This page is one of several pages which are based on articles in our book entitled Royal Leamington Spa, A History in 100 Buildings which was published in 2018 and is no longer in print.
A well-known building in the town for over 50 years was the bus garage in Old Warwick Road at the corner of Tachbrook Road. Opened in April 1922 this Midland Red Bus Depot was one of the oldest purpose-built garages within the Midland Red Company.
When built it was only suitable for single-deckers and open-top double-deckers. It was constructed using a steel frame system with red brick infill, creating a four-bay garage. The entrance/exit was set to one side to the west of the front of the building. The office was to the east end, on the corner of Tachbrook Road, up steps with a stone pediment proclaiming the “Midland Red”. This garage was extended twice in its lifetime to improve the storage capacity. Extra vehicles had to be garaged at the Midland Red Depot on Emscote Road, Warwick, which was approximately where Tescos is today. This had been the site of the depot for the electric tramway.
Bus built 1940, photo Wythall Transport Museum
It survived as a depot until closure on 30th May 1980. The building then had several different occupants but has now been demolished and replaced by a large new building which mainly houses some of Leamington’s large number of students. It is named Station House.
‘Midland Red’ was the name adopted by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co and was one of the largest bus operating companies in Great Britain. From 1923 to 1970 it designed and built its own buses at the Carlyle Works, Edgbaston, Birmingham on a site acquired from the Daimler Motor Co in 1920. The company ran buses across a large swathe of Central England. The main base was Bearwood, Smethwick, where all their fleet of buses were registered, which meant that every bus had the letters HA as the last letters on their number plate.
Midland Red was not the only bus company in town from the 1920s and travellers sometimes had the choice of red, blue or green buses. In 1927 Stratford on Avon Motor Services (Blue Buses) were granted a licence to run bus services between Leamington, Warwick and Stratford. This competed with the tram services. In answer to this the Leamington and Warwick Tramway Company applied to run its own bus services with the acquisition of 7 buses from Midland General Omnibus (MGO) purchased for £5,999. These were known as the Green Buses. By 1929 the Tram Company won out and purchased the Stratford on Avon Motor Services with the Tram Company proposing to run trolley buses after they closed the tram services.
Following negotiations with the local councils the trolley bus proposal was abandoned and the councils decided not to oppose the Warwick and Leamington Transport Act 1928 which authorised abandonment of the tramway. The Act also gave the tram company power to act against any competitors operating on the company’s main routes. In 1931 the new company was renamed Stratford on Avon Blue Motors Ltd, a subsidiary of MGO Co. This was eventually acquired by the Midland Red Company.
In 1935, Midland Red introduced a comprehensive timetable of local services. These were identified by the prefix letter L. The company also ran services to surrounding places including Coventry, Stratford, Rugby, Birmingham, Southam and Stockton. Incidentally, the Act of 1928 had given the Councils of Warwick and Leamington the right to purchase the new bus company in 1959 and in every subsequent tenth year but this, of course, never happened.
Garage, Myton Road, photo Patrick |Kingston
Midland Red opened a second Depot and Garage on the north side of Myton Road, near the junction with Princes Drive on 1st September 1957. This depot enabled them to maintain their double decker buses in a purpose-built unit which had the capacity to maintain 65 buses. However, owing to staff recruitment problems, the company often leased buses from an independent local company, G & G Coaches, to provide services. In the 1960s the company, together with Stratford Blue, had the use of a Bus Station in Station Approach beside the site of the former Leamington Avenue Railway Station. This bus station is long disused.
In January 1969 the Government set up the National Bus Company, eventually absorbing all the national bus companies by 1970. Midland Red was the largest of these. After Midland Red was disbanded in December 1981, Leamington and Warwick services were rebranded as part of Midland Red South. Today the bus services are run by Stagecoach.
The Myton Road garage closed on 27th January 1991. A new garage was used in Station Approach but this closed in 2017 and a new bus depot was opened at Trident Park on 29th April.
Barry Franklin, 2018