BRADFORD TROLLEY BUSES 1972 (1972-1978) film no: 1710
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Made by Cawood Filmmakers in 1972, this film records the last of the Bradford Trolley Buses. The commentary was added in 1978, and the sound is a mixture of oral histories of the Trolley Buses and recordings from Speeches made at the time.
Title – Bradford Trolleybuses Britain’s first and last
The film opens as a blue trolley buss backs out of a large garage. It pulls into the street and heads off on its journey. There are close up shots of the overhead wires as well as of the driver. The bus is on route through Bradford, and the city streets can be seen with the trolley bus coming towards the camera. The conductor gets off and pulls on a chain. There is a view of the back of the bus and more footage of the wires overhead.
At night, the trolley bus makes its way to Thornton. Crowds of enthusiasts climb aboard, most of whom have a camera with them. There is also good footage of contemporary fashions. The bus goes on its way, and an Asian conductor collects the passengers’ fairs. People get off the bus at various stops before the trolley bus is eventually empty. The conductor rings the bell and the bus moves off. The trolley bus enters its garage and the doors are closed by two men holding cigarettes in their mouths. Finally, the driver collects his coat and leaves the garage.
It is the final day for the trolley buses, and they have all been lined up along a street. Accompanying the images is a recording from the Lord Mayor of Bradford who reminisces about his time as a Trolley Bus driver. The buses have adverts along their sides reading, “1911 Bradford’s Last Trolley Bus 1972.” Various people climb aboard including a Policeman, and the bus makes its way along the streets of Bradford. It then pulls into the garage where the Lord Mayor officially switches off the power signalling the end for this mode of transportation. The film closes with the crowds of people who have gathered to have one last glimpse of the trolley buses.
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This film is one of several made by Edward Croot of Bradford trolley buses in the 1970s, under the name of Cawood Films, from where Edward lives. Billed as Britain’s First And Last, it is the distinction of Bradford to have both the first and last trolley buses in Britain. It is noticeable that on the side of the buses it states both ‘Bradford’s Last Trolley Bus’ and ‘Britain’s Last Trolley Bus’. In fact it was both Bradford and Leeds together who were the first cities to operate trolleybuses in Britain on the 20th June 1911 (the United Kingdom didn’t come into being until 1927), manufacturing their own vehicles.
The first commercial trolleybus route was opened from Laisterdyke to Dudley Hill, with double deck trolleybuses being introduced in 1921. The first successful trolleybus system operated in Switzerland in 1901, and the idea was picked up from Germany and Italy in 1909 by a deputation from Leeds – see the excellent trolleybus database for a detailed history (References).
The last trolley bus to operate, when most of the footage in this film was taken, was on the 26th March 1972. This is 10 years later than they were stopped in London. For those who have no memory of these, this film provides a good look at how these electric buses operated, drawing electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. As they didn’t have any track, as trams and streetcars did, in order to complete the electrical circuit two wires and poles are needed instead of just one wire and pole. Two years after this last trolleybus, from April 1974, Bradford City Transport became incorporated into West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (Metro).
Bradford also had the last rear-entrance trolleybus in Britain – now owned by the still active Bradford Trolleybus Association (whose website is the best source of information). Trolleybuses in Bradford can be seen throughout this time: from 1912 in Easter On Shipley Glen, Elland Carnival of Yester Years (1926), the Lord Mayor’s Year of Office (1944-45), especially Bradford Silver Jubilation (1935), which shows a trolley bus (an AEC English Electric) doing a u-turn on the turning circle at Tyrrel Street and Sunbridge Road, and stopping for an inspector.
As well as trolleybuses, Bradford also had trams, at first using horses and then, from 1884, steam. Later the corporation introduced electric trams, running between Forster Square and Bolton, from 1898 – see the Context for Bradford Town Hall Square (1896) When motor buses were introduced in 1926 they resembled the tramcars – for more on this see the history in References.
