Charles H. Roe - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Charles H. Roe Ltd. was a Yorkshire coachbuilding

Coachbuilder

A coachbuilder is a manufacturer of bodies for carriages or automobiles.The trade dates back several centuries. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne's Guards, Brewster a relative newcomer , formed in 1810. Others in Britain included...

company. It was for most of its life based at Crossgates
Cross Gates, Leeds
Cross Gates is a large suburb in east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated between Seacroft and Swarcliffe to the north, Whitkirk and Colton to the south, Killingbeck to the west and Austhorpe to the south east...

Carriage Works, in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

.http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=2004721_11158388

In 1947 it was taken over by Park Royal Vehicles

Park Royal Vehicles

Dating its origins back to 1889, Park Royal Vehicles along with its Leeds-based subsidiary Charles H. Roe was one of Britain's leading coachbuilders and bus manufacturers based at Park Royal, west London, UK.-Associated Commercial Vehicles:...

. Two years later, along with its parent, it became part of Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV) in 1949, which was merged with Leyland Motors Ltd

Leyland Motors Ltd

Leyland Motors Limited was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. It gave its name to the British Leyland Motor Corporation formed when it merged with British Motor Holdings, later to become British Leyland after being nationalised...

in 1962. In 1965 30% of Park Royal and Roe's shares were exchanged by Leyland Motor Corporation for shares in Bristol Commercial Vehicles

Bristol Commercial Vehicles

Bristol Commercial Vehicles was a vehicle manufacturer of in Bristol, England. Most production was of buses but trucks and railbus chassis were also built....

and Eastern Coach Works

Eastern Coach Works

Eastern Coach Works Ltd was a bus and railbus body building company based in Lowestoft, England.-History:The company can trace its roots back to 1912, when United Automobile Services was founded in the town to run bus services. United began a coach building business at the Lowestoft site in 1920...

held by the Transport Holding Company

Transport Holding Company

The Transport Holding Company was a British Government owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport Commission ; it came into existence on 1 January...

. Later the THC was succeeded by the National Bus Company

National Bus Company

The National Bus Company, or NBC, was the Australian brand for National Express Group's mass transit bus services in Melbourne and Brisbane. Its sister companies were Westbus, Hillsbus, and Glenorie in Sydney, Southern Coast Transit in Perth.-Routes:...

and Park Royal, Roe, Bristol, ECW and Leyland National

Leyland National

The Leyland National is a British single-deck bus built in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries - the National Bus Company and British Leyland. Buses were constructed at a specially built factory at the Lillyhall...

Ltd became subsidiaries of a new company Bus Manufacturuers Holdings 50% owned by British Leyland and 50% by National Bus. Leyland took complete control of BMH in 1982 and closed Charles H. Roe in 1984. In the following year, a group of employees from the former business, supported by Yorkshire Enterprise Ltd, began the Optare

Optare

Optare plc is a bus manufacturer and importer based in Leeds and Blackburn, UK. The company operates from three main business units, Bus Manufacturing, Coach Sales and Unitec....

coachbuilding business in the former Roe carriage works.

History overview

Mr Charles H. Roe was a coachbuilder, draughtsman, engineer and entrepreneur who established a coachworks business bearing his name in Leeds

Leeds

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

in 1917. He continued to be its managing director until 1952. Charles H. Roe Ltd produced distinctive and durable coachwork which although associated most strongly with municipal operators, particularly in Yorkshire, sold to a wide range of bus, trolleybus and coach operators, and there were even a few car, railway carriage, tram and commercial vehicle bodies too. Eventually becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of British Leyland in 1982 it was closed in 1984. Former workers and management pooled their redundancy money and in 1985 returned to the Roe factory in Leeds with a new bus-building business under the new name of Optare

Optare

Optare plc is a bus manufacturer and importer based in Leeds and Blackburn, UK. The company operates from three main business units, Bus Manufacturing, Coach Sales and Unitec....

Ltd.

Early years

Charles Henry Roe was born in York on 22 May 1887. His father Charles Roe worked for the North Eastern Railway at their carriage works in the town, eventually rising to a foreman's position. C.H. Roe served his apprenticeship at the drawing office of the carriage works and his first job after gaining his trade in 1912 was as a draughtsman at the Wakefield works of Charles Roberts and Company who built railway rolling stock. A year later he moved to Leeds to work as an assistant to the chief engineer at the Hunslet

Hunslet

Hunslet is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is south east of the city centre and has an industrial past.Hunslet had many engineering companies based in the district, such as John Fowler & Co...

-based RET Construction Co who was a pioneer builder of trolleybuses. Whilst there he worked on a twin-shaft drive transmission system from the traction motors of the trolleybus chassis to replace a previous chain-drive arrangement and designed a lightweight body featuring steel panels over a suitably reinforced teak

Teak

Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...

body frame. As an engineer and draughtsman he was exempt from World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

. Customers for the RET vehicle with Roe-designed bodies included the trolleybus systems of Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...

