SHROPSHIRE OMNIBUS ASSOCIATION

One of the unusual private company "rota" operations

I have always found a particular interest and fascination over the years in what I call "rota" operations.  By that I mean a route or routes which were worked co-operatively by several private companies, with the particular journeys worked changing from week to week or month to month according to a rota, so that all took their share of the good and the not so good timings.  Amongst the ones I know about are (or rather were):
Scotland:     A1 Service (Ayrshire Bus Owners Ltd) : Kilmarnock - Ardrossan (Scotland)    taken over by Stagecoach in December 1994     AA Service : Ayr - Ardrossan (Scotland)      latterly Dodds of Troon and now Stagecoach     Clyde Coast Service : Largs - Saltcoats (Scotland)     ceased bus operations in 1995     England:     Penrhyn - Falmouth (Cornwall)      acquired by Grenville Motors about 1976     The Main Line (North Staffs) : Longton to Tunstall, connecting the towns of the Potteries   finally passing to PMT in 1958     Wellington - Oakengates / Donnington (Shropshire Omnibus Association).    taken over by Midland Red in 1978	This representative ticket is from the Association of North Staffordshire Bus Proprietors for their long urban bus route through the five towns of the Potteries (note that it was locally printed in Hanley).
In some ways these rota operations mirrored the "omnibus associations" found in London in horse-bus days, the last of which was wound up in 1909.  One of the more famous members of such a London association was Birch Bros, who expanded their operations northwards into Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire before the enforced reorganisation of London local services in 1934.  The subject of this story is a group of operators in the Wellington area of Shropshire who combined to form the Shropshire Omnibus Association (SOA).

Two main routes were involved:

    (a) Wellington - Trench - Donnington (with variations at the Donnington end to Muxton Corner, Coal Wharf and Humbers)

    (b) Wellington - Oakengates - Wrockwardine Wood (with seven variations including Priorslee, St Georges and Lamb Corner).

A third rota service existed pre-war between Wellington and The Wrekin, this being a summer `leisure' service to a popular local beauty spot.

Additionally the Midland Red also covered most of the SOA routes with their own frequent services. Whilst the larger operator was not originally a member of the pool, timings eventually became co-ordinated (as typified by the 1951 timetable below).

The Association managed separate rotas for each of the routes, and each member company's vehicles and crews worked different timings over a three monthly period, thus ensuring over a period of time that the revenue from fares balanced out equitably.  The workings on the rota were referred to as "schemes" and the administration was carried out by Tranter Lowe, a local accountancy practice.  If they wished to sell their shares in the rota, members were only supposed to sell them within the Association to other members (although this rule was breached in later years).

At the start there were sixteen operators on Oakengates and fourteen on Donnington - most being one vehicle operations at this time.  From the establishment of road service licencing in 1931 until 1933 the licences for the routes were held by the Association, but from June 1933 each operator had an individual licence.  At this time there appears to have been six licenced operators on the Donnington rota, thirteen on the Oakengates rota and nine on The Wrekin rota.  Eight of the nine operators on The Wrekin rota were not unique but also operated on either the Donnington or Oakengates rotas as well.

The timetables called for six buses on each route, and thus operations could result in not inconsiderable periods of slack time for rota members, although some of the member operators had other routes which were not part of the SOA rota operations.  There was no common livery or standardisation of vehicle types, these were matters for the individual members.  Thus to the outside world the appearance of the Association's vehicles could be a motley mixture at times.  The Association bought tickets in bulk for members and published a timetable for the rota routes, which often also included the times for other routes run by the members outside of the rota (such as H Brown from Oakengates to Donnington).  The Donnington route benefitted from the new Central Ordnance Depot built by the army in the 1930s.  This was moved here from Woolwich Arsenal and much associated housing was built for the workforce at the same time.  Many of the runs on the route from Wellington terminated at the aptly named Garrison bus station.

	Two of the SOA timetables, 1936 and 1951

As years went by shares in the rota were bought and sold and the number of members on each route's rota progressively lessened.  The transactions are too numerous to list here, and some sources are at variance on the detail.  In 1954 seven operators are listed on Oakengates (Cooper, Evason, Hoggins, Jervis, Jones, Price and Williams) and thus seven rotas ("schemes") a day, with four needed on Sundays.  By 1966 there remained only four operators on Donnington and five on Oakengates, although on each route there was a dominant operator holding several shares.  Both routes were busy and frequent, the Donnington one helped by the presence of the large Ministry of Defence site adjoining the Garrison Bus Station at the far end of the route. 

	DUX 654, a 1947 Daimler CVD6 belonging to TG Smith of Trench, leaving Wellington for Donnington.  This vehicle was retired in 1963.                                                             (photo courtesy of Chris Warn)

In 1973 there were four operators left on the Oakengates route: G Cooper with four shares; and J Jones, R & M Price (Excelsior) and C & E Williams (actually being operated by a Martlew vehicle) with one share each.  In the same year Midland Red acquired the several shares of Cooper of Oakengates, who in turn had previously bought out T Hoggins and E Smith.  On the Donnington route by the mid 1970s there were four actual operators - Martlew and H Brown of Donnington; A T Brown and Smiths Eagle of Trench - with some holding more than one share. Operationally there were five schemes on Donnington and seven schemes on Oakengates.

This map appeared on the cover of the October 1973 SOA timetable for the Oakengates routes.  It shows hourly routes 3 and 5 and a new route 7 extended to the then new Telford Town Centre (on weekdays).  Only route 4 now linked Wellington to St Georges New yard and Lamb Corner once an hour. Additionally on Thursday route 6 linked New Yard to Wellington hourly, and on Saturday route 1 provided it's traditional extra short journeys between Oakengates and Wellington.   On Sunday route 5 ran hourly between Lamb Corner, St Georges, Oakengates and Wellington (its former traditional route) and route 6 ran hourly between New Yard and Wellington via Priors Lee Furnaces (again the former traditional route). Also shown on the map are some of the 'other' non-rota routes of local independent operators H Brown & Sons, J Ashley & Sons, Smith's Britannia Travel, T Hoggins and A Martlew & Sons (several of whom still had shares on the other Donnington rota).

======== with thanks to Chris Warn, Barrie Edwards and Margaret Beards for much additional information ========

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