A History of Bishop Auckland Buses - Even Further Back

Mr Dukes of Oslo recently wrote to me about the articles by Mr Pigg and Mr Lambard on the history of Bishop Auckland buses, as follows:

Very much by chance I chanced recently on your Bishop Auckland website and some material on the history of bus transport in the town. I see that it includes an article by Mr John Lambard of Walsingham, who takes the story back to 1912. I can carry the story  further back than that!. 

My grandfather, the late Mr William Davidson (sometimes written as Davison) of High Grange, Bishop Auckland, ordered a large Daimler car with a large charabanc body, that was delivered to him in August 1899; I have an excellent photograph of its arrival, surrounded by admirers. 

Together with his brother Joseph (Jos) my grandfather instituted a scheduled bus service around Bishop Auckland shortly afterwards.

Somewhere in our family files I have a newspaper article from the early 1930's reporting the story, but the entry in my grandmother's diary chronicling the car's arrival is our own direct evidence.   

In 1906 my grandparents moved to Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, and the car went with them. Much later - around the 1920's - the car was said to have been seen as an exhibit in a Birmingham garage showroom. It may have survived in the Coventry car museum.  

Yours sincerely,

Graham Dukes

Author:Graham Dukes

Date Created: 02/12/2008 11:19:29

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