Britain’s only mobile museum rolling into Rochdale next month

YellowaY Motor Services coaches were kings of the road at the peak of the coach holiday era

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Local heritage enthusiasts will have the chance to sample a unique slice of transport history next month when the only mobile transport museum in Britain rolls into town for a special celebration.

YellowaY Motor Services coaches were kings of the road at the peak of the coach holiday era when weary Northerners could enjoy a week in Torquay for £5 19s 6d all in.
In the years before the foreign holiday explosion, families would wait all year for the Wakes Weeks holiday when they would climb aboard a YellowaY coach bound for the coast, heady on the promise of sun, sea and ice cream. 

This little piece of holidaying history will be in Rochdale town centre as part of Heritage Open Days, a national event celebrating vintage treasures up and down the country.

Among the rare treats, visitors will find old timetables and advertising posters from the 40s and 50s as well as stacks of old models and photos featuring YellowaY coaches from 1910 to 1980 and beaming travellers in hats all packed and ready for their summer holiday adventure. The huge collection of memorabilia is housed in a 1970s style coach complete with four comfy leather seats, the rest having been moved to accommodate the exhibits.

Paul Blackburn, who bought the coach museum earlier this year and comes from Rochdale, was one of those early passengers.

“Going away on a YellowaYs coach in the 50s was really exciting. Most families didn’t even have cars then and the furthest away from home many children ever got was a trip to Hollingworth Lake in Rochdale or Heaton Park.

“Going to the coastal towns of Blackpool, Fleetwood and Torquay was a great adventure and felt totally different to what you knew at home. The journey by coach and seeing the sea and sand was a huge novelty for me as a boy.”

YellowaY Motor Services, run by Herbert Allen and his son Hubert from Weir Street, Rochdale between 1932 and 1985, has managed to span almost the entire history of coach travel through the ages.

The company began as Holt Brothers in 1910 and soon after took a young Gracie Fields down to Torquay. Here she would carve out the beginnings of her singing career by entertaining holiday makers after a two day trip on the coach, which then couldn’t drive faster than 25 mph.

In 1932, Herbert Allen took over and the famous YellowaY name was born.

As well as trips to the seaside, the coaches travelled to big bustling cities and Paul Blackburn would occasionally return to the name he knew when he got a job in London in 1965, travelling on the YellowaY overnight service to return to work after weekends at home in Rochdale.

Courtesy Coaches in Chadderton, Oldham now trade under the YellowaY name, but the original company eventually ceased trading in 1988. The YellowaY Motor Coach Museum is now based in Bury Transport Museum, Greater Manchester.