Corporation, The Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

Transport Company and Ramsbottom

Ramsbottom

Ramsbottom is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on the course of the River Irwell, in the West Pennine Moors. Historically within Lancashire, it is located north-northwest of Bury, and north-northwest of Manchester...

Urban District Council. The Ramsbottom examples were to a steel-frame design but it was wood and metal composite construction particularly using teak that became synonymous with the C.H. Roe name. The RET business had gone through one bankruptcy prior to C.H. Roe joining, originally having been founded as the Railless Electric Traction Company Ltd. in 1908. In 1916 The RET Company was required under war regulations to turn over production to munitions and being unable to supply orders in hand for trolleybuses was closed down in 1917.

Sole trader

By August 1917 C.H. Roe had set up on his own account as an engineer and coachbuilder in a nearby factory unit. Always an innovator with a shrewd grasp of the value of intellectual property Roe applied for his first patent (relating to driving pulleys) on Armistice Day

Armistice Day

Armistice Day is on 11 November and commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day...

November 11, 1918. During this time Roe continually extended his site, which adjoined that of his former employer which had now been requisitioned by the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

. As a sole trader, Roe built a wide variety of products from simple flatbed trailers for traction engine

Traction engine

A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...

s to a refrigerated mobile fish shop body and stylish charabanc

Charabanc

A charabanc or "char-à-banc" is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It was especially popular for sight-seeing or "works outings" to the country or the seaside, organised by businesses once a year...

bodies on the ubiquitous Ford Model T

Ford Model T

The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...

. Another early patent was for a tipping body for lorries (spelt in true Yorkshire style 'lurries' in the application) with compartments to allow discrete loads to be kept separate. Railless Ltd had reformed after the war to build trolleybuses and Roe designed and/or built bodies went on examples supplied to the North Ormesby, South Bank, Normanby & Grangetown Railless Traction Company and to York Corporation.

The first company

Expansion at the Hunslet site was by the end of 1919 impossible, but C.H. Roe lived with his wife in the Cross Gates area of the city of Leeds and knew that a large shell-filling factory there had been vacated by the government. Thus for the purpose of purchasing this large site with a modern factory building and space for expansion he registered Charles H Roe Ltd on May 26, 1920. The shareholders included his father and a number of family friends. Whilst the formation of the company and negotiations to buy the Cross Gates site commenced, coachbuilding continued at the Hunslet factory, bodies including Charabancs on Karrier

Karrier

Karrier is a marque of car and commercial vehicle, the origins of which can be traced back to Clayton and Company, a 1904 company from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK. In 1908, they started making Karrier cars and in 1920 changed the company name to Karrier Motors Ltd.In 1929, Karrier started...

and Lancia

Lancia

Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...

chassis. After taking possession of the Cross Gates site the first Roe double-deck bodies were built for Birmingham Corporation on Railless Ltd chassis, a second trolleybus maker to patronise Roe was Clough, Smith Ltd whose trolleybuses comprised their Leeds-built electrical equipment on Straker-Squire

Straker-Squire

Straker-Squire was a British automobile manufacturer based in Bristol, and later Edmonton in North London....

chassis and were hence known as Straker-Clough; Roe bodies supplied to them were then supplied to the Teesside Railless Traction Board (a municipal joint committee who had taken over the North Ormesby Company) and Rotherham Corporation. Other products of this era included a number of charabancs on chassis including Leyland, Thornycroft

Thornycroft

Thornycroft was a United Kingdom-based vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977.-History:Thornycroft started out with steam vans and lorries. John Isaac Thornycroft, the naval engineer, built his first steam lorry in 1896...

and Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

and a stylish limousine

Limousine

A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....

on a Lancia chassis. All types of bodies from other builders were also repaired and painted.

Trading difficulties in the early 1920s recession affected many businesses, the under-capitalised original Roe company being just one, during 1921 two debentures had to be secured to continue trading, the second relating directly to the Birmingham Corporation double deckers. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and the first company was voluntarily wound-up after a directors' meeting in November 1922. The receiver of the original company was able to give the bank a small surplus, whilst among the debts received £3,000 had come from various other purchasers plus £900 from Railless Ltd, who had subcontracted the Birmingham bodybuilding contract to Roe. Late payment can kill many a new business and it seems to have been the death of the original Roe company. C.H. Roe in a personal capacity bought the remaining assets from the receiver for £1,140.

The early years

One lesson had been learned in the formation of the second company (initially Charles H. Roe (1923) Ltd) in that share capital was one third larger (£8500 rather than £5850). At this time motorbus, rather than trolleybus or charabanc bodies began to assume a greater prominence. Like trolleybuses however a lot of the coachbuilding work on motorbuses was subcontracted either from the chassis manufacturer or from a dealership company. Thus many early Roe bus bodies on Karrier

Karrier

chassis were sold by the Huddersfield company as complete products.