But as one commentator in the film notes, trolleybuses, by running on electricity, make sense; even more so with the knowledge of global warming. So, they may make a come back, and Leeds will be the first place in the UK where this happens when it will have thirty trolleybuses in operation from 2016. Throughout Europe and the world trolleybuses are common – in nearly 400 cities – often the centrepiece of a public transport system.
References
Duration:
10 mins |
 Combined Magnetic |
 Super 8 |
 Colour |
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3 Comments
I worked on the Bradford Trolleys from 1959 to 1961 out of Duckworth Lane depot which is where the bus is reversing out of. The man in the depot forecourt with his arms slightly stretched out is Arthur Lennon who was depot foreman at the end. He originally was my driver on the number 8, Sundridge Road (city) to Bradford Royal Infirmary in just over 10 minutes. A shift ranged up to 26 trips which was a lot. The number 8 was the busiest route with up to half the bus getting off at the first stop from the city, John Street. Up a steep hill so it was flat out making sure all fares were collected as the smarties would go on the top deck hoping they could sneak off without paying.
Trolleybuses had rapid acceleration and when stopped had to be held on the handbrake. If leaving the bus a wooden chock was put under the front offside wheel. Pulling the chain was to pull the points. Bradford is very different today but I now live in Australia. If anyone has questions on the workings I'll be only too happy to oblige.
I visited Bradford in August 1968, while staying in Dewsbury with friends of my girlfriend. I had wandering relatives who moved around the Bradford area after settling in there to work in the 1940s - a restless bunch comprised of immigrants from far off foreign parts - Sunderland, where I was later born. I arranged to visit my cousin in Cottingley. Her husband was a Russian who had suffered terribly before he finally escaped the persecutions that defiled his beloved country and settled in Bradford with many other refugees. He was now understandably very agitated about the recent Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. Bad memories were emerging.
We took a (Bradford?) bus from Dewsbury into "central" Bradford, terminating in the middle of nowhere, a flattened area of rubble around the gradients of Manchester Rd., Exchange Station and Little Horton Lane - I think. It was soon clear that trolleybuses were still around, so we spent some of the day reviving my childhood memories of the "strange blue buses" (well, strange to this child). I now made the effort to take these photos as I felt that I should preserve some images before trolleybuses disappeared forever.
I had travelled with my parents during a few mid-1950s summers to visit those relations in places Northwest of Bradford - Gilstead, Shipley, Crossflatts and Bingley. Buses between Leeds (I remember the trams as well as the green buses' silver engine covers), Bradford and Keighley always seemed to have termini on open waste ground. We often completed the final stage of the long rail and bus journey on a blue double-decker. This very smooth running vehicle belted through suburbs towards Bingley or Crossflatts and made no noise other than a hissing and clicking from somewhere beyond the open rear platform - but I was too young for an explanation of combustion engine vs. electric motor! Buses to me were noisy, rattling things - a 747 crash-landing may seem quieter and less bumpy than my memories of the alternative Keighley-bound red Bristol single-deckers run by West Yorkshire (also strange to me by having sliding doors).
My aunt called the blue buses "the trackless", yet it now seems odd that I didn't remember their twin trolley booms, overhead wires or supporting poles, because I travelled a lot on them, zipping up steep banks and flying along straight roads. Manningham Lane (and jokes about Lumb Lane that I was too young to understand!), Busby's, Penny Bank, Foster Square and Exchange are names embedded in my memory. Perhaps this very different type of street travel made an impression on me as a kid - I should be glad (despite my Scottish ancestry) that I had no relatives in Glasgow, or I may have been terrified instead by the
I have attached some of my own photos that might be of interest to those viewing this film.
The first one is 843. It starts off to Duckworth Lane from Tyrrel St. 8 terminus, ready to turn into Sunbridge Rd. - the new-fangled box junction and Cortina permitting. The Cloth Exchange is in the background and the colourful brickwork of the Prudential Assurance Building just shows on the left, behind the turning loop's double wiring and the disinterested loafers. 843 was typical of the 1968 fleet, a second hand 1949 trolleybus rebodied when bought in 1961. In 1972, it was the last trolleybus to run on a scheduled UK fare-paying service.
