IN John Wearmouth’s hall in Darlington, there is an elegant pierced splat back chair, with a graceful serpentine crest rail at the top and gently curved cabriole front legs.
John Wearmouth's chair made from fabric that was once on the seat of a James & Mosley bus from Croft (Image: John Wearmouth)
But forget all that. It is the upholstered seat that should grab the eye. Perhaps it looks a little washed out after years of use; perhaps it looks a little worn from the thousands of bottoms that may once have sat on it, but it is a unique piece of bus history.
“Growing up in Croft in the 1940s and 1950s, I have fond memories of the buses and the trains as a means of getting into the big town of Darlington for visits to the pictures, the market and the football,” says John, wading straight into controversy as if he had plunged into the Tees in full flood.
The name “Croft” covered all the houses on both sides of the river, in both Yorkshire and Durham, until 1950, when the local authority unilaterally erected nameboards on the Durham side proclaiming that it was now called “Hurworth Place”. The villagers refused to use this name and, even 75 years later, there is resistance to it.
John picks up his story in Darlington’s main street of bus stops, which used to be next to St Cuthbert’s Church. He says: “The Leadyard, with its metal barrier bus queues, always seemed to stretch for miles and, even with lots of buses, because of the minimal cover it could feel drafty and perishing.
An Abbotts bus, heading for Croft, in the Leadyard, Darlington - the town hall is now on the land to the right of the bus. The picture shows the lines of metal barriers that the lane was renowned for. The bus behind is destined for Gainford and Staindrop and on the right is a poster advertising the latest production at the Hippodrome: 13, Death Street, Harlem. This toured in 1950-51 and it included some of the first successful black actors (Image: Unknown)
“On a late Saturday afternoon, it usually seemed a good idea on the way in to arm yourself with a sizzling hot potato from (Matini's?) oven on wheels and a Despatch Sporting Pink with all the football results.
“Living in Grange Avenue in the part of Croft which was up the hill from the railway station, Abbott’s buses were garaged closest to me. My recollection is that they were red and cheerful, whereas James and Mosley from over the bridge were a blue-grey colour.
“Hollands, in a blacker colour, coming from Hurworth seemed to me like a bit of an interloper on the river front at Croft, and even rather sinister in the eyes of a child, especially on the days when they ran their large gas bus with its big bag on the top.”
Walter Abbott, founder of Abbott's buses of Hurworth Place, with his sons Stanley and Frank, at their garage which was where the Oxford garage is today. Walter is leaning on a hand-operated petrol pump, and has a cigarette between his fingers (Image: Unknown)
Abbotts were garaged where the Oxford garage is today in Hurworth Place. James & Mosley were garaged where Croft village hall is today whereas Holland’s were somewhere in Strait Lane in Hurworth.
Abbott's buses, from Hurworth Place: a Bedford, left, and a Tilling Stevens (Image: Unknown)
Says John: “Travelling on an early Abbott's bus to school in Stockton (Darlington was a county borough so its schools were not available to residents of Croft), I recall young people were allowed to take their turn and open the sliding side door of the moving bus, as it slowed a little, to fling out a bundle of Northern Echos, from the newsagent’s shop in Belgrave Terrace, for the houses at Nags Head, while the bus sped on its way round the corner towards Blackwell.”
An Edwardian postcard of Belgrave Terrace, Hurworth Place (or Croft) from where the newsagent despatched the day's Echos on the Abbott bus for the schoolchildren to throw out of the sliding door (Image: Chris Lloyd)
And then he says: “In my family home in Croft, we had the essence of the thrifty post-war period: a chair home covered with material used on the seats of James and Mosley buses.
John Wearmouth's chair made from fabric that was once on the seat of a James & Mosley bus from Croft (Image: John Wearmouth)
“Whether the material came from a refurbished used seat on a bus, or whether it was from a spare roll which the company disposed of at some stage I do not know, but I am tempted to at least wonder how many people might have sat on this seat over the years.
“Does anyone else have any more of this material?”
A Teesdale Queen bus in Middleton-in-Teesdale (Image: Ted Hoyle)
MEMORIES 802 told of the Teesdale Queen, a 29-seater service run by Harry Hoyle in the upper end of Teesdale until 1967. He only ran mid-sized Bedford Duple buses because of the difficulty in navigating the small dale lanes although he managed to squeeze a record 90 passengers onto a bus up to Langdon Beck one night after closing time in Middleton-in-Teesdale.