An even more complicated situation arose with the Leeds based operation Tramway Supplies Ltd. They tendered for complete vehicles and then subcontracted the chassis supply to one manufacturer and the body supply to another. One of the body subcontractors was the Blackburn Aircraft

Blackburn Aircraft

Blackburn Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer that concentrated mainly on naval and maritime aircraft during the first part of the 20th century.-History:...

who also had a factory in Leeds. They built their last bus bodies in 1924, just as Government orders for aircraft (particularly flying boats, a Blackburn speciality) began to pick up. Railless Ltd (the third Railless company) were, incidentally, backed by Short Brothers

Short Brothers

Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts, that is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first company in the world to make production aircraft and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s...

another aeroplane manufacturer with a specialism in flying boats and a sideline in bus bodies.

An example of how complicated the whole complete vehicle contract thing could get concerns a Tilling-Stevens bi-mode

Dual-mode bus

A dual-mode bus is a bus that can run independently on power from two different sources, typically electricity from overhead lines or batteries, alternated with conventional fossil fuel ....

petrol-electric/trolley bus (type PERC1) built-for and patented-by the Teesside Railless Traction Board's manager. Tilling-Stevens had contracted to supply a complete vehicle; they then subcontracted the body to Tramway Supplies who sub-subcontracted it to Blackburn, who sub-sub-subcontracted it to Roe.

Other odd work in the early years of the new company included in 1924 a 36 seat petrol-fuelled rail vehicle for the Derwent Valley Light Railway. It was based on two Ford Model T chassis fitted with flanged steel tyres and coupled back-to-back, this rail minibus or petrol multiple unit seated 18 in each carriage and was driven from one end only, the rearward-facing car running in neutral gear with the engine switched off. When worked coupled fuel consumption was stated to be 14.33 mpg and if one unit was run the even more efficient figure of 17.55 mpg was obtained. It wasn't enough to save passenger operations on the line from oblivion however and the units were exported in 1926 to the County Donegal Joint Railway Committee (CDR) in the north-west of Ireland who converted them from standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

to 3 ft gauge, lowering the bodies in the process. The CDR thus became the first railway in Ireland to use internal combustion engines and by the time of closure ran all passenger services and a number of freights using Gardner-powered diesel units.

By 1925 Roe were receiving orders directly from customers in the council-owned sector, many of them previous customers for sub-contracted bodies, Mr Roe's approachability during body construction may have played a part in this, letters from general managers of the time thank C.H. Roe for his enabling inspection of bodies in-build. Among municipals taking Roe bodies by this time were Ramsbottom, Rotherham, Northampton, Doncaster, Leeds, Oldham, Bradford and the Teesside Railless Board, most of whom would continue to be Roe customers for a long time; chassis included Bristol, Guy

Guy Motors

Guy Motors was a British company based in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton that made cars, lorries, buses, and trolleybuses.-History:Guy Motors Ltd was founded in 1914 by Sydney Guy who had been the Works Manager of nearby Sunbeam. A factory was built on the site at Fallings Park, Wolverhampton...

, Thornycroft

Thornycroft

and AEC. The first double-deck motorbuses were for Doncaster in 1925 on AEC, a year later Roe were building 30 ft-long six wheeled double-decks for Oldham on Guy chassis. Unlike London at the time all of Roe's double-deck customers specified closed-tops on the upper deck. In 1926 Straker-Squire finally folded and Roe stored uncompleted vehicles for Clough, Smith prior to a new arrangement which saw their electrical equipment fitted to Karrier chassis. Also at this time Roe started building enclosed, or saloon, coaches which were often fitted to chassis which had previously carried charabanc bodies, Roe having a surplus of second-hand charabanc bodies by 1925. Two further debentures were called for, but this time it wasn't to keep the business going, but to fund the expansion of the premises.

Independent prosperity

One of the more significant patents to emerge from Cross Gates was number 313720 registered in 1928 the name of the Company, Mr C.H Roe and Mr William Bramham, the works manager who was later to be general manager at Eastern Coach Works

Eastern Coach Works

at Lowestoft, Northern Coachbuilders of Newcastle upon Tyne and Saunders-Roe

Saunders-Roe

Saunders-Roe Limited was a British aero- and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works East Cowes, Isle of Wight.-History:The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliot Verdon Roe and John Lord took a controlling interest in the boat-builders S.E. Saunders...

of Beaumaris. This concerned a continuous machined teak waist rail designed to double-interlock with the vertical teak pillars and the steel reinforcing strips, once assembled also binding those to the outer panels; it could be accurately described as an early example of system-built coachwork. New chassis makes bodied in the late twenties included Albion

Albion Motors

Albion Automotive of Scotstoun, Glasgow is a former Scottish automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer, currently involved in the manufacture and supply of Automotive component systems....

and Crossley

Crossley Motors

Crossley Motors was a British motor vehicle manufacturer based in Manchester, England. They produced approximately 19,000 high quality cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958 and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to 1945.Crossley Brothers, originally...

, both of whom chose Roe bodies for demonstrators, in Crossley's case for its first double-decker. Trolleybuses continued to figure, makes including Karrier-Clough and Guy, the three-axled double deck now being the common form for these, customers including Bloemfontein, South Lancashire Transport and corporation fleets including some detailed above, Doncaster for example taking one of the only two Bristol trolleybuses with a Roe body in 1928.

