The business continues under John Jakeman

Running of the business was immediately taken over by Harry’s son, John Harry Rowland Jakeman.  John had been a student at Redditch County High School. He met his wife Audrey at the Hippodrome theatre in Birmingham in August 1954, and they were married on Feb 17th 1958. Their wedding reception was at the Foxlydiate Hotel, Redditch, and the couple lived at 154 Birchfield Road in Headless Cross Redditch. Their son Peter was born in 1959, followed by daughter Jenny in March 1964.

John Jakeman was very much a hands-on Director. He held a PSV license and could often be seen on school runs, or undertaking works duties to local employers such as High Duty Alloys in Windsor Road, Redditch.  The business continued to prosper under John’s energetic and enthusiastic leadership, even gaining a contract to run the Midland Red 147 service from Redditch to Birmingham.  A coach (ACU210) was purchased especially for thepurpose.  It is believed that in order to cover for particularly busy times, John would occasionally hire a coach & driver. The coach was owned by a man called Joe Clews, who was from Coleshill, Warwickshire, but no other details are known except for the fact that Joe’s coach was not up to Regent standards!  A Birmingham coach company, Fred Marchant would also carry out occasional sub -contract work for John, with owner Fred Marchant himself often driving.

John had strong views regarding the image of the company. Drivers were expected to wear their uniform at all times when on duty. New drivers were initially allocated second- hand uniforms, which were not always a perfect fit! After a short period, a driver would be measured for his new uniform- dark blue with a red stripe for the winter months and a buff coloured lightweight blazer for summer use.

During John’s time, there were many interesting events, and John was often in the thick of it! In 1965, a man by the name of Stan Moore, who worked for Autocar and Transporters Ltd in Alvechurch, (from whence came several Regents’ drivers), drove his car into the back of SWP722 outside Alvechurch football ground. The coach was driven back to Alcester St where it was repaired largely by John himself!

John was adept in many aspects of maintenance and repair of coaches. It is said that being somewhat dissatisfied with the condition of a second hand vehicle he had purchased from Cyril Atkins of Renown Coaches, he substantially rebuilt the vehicle- Bedford VAL 332 YBF, in Regent’s workshop! When not working, John enjoyed driving his Jaguar.

Another aspect of John’s personality was his caring attitude towards his staff. Ken Rose suffered a nasty hand injury, but was quite prepared to carry on working. John paid Ken to take a week off work to recover. This of course was in the days where employers had no obligation to do so. It was not unknown for John to allow drivers to sleep at his home if they had worked a late shift and were required for an early “turn” the following morning. Cleaned and ironed shirts were invariably ready for the lucky driver to put on!

John Jakeman was assisted in running the business by Ken Hanks, who was employed as Traffic Manager.  Ken was quite a large man, who like many Regent Drivers had worked for the Midland Red.  Ken was also a diabetic and enjoyed smoking his pipe.

Accountant for the business was Peter H. Palmer of local Accountants Charles Harrison and Co. The Companys insurers were Gordon Harris Insurance Brokers of Birmingham. Gordon Harris had served with Harry Jakeman during the war. 

A lady called Dolly carried out coach cleaning duties for many years. Much loved by the drivers, Dolly would use a rounders bat to beat the coach seats, and as driver Ron Staite will confirm, she was not always too careful where the bat was aimed!

Mrs Pam Stubbs was secretary to John Jakeman for many years, whilst in the booking office Thelma Archer and Joan Bowen served a constant stream of customers booking scheduled summer trips to such diverse places as Llandudno, Scotland and Blackpool, as well as more local evening tours. Outings to the theatre in Stratford- Upon- Avon or Birmingham were popular, as were of course, trips to league football matches.

John managed the business personally until his sad and untimely death in October 1965 at the very young age of 34. John was a popular boss with a warm personality.  His death left everyone associated with the company stunned and much saddened.

Coaches

Coach types used by the company were many and varied. The Regent colour scheme of grey and maroon came about due to the fact that Harry bought several second hand vehicles from a Smethwick firm, Gliderways Coaches.  Gliderways’ livery was grey and maroon, so Harry merely had the Gliderways sign writing removed and replaced by that of Regent Motorways. In the “maroon and grey” days, sign writing on the coaches was carried out by a local man called Max.

In later years, the Regent livery was changed to a turquoise blue/ light grey mix and other schemes were used towards the end. However, none had the classic look of the original maroon and grey scheme.

