WORKING on the buses used to be a family affair. Employees at the Keighley depot of the West Yorkshire Road Car Company Ltd included a dozen married couples, plus a number of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.
This group of drivers, conductors, conductresses and office staff, photographed in 1952, shows some of them.
On the back row, from left, are Miss J Brown, driver C Stone, Mrs C Stone, Mrs D Judson, conductor WO Watson, Miss M Hartley, Mrs M Hartley, driver W Hartley, Mrs I Hollindrake, driver T Hollindrake, Mrs C Holmes, Mrs E Maris, driver L Frith, Mrs WO Watson and driver CW Maris, and front, driver A Judson, conductor T Brechany, Mrs J Brechany, Mrs M Manterfield, driver G Manterfield, Mrs B Frith and Miss E Hartley.
They are outside Keighley’s ‘art deco’ bus station offices, opened in 1940 and demolished in 2001.
Camaraderie was strong among Keighley staff of West Yorkshire buses. Their annual dances used to continue till 1am to allow drivers on late turn to have an hour or two there. At their annual dinners some would bring along their children’s toy buses to decorate the tables.
In 1938 they formed a band to play at dances. This was jokingly known as the band with seven conductors – though its actual conductor, Harry Wilkinson, was a driver and also a violinist.
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