Another significant patent was jointly granted in 1930 to the company, Mr Roe and J.C. Whitely the general manager of Grimsby Corporation for a central entrance double decker with a distinctive design of staircase which rose transversely two steps to a wide landing and then branched into forward and rearward ascending longitudinal flights to the upper deck. Roe built bodies to this style until 1950 and licencees included H. V. Burlingham

H. V. Burlingham

H. V. Burlingham was a coachbuilding business based in Blackpool, Lancashire from 1928 until 1960 when they were taken over by London-based rivals Duple Motor Bodies Limited. Duple initially renamed Burlingham as Duple but in 1969 they closed their Hendon factory and concentrated production in...

of Blackpool.

In 1934 five years after the original company was wound up, the board agreed to remove the (1923) from the current company name. At the same time share capital rose to £12,000 and the current mortgages and debenture were repaid in favour of a new first mortgage.

In 1935, encouraged by the chassis builder, a Commercial Motor Show exhibit was built on an AEC Regent chassis for Leeds Corporation, this bus had a rakish streamlined outline and a full-width cab but more importantly had an all-new steel framework patented by the company, Roe and Bramham (who became a director that year) and a 'Safety Staircase' patented by the company, Roe, Bramham and William Vane Moreland, the general manager of Leeds City Transport. This staircase on a rear platform bus gave less loss of seating capacity than the straight staircase favoured in London and Birmingham but intruded less onto the boarding platform than the normal semi-spiral arrangement whilst being superior to either layout in having two broad landings allowing boarding and alighting passengers to pass on the staircase. It became a standard feature of all subsequent peacetime Roe double-deck bodies for Leeds Corporation and was widely employed by other fleets, 777 examples being built by Roe prior to expiry of the patent in 1950.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Roe mainly continued to build passenger bodies, although supplying the war effort more directly with such specialised bodywork as mobile printing presses for field communications use on Foden Lorries and articulated mobile kitchens, canteens and dormitories to assist blitzed factories. These were on semi-trailer chassis coupled to Bedford

Bedford Vehicles

Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a subsidiary of Vauxhall Motors, itself the British subsidiary of General Motors , established in 1930; and constructing commercial vehicles. Bedford Vehicles was a leading international truck manufacturer, with substantial export sales of...

tractor units. Similar bus-seated vehicles were built mainly for use within Ordnance factories (where they became known as Bevin

Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...

buses) but two were supplied to Liverpool Corporation and briefly used as service buses (1942-4) before being converted to mobile canteens. More normal passenger vehicle bodies were built during the war to the Government-mandated 'utility' outline including 240 single-deck 32 seaters on Bedford OWB chassis and over 400 double-deck bodies on Guy and Daimler

Daimler Motor Company

The Daimler Motor Company Limited was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H J Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler Motoren...

motorbuses and Sunbeam trolleybuses, most to the sunken upper deck offside gangway or lowbridge layout

Lowbridge double-deck bus

A lowbridge double-deck bus is a double-decker bus which has an asymmetric interior layout, enabling the overall height of the vehicle to be reduced compared to that of a conventional double-decker bus. The upper deck gangway is offset to one side of the vehicle, normally the offside , and is...

.

In 1945 nominal share capital increased to £108,000 and the valuation of the works increased to £98,000. In 1939 both the English Electric Company and Metro Cammell Weymann

Metro Cammell Weymann

Metro Cammell Weymann was once a major player in transportation manufacturing in the UK and Europe. It was formed in 1932 by Weymann Motor Bodies Ltd and Metro Cammell's bus bodybuilding division to produce bus bodies....

had approached Roe about amalgamation or takeover and in 1945 talks were opened with Mumford of Lydney in Gloucestershire. These talks were inconclusive but in 1947 Park Royal Vehicles

Park Royal Vehicles

bought a controlling shareholding in the company, three Roe board members were replaced by Park Royal directors and C.H Roe joined the board of Park Royal. In 1949 Park Royal were taken over by Associated Commercial Vehicles by then the parent company of AEC, Crossley and Maudslay

Maudslay Motor Company

The Maudslay Motor Company was a British vehicle maker based in Coventry. It was founded in 1902 and continued until 1948 when it was taken over by the Associated Equipment Company and along with Crossley Motors the new group was renamed Associated Commercial Vehicles Ltd.-Early history:The...

The ACV years

Although ACV owned three chassis manufacturers and three coachbuilders (Park Royal, Roe and Crossley) they did not try to tie the hands of customers. Some rationalisation happened early in that any orders for Park Royal composite bodies were transferred to Roe, and steel-framed bodies were either built by Park Royal or by Roe using Park Royal frames. By the mid 1950s all metal-framed bodies by ACV, regardless of coachbuilder, had a Park Royal outline.

The flagship of the Roe composite body range was however exclusively built on AEC Regent III

AEC Regent III

The AEC Regent III was a type of double-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC.It was mainly built for operation outside London and overseas. It could be fitted with AEC's 9.6-litre diesel engine , 'Wilson' preselective epicyclic gearbox The AEC Regent III (also known as Regent 3 or Regent Mark...