Both Harry and John Jakeman had a marked preference for coaches with bodywork by Harringtons, and apart from the early days where Leyland and Maudslay engined vehicles predominated, these were usually AEC powered, although Bedfords and Fords did find their way onto the fleet from time to time. Later Duple and Plaxton bodywork became more common, especially after the adoption of Bedford engined vehicles.

One of Harry’s preferences had been to have new coaches registered with a 722 number, and John continued the tradition. The first coach so registered was AEC/ Harrington Wayfarer KUY 722 registered in June 1952. It is believed by some that this vehicle was a 21st Birthday present to John from Harry- certainly the date of registration seems to fit, John being born in 1931. However this was not the case. It is true that John began driving coaches at the age of 21, but this was because the law at that time did not allow anyone under the age of 21 to hold a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) license. The reason why Harry had a fondness for the number 722 is not known, other than the fact that he apparently felt it was a lucky number. Even a brief glimpse at the listing of Regent vehicles bought new in both Harry and John’s time will show a large proportion of 722 registration plates, even after the letter suffix registration system was introduced in 1963.

 Both Ron Staite and John Lidgebird found the AEC powered vehicles problematic at times- Ron recalls that the manual gearboxes were very stiff to operate first thing on a cold morning, and it was especially difficult to engage reverse gear which could be a severe problem if reversing was necessary to exit the compound. John Lidgebird found the (non- powered) steering a challenge at times especially when negotiating tight bends at low speed.

Drivers

Regent employed many drivers over the years. Most were employed on a part time basis.  In some cases, two generations of a family worked for the company- witness Mike Coventry, who followed his father David into the drivers’ seat after joining the company in 1967. David’s wife worked for Terry’s Springs, which was of course a client of Regent. Several drivers were employed from the Evesham/ Broadway area, among them Ron Staite, Wally Preston, Graham Garwood and Ken Rose.  Part of the reason for this was that there were a large number of disabled Polish people living in camps at Broadway and Honeybourne (Northwick Park) at the time.  Regent had a contract to transport them to and from  work in Redditch. It was therefore simply a matter of practicality to employ drivers from the area, who would each take their coach home at night ready for an early start the following morning.

Ron Staite had been a driver for “Stodger” Harrison’s Coaches in Broadway. He recalls that on John Jakeman’s 21st birthday, a coach trip to Blackpool was organised. The coach most probably used for this event was KUY 722. Ron often did the Terry’s Springs and Needle Industries “turns”, as well as the Blockley “run”, and met his wife Maureen when on a works run to Hymatic Engineering Ltd.

John Dyer was a toolmaker by trade, having served his apprenticeship at Reynolds Tubes in Redditch. He started working for John Jakeman as a part time Driver,  becoming full time in 1967, and eventually went on to become Traffic Manager. Ron Staite recalls that John was a fast driver, which didn’t endear him to some of Regent's more elderly customers!

Ken Rose joined the company shortly after Harry Jakeman died. Ken later went on to run his own successful coach firm in Broadway and latterly a mini coach and taxi operation, whilst Graham Garwood, who lived in Stanton, eventually left Regent to start a transport company. Sadly Wally Preston and Graham Garwood are no longer with us.  Arthur Turner is also now sadly deceased. Arthur came from a completely different direction. He lived in Alvechurch.

Dave Rollinson joined Regent the day after the sad death of John Jakeman, and met with some confusion as it was unclear as to who was now the boss! Eddie Johnson, who joined in 1968, had worked at Black & White Coaches, Harvington. Eddie later left Regent to run the Gate pub at Honeybourne.

John Lidgebird had worked for the Midland Red, and after moving to “The Austin” became a part time Driver for Regent in 1964.  John hails from the Greenlands area of Redditch, and was told by Garage foreman Ken Wootton that Ken had “cleared it” with the Manager of the Mayfly pub on Studley Road for John to park his coach on their car park overnight. John did so, only to be collared by the pub manager the following morning and given a severe talking to! John often did the “Blockley run”, as did Ron Staite. On one occasion, John ran out of water near Blockley, and it was John Jakeman who came out to save the day, another example of John’s direct involvement in every aspect of the business!

Drivers often worked for more than one company, and it would not be unusual for a driver to be employed by Black and White at Harvington, or the Midland Red, whilst continuing to work part time for Regent Motorways. George Tirebuck, who joined Regent in 1964 and was a stalwart of the 60’s group of drivers later worked for Hardings, Cresswells, and Springs of Evesham. For many it was a case of once a coach driver, always a coach driver!

