Scout Motor Services Leyland Titan in Rochdale (Photo by Eric Fielding) - circa 1953

A photograph taken by Eric Fielding circa Summer 1953 - A Scout Motor Services Limited Leyland bodied Leyland Titan seen in Rochdale Town Centre. It may seem strange that the destination display shows ‘BLACKBURN 244’ and that it was operating on what was a Ribble service - but there is a good reason for this and it also helps date the photograph.

Services between Blackpool and Preston had been operated separately by both Ribble Motor Services and Scout Motor Services from the early days but in due course the two companies began working a number of joint services via different routes between the two towns one of which was service 158 via Kirkham and Weeton.

In 1953 Ribble was actively involved in joining together stage carriage services to form long routes and this included linking Blackpool with different Lancashire industrial towns like Bolton, Burnley, Rochdale and Wigan. Since this plan included services between Blackpool and Preston that were normally worked by Scout, it was necessary to compensate the resultant changes by taking Scout vehicles to destinations east of Preston. Blackpool-Preston service 158 vehicles began running through to Rochdale linked with Ribble’s Preston-Blackburn service 1 and Blackburn-Rochdale service 244. Initially the destination blinds of the through buses had to be changed at Preston and Blackburn to show the details of the constituent services. That is why it was possible to see a Scout bus in Rochdale sporting the destination ‘Blackburn 244’. Subsequently the road service licence formalities were completed to allow through running as service 158.

On the right of the photograph is the Central Hotel which was later demolished and replaced by a modern building circa 1960 housing the Trustee Savings Bank and Moir and Bateman architects.