The Bus Up the Dale
	Summer 2011 This is probably the bit that everybody will want to click on, but paradoxically it may well prove to be the last bit that gets done. Chasing up all the smaller operators has been surprisingly time-consuming - albeit quite fun - and we’re aiming to get that done first. Try clicking on some of the other red boxes, there have been more bus operators in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale than you'd think. John Lodge Percival at the wheel of a Selden in the early 1920s, believed to have been the Percivals’ second motor, and a more substantial machine than the Fords and Chevrolets run by humbler carriers. Photograph: Susan Restall. Meanwhile, here is a temporary quickie:- Percival Brothers (Coaches), Ltd, was incorporated on 21st June 1937, and one week later they took delivery of a brand-new AEC Regal coach with 33-seat bodywork by Burlingham. As we have seen, however, the sons of Lodge Percival had already been trading as Percival Brothers for ten years or more. The Percival family and employees gather proudly round their new six-cylinder Leyland saloon in 1932, outside the Big Shop. With 32 seats and a substantial roof rack, this bus must have been one of the biggest motors in the Dale. Lodge Percival is visible at extreme R. Photograph: Joan Percival collection. By 1937 Percival’s had at least six or seven smart buses on the road. At the beginning of 1938 they took delivery of a new Bedford 26-seater with Plaxton coachwork. Taking over the Scratcherds’ motor-bus operation in mid-1938 increased the fleet further; and in the Spring of 1939 they took delivery of a further three brand-new Bedfords and also a new Albion motor-lorry. Business must have been booming. Unfortunately, in the Summer of 1939 international politics hit a bit of a sticky patch. An impressive pre-War business card. The Richmond office was moved from King Street to 53, Market Place in 1945. Card: David Parker collection. The 1940s turned out to be a boom time – albeit not always an easy one – for most bus operators, and Percival’s was no exception. Competition from the Sunters at the beginning of the 1950s came at a very inopportune time, as television sets and private motor-cars started to reduce people’s use of public transport. By the 1960s, even with Sunter Bros’ coaches off the road, Percival’s was a less profitable business than it had been. John Lodge Percival could not or would not abandon the Swaledale service but it was becoming more and more of a drain on resources. The coaching side of the operation was barely making enough to offset the costs of maintaining an unremunerative bus service up Swaledale. Geoff (L) and John Lodge (R) Percival in 1964 at the Catterick Camp depot acquired from the Sunters. The two Bedfords behind them - with stylish Harrington “Crusader” coachwork - were the last new full-sized buses bought by Percival’s: alas by the mid-1960s, the Bedford was not an ideal machine for the long distances routinely clocked up on military runs. Photograph: Joan Percival collection. There was not enough money to buy replacement coaches of the quality for which Percival’s had formerly been noted. A dismal period of “make do and mend” ensued, as the lightweight Bedfords were getting run into the ground. Every attempt to reduce losses by deleting under-used journeys from the Swaledale timetable met with a storm of protest. After John Lodge Percival died at the beginning of 1971 it was decided, not unreasonably but with colossal reluctance on the part of the Percival family, to wind up the business altogether. John Lodge had been approaching 70 years of age, and his widow – who had no personal connection with Swaledale – was only two or three years younger. The letter tells its own story: Susan Restall collection. A three-part feature on the story of Percival Brothers (Coaches), Ltd, in Vintage Roadscene was kindly suggested by the magazine’s Deputy Editor, David Hayward, who has been an energetic supporter of this project. Part I appeared (unexpectedly, so far as we were concerned) in the January 2011 edition; Part II, which we did not consider quite ready for publication, then turned up in the February issue, and Part III was such a rushed job that we were obliged to stop it going to press. It used to be said that an infinite number of monkeys, given an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time, would sooner or later produce the complete works of Shakespeare. It now appears that some of those monkeys may actually be moonlighting as subeditors and typesetters at Vintage Roadscene. However, a rectified Part III finally appeared in the May 2011 edition. More information on Percival’s will be added here in due course. A Fleet List is now available on another page (accessible from the Home Page). Those who keep asking why the book isn’t out yet have clearly never tried doing anything like this themselves... Return to Home Page