; this was the Pullman body, the only Roe bus ever to be named. The prototype – a Leeds bus to the specifications of W. Vane Moreland – with its deep windows and four window bays rather than the then standard five had looked ultra-modern when shown on a pre-war Regent at the 1937 Commercial Motor Show in London, it is an acknowledged influence on the London Transport designers whose RT1 appeared two years later with similar construction and outline.

Trolleybuses continued to figure, on Sunbeam/Karrier, Crossley or BUT chassis. The most striking of these were the Coronation class vehicles built on Sunbeam MF2B chassis for Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

Corporation Transport. These had a front entrance on the front overhang and a central exit; they were fitted with twin staircases and were intended to be one-man operated so were equipped with trolley-pole retriever equipment at the rear.

After the initial post-war boom Roe also took on a great deal of repair, rebuilding and refurbishment work, adding a workshop for this purpose. Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

Corporation had its entire fleet of Guy

Guy Motors

Arab utility buses thoroughly rebuilt by Roe, some 100 passing through the works. Roe also extended the Brush or Metro-Cammell bodies of Midland Red

Midland Red

Midland Red was a bus company which operated in the English Midlands from 1905 to 1981. It was the trading name used by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company , which was renamed Midland Red Omnibus Company in 1974...

's post-war underfloor engined single deckers from 27 ft 6in to 29 ft 3in, allowing an extra four seats to be fitted. This work covered classes S6, S8, S9, S11 and all but one of S10, a grand total of 455 buses all converted in 1952 or 1953. In 1952 Charles H Roe resigned from the position of managing director, although he remained as chairman.

As pressure of work eased Roe also introduced a coach body for the AEC Reliance

AEC Reliance

The AEC Reliance was a single-deck bus or coach chassis with a mid-underfloor-mounted engine, built by AEC in Southall, west London, England between 1953 and 1979. The name had previously been used between 1928 and 1931 for another single-deck bus chassis....

. This was known as the Roe Dalesman and ran through four separate marks, from 1953-9. It was mainly stock-built for coach dealers selling to small independents but major operators to use the type included West Riding Automobile Company

West Riding Automobile Company

The West Riding Automobile Company, under the fleet name of West Riding, was a bus company that served the Wakefield area of Yorkshire, England from 1923.-Company history:...

and Black and White Motorways

British Electric Traction

British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial.- Early history :The company was founded as...

. Other specialist work undertaken included two single deck trams for Leeds, a mobile chest X-ray

Radiography

Radiography is the use of X-rays to view a non-uniformly composed material such as the human body. By using the physical properties of the ray an image can be developed which displays areas of different density and composition....

unit for tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

control and crew cab lorries on Ford Thames Trader

Thames Trader

The Thames Trader was a range of trucks manufactured by the British arm of the Ford Motor Company built between 1957 and 1965.-Design:The distinctive cab design, which sets it apart from other British commercial vehicles, was a forward-control design and the Thames Trader model covered a much...

for the Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

police force. Box vans were supplied on Bedford to the Bradford Dyers Association.

The composite body had been revised post-war, with a new patent waist rail, the teak structural member now covered by rolled steel plate. In 1957 the composite double decker reached its final form with teak framing to the lower deck ceiling or upper deck floor and an aluminium framework above. This was to continue in production, mainly on Daimler half-cab chassis until 1968, the last batch being built for Northampton Corporation on CVG6, replacing earlier Roe-bodied CVG6s which at the time comprised the entire Northampton fleet, all but five having composite bodies.

Simultaneously Park Royal bowed to pressure from the British Electric Traction

British Electric Traction

group of major regional bus operators and replaced their rather elegant mid-1950s aluminium-framed body with a steel-framed structure of very angular outline, this first appeared as the production version of the integral AEC Bridgemaster, but soon spread to all other steel-framed Park Royal and Roe double deckers. Crossley had been closed by ACV in 1958, having ceased to make chassis five years previously.

Roe metal-framed bodies to this new outline went on a wide range of double deck chassis. A large batch were built for BET on the new Leyland Atlantean

Leyland Atlantean

The Leyland Atlantean is a model of double-decker bus built by Leyland in the United Kingdom from 1958 to 1986....

, these were delivered in 1960 to Trent Motor Traction

Trent Barton

Trent Barton is one of the very small number of significant independent bus operators in the United Kingdom. It was formed as the result of merging Derbyshire's Trent Buses with Nottinghamshire's Barton Transport....

, Devon General

Devon General

Devon General was the brand name for the principal bus operator in south Devon from 1919. The name was first used by the Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company which was created in 1919. In 1922 it was purchased by the National Electric Construction Company which merged with British Electric...

and the Northern General Transport

Northern General Transport Company

The Northern General Transport Company was the original founding company of what is now Go-Ahead Group.It originated in the early 1900s when Gateshead and District Tramways asked Parliament's permission to extend their Tramway, which finished at Low Fell, to Chester-le-Street. Parliament denied the...

group. As well as looking ungainly these buses became notorious for their propensity to corrode. Roe also built both forward and rear entrance bodies using this structure on conventional chassis, Swindon Corporation taking Daimler CVG6 and both Yorkshire Traction

Yorkshire Traction

Yorkshire Traction was a bus operator in South Yorkshire. Between 1986 and 2005 it was a key part of the Traction Group. In December 2005 it was sold to the Stagecoach Group.-History:...

and Stratford Blue Motors taking rebodied Leyland Tigers.

