Summer Saturdays content originally published by John Keene and Trevor Walton.

St Margaret’s Road

During the 60’s & early 70’s Cheltenham was renowned for the mass exodus of vehicles on the 14.00 departures on Summer Saturday’s, which would see upwards of over 200 coaches departing at the same time for destinations countrywide. It was not uncommon for roads approaching the coach station to be gridlocked with coaches arriving unable to get into the coach station to unload passengers.

Traffic Wardens could be seen chastising drivers for unloading their passengers in the street whilst stuck in the jams. It has to be recorded that many of the decisions they made led to the problems being made even worse. Many of these vehicles would be due out on the 14.00 departures, and it was an art to see duty inspectors despatching coaches not required until later in the day to find alternative parking in the local area. Many is the time that 14.00 departures were delayed awaiting the arrival of incoming connections, only for the duty inspector to be informed that the service had arrived some time ago via the back gate.

Yelloways of Rochdale would use the garage for their own services and it would often be full to capacity with coaches serving the mill towns of Lancashire. Most Saturdays would see a fine collection of Bedford Val 6 wheelers from independent companies across Lancashire congregate before heading home at 15.00. The famous Yorkshire Clipper or South West Clipper dependant, on which way you were travelling, also used the rear of the station. Here could be seen Wallace Arnold’s, Yorkshire Traction, Yorkshire Woollen vehicles on refreshment break whilst enroute from Devon to Yorkshire. It was not uncommon to see Black & White providing additional vehicles as coaches became “ over the top”

It must be also remembered that this process would have happened some 12-hour’s earlier, with the 02.30 departures, again loaded with holidaymakers. There would also be a contingent of Eastern Scottish vehicles present, resting on the overnight service from Edinburgh to Bournemouth sometimes using up to eight vehicles

Once the 14.00 services had left some normality would return, an army of cleaners would clear away the rubbish left by the travelling public, and by 15.00,coaches would start to take up station ready for the 16.30 departure’s which were on a much smaller scale. The arrivals would start coming in, from Devon, Hampshire, Kent & East Anglia as well as from Lincolnshire & North Wales These vehicles would stay overnight after fuelling and return home on the following days 11.00 service.

The coach station would then go quiet from 17.00. Black & White vehicles would normally be stored under the canopy in readiness for the next days duty. Most, being used for Sunday’s tours will have been washed & scrubbed, inside & out. Yesterday’s coach filled with holidaymakers stuck in a traffic jam is today’s Luxury Coach Tour to the Elan Valley & so it went on. Luxury Coach Tours were a large part of Black & White’s income along with Private Hire work

The end of the day was an 18.30 service to London. Around 23.30 the Eastern Scottish vehicles would arrive for refreshment break before continuing on the overnight service from Bournemouth to Edinburgh.  The next departure would then be a 02.50 service to London, which originated in Swansea. This was followed by further London departures at 08.30 & 11.00

This remained the norm each summer until the M5 between Birmingham & Bristol opened and the result was that services by-passed Cheltenham travelling Birmingham to Bristol direct. The winter services were very much curtailed eg. the Great Yarmouth service would only run as far as Norwich or a Holyhead service would terminate at Llandudno.

When the Cheltenham & Gloucester Bus Company took over Black & White who by then had been swallowed up into the National Bus Company, and later National Travel (South West), the St.Marks garage was closed and vehicles transferred to St.Margaret’s Road. Modifications were made to the fuelling bays and vehicle washing facilities to handle the double deckers. By this time the number of services using the station had declined until only a handful used the coach station. The majority was East to West, or Northwest to South East with regular feeder services to Bristol & Birmingham had taken over the role that Cheltenham had played for so long

This was the beginning of the end. Eventually the St Marks depot was re opened and all vehicles transferred back. The Black & White fleet had diminished to a fleet of some 20 vehicles and the majority of these were transferred to other operators within the coaching unit. Vehicles were kept for the 610/612 London Service or 512 Rapide Service via Heathrow, and at one time a Cheltenham vehicle operated a 375 Gloucester/Edinburgh service. This lasted one season. Express services used the local Royal Well Bus Station for arrivals & departures.

The former premises were boarded up and eventually demolished, to become a car park. Visitors to the car park can still see the Black & White tiles that adorned the floors in the toilets and Cafeteria. The outline’s of the buildings are still present as are the metal fittings in the departure bays that held the metal departure boards. The council who own the property have plans to redevelop the whole area, but no dates are known.