(c)Barry Spence
The second one is a rarer sight in 1968 Bradford - a rear entrance (with doors) trolleybus. 723, new 1946/rebodied 1957 is in Thornton Rd., running to Clayton from City Centre (known by bus crews as the "Nobbut route", the 37/38). It passes 714 (with the more common '50s rebodied front entrance), a Thornton No.7 in the Odeon Cinema siding. Between them, behind the lorry, is a replacement diesel bus. Some of the Town Hall is clear, but its tower is obscured by scaffolding on the presumably about-to-be-demolished building on the left - a row since completely flattened. Note white fencing beyond the cinema across Prince's Way.
(c)Barry Spence
The third one is 844 (same type as 843) opposite the Odeon Cinema, on a 7 headed for Thornbury after a crew change at Thornton Rd bus offices. A West Yorkshire Bristol Lodekka passes fencing and hoardings, coming from Godwin St. and crossing over Thornton Rd. into Prince's Way. The female passenger on the back seat appears interested in the female photographer. 844 became the officially decorated "Bradford's Last/Britain's Last Trolleybus" in March 1972.
(c)1968-2010 Auriel Spence.
I treat my photos as both a memory and a slice of history - I just wish I'd taken more at that time. Perhaps some may be rare, or unusually interesting. My then girlfriend (wife since 1971) has a better memory than mine (don't all women have better memories?), recalling "one or two photos" she took on Thornton Rd. that day in '68. She had queried my reluctance to photograph buses' back ends - she thought the rear view of a trolleybus was special and interesting, showing booms in contact with overhead wires clearer than a side or front view. There must be few women remotely interested in trolleybuses (lucky me?), but she now reverts to being bemused rather than nostalgic and remains unimpressed with making history when she photographed two views of Britain's official last trolleybus while it was "alive and still operating in service."
I thought the time was long overdue (last year) for me to share my historical pictures with those who may appreciate them. I sent scans of the '68 set to a website named sct'61 that specialises in photos of 1960s buses, trolleybuses and trams. To see more than just my small contribution of "The Bradford Ten", check out sct'61 for many hundreds of photos of vehicles from all areas of Yorkshire, most from Leeds and Bradford. Note that the site's Trolleybus Gallery has fewer images of Bradford trolleybuses than the Bradford section of the main Photo Index. There is also a West Riding of Yorks. Gallery, which I especially recommend to anyone interested in images of '50s Leeds trams. Even if buses and trams are of secondary interest, many Yorkshire natives will enjoy the '50s to '70s images of the streets and buildings of several other cities and towns.
I seriously struggled with the City Centre locations for my captions to sct'61 photos - West Yorkshire locals may well laugh, but imagine my confusion as an outsider, set loose with a Proviser A-Z map and its 2009 moving street views! After recovery from a dazed delusion of being Joe Columbo, I deduced the following. Photos were taken at Tyrrel St. loop (now pedestrianised) and Sunbridge Rd. Further down, the South end of Tyrrel St. that no longer exists - nor does Town Hall Square and its roundabout (a re-laid Market St. now). Market St.'s Provincial Building Society curved section of building opposite the City Hall was on a large wedge-shaped block by the roundabout that bordered with the aforementioned bottom of Tyrrel St. to its West and Bridge St. to its North - this whole block has gone completely, now being Centenary Square's gardens. The old Market St./Thornton Rd./Prince's Way/Victoria Square areas were obviously victims of alien abduction and rebuilt on another planet, then sent back years later, redefined and renamed. The Alhambra Theatre survives, along with its neighbour, the still derelict Odeon Cinema - very useful landmarks.
I hope my 1968 memories of these locations are accurate enough - if not, I apologise to the natives. As for this "progress" - and the scrapped trolleybuses - I class them all an example of "The Joni Mitchell Syndrome" (for those who remember her classic warble of that period on the subject of urban modernisation)
"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone . ."
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