Far less conventional was the Guy Wulfrunian

Guy Wulfrunian

The Guy Wulfrunian was a front-engine double-decker bus chassis produced by Guy from 1959 to 1965.-History:The Wulfrunian was developed jointly by Guy and the West Riding Automobile Company, and, of 137 vehicles built, 126 went to West Riding...

which was even more avant-garde than the Atlantean, it was designed to the requirements of the independent West Riding company and featured a front engine on the front entrance platform, instead of a front radiator it had two Cave-Browne-Cave

Cave-Browne-Cave

Cave-Browne-Cave is a surname and may refer to:*Any one of the Cave-Browne-Cave Baronets*Frances Cave-Browne-Cave, English mathematician*Henry Cave-Browne-Cave, RAF officer...

heat exchangers on the upper deck front face to provide passenger heating and ventilation as well as engine cooling. The front wheels had double wishbone independent suspension and like the rear axle had a self-levelling air suspension system, the foundation braking was by disc brakes on all four wheels with a drum brake on the driveshaft providing the parking brake and the fluid flywheel adapted to serve as an integral retarder. At a time when only Jaguar and Ferrari road cars had front discs this was a technological adventure, like the Routemaster

Routemaster

The AEC Routemaster is a model of double-decker bus that was built by Associated Equipment Company in 1954 and produced until 1968. Primarily front-engined, rear open-platform buses, a small number of variants were produced with doors and/or front entrances...

and Midland Red's motorway coach it was shown with its Roe body in a cutaway-centre spread of boy's comic The Eagle

Eagle (comic)

Eagle was a seminal British children's comic, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating...

where it took its place alongside V-Bombers, Nuclear Submarines and Deltic

Napier Deltic

The Napier Deltic engine is a British opposed-piston valveless, two-stroke diesel engine used in marine and locomotive applications, designed and produced by Napier & Son...

Locomotives. Roe bodied 131 out of the 137 Wulfruninans built from 1959 to 1965.

The Wulfrunian body was lower built as this chassis was designed as a low height bus with stepless entrance and centre gangways on both decks. Roe also softened the outline of the body with a subtly curved rear dome; the use of equal-depth windows on both decks produced a much more balanced look.

Other oddities at the dawn of the 1960s included single-deck buses on the double-deck AEC Regent V

AEC Regent V

The AEC Regent V was a front-engined double-decker bus built by the Associated Equipment Company between 1954 and 1969. It was the last version of AEC Regent series double-decker and built as the successor of the AEC Regent III .The Regent V had AEC's own frontal design and concealed radiator as...

chassis, most of these were built for South Wales Transport for a route with a very low railway bridge in Llanelli under which underfloor engined single decks could not work but there were also one each for the Leeds Council Welfare department (with a rear ramp for wheelchair access) and for the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation.

In 1962 ACV merged with Leyland Motors to form the Leyland Motor Corporation. In 1965 LMC sold a 30% shareholding in Park Royal and Roe to the state-owned Transport Holding Company in return for a 25% stake in Bristol Commercial Vehicles

Bristol Commercial Vehicles

Bristol Commercial Vehicles was a vehicle manufacturer of in Bristol, England. Most production was of buses but trucks and railbus chassis were also built....

and Eastern Coach Works

Eastern Coach Works

. Charles H Roe retired as company chairman in 1962 and died in 1965.

The mixed economy

The original outline of the body for rear-engined double deckers was widely considered unsatisfactory and Sunderland Corporation took a heavily revised version on Daimler Fleetline

Daimler Fleetline

The Daimler Fleetline is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis built between 1960 and 1973 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and from 1973 until 1980 in Farington, Lancashire, England. However, the last complete vehicle did not enter service until 1983...

from 1962-6 featuring a prominent peak at the front dome and a reverse rake to the upper-deck rear in the style of the contemporary Ford Anglia

Ford Anglia

The 1949 model, code E494A, was a makeover of the previous model with a rather more 1940s style front-end, including the sloped, twin-lobed radiator grille. Again it was a very spartan vehicle and in 1948 was Britain's lowest priced four wheel car....

saloon car. Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...

