Charterplan 515 VTB in Rochdale - 11 Oct 1995 (291-03)

Wednesday 11 October 1995 – Charterplan, the coaching subsidiary of Greater Manchester Buses, operated this Kässbohrer-Setra S215HD which was seen in Hunters Lane, Rochdale. Fleet number 30 was new in January 1983 and given registration number 515 VTB, a number first carried by a Northern Counties bodied Guy Arab new to Lancashire United Transport new in 1961.

It had brought a party to visit the Co-operative Museum which stands to the left of the camera on a short section of Toad Lane. In December 1844 the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society established a store in the building and began to trade – it is claimed that this was the foundation of the Co-operative movement (the ‘Co-op’) we know today. Next to it is a period public house to add to the re-creation of the 19th century street.

Street furniture in the photograph includes a GPO postbox of the type that incorporated what would have been a gas lamp and a park bench featuring the Rochdale County Borough coat of arms in the castings of the shields either end.