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| The History |
If your expecting a page full of
facts, figures and dates, then the
following my prove a little
disappointing!
As some of you who read this will know,
the W.Y.R.C.C finally passed into
history in
1989. At least for the staff in
Bradford, that’s when the final curtain
fell. The decline of the company as a
whole, was evident many years before, as
satellite depots began to disappear,
depots such as Wetherby, Ilkley and
Otley. Privatization was the final death
nell, as it was for companies all over
the country.
By the time “Yorkshire Rider” bought
what was left of the company in this
area, road staff who had a few years
service (In my case 20 years), and had
seen, what we call, “the good times”,
were totally disillusioned with the
industry. The saying of the moment used
to be “Sold down the river”, when we all
were told of our final fate! In truth we
were fortunate! Yorkshire Rider were a
strong and well managed company and
although many of us did not (and some
still don’t), enjoy the new working
conditions, we were able to give our
families a good standard of living. (The
last sentence is true, but we all know
that in truth, the bus industry has
learned little about public service) |
| Website History |
First of all I must say how
fortunate I am having a son who is a
web-designer. Without his help &
patience, this site would never have
left the depot!!
In the March of 2002 I took some
photographs, taken at the West Yorkshire
reunion the year before, to show my son,
Mark. He wasn’t very impressed with the
quality or the content and said it was
time I invested in a digital camera. I
told him I was going to pin the photos
on a board and take them to the next
reunion in October. He said that most of
the people going to the reunion were
there last time, so it seemed pointless,
a waist of time.
A couple of days later my son asked me
to e-mail him any logo’s I had of the
West Yorkshire. This I did and thought
nothing of it again, until I got a link
sent by him to my computer. I open the
link and there was this web-site, almost
as you see it today!
Needless to say, I bought the digital
camera for the 2003 reunion and the
rest, as they say, is history! I’ll
never win any prizes for my photography
but the faces are recognisable and
that’s all that matters!
My son has thrown himself into this
project, showing am much enthusiasm, if
not more, than I have! Thank you for
every thing…. |
| A Little History |
To be quite honest, even though
myself and my wife (also an ex-bus
driver), have be involved with the
reunions from day one, it’s still all a
bit vague!! However, I am reliably
informed that the first official reunion
was in 1997.
There had been many social gatherings of
ex West Yorkshire staff between 1989 and
1997. Most were retirement or birthdays
where word of mouth was the usual method
of invitation! At most of these
occasions, many people had said it would
be nice if we could have a good old get
together to mull over old times and
bring up to date all the past gossip!
At this point in this “little history”
I’d like to introduce Anne Marie Firth.
Anne Marie started as office junior at
the WYRCC, Bradford. She progressed from
a timid little school kid to a married
woman with children and had a great
interest in the company she worked for,
as well s the people she worked with.
And it was Anne Marie who took up the
challenge of a reunion.
When the company was taken over, Anne
Marie managed to hold on to files
containing the names and addresses of
present and past employees, and so built
up a date base to work from. With the
assistance of Tony (APK) Masters a
former driver, invitations were sent
out. And so in late 1997 the first
“official” reunion took place. The
response was staggering! I don’t think
there have ever been so many people in
the concert room of the Transport Club
in it’s history! So what was originally
a “one off” reunion has now become a
very special social event every year.
Sadly, Anne Marie passed away aged 41,
shortly before the 2000 reunion she
worked so hard to organize. Sometimes
life can be a bit of a bastard!
Luckily, another former driver Ian
Anderson and his wife Karen, took on the
responsibility and have arranged the
last two reunions almost single handedly.
They deserve recognition for this, so
better late than never, THANK YOU both.
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