Corporation instead specified double curvature windscreens of Alexander design on its Atlanteans (including a unique short-wheelbase batch in 1967) and on the last three Daimler Freeline

Daimler Freeline

The Daimler Freeline is an underfloor-engined bus chassis built by Daimler between 1951 and 1964. It was a very poor seller in the UK market for underfloor-engined bus and coach chassis but became a substantial export success....

single deckers. This then became a standard option at Roe who also optionally fitted the Alexander style double-curvature upper-deck front window on rear engined chassis, curving the line of the foremost upper deck side windows down to meet this, producing an elegant style which suited the Fleetline and the post 1964 low height Atlantean. Also in 1964 for that year's Commercial Motor show Roe built its first body to the 36 ft length permissible since 1961, it was an early Leyland Panther

Leyland Panther

The Leyland Panther was a rear-engined single-deck bus chassis built by Leyland between 1964 and 1972. It gained a reputation for unreliability, which to some extent was common to many of the first generation of rear-engined single-deckers....

for the Kingston upon Hull Corporation Transport fleet. Unlike the Coronation trolleybuses they were to replace, the Hull Panthers were allowed to be one man operated. Roe then built versions of this body for Leeds on the similar AEC Swift

AEC Swift

The AEC Swift was a rear-engined single-deck bus chassis built by AEC between 1964 and 1974. The chassis design was closely related to the Leyland Panther...

from 1967 to 1972 and also built standee single decks on Daimler Roadliner

Daimler Roadliner

The Daimler Roadliner was a single deck bus or coach chassis built by Daimler between 1962 and 1972. Notoriously unreliable, it topped the 1993 poll by readers of Classic Bus as the worst bus type ever, beating the Guy Wulfrunian into second place...

and Fleetline for Darlington and on Seddon Pennine RU

Seddon Pennine RU

The Seddon Pennine RU was a rear-engined single-decker bus built by Seddon Diesel Vehicles/Seddon Atkinson between 1969 and 1974.-History overview of Seddon/Seddon Atkinson bus production:...

for Doncaster.

In 1964 Leeds, the last provincial bastion of the rear-open platform double decker took a batch of Fleetlines to Great Yarmouth outline and the first of these was also shown at the 1964 show, Leeds continually revised this design over the next few years, in 1966 it was extended to 33 ft long rather than the previous 30 ft 10in, both decks had double curvature screens and side glazing became panoramic, with double-width window glasses. In 1968 angled flat glass at the front and a glass-fibre dash was added and a centre exit was fitted whilst the rear dome reverted to a square outline. This made the appearance similar to the Oldham Corporation variant supplied with conventional side glazing on standard wheelbase Atlanteans since 1965. The Leeds design was produced until 1975 with a few going to independent operators in England and Scotland. The Leeds and Oldham designs in turn led to the Park Royal–Roe standard design for Atlantean and Fleetline built from 1969 to 1981, which had a deeper front screen optionally to Alexander layout or flat-glazed and wider pillar spacing than the previous standard but not as long as that fitted to the Leeds style or the Manchester Corporation Mancunian

Mancunian double-decker bus

The Mancunian double-decker bus is a type of bodywork for double-decker bus designed by Manchester Corporation Transport Department and built on Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline chassis. Four hundred and seventy two Mancunians were ordered by the Department between 1965 and 1968 and...

. Roe built one batch of 34 Mancunians on long Fleetlines in 1972. These buses had been due to be bodied by East Lancashire Coachbuilders

East Lancashire Coachbuilders

East Lancashire Coachbuilders Limited was a manufacturer of bus bodies and carriages founded in 1934 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England.In 1994 the company expanded in to new premises and commenced a programme of development that resulted in a range of single and double deck buses which was the...

in 1970, but they suffered a fire destroying their works in Blackburn, so the contract was transferred to Park Royal, who in turn transferred it to Roe (shades of that Teesside Tilling-Stevens).

The standard design was adopted by West Yorkshire PTE (successor to the Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield Halifax and Calderdale fleets) and many municipals and also (from 1972) on the AN68 Atlantean became the National Bus Company

National Bus Company

's second-choice double decker, being especially associated with 'Leyland' fleets such as Ribble

Ribble Motor Services

Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in the North West of England, based in Preston. The company was started in 1919, and grew to be the largest operator in the region, with a territory stretching from Carlisle to south Lancashire...

, Northern General and Southdown

Southdown Motor Services

Southdown Motor Services Ltd operates bus and coach services in East and West Sussex and parts of Hampshire, in southern England. It was formed in 1915 and had various owners throughout its history, being purchased by the National Bus Company in 1969...

but it also became the standard double decker with London Country

London Country Bus Services

London Country Bus Services was a bus company that operated in South East England from 1969 until split up and sold in 1986 under Margaret Thatcher's government's bus deregulation scheme.-Creation:...

who had over 300.

Nearing the end

In 1982 Leyland Vehicles, the truck and bus division of the by now state-owned British Leyland bought out the National Bus Company's 50% shareholding in the joint-venture Bus Manufacturers Holdings Ltd which had not only owned Bristol, ECW, Park Royal and Roe but also the Leyland National

Leyland National

factory at Workington.

In 1981 and 1982 Roe-bodied six 18-metre long articulated buses for British Airways, these employed Leyland National body sections on Leyland-DAB

Danish Automobile Building

Danish Automobile Building was a Danish bus manufacturer based in Silkeborg. It was in existence from 1912 until 2002....

underfloor-engined chassis, Roe modifying the body for the higher frame height. They featured five entry-exit doors, two on the offside, and were used to transport passengers from their aircraft to the terminal at Heathrow airport.

