Charltonian

A Family Bus Business in the Cleveland Ironstone District of Yorkshire The major bus operators in part owed their predominance to the acquisition of small, pioneering one-man bands that opened up services to remote communities and thus, in many cases, became literally a lifeline. That the small men were then unable to withstand competition from the bigger fleets and more often than not succumbed to tempting offers to sell their businesses is a fact of public transport life of the 1920s and 1930s. One such pioneer was John Dobson, who established services in the Middlesbrough and Guisborough area later to be incorporated into the vast United Automobile Services empire. Dobson was more than just a bus operator. Like many of his contemporaries, he embraced most aspects of transport from horse-drawn conveyances to sophisticated, pneumatic-tyred motor vehicles. His descendant, also John Dobson, with assistance from Philip Battersby, has put together the story of a remarkable man and a fascinating operation.