John Whitworth former Yelloway driver 1977-87, recalls the great service to Clacton-on-Sea which was jointly operated with Premier Travel Ltd. of Cambridge. 

This service commenced in the Summer of 1957 and ran between the two seaside resorts of Blackpool, Lancashire and Clacton-on-Sea. John says that he spent a lot of time on this service especially at weekends working alongside the Premier lads. They were all senior men so most of them will have probably passed away by now. (If there are any of you still out there give us a call with your memories).  John was only a youngster when the photograph below was taken in May 1962 at Cambridge of the drivers 'learning the route'.

During the post war period the Yelloway Lancashire-London service had developed connections with a number of operators, and among these were various facilities by onward travel by coaches of Grey-Green and its subsidiary Orange Luxury Coaches, enabling passengers from the North to reach many south-coast and Essex destinations. In addition, a growing number of passengers utilised a connectional facility at Leicester with the No. 5 service of Premier Travel Ltd. enabling through bookings to be made for Cambridge, Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea. The popularity of these was such that arrangements were made for a joint through service to be opened as a weekend facility for the Summer of 1961.

Mr Nick Blurton former Premier Travel driver recalls:

"The item by John Whitworth brought back some memories. I used to drive part-time for Premier Travel from 1976-1986. I used to pick up a northbound Clacton-Blackpool in Derby at 03.30 Saturday and work it through to Blackpool. The PT driver was dropped at a hotel in Derby en-route. I would then work the 08.30 (later 09.00) from Blackpool back to Derby, where the aforesaid Premier driver, having had his rest break, would continue the journey back to Clacton. When we arrived in Blackpool we used to go across to 'Ma's' for breakfast (35p) and a wash up. 

Ma was a lovely old dear who appeared to be about 90 and lived directly across the road from Bloomfield Rd coach station. All her clientele appeared to be coach drivers.  My first season I spent most of the time 'paired up' with Alan King as the regular PT driver, though in later years I was mostly with Fred 'Smudger' Smith. Other regulars on the run were Geoff Sparrow (who took me route learning) Norman 'Dinger' Bell and John Trimble.  Most have now retired but the last I heard of Alan King he was driving for Burton's of Haverhill - indeed, I accidentally met up with him at a hotel in Cumbria when we were both staying there on tours.  My recollections of Yelloway lads were always good. On the southbound journeys Premier used to operate the leg from Blackpool to Manchester and Yelloway did the Blackburn- Manchester. There was an informal arrangement that whoever got into Chorlton Street coach station first bought the teas!!. 

We would then run together as far as Leicester and one coach would then proceed to Cambridge more or less direct (via Huntington) and the service coach would go via Bedford & Northampton.  I recall an inspector at Manchester (think his name was Bill) who was always helpful and when he retired, because he knew I was an enthusiast, he produced a wad of Yelloway carrier bags, of which I still have one left.  It was a busy service and I can recall many Saturdays when we would leave Manchester with the Yelloway and Premier motors accompanied by 5 duplicates.  

It was a hard drive, especially between Manchester and Stockport where the average timetable speed appeared to be 30mph.  I learned an awful lot about driving coaches on that service and we had some good fun. In all my time on it I never broke down once, which says a lot about the maintenance standards of Premier Travel.  

Ah Happy days!
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*Inspector 'Bill' that Nick Blurton mentions at Chorlton Street Coach Station would have been either Bill Grundy or Bill Mason who were both well respected at Yelloway.

Bill Grundy is seen below in the office at the Yelloway Manchester terminal which, in 1976 was situated at Central Station which is now the mighty G-Mex Exhibition Hall.