Crosville in Colour 1965-1986

Crosville Motor Services was one of the most important regional bus operators that ultimately became part of NBC. Its services dominated all of North Wales from Holyhead eastwards as far south as a line from Aberystwyth to Oswestry as well as Cheshire, the Wirral Peninsula, and southern Merseyside. The company was formed as the Crosville Motor Co Ltd on 27 October 1906 in Chester, by George Crosland Taylor and Georges de Ville, initially to manufacture cars but was to commence operating buses two years later. Taken over by the Tilling Group 20 years later, Crosville was to be nationalised along with other Tilling operators in 1948 and thus became part of the National Bus Company in 1969. As a Tilling Group operator, the company's fleet was largely formed of Bristol/ECW models although there were odd exceptions and, after 1969, the NBC's buying policy determined that vehicles such as the Leyland National would dominate. This volume covers the period from the mid-1960s through to the mid-1980s. It focuses on the transition from Tilling Group operator through the era of the National Bus Company, to the period immediately prior to Privatisation. The photographs in the book have generally not been published before and are accompanied by detailed captions.