PPM Jul 11 - Picture Postcard Monthly

The second
Milnes-Daimler for Laycock & Stephenson,
registration AK.343, arrived at the Cowling garage on
17 February 1906. It seated a total of 49 passengers, including
three on a bench seat beside the driver and five in a
smoking compartment immediately behind the driver.
tramway concerns were
located on the edges of the
Pennines, such as those of
Burnley, Rochdale and Oldham
Corporations in Lancashire,
and Halifax and
Huddersfield Corporations
in Yorkshire. Some quite
spectacular routes into the
Pennines were engineered.
Unlike most municipalities,
Todmorden Corporation
never operated trams.
Instead, authorisation was
granted in 1906 to run
motor omnibuses with-
in the borough, and later
outside it. Todmorden, a
Pennine town in the West
Riding, became connected
by bus to various towns and
villages in both Yorkshire
and Lancashire. In 1908,
Todmorden Corporation
was operating a fleet of 5
By 1932, there were sixteen buses in the Laycock fleet, a
total which was never exceeded. Here, five of them, all
with chassis by the Maudslay Motor Company of Coventry,
are pictured at Cowling. Several body builders were used,
which helps to explain the different profiles.
buses (4 double-deck and 1
single-deck). By the late
1920s, the fleet had jumped
to 22 double-deck and 14
single-deck.
Ezra Laycock,
Blackstone Edge, on the
Pennine Moors between Halifax and Rochdale, was
visited by this party, probably from a Halifax Sunday
School, at Whitsuntide 1924. No doubt everyone enjoyed
themselves, even though the wagon’s makeshift seating
and solid tyres made the ride uncomfortable.
Parked beside Kildwick
Railway Station, these are the first and second
Milnes-Daimler buses delivered to Laycock & Stephenson.
AK.335 on the left has not yet had its body rebuild. The
door to the smoking compartment of AK.343 is open. The
card was posted from Cross Hills to Bacup on 9 August
1906. Someone with initials R B sent it to Lena and wrote,
‘You will notice the small motor, it is the one we rode in.’
a shrewd and entrepreneurial
Cowling man, was credited
with introducing the first
motor omnibus in Yorkshire.
By the late 1890s, this
village postman was, by
means of gigs, wagonettes
and other horse-drawn
vehicles, providing a coal
delivery service and supplying
transport for weddings,
funerals and general use.
When Ezra heard of the
newfangled motorised
buses running in London,
he went into partnership
with a mechanic, Mr
Stephenson, of Skipton. In
early 1905, Ezra and his
eldest son, Rennie, travelled
down south. They ended up
in Brighton on the south
coast. They were so
impressed with the motor
bus they saw that Mr Laycock,
along with Mr
Stephenson, contacted
Milnes-Daimler & Co to
order a single-deck vehicle.
A party of eighteen people,
including Mr & Mrs Laycock,
travelled south to see
the purpose-built bus being
tested on hills around
Brighton. In some style, the
group drove it up the Great
North Road to Kildwick and
then Cowling, where people
lined the streets to welcome
it. Some of the novelty wore
off and the bus developed
mechanical problems. But
the firm of Laycock &
Stephenson, later Ezra Laycock
& Sons, prospered. It
lasted until 1972 as Ezra
Laycock Ltd, when it was
taken over by Pennine
Motor Services of Gargrave.
The main Laycock garage
was at Cowling, with others
at Skipton and
Barnoldswick. Most of the
Pictured in the centre
of Silsden is this mammoth new vehicle of the
Silsden Motor Omnibus Company, c.1907. This concern
brought competition to the Laycock & Stephenson firm,
but was itself driven off the road by the 1920s.
routes were developed
westwards into the Pennines,
several of them passing
through or terminating
at Colne in Lancashire.
From 1906, the Silsden
Motor Omnibus Company
provided competition, but
was bankrupt by the 1920s.
Later, Colne Corporation
impeded some of the Laycock
expansion westwards.
Bibliography: First Bus in
Yorkshire, by Philip Lingard,
published by Turntable Publications,
Sheffield, 1975
(information on Ezra Laycock).
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