East Kent Road Car Company Ltd

A Century of Service, 1916-2016

Richard Wallace

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781785001017
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Automotive Transportation & Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

East Kent Road Car Company Ltd - A Century of Service, 1916-2016, celebrates one hundred years of a bus operation that is still very much recognizable for its origins. Unlike so many proud names that have diasppeared in recent times, the old identity of East Kent Road Car Co Ltd is still carried as the legal lettering on the Stagecoach-owned buses operating in the area today. This book takes the reader on a journey through those one hundred years. It covers the initial developments of the 1920s and 30s, the challenges of World War II, the halcyon days of the 1950s and the descent into the economic struggles of the 1960s. Nationalization and an eventual move back into the private sector are also covered, finishing with a description of the innovative approach to new services developed by the local Stagecoach management today. With over two hundred illustrations, both black and white and colour, many previously unpublished, this book provides a wide-ranging historical and pictorial record of the buses, artefacts and operations of the East Kent Road Car Company. Fully illustrated with over 200 colour and black & white illustrations, many previously unpublished.

PART I

THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS

CHAPTER ONE

COMPANY ORIGINS

FORMATION OF EAST KENT ROAD CAR COMPANY

Although the formal inception of East Kent as a registered company operating bus services was in August 1916, its origins go back further – to when a young entrepreneur, Mr Sidney Garcke CBE, stayed with friends in Kingsdown, near Deal, in 1906. While he was one of the few in possession of a primitive motor car, his attention was drawn to the fact that the majority of residents had to either cycle or walk to access the town of Deal; the only other option was a horse brake (small carriage), which ran three or four times a day. Although the railway was already established, the closest station of Walmer was some miles distant and there was no direct connection to Canterbury apart from a circuitous route via either Minster or Dover.

As fate had it, Garcke was already engaged in transport services, working for the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO), which was experimenting with early forms of petrol-driven buses as an alternative to the extensive, but limited in terms of range, tramway services in the Birmingham area. These Brush-built vehicles with Peter Brotherhood engines could not cope with the strenuous conditions of urban operation in Birmingham so a decision was taken to withdraw them. Garcke saw an opportunity for operation in the easier conditions of Deal, although whether he had considered their ability to cope with the hilly conditions surrounding the area is not recorded. He gained approval to use six of the cars on experimental services around Deal and they were re-equipped with new bodies – five as single-deck buses with bodies by Birch of London and the remaining one with a double-deck body by Brush of Loughborough, recorded as an ‘Olympia Show body’.

After earlier resistance by Deal town council to the issue of a licence, approval was gained, finally, for Deal & District Motor Services to commence operation and the vehicles were transferred from London to Deal, one driven by Garcke himself, although the time taken was excessive and arrival after dark resulted in a well-recorded prosecution for driving without lights. In April 1908 the services started, one between Kingsdown and Deal and the other, worked by the double-deck car, from Walmer to Deal. These are generally recognized as being the first regular, timetabled bus services in the United Kingdom.

Expansion followed and soon another service was run between Deal and St Margaret’s Bay, albeit only twice a day. Each route took one car, according to Garcke’s recollections in the East Kent Silver Jubilee brochure of 1941, with the other three needed as spares owing to poor reliability. Despite this, the venture was successful and by 1909 three more vehicles of Leyland manufacture were acquired, allowing the St Margaret’s service to extend to Dover and a new service to Sandwich –and later Canterbury – to be introduced. At first Deal & District was a subsidiary of the midlands-based BMMO operation, provider of the vehicles, but in 1910 the Deal undertaking passed to the British Automobile Development Company, which then became the British Automobile Traction Company (BAT) in 1912, which itself was part of the larger British Electric Traction Company (BET), which had tramway interests as well.

