a Massey Bros Coachbuilders Bros Massey Massey Bros Coachbuilders - an illustrated history- an illustrated Thoms Massey Bros of Wigan built buses from 1919 until the Company was taken over by nearby Northern Counties in 1967. Phil Thoms’ detailed interest in the subject is obvious and the collection of photographs amassed from the surviving Massey archive, and from a wide variety of other sources, provides a wonderful record of the output and the many once well-known customers, with evocative colour illustrations of many of them. A body list of all known vehicles built provides an invaluable reference. 128 PIKES LANE GLOSSOP DERBYSHIRE SK13 8EH (01457 861508 E-MAIL [email protected] INTERNET www.venturepublications.co.uk ISBN 978 1905 304 43 1 £25.00 Phil Thoms case cover.indd 1 21/12/2020 14:25:18 INSIDE FRONT COVER END PAPER - UN-NUMBERED PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS The photographs used throughout this book have been accumulated over many years by the Author and his colleagues. Many from the former official collection were loaned by retired employees of Massey Bros. or Northern Counties, or rescued from the various skips when the factory was being rebuilt or, later, demolished. Arthur Tyldesley loaned his negative collection for printing many years ago, more recently his son, Ian, donated a further selection. Other views have been loaned for the publication and where known the photographers are recorded alongside the images, using their initials as shown below. We sincerely apologise if anyone has been inadvertently missed out from these acknowledgements. ABC ALAN CROSS JK JOHN KAYE AEJ TED JONES RCD RC DAVIS BB BRIAN BKP550 RD ROBERT DOWNHAM CMS CUMBERLAND MOTOR SERVICES RLK RL KELL CP CLAIRE PENDROUS JL JOHN LOCKE CT CHRIS TAYLOR LM LEN MIDGHAM DC DAVID COLE LMR LIAM MILLER ELCB EAST LANCS COACHBUILDERS OP OWEN PHILLIPS EO ERIC OGDEN OS OMNIBUS SOCIETY GA GUY ARAB PT PETER TULLOCH GL GEOFF LUMB RM ROY MARSHALL HSP HARRY POSTLETHWAITE RMC ROY MARHSALL collection HSPC HARRY POSTLETHWAITE collection SD STEPHEN DOWIE HWC HARRY WALL collection SLP SL POOLE IGMS IAN STEWART ST STEVE THOROUGHGOOD JAS JOHN SENIOR STA THE SENIOR TRANSPORT ARCHIVE JFH JF HIGHAM WJW WJ WISE COVER and TITLE PAGE CAPTIONS Cover: Heading out of town over the West Coast Main Line railway bridge at the foot of Wigan’s Wallgate, Corporation No. 137 was a 1960 Leyland PD3/2 with Massey’s more typical styling of the era. It is just about to pass the end of Melverley Street where the Corporation’s depot was located – whilst the pub This free edition is provided by MDS Book Sales during the coronavirus lockdown. has seen better days. (AEJ) Title page: Green Bus Service of Great Wyrley, near Cannock, operated this ex-Rees and Williams Guy There’s no charge and it may be distributed as you wish. Arab IV until 1987. It is pictured on a glorious winter’s morning in December 1980, crossing Cannock Chase, en route for Wolverhampton. (CP) If you’d like to make a donation to our charity of choice - The Christie, Europe’s largest Rear cover: The distinctive rear outline of a Massey double-decker destined for Great Yarmouth. specialist cancer centre - there’s a link here. case cover.indd 2 21/12/2020 14:25:48 © 2011 Venture Publications Ltd ISBN 978 1905 304 43 1 The British Bus and Truck Heritage All rights reserved. Except for normal review purposes no part of this book maybe reproduced or utilised in any form by any means, electrical or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by an information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of Venture Publications Ltd, Glossop, Derbyshire, SK13 8EH. Dedicated to the Rev’d Eric Ogden 1934-2011 Massey Bros Coachbuilders A history of the Company and its products from 1904 to 1968 A fine example of Lancashire engineering showing a Massey-bodied Leyland Titan PD2/37 from the local Wigan fleet operating an enthusiasts’ special service to the Cobham bus museum in Surrey. This can rightly be considered as representative of the best of traditional bus manufacture with front engine, half cab for the driver, and a forward entrance with sliding door to the saloon to keep passengers warm and safe. Number 140 was built in 1966 and withdrawn by GMPTE in 1983 after a spell as a driver trainer. It was purchased by the Wallace School of Transport in London, again for use as a driver trainer, before passing into preservation in 1991. (JAS) by Phil Thoms Computer Origination and Design: John A Senior FOREWORD INTRODUCTION assey Bros. was one of the three principal Wigan bus bodybuilders, its well-rounded designs being instantly recognisable to the cognisant. Located in Pemberton, to the west of the town centre, it built bodywork his volume, the latest in the series of bodybuilders histories from Glossop, for motor cars, light