Crosville: A National Bus Company

In the 1970s the state-owned National Bus Company operated services across England and Wales, and one of the largest of its thirty-six constituent bus companies was the huge Crosville Motor Services. Though Crosville enjoyed similarities to other former BET companies within the NBC, initially with its fleet of Bristol/ECW buses and coaches, many other facets of this company made it interesting. It had a vast operating area, growing in the corporate era of the early 1970s to stretch from the hills above Macclesfield in Cheshire to the industrial area of Biddulph in Staffordshire, rural Shropshire at Oswestry, through the city streets of Liverpool, across all of North Wales and right down through remote mid-Wales to the far-off West Wales towns of New Quay, Newcastle Emlyn and Lampeter. From its headquarters in Chester, Crosville operated truly diverse services, ranging from rural market day-only routes and open-top holiday services to intense inter-urban services, even on dedicated busways, unique at the time. Here, Michael Hitchen looks back to a time full of variety and interest, with a wealth of fascinating and often previously unpublished photographs on show.