1981 had been a peak production year at Roe, with 182 bodies built, the highest total since 1966 (the year when double-decks were finally allowed to be operated without a conductor, the first bus to do so, on the day of the law change, being a Great Yarmouth Roe-bodied Atlantean). The standard body was phased out in 1981, as the Fleetline had been discontinued and the Atlantean could not be sold in the EEC after 1983 as it fell foul of noise-pollution laws. 1981 was also the year that the Park Royal coachworks were closed. The new body to take its place was for the new Leyland Olympian

Leyland Olympian

The Leyland Olympian was a double-decker bus built by British Leyland/Leyland Bus in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production before the demise of Leyland Bus.-Construction:...

chassis and Roe produced 299 of these prior to closure, most went to three fleets, West Yorkshire PTE and NBC subsidiaries Bristol Omnibus Company

Bristol Omnibus Company

The Bristol Omnibus Company is the former name of the dominant bus operator in Bristol, one of the oldest bus companies in the United Kingdom. The company once ran buses over a wide area of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and neighbouring counties. The name was in operational use until 1985...

and London Country, with one batch to Strathclyde PTE and a sole vehicle to the Scottish Arts Council

Scottish Arts Council

The Scottish Arts Council is a Scottish public body that distributes funding from the Scottish Government, and is the leading national organisation for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland...

which was equipped as a travelling art gallery.

Production peaked at this point because the Government was phasing out the New Bus Grant which had provided up to 50% of the cost of a bus used on local services provided it met certain rules. In order to compensate for this drop in bus sales Leyland Bus (as it had now become) decided to produce a new flagship product for the booming deregulated coach market following the Transport Act 1980

Transport Act 1980

The Transport Act 1980 was a Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced deregulation of coach services in the United Kingdom and allow authorities to deregulate bus services on a trial basis. It was introduced by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The later Transport Act...

. This was the Royal Tiger

Leyland Royal Tiger

The Leyland Royal Tiger was a rear-engined coach built by Leyland between 1982 and 1988. It was intended to counter the offerings of foreign competitors such as DAF and Scania, but was not particularly successful, with only between 160 and 170 built....

underframe and the Roe Doyen body. This was a sophisticated product, as the Tiger

Leyland Tiger

The Leyland Tiger, also known as the B43, was a mid-engined bus and coach chassis which was built between 1981 and 1993. This name had previously been used for a front-engined bus built between 1920s and 1950s. It replaced the Leyland Leopard, which had been in production for over 20 years...

coach chassis competed head on with the Volvo B10M

Volvo B10M

The Volvo B10M is a popular mid-engined bus and coach chassis built by Volvo between 1978 and 2001. It was built as the successor of the B58 and was equipped with a 9.6-litre horizontally-mounted Volvo THD100/THD101/THD102/THD103/THD104/DH10A diesel engine mounted under the floor, near the middle...

the Royal Tiger Doyen was designed to provide a British alternative to the high-end Setra

Setra

Setra is a Neu-Ulm, Germany-based manufacturer of commercial buses and touring coaches, and recently a subsidiary of Daimler AG.The name "Setra" comes from "Selbsttragend"...

coach from Germany. Production got off to a slow start, not helped by overly centralised control from Leyland and a rigid set of body specifications which did not initially provide all the features more demanding coach customers wanted. In 1983, the year of launch only 10 complete Royal Tiger Doyens entered service, a further 13 underframes being supplied to Van Hool

Van Hool

Van Hool NV is a Belgian coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, coaches, trolleybuses, and trailers.The company was founded in 1947 by Bernard van Hool in Koningshooikt, nearby Lier, Belgium. In the early years, the company introduced serial production and exported their products all over Europe...

and Plaxton

Plaxton

Plaxton is a builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Scarborough, England.-History:The Plaxton of today is the successor to a business founded in Scarborough in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton.-Beginnings:...

to receive versions of their standard coachwork. In 1983 production of the underframe was moved to Workington and 22 coaches were completed by Roe as well as 86 Olympians. The plant was not at that point viable for British Leyland who had been impoverished by the chronic failure of its Austin mass-production car division. Thus Roe followed Daimler, Guy, AEC, Park Royal and Bristol into oblivion.

Many Roe bodies survive in preservation and some on special tourist services, the earliest design being a replica of a 1929 body on a Leyland Lion at the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport.

Three diecast model manufacturers produce 1:76 scale models of Roe vehicles, EFE have a pre-war Leyland Tiger bus, Corgi OOC produce the final style of rear entrance composite body as a half-cab or a trolleybus and Britbus make the NBC version of the standard Atlantean body in single or dual-door format.

Text sources

Books

Lumb, Charles H. Roe includes Optare, Shepperton 1999
Kaye, Buses and Trolleybuses 1919-45, London 1970
Roberts & Senior, Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft- A Retrospect, Glossop 1995
Curits, Olympian Bristol • Leyland • Volvo, Hersham 2010
Booth, The British Bus Today and Tomorrow, Shepperton 1983

Magazines

Buses Illustrated and Buses passim
Classic Bus passim (but especially Harvey in Stenning (ed) Classic Bus 98 November 2008)

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