Driver Les Butler joined Regents in 1962, after having worked for Autocar and Transporters Ltd in Alvechurch. Les left Regent for a while to join Ken Hanks at Carterton Coaches, but rejoined the company 2 years later, remaining until his death in Dec 1977. Like many drivers, Les had his favourite coach, and took many photographs of 276 HLC which he was allocated when it arrived from Global Coaches of London in April 1964.  Although a driver could find himself driving any coach in the fleet, a full time driver was often allocated a particular coach for most of his work.

Driver Bob Prewitt (who had also worked for “The Austin” at Longbridge), eventually left Regent to join the police force.  Ron Staite remembers taking a coach to the 3 Counties Show at Malvern a couple of years after Bob had left. After dropping off his passengers, Ron, wandering around the stalls, felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned round only to see a grinning and uniformed “Constable” Bob Prewitt. “We’ve been looking for you, Staite!” was Bob’s opening gambit! It is understood that years later, Bob had a serious accident in a police car whilst based at Hereford. His whereabouts today are not known.

John Jakeman was a popular boss, and  the company seemed to engender a great deal of loyalty, in spite of the rule allegedly enforced for many years that if a driver was  late for his “turn” twice in one week, he got the sack! Early morning “turns” were never popular though, and the writer remembers his father, Les Butler leaving home every weekday for many years at 5.15am to do a 6am works “turn”.  Should a driver fail to show up for his shift, it was not unknown for John Jakeman to turn out, uniform hurriedly put on over his pyjamas, to ensure that Regent’s customers were not inconvenienced and got to work on time. Such dedication would be unheard of today!

The Garage

The garage, where most of the maintenance and servicing work on Regent’s fleet was carried out, was ruled with a rod of iron by Ken Wooton. Ken lived in Alvechurch, and had a disabled son who died young. Ken had first worked for Harry, but left the company.  However, after his son died he rejoined Regent now working for John.

Various mechanics served under Ken’s watchful eye, including Ron Smith, who had worked for Black and White Coaches at Harvington, and John Butler, who had worked for Autocar and Transporters in Alvechurch along with at least 2 of Regents’ drivers including the previously mentioned Mike Coventry, and Les Butler. Both Ken Rose and Wally Preston also had spells working in the garage.

Ken wasn’t averse to disappearing off to the nearby Liberal club, leaving a mechanic in charge of some unpleasant and dangerous task, often working in “the pit”, a deep recess in the floor of the garage over which a coach would be driven to enable a mechanic to work on the underside of the vehicle.  Major work was carried out on site, often at night and in cramped and difficult conditions in order to have a coach up and running for an early morning “turn” the following day.

Philip Edwards who was taken on as an apprentice by John, worked as a fitter in Alcester Street. Philip was related to the Jakeman family, as his mother Mary was Audrey Jakeman’s sister.  Mary was employed by John for a while, to chaperone children on school runs. Bernard Bowen sacked Philip for some unknown reason and sadly Philip died quite young having contracted a serious illness whilst on holiday in the Gambia.

Breakdowns occurred from time to time, and were usually dealt with by the garage team. On one occasion, Ken Wooton sent driver John Dyer plus mechanics John Butler and a young Phillip Edwards  off to  Blackpool, where driver Wally Preston was waiting on a car park with  RNP722  showing all the signs of a blown head gasket. A decision was made to nurse the vehicle to AEC at St Helens, for repairs to be carried out.  A couple of ten- gallon drums of water were procured from somewhere, and leaving Wally with the replacement vehicle, RNP722 made slow progress a few miles at a time towards St Helens.  They reached St Helens late in the evening, and persuaded the AEC security men let them in.  After leaving the coach in safe hands, all 3 walked to a local pub where by this time the only food available was the pubs home made pasties.  A pasty or two was washed down with the local beer and the journey continued by bus to Lime St bus station in Liverpool as they did not have enough money to pay for 3 train fares. Back in Birmingham, they all piled into Ken Wootton’s Austin 1100 at New St station, eventually getting home at 3am the following morning.  Expense claims totalling £30 were presented to Thelma the next day and paid without comment!

