan' TD1 chassis with Leyland lowbridge 51-seat bodywork. They were numbered 1 to 3, taking the numbers of withdrawn vehicles. Fishwicks used this 'gap-filling' method throughout the life of the company, meaning buses were not always consecutively numbered. By 1935 there were still four operators running on the busy Leyland to Preston service, but, on 18th August the stage carriage services of two of them (Parkinsons and Singletons) were taken over jointly by Fishwicks and Ribble. The two operators set up a pooling arrangement for all routes running to, from and through Leyland, with Fishwicks becoming the major partner with a two-thirds share. Just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Fishwicks acquired the business and vehicles of the Yarrow Motor Company of Eccleston (jointly with Ribble Motor Services), although none of the buses were operated by either party. This brought Fishwicks a route to Wigan via Eccleston. During the War, services were curtailed, priority being given to the movement of workers to and from factories vital to the war effort. Page 4 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 Fishwicks still remained busy, however, and the fleet was maintained by W.H. Fowler, a local coachbuilding firm that was later acquired by Fishwicks. Following cessation of hostilities normal services were resumed and new vehicles began to be added to the fleet. The first to arrive in 1946 were two Leyland Tiger PS1 chassis with bodies by Blackpool-based coachbuilders Burlingham. They were closely followed by two Leyland PD1 chassis with Leyland lowbridge bodies. Over the next few years more Leyland buses were added to the fleet as older vehicles were withdrawn. In 1951 the haulage side of the business was sold and Fishwicks concentrated solely on passenger services. Over the next decade the business was consolidated and apart from the influx of new vehicles which helped maintain the reputation of the Company, there was little change. In 1963 Fishwicks acquired the long established business of J. R. Singleton, which brought with it excursion and private hire licences that opened up a new era for Fishwicks. Three new coaches were purchased that introduced a new livery of Guildford Blue and Arundel Grey along with a new numbering system for coaches commencing with a 'C' prefix (until it ceased in the mid-nineties when fleet numbering for coaches was abandoned). Fishwicks' foray into the coach business proved very successful and provided another valuable income stream for the Company. Page 5 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 The stage carriage vehicles continued to use the two tone green livery with a few modifications until the end of operations. Later that year the first examples of rear-engined buses were purchased; numbered 24 and 30-32 they were Leyland 'Atlantean' PDR1/1 chassis and were bodied by Weymann. With the introduction of front entrance double-deckers Fishwicks began a move to one-man operation that was finally completed by the end of 1979. The local coachbuilding firm of W. H. Fowler was acquired in 1966 on condition that the business should continue to trade under its own name for a period. After the acquisition Fowlers undertook the maintenance and repair of Fishwick vehicles and outside contracts were no longer accepted. In the early 1970's Fowler's built a number of bodies for the Company to Fishwick's own design due to extended waiting times on delivery dates from some of the larger bodybuilders. From 1975 the Fowler name was dropped and it became simply Fishwick's bodyshop until it closed in the mid-eighties. Maintenance and repair work was transferred the Fishwick garage at Golden Hill. The coaching side of the business and stage carriage services continued to run side by side for a number of years and the Company enjoyed a period of relative prosperity. In 1982 the Company became a Public Limited Company (plc). Page 6 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 The first major change to affect Fishwick & Sons came on the 26th October 1986 when the Transport Act came into force. Known as de-regulation it did away with the old system of licensing and paved the way for increased competition. As a result the joint working agreement with Ribble had to be terminated (they were no longer allowed under the Act) and Fishwicks had to register commercial services, which they did. In anticipation of increased competition Fishwicks also introduced a number of minibus services that operated around housing estates in Leyland under the fleetname 'FishKwick'. Tenders were submitted for additional work, such as school contracts and due to the short-term nature of these contracts it became Company policy to acquire second-hand double-deck vehicles and as a result several joined the fleet. By 2000 the minibus routes were being withdrawn, the main services having been re-routed and were now duplicating the minibus services; by the end of the following year they had disappeared. In 2007 the Company celebrated its centenary, but sustained competition and rising costs were having a serious effect on the Company's finances and over the next few years it struggled to survive, culminating in the decision to call in the administrators when financial problems reached Page 7 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 crisis point in 2015. Attempts to sell the business proved futile and operations ceased on 24th October 2015, bringing to an end over 100 years of passenger services to the Leyland public. In producing this history reference has been made to the following publications; ‘John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2007: A Century of Transport’ by David Prescott, extracts reproduced by kind permission of the author; PSV Circle ‘Historic Journal’ 914-HJ; March 2016; various newspaper and magazine articles 2015. Page 8 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 Bus Fleet List 1907-2015 This listing is in the format - Fleet No; Reg. No; Chassis; Chassis No; Body; Seating. 1910 3 B2247 Leyland X2 35hp X101/493 United Electric Car Co W30 Lorry with removable wagonette body. Withdrawn c.1923 1913 5 B???? Leyland X3 40hp X???/??? Leyland Ch29 Interchangeable body. May have had registration commencing B23?? or B55?? (also quoted as B5781 but this is probably incorrect). Chassis requisitioned c.1914 - body stored and fitted to B5951 of 1916. Withdrawn c.1914 Page 9 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 1914 6 B5783 Leyland X4 40hp X4??/1548 Leyland Ch32 Later converted to a lorry at an unknown date. Withdrawn unknown (but as a lorry by 1934). 1916 5 B5951 Leyland WO Subsidy A 3768 Leyland Ch29 New as a lorry; fitted with body from No. 5 of 1913. Exchanged registration and fleet number with No. 7 - a Leyland G lorry of 1919 becoming B8631. Converted back to lorry c.1931. Withdrawn c.1931 (as a lorry c.1934). 1919 8 B8851 Leyland N? 10372 Leyland B40D Converted to a lorry at a later date. Withdrawn by 1929. Page 10 John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 1914 Leyland X4 No. 6 (B5783) with Leyland 32-seat ‘Torpedo’ charabanc body. It was later converted to a lorry. (LTHL collection). John Fishwick & Sons 1907-2015 1920 9-10 ? Leyland G7 ? Leyland B32R One vehicle is thought to have been registered TB3775. Withdrawn 1925 (9-10).