commercials, tramcars, buses and coaches – with occasional forays into railcars and continues the work begun with a modest picture album of Northern Mhearses for good measure. Counties photographs way back in 1974. Access to manufacturers and A family concern, it spread its connections to both Northern Counties, who eventually swallowed it up, and East Ttheir management allowed greater depth of coverage but throughout the 1980s Lancashire Coachbuilders, who managed to outlive both concerns, by the cross-fertilisation of personnel. Further the pace of closure of the British Bus and Coachbuilding industry was greater afield, Leyland Motors Ltd also had former Massey personnel, and Leyland men went to Pemberton. than the resources of the publisher and its authors could match. Whilst the Northern Counties album was being produced, David Cherry, Northern Counties Managing Director, very Companies which had already gone out of existence took second place kindly invited Eric Ogden and John Senior to look round the Pemberton site which NCME had just acquired by the to those still trading, resulting in some – including Massey – being sidelined, purchase of Massey Bros. in 1967. Mr Cherry was very conscious of the heritage of the area, and carefully took them either for lack of resource or for reasons of commercial viability. Eric Ogden through the former stables and showed the hay loft – both items dating from the original horse tram operation before and Harry Postlethwaite began to amass material for a Massey history in 1989 Massey had moved in. Little did he, or they, realise that in that loft were many hidden gems which would only surface but various pressures caused the project to be put to one side for some years. many years later, some of which would find their way into this book – sadly much was thrown away ‘in the skip’. More recently, we became aware that Phil Thoms had been working quite There were still a handful of bodybuilders left at that time: Alexander was still a family concern in Falkirk; Burlingham independently on the same project, unknown to the others, since 2004. His had sold out to Duple; East Lancashire Coachbuilders were still on Whalley New Road, Blackburn; Eastern Coach offer to take over the whole project was welcomed, and provided the necessary Works, Park Royal and Roe had all been swallowed up by Leyland; Northern Counties was flourishing and expanding; spark to reignite the concept. More research was necessary to bring the project Plaxton was still a family concern in Scarborough; Willowbrook had taken over Brush Coachworks. It is all so different nearer to completion for publication, with Phil now in the driving seat. Chester Corporation’s ubiquitous No. now. 1 is a Guy Arab IV supplied in a batch of Sadly, Eric died on New Year’s Day 2011 and so was not able to see the three in 1953. It ran in service for 22 years, We hope that this long-awaited volume will bring equal measures of pleasure to those who remember the Pemberton finished result, though we are sure he would have been proud of what has been subsequently being used as a driver trainer products and to those who have only ever seen them in preservation. It may perhaps also facilitate the production of accomplished. This book is, therefore, dedicated to his memory, as a tribute to for a short time before being preserved. It some more of those missing Company histories! We are always interested . was spotted at a rally in the late ’seventies the many years he spent researching and writing about matters pertaining to shortly after leaving the Corporation’s the bus industry. We shall miss him greatly. ownership. (JAS) Former Birkenhead Transport No. 242 at a Brighton Rally in the early ’seventies. This Guy Arab 6LW was new in 1944 with a Massey utility body, as number 324 (BG 8557). It was rebodied by Massey in 1953 with a 7ft 9in wide body, possibly to stay within the weight limit. Oddly, the high radiator was retained, unlike many rebodied Guys at that time. (JAS) 4 5 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Introduction 4 he Author and Publishers would like to record their sincere thanks to all those who have helped Foreword 5 to make the production of this book possible. Many of the photographs from the official archives Acknowledgements 7 were rescued from the skip when the major reconstruction of the premises took place in the T1990s, and again when the NCME plant closed in 2005. It was amazing how many odd corners and Frontispiece 8 In The Beginning 9 forgotten drawers came to light! Coachbuilding And The ’twenties 14 We are particularly grateful to: Ted Jones, Martin Ingle, David Gray, Roy Tither, Ron Phillips, The Double-decker Predominates 34 Graham Brindley, Geoff Lumb, Eric Ogden, Harry Postlethwaite, John Senior, Bob Rowe, Ian Stubbs, Wartime 60 Scott Hellewell, and Ian Stopforth.