Archive news items

February Review

The February Review is on target to be with readers well before the end of the month

We are planning in addition to the normal round-up of news to include articles such as "Venturing back into North Wales – August 2022"  by Paul Clayton, "REs In South Cambria" by Glyn Jones and Tony Moyes and "The Short and Long Lions" by Hughie Hughes.  We also hope to have a bumper edition of photographs.

January Review

The January Review should be with members well before the end of the month.  In this edition the round-up of news reveals much activity and there are plenty of developments and new vehicles planned for 2023.

This month we include a second extract from Crosville United in the “Looking Back” series, this time, covering “Toast Racks, Boats and Open Toppers” from the memoirs of Hughie Hughes and reproduced by our Deputy Editor. We also have an account of John Young’s second excursion into North Wales using a 1Bws ticket, undertaken in September. 

The regular “Reviews Revisited” column, compiled by our Chairman, of course starts to look at a new year, 1998, when the Arriva brand had just been introduced and when First Group were considering introducing a corporate livery in place of the various local liveries that had been inherited. Also included this month are the draft Minutes of the AGM held in November and which will be presented formally for adoption at this year’s AGM.

Chester & Wrexham Charity Running Day 2023

There have been some last minute changes to this event and the Chester Park and Ride site near the Chester Business Park will no longer be used.  The event will now be based at the Wrexham Bus Station where there will be catering and bus stands. The D1 service will be running through to Chester Railway Station up to every 10 minutes for most of the day.

December Review

Despite a little hitch with the printing, the December Review is now in the post and subject to any delays by the Royal Mail hopefully it will be with members before Christmas or slightly afterwards.  We round off the year by concluding the schedule by Glyn Jones and Tony Moyes of the Leyland Nationals which operated in the South Cambria area.  Also included is the report from Paul Clayton on the Club’s final Tour of 2022 to North East Wales on 10 September, to which we have added the notes prepared by Tony Moyes which were distributed on the day. Thanks to Gabriel O’Hanlon we also mark one of two fiftieth anniversaries mentioned in this edition, by a feature on the new Chester Bus Station which opened in December 1972. Also included, for the benefit of members who did not attend the AGM in November, are the various Reports presented to the meeting. The draft minutes will be published next month. As always, we have a round-up of news from around the area and another post bag of Letters to the Editor. Finally, although next year’s Tour and Events Programme is still being compiled, information such as it currently exists, is included in the calendar.

Annual General Meeting

The AGM took place on Saturday 12th November. Full details including the minutes and reports from officers will appear in subsequent Reviews.

The major item discussed related to the Archive. The recent events were outlined and there was a consensus by the meeting to accept the action plan presented by the committee including furthering discussions with the Bus Archive and steps to recover items not currently at Birkenhead.

A major development was that it was agreed to re–establish the post of Archivist and fortunately there was a volunteer, Ian Bewley, and he was duly appointed by the meeting. He will lead matters in deciding the future of the Archive. All the existing officers and committee members were re–appointed but there is still a vacancy for a Tours Officer. As there was no other candidate identified, Ron Hughes agreed to be appointed as Webmaster for the forthcoming year.

November Review

This month there is another forty–page edition. Along with the usual round–up of news, there is a small number of Subsequent Disposals identified by Glyn Jones and the first of what should be an interesting series of articles by Mr Hughie Hughes, one–time Engineer at Rhyl which were originally published in Crosville United, entitled “Looking Back”. One of our members, John Young, has been making use of the 1Bws day ticket and his account of the first excursion he made is included this month. Glyn Jones and Tony Moyes have also been hard at work looking through the records of the South Cambria Leyland Nationals. There is also another bumper post bag this month of members’ letters responding to some of the queries and articles that have appeared in the Review.

October Review

This month includes …

Further delving into Crosville′s involvement with the railways in mid Wales by Chris Brown,

More from the Bus Archive on Crosville Ticketing, as promised from Phil Drake,

An extract from an industry publication in the mid nineteen fifties on the semi luxury Lodekkas that were received by Crosville

Some historical information from the Editor on his favourite vehicles.

We also have another selection of interesting “Letters to the Editor”.

Our historical photographic content is and will be drawn from a wider source in the future owing to a number of developments, as detailed by our Deputy Editor in his not

September Review

As well as the usual round-up of news this month we have a variety of items which we hope will interest you: we conclude the article on Crosville Social Clubs, researched by Alan Wheeler, whilst John Roberts, motivated by his listing (published in March’s Review) of the initial Lodekka allocations, has now compiled a similar list in regards to the F types. A few queries exist and we hope that CEC members may be able to help to resolve those. Our photographic content this month complements John’s list. Also included is a selection of images from recent events at Llangollen and Hooton. Meanwhile, Lloyds Coaches has now completed its Fleet Numbering and Tony Moyes has kindly compiled a Fleet List for your information. Tony has also provided a brief summary of vehicles utilised on special services to the recent National Eisteddfod of Wales at Tregaron. Don McKeown enjoyed a week’s holiday in Wales a little earlier in the year and he has written an account of the two days he spent travelling mainly on Lloyds buses. We also have an update on the former Arriva VDLs that made the journey to Poland and Ukraine, reported in the May edition.

History of Buses in Macclesfield – Nub News Bill Barlow has kindly informed us of an item on the Macclesfield Nub News website that features a trip down memory lane with the history of buses in Macclesfield. It includes a number of photos of both Crosville and North Western

The link to the website is << Buses in Macclesfield – Nub News >>

August Review

In addition to all the regular features there is an article by Iain Cruickshank on the recent South Cambria Tour that took place in June. There will also be included a number of photographs taken by members on the tour.

Also featured is to be the first part of the results of Alan Wheeler’s research into Crosville Social Clubs which no doubt will be of interest to many members, not just former employees.

Review packaging A reminder to members to let us know of any issues experienced with the new packaging that was trialed for the July edition. We are anxious to be able to address any problems encountered before this packaging is regularly used – probably in a couple of months time..

August - Start of the new club year Thanks to all those of you who have renewed your subscriptions. To those who have yet to do so please attend to this as soon as possible – the fee is now due. Don't forget that the membership subscription has been kept to the same amount as last year of £26. Anyone renewing by BACS transfer – please ensure you quote your membership number.

July Review - The July Review is expected to be with members before the end of the month. It will contain articles continuing with the Wirral theme started last month, with “ More Wirral Memories” from Paul Riley and a feature on one of the pioneers of bus operation on the Wirral, whose acquisition by Crosville paved the way for expansion into Wales, a name probably well-known to many – Johnny Pye!

In addition to our usual round-up of news from the Area, we have another batch of Subsequent Disposals painstakingly extracted from a whole variety of sources by Glyn Jones.

This month our photographic content is very much devoted to the Leyland National, as this year sees its fiftieth anniversary with Crosville’s first example delivered in May 1972.

Look out for the different type of packaging. Please let us know of any issues you experience with this packaging so that we can address any problems encountered.

Tour Bus change The September Tour to North East Wales will not now feature DFG65, as completion of vital engineering work on the vehicle has been unavoidably delayed. ERG3 will be the expected substitute for it. The itinerary will feature some of the Rhyl Local services and possibly a run to Llandudno with time built into the schedule for general observations. Transport from and back to Chester will be as already announced. Details of how to book are contained in the Tours section

July 2022 - After a short period the Website returned following the sudden and untimely death of our webmaster Carl Berry. Whilst contingency arrangements are in hand to keep the website alive a new Webmaster is required. Any volunteers can speak to the Editor, Deputy Editor or Secretary for further information.