“I've been wondering when the Teesdale Queen would get a mention,” says Rita Peart. “I remember the white bus vividly. My grandad, Bobby Brigham, farmed in Egglesburn, between Eggleston and Middleton, and every Wednesday my nana caught the bus to Barney! Me too on school hols!
“We had to be at the bottom of the hill outside the ’Burn chapel for pick-up. I had to stand all the way – it was the highlight of my week!”
Rita continues: “I was born there on the farm in December 1946. We had a cottage about a mile further up the road but off the beaten track, so the midwife wanted my birth at the farm.
“After returning to the cottage, we got snowed in for nearly 10 weeks! My dad had to dig his way out every day accompanied by our faithful dog who guided him past snow drifts. A different life then!”
Egglesburn Baptist Chapel before it was converted in 2018 (Image: Google StreetView)
Egglesburn is a fascinating corner of the world. The chapel that Rita mentions was one of only three Baptist chapels in the dale – the working class leadminers were largely Primitive Methodists, as we discovered last week with the coalminers of Trimdon.
The chapel was built in 1872 with a large tank in the floor to allow a full immersion in water during a baptism.
Egglesburn Baptist Chapel is now a private house (Image: Google StreetView)
Since 2018, it has been a private residence, but it still has “British Workman” carved in a lintel over the door. This was the name of a monthly newsletter published to promote self-improvement and temperance among the British working classes.
Because the Baptist population in the dale was so small, it is believed the chapel was most used as a reading room by the men who worked in Eggleston’s lead smelting mills and wished to get on in life.
Even more fascinating, if you go straight up the straight line beside the chapel, you come to Standing Stones Farm. On the flat plain to the west of the farm once stood what was probably south Durham’s most important prehistoric landmark: a circle of standing stones.
In 1794, historian William Hutchinson described it as “a uniform circle of rough stones, with an inward trench, and in the centre a cairn”.
Amazingly, over the course of the 19th Century, the stones which had stood for between 3,000 and 4,000 years were removed for house and road building. Now nothing remains of the circle, although in 2000, a lidar investigation confirmed that it had once existed.
A Favourite bus in Bishop Auckland Market Place (Image: John Askwith)
FAVOURITE DIRECT was a small south Durham bus company formed in 1928. Favourite No 1 was an hourly service from Bishop Auckland to Rushyford, Sedgefield, Stockton and Middlesbrough, while Favourite No 2 started in 1929 was another hourly service from Bishop Auckland to Spennymoor, Ferryhill, Fishburn, Sedgefield and onto Stockton and Middlesbrough.
“Following many changes of ownership and name, Favourite Direct became Transport Motor Services and was finally sold to Trimdon Motor Services in 1965,” says John Askwith.
Favourite No 1 was garaged in George Street, near where Bishop Auckland bus station grew up, and Favourite No 2 was kept in a depot at Canny Hill on the outskirts of the town.
“I think Favourite No 2 carried a strapline that went something like 'Favourite for miles and smiles',” says John. “Perhaps someone may remember the exact wording?”
SANDRA HUGHES may be ahead of the game. “I got the Favourite in the 1950s and 1960s from Stockton High Street past the cokeworks at Fishburn – I remember the heavy buckets taking coal over our heads at Mainsforth,” she says.
“And what about Wilkinsons of Sedgefield, which ran from Stockton to Ferryhill? The buses were cream with red, and I remember vividly a tartar of an older conductress.”
Colin Hurworth's 1966 picture of a United bus in Bishop Auckland Market Place. Can you identify anyone on the bus, and what sort of car is the black one on the right? (Image: Colin Hurworth)
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“UNITED has received scant coverage in your series so far,” says Colin Hurworth, “so I have attached a wonderful image from 1966.
“It shows a United bus coming round the back of Bishop Auckland Town Hall, with young boys peering out of the upstairs front and side windows. It would be amazing to identify one of them! Also, what is the old car on the right?”
So many gauntlets thrown down there: do you have any United bus stories; can you identify the black car or do you recognise anyone who was on the bus?