The first Deal & District cars were mostly Brush single-decker but one, 0 1283 pictured here, carried a double-decker body. Behind can just be distinguished one of the single-deck cars. EAST KENT OMNIBUS

Meanwhile, in other areas of east Kent, omnibus and local coach services of various degrees were developing, some of which had commenced well before Garcke’s enterprise, although perhaps not to the regularity introduced by the Deal concern. Records exist of services as early as 1899, while London & South Coast, Folkestone (later taken over by W.P. Allen) was reportedly operating by 1905. Wacher and Company, a coal merchant of Herne Bay, had taken over some early services there that may have been operated as early as 1905 or before; services in Margate were started by Walter French, whose company was eventually titled Margate, Canterbury and District Motor Services Ltd. French also had an interest in the neighbouring Maidstone and District (M&D) concern operating in west Kent; the well-renowned Thomas Tilling had established services in the Folkestone area by 1914, while back in Thanet George Griggs set up Ramsgate and District Motor Coaches Ltd.

Thus the scene was set for what eventually became ‘East Kent’. The advent of war in 1914 – with vehicles requisitioned, the consequent ban on supplies, the prospect of future competition and with three of the companies having a degree of common ownership in one way or another – led to negotiations to amalgamate the five concerns. Negotiations were complex and challenging but a successful conclusion was reached in 1916. The East Kent Road Car Co. Ltd was formally registered on 11 August 1916 with operations commencing on 1 September.

The constituent companies at the time of the formation of East Kent and their respective services (numbers based on East Kent numbering in 1937) were as shown in Table 1.

One of the reasons for lack of expansion in the populous areas of Thanet and Dover was the existence of tramways in those areas, which already served the densest traffic corridors of Ramsgate to Margate/Westbrook via Broadstairs at the former, and Harbour to River and Maxton at the latter. The Isle of Thanet Electric Supply Company (IoTES) also ended up operating a fairly extensive network of bus services in the local area before their takeover.

The war years were characterized by many demands on the emergent company; conductresses were employed to fill the gap created by many male employees either volunteering or being called up to fight, while the limitations on the availability of fuel saw some vehicles equipped with gas-filled bags on their roofs as an alternative means of engine propulsion. One oft-reported anecdote records that on one windy day, two cars operating the Dover–Folkestone route near Capel had their bags blown off and out to sea, never to be seen again! It is reported that in May 1918, 7,915 miles (12,997km) were operated by gas-equipped vehicles; this was probably less than 6 per cent of the normal monthly mileage but gave a saving of 1,584 gallons (7,201 litres) of petrol.

In terms of governance, Garcke became chairman, a role he was to undertake until 1946, remaining a director until his death in 1948, whilst the other directors joining him at the start were Messrs French, Grant, Griggs, Howley, Wacher, Wolsey and Wolsey Jnr, many names already recognizable from their interests in the aforementioned constituent companies. Alfred Baynton (awarded the OBE in 1945) became the company’s first secretary and was to have a long association with East Kent, becoming joint general manager in 1926 and sole general manager from 1942 until retirement in 1948. In 1966 the company’s Jubilee brochure records him as still attending company social functions at the ripe old age of eighty-four! While the first chief engineer was a Mr T. Clabburn, the key influence in engineering matters throughout these inaugural years was his successor, Major C. Murfitt OBE, who took over in 1919 and continued in the post until his resignation in 1942. In the intervening period he became joint general manager (with Alfred Baynton) in 1926. His positive direction in achieving a high degree of standardization on Leyland and Dennis chassis and the modern fleet that ensued should not be underestimated.

Table 1 East Kent Constituent Companies

Company

Routes

‘East Kent’ Service No. (1937 scheme)

Deal & District	Deal and Walmer/Kingsdown Deal and Folkestone via Dover and St Margaret’s Bay Deal and Eastry via Finglesham Deal and Canterbury via Sandwich Dover and Canterbury Canterbury, Ashford and Hythe	79 80, 90 13A 13 15 1, 10
Ramsgate & District	Margate, Ramsgate and Canterbury	9, 52
Margate, Canterbury & District	Margate and Ramsgate Margate, Canterbury and Faversham	52 3, 8
Wacher & Co.	Herne Bay and Canterbury Whitstable and Canterbury	6 4
Tilling (Folkestone District)	Folkestone, Sandgate and Hythe Folkestone and Cheriton	103 106

After one year, East Kent was recorded as having seventeen routes in operation, which, allowing for overlaps on some of those listed above, shows that the cons...