Incidents and events

Coach driving might be seen as a fairly routine occupation in the 50s and 60s, with far fewer vehicles on the road in those days.  However, there were always interesting incidents guaranteed to get the adrenalin going.  On one memorable summer evening, Mike Coventry was desperately trying to keep up with Ken Hanks during a long journey back to Redditch after an excursion to Scotland.  Ken’s coach had a two speed rear axle, and was a more powerful vehicle than the one Mike was driving.  Poor Mike, foot to the floor, was gamely trying to stay in touch. At one point Mike looked up only to see Ken stationary just in front of him at the traffic lights near the turning for Lesmahagow on the old A74 in Lanarkshire. Too late to stop, and having visions of burrowing his coach into the back of Ken’s vehicle, and his own resultant burial in a foreign land (not to mention the severe bawling out from Ken should he be remiss enough to survive), Mike did the only thing possible. Reefing the coach left onto a slip road and going much too fast, he eventually skidded sideways to a halt and found himself eyeball to eyeball with Ken, still sitting at the lights! None of the passengers were any the wiser, most of them remaining sound asleep as the coach continued the long trek south! Ken Hanks’ comments to Mike once they arrived back in Redditch are not recorded!

Another aspect of Regent’s work was transporting prisoners between prisons, remand centres and courts. In one incident in August 1968 driver Les Butler was transferring 3 prisoners with their 2 attendant prison officers, from Brockhill Remand Centre to court in Dudley. During the journey, an attempt was made by two of the prisoners to escape. Les ignored demands by the prisoners to stop the coach, and coolly kept up a fair turn of speed to prevent an escape. The prisoners were eventually overpowered, and in due course Les received a letter of thanks from the Governor of Brockhill Remand Centre.  On another occasion, George Tirebuck was returning with prisoners from London to Winson Green prison. During a break in the journey, George was accompanied by 5 prison officers to a café, only to hear someone gasp at the checkout: “My God! He must be hard, if it takes 5 screws to look after him”!

One driver apparently had a lady friend who worked for Terry’s Springs in Redditch. Our driver often met the young lady in question during her lunch break and was in the habit of using the back seat of one of the coaches parked in the Red Lion St compound as a convenient venue for their amorous activities. The garage staff got wind of this, and two of the mechanics hid in the boot of the coach (which was underneath the rear seat), waiting for our driver to escort the lady on board. After waiting a while for them to settle down, the lads banged away on the top of the boot with broom handles and must have spoiled the moment, although the lady apparently later became pregnant.

In the mid 1960s development of Redditch New Town was in full swing. George Tirebuck had the honour of driving Lesley Joseph and the Duke of Gloucester on a visit to the Redditch Development Corporation facility at Holmwood, Redditch.

On a trip to Blackpool, John Lidgebird had to the misfortune to acquire a puncture on the M6. After valiant attempts to change the wheel himself, John realised it was beyond him with the tools he had available. He called for assistance and local bus & coach company Ribble sent a fitter from Preston to help out- It was like that in coaching! John also recalls that trips to London Victoria often met with problems due to over zealous staff at the coach station.

Coach Rallies

Both Harry and John had an affinity with coaches for their own sake, and John entered vehicles in the Brighton Coach Rally, held each year on the seafront in that Sussex town. The standard was high, and Regents’ entry in 1962 with 722 GNP was unsuccessful. Two years later in 1964 Regent had two entries: John Jakeman, Sammy Emes and Graham Garwood entering 421 BLW, whilst Ken Hanks Gordon Davies and John Dyer entered 722 KUY.  No prizes were won on that occasion either.

It was only a matter of time though, and in 1965 at the 11th Brighton Coach Rally, John Jakeman and Ken Hanks entered GAB 722C a Harrington Grenadier and 722 KUY again. After various driving skill tests, expertly carried out by John and Ken, the two coaches receiving a thorough inspection by the judges. The eventual winner, Ken Hanks, was proud to receive two cups for entry number 61, AEC/ Harrington Cavalier 722 KUY. The winning coach eventually became the preferred choice of Driver Ken Rose.

Competitors

Regent Motorways was the premier coach firm in Redditch during the 50’s and 60’s, but was not without competition! Hardings Coaches, then based at Tanners Croft Garage, Crabbs Cross ran Regent a close second. Started by George Harding, the company was later managed by his grandson John Dyson and are still around today.  Royal Motorways, based on the Studley road, were owned by the Strain family, and were eventually taken over by Dudleys of Radford near Inkberrow.  Finally, Renown Coaches in Hewell Road was run by Cyril Atkins, though this company closed later in the 60s.

Further afield, Black and White Garages at Harvington near Evesham were seen as serious competition particularly for long distance work. Cresswells of Evesham were another competitor, as were Fogartys of Broadway which later became Castleways, and still operate today from premises in Winchcombe Glos.

 For more -See the Regent Motorways story-Part 3