Later years. The Alcester fire and  the demise of Regent Motorways

On the sad and premature death of John Jakeman in October 1965, during a family holiday to Bournemouth, day to day running of the company was taken over by the husband of John’s sister, Joan. The new man at the helm was Bernard Bowen who had been a chauffeur at High Duty Alloys, but by this time owned a newsagents shop in Evesham Road, Crabbs Cross. Bernard had an office in Royal Square, above Redditch market. Bernard and Joan had married on John’s Birthday in 1949. Sadly Joan died early in 2009 with Bernard passing away not long afterwards.

Shortly after Bernard took over, the company moved to The Slough, Studley, sharing premises with Hunts, a local removals company and Higginbottoms the bakers. Regent Traffic Manager at this time was still Ken Hanks, and he now lived in a caravan on the site. The Alcester St premises were ultimately redeveloped as part of the Redditch new town project.

Unfortunately, Ken Wootton incurred Bernard’s wrath at some point quite early in his stewardship, and Ken found himself fired. He eventually went to work for Cyril Atkins at Renown Coaches. Bernard was determined to run the business his way, and also fired the company accountant, Peter Palmer who had served the company loyally and conscientiously for many years.

Bernard promoted Ron Smith to chief mechanic. Ron had served his time with the Midland General at Langley Mill in Derbyshire. He was a portly man with glasses, and was respected as an excellent fitter.  Ron inherited a number of problems one of which was several AEC coaches laid up in the Red Lion St compound with engine problems. Ron eventually persuaded Bernard to change the fleet to Bedford engined vehicles. This was an opportune moment as inflation was raging and the government had recently introduced a “bus grant” scheme. Bernard was therefore able to sell the old fleet for more than they originally cost!

It was around this time that the colour scheme was changed to a pale blue livery. Whatever the livery, there were always problems to grapple with! Driver Dave Ridd was driving one of the Seddon engined vehicles, possibly FAB933J with Driver Tony Lewis following behind. The pair were heading for Weymouth. They stopped at the lights in Shepton Mallet.  When the lights changed, Dave didn’t move. The lights changed again but still no movement from Dave, so Tony blew his horn at which point Dave waved the gear lever out of the window. It had broken off!

On another occasion several drivers were heading for Weymouth in company with one of Dudley’s coaches, on hire to Regent at the time. It should be mentioned at this point that Dudleys were not known for having the smartest, newest or best maintained vehicles. As the group travelled towards Dorchester along a twisty road with trees on both sides, they came upon a suitcase in the road, then two more. Finally, a whole load!  Dudley's coach eventually came into view parked at the side of the road. The boot floor had fallen out!

During this period, Regent Motorways had the honour of providing a fleet of coaches to transport Alvechurch players and fans to their away FA cup semi-final against Wealdstone at Stamford Bridge on Saturday 19th March 1966. Bernard Bowen spent many evenings at the home of Roy Yardley of Alvechurch Football Club planning the logistics for the event.  Other companies were involved too and 38 coaches left from Alvechurch Village Square, whilst others left from various public houses in Hopwood. A further 5 picked up fans at the Man on the Moon pub near West Heath, Birmingham.

Another Alvechurch away match was against Crook Town in Durham, where the home crowd were rather fanatical.  George Tirebuck was one of the drivers on that occasion, and recalls that whilst waiting for his passengers in the car park after the match, the local constabulary advised him not to hang about, but to get on the move as quickly as possible as soon as all were on board. George was only too happy to oblige!

Regent drivers were popular with customers, and certain drivers would often be requested for particular trips. On one occasion, George Tirebuck was requested for a tour of the Lake District. Bernard Bowen had other ideas and told George he was sending him elsewhere. When George laboured the point, Bernard told him he was fired. Regent’s loss was Hardings gain- George was known to be a popular driver with customers and Hardings Coaches snapped him up.

Bernard Bowen registered another coach company, operating a single vehicle which was almost certainly 29- seat Bedford/ Duple OMF 878E. The company was called Capital Coaches and little is known of the operation of that business other than the fact that it was registered to Bernard at his home address in Marlpit Lane, Headless Cross, Redditch. George Tirebuck found himself driving the coach one day, and had the misfortune to collide with a wall doing serious damage to the nearside body panels. Bernard must have been in a good mood, as that day George wasn’t fired!

In 1978 Regent moved again, this time to Station Yard in Alcester, Warwickshire. It was about this time that many of the fleet were fitted with two- way radios. The frequency band was shared with a Malvern Taxi firm. On one occasion, Driver Les Stewart called John Dyer at base, to say that he had had an accident. When John asked what Les had hit, the reply was “not that sort of accident John. I’ve had an accident in my trousers and need to go home and change! Of course, this message was picked up by all and sundry taxis and other coaches in the fleet! Driver Ron Rudd had a full load of passengers at the time, many of whom were roaring with laughter, and Ron was laughing so much, he had to pull over and stop. However, the radios were a useful tool and although they were basically of short range, Drive Les Butler once managed a conversation with John Dyer in Alcester whilst parked on Wembley stadium car park.

Driver Ron Rudd was originally employed by Regent Motorways as a fitter. He worked for Ron Smith firstly at The Slough premises, and later in Station Yard Alcester. Ron was sacked by John Dyer for punching one of the Regent drivers. However in later years, when problems arose with engines and semi- automatic gearboxes in Regent’s fleet of Leyland Leopards, Bernard Bowen contracted Ron to strip and rebuild these engines in his spare time.

Ron recalls a tragic incident in around 1975, where a schoolboy ran in front of a coach outside the Abbey High School, in Easemore Road, Redditch (formerly Redditch County High School where both John Jakeman and this writer underwent their secondary education). The boy sadly died as a result.

On Saturday March 24th 1980 a mysterious fire occurred which gutted the depot, destroying 4 coaches from the Regent fleet including VUY 362R, UEA 485M, KWP 441T and KWP 442T.  Such was the ferocity of the fire that 30 firemen from Alcester, Studley, Stratford-upon-Avon and Bidford were called in, and were still damping down the fire the following morning.  At the time John Dyer, who had been made Traffic Manager by Bernard Bowen after Ken Hanks departed to join Carterton Coaches in Oxfordshire, told the local press: “We do not know what caused the blaze, but there should be no undue inconvenience to any of our passengers”. By hiring coaches from other companies, Regent managed to continue operating normally for a time.

However, a few months later on 30th January 1981, Regent Motorways went into liquidation, ending over 50 years of service to the population of Redditch and the surrounding areas. By this time, only ten coaches were registered to the company. These were sold off from March 1981. The last, UWD 815S was sold to Nesbit Coaches of Somerby in July 1981, and this marked the end of an era.

The business, started by Harry in the 1920’s had certainly stood the test of time!

Post script- April 2010

Coaches once owned by Regent are still known to be in existence. SWP 730F is a Bedford VAL70. It now rests in a sadly derelict state in the yard of Myers Coaches, Bassingbourne, Cambridgeshire. The vehicle has been cannibalised over the years, and is barely recognisable as a once proud member of the Regent fleet.

Another ex- Regent vehicle still extant is Bedford VAM70 BWP 727H. This vehicle is based near Bishops Castle in Shropshire and is currently undergoing refurbishment.

More news on surviving Regent Coaches- September 2023