Bus history History of British Bus Services the North-East is written
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by David Holding, and published by David and Charles at £5.95.
THE North-East of England is rich in social and economic history, and David Holding has succeeded in capturing this in his history of bus service developments in Northumberland, Co Durham, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland, and North Humberside.
The book does not look so much at the histories of types of vehicles used on the services, but at why they developed and at some of the personalities involved.
According to Holding, the exodus of Tynesiders in the depression helped boost the growth of cheap express coach services to London, and mining has given many smaller operators a chance to earn regular incomes.
The personalities are legion. H. P. Stokes, father of Leyland's Lord Stokes, was an early United Automobile Services general manager, and Norman Morton was the ex-road haulier who applied revolutionary methods to Sunderland's buses when he became manager there in 1952.
Students and serious-minded enthusiasts should find this book of use and interest.