A fire destroyed the garage and wiped out the company’s 54 years in operation
The Blue Bus company’s Daimler 12, which was new in 1950 and in service for 20 years.
(Image: Submitted)
They were loved by passengers, loved by staff and even paved the way for love – they were Willington’s Blue Buses.
But exactly 50 years ago today (Monday, January 5), tragedy struck as fire broke out at the depot destroying the garage and 19 buses and the illustrious history of the company, which was started in 1922 in Repton, and it all came to an end.
When the last bus ran on the night of January 5, 1976, no one could have realised that one of the best-maintained and best-loved fleets of buses in the country would never be seen on the lanes of South Derbyshire again.
After the last of the fleet had been refuelled in readiness for business as usual the next morning, the depot was locked for the last time.
Twenty minutes later, smoke was seen coming from the garage and, less than two hours later, one of the best-maintained and best-loved fleets had disappeared forever.
The next day, all that was left were smouldering piles of twisted metal. The loyal staff turned up for work as usual, only to find their jobs gone up in smoke.
Surveying the disaster scene surrounded by the “skeletons of buses”(Image: Northcliffe Media)
Staff knew many of their regulars’ first names. Drivers would often stop at garden gates to save passengers a walk in bad weather. Sometimes, when a regular had overslept, a bus would draw up outside their house and the driver give a blast on the horn to remind them to hurry.
Rarely was anyone turned away, however full the bus. The buses turned up in all weathers – snow, floods and gales hardly ever stopped the Blues reaching their destinations.
No wonder residents in the villages through which they passed always had a friendly wave for the crews as they drove by. In the early days, the company, started by Dean and Allen and based in Repton, had very basic buses which carried up to 14 people.
The buses became commonly known along the route by nicknames like Ole Bill and The Bacon Box. Timetables in those days were haphazard, with buses running to demand – and passengers could be invited to get out and push if a vehicle was having trouble on a hill.
In the 1930s, as the company expanded, it outgrew its Repton headquarters and moved to Willington. There was great excitement when two double-decker buses arrived in the 1940s and there was a great deal of tree-lopping along many of the country lane routes so they could pass by.
By the time the fire broke out, the company had ceased to be a private concern – Tailby and George Ltd – and had been brought in 1973 by Derby Corporation for £212,000.
Under its ownership, the Willington garage was where the private hire fleet was based, with the regular service buses operating from the depot on Ascot Drive, Derby.
This was the Derby Evening Telegraph headline the day after the fire broke out(Image: Derby Telegraph)
The day after the fire, the Derby Telegraph carried the headline “Fire Wipes Out Blue Bus Fleet” and said the buses “had been reduced to stark skeletons”.
In July 2008, June Skipper, of Willington, recalled in Derby Bygones, the sad night that the fleet, which her father had lovingly maintained for more than 40 years, went up in flames.
June’s father, Clarence Renshaw had spent virtually all his working life with the company, bringing up his family in the bungalow next door to the garage and company headquarters.
June said: “My father had died four years earlier and mother had moved into a flat nearby. It was like losing a close family friend for her that night when she saw the roof of the garage blown off. She was devastated and my father would have been horrified.
“When we lived there, it was his job to check everything before going to bed and he was meticulous. He was always the last person off the premises.
“As the only fully qualified engineer with the company, he was told he had to remain at home during the Second World War because workers at local factories, where munitions were being made, depended on the fleet to get them to work. He always felt that it was his duty to serve his country but the government decided he was of more value here. So he did his bit by becoming an auxiliary fireman.
“The company was dad’s whole life. During the war, when many of the drivers were called up, he would drive the buses as well as maintain them.
“It was a well-run company but there were strict rules. You only had to have one complaint from a passenger and there was a telling off. Standards were very high; the staff were always polite and helpful but they also had a great deal of fun.
“It may seem silly but they were more like old friends than buses and were regarded with a great deal of love and admiration. I think that was because all the crews and passengers were friends. That’s why the fire came as such a huge shock to everyone.”
Other reminiscences included those of Freda Matthews, a Blue Bus conductress for 12 years. She had good reason to remember those years with affection, for she met the man who would become her husband, Maurice, on board a “blue”.
One of the first double-deckers to join the fleet during wartime. It is pictured here at the old Derby bus station in 1959.(Image: Submitted)
She recalls: “He would catch the 5.15 bus home from work to Stapenhill, Burton, and we started to chat. He asked me if I would like to go to the cinema and see The Blue Lamp. “I was 30 then and painfully shy and said did he mind if I didn’t. But the next week, I plucked up my courage and told him I would go and that was the beginning.
“I would cycle from my home in Repton to Willington to start work. I began in 1939 and loved every minute of my days on the buses.
“Even during snow, the services ran and I remember when my driver called for me he walked ahead in the deep snow to make holes for me to walk in. One night during the war blackout, when it was very foggy, I had to carry a white hankie and walk ahead of the bus to lead the driver.”
The Blue Bus garage was pulled down and the site lay empty for a number of years. In the 1990’s Saxon Grove and the appropriately named Tailby Drive were built on the site. Even the name Blue Bus Services has vanished from commercial use. Derby Borough Transport became Derby City Transport and subsequently privatised.
The Blue Buses are still held in high regard and affection by people who remember the services in the villages between Burton and Derby and also the Burton, Derby & Uttoxeter Bus Enthusiasts Group which is preparing to remember the company over the next few days on its Facebook page.