Preserved UDL 454 at the former Hardwick's garage in Snainton – 13 August 1994 (238-17)

Saturday 13 August 1994 – I had called at this property in the village of Snainton because it was once the garage of Hardwick’s Services, the Wallace Arnold subsidiary that operated a bus service from Scarborough via Snainton to Ebberston.

In October 1987 Wallace Arnold sold the Hardwick’s business to East Yorkshire Motor Services and in the following March EYMS closed and sold this garage transferring operations to their own garages at Scarborough and Pickering.

The Hardwick’s fleet comprised both single and double deck vehicles. During the 1950s/1960s three double deckers were operated and these were accommodated in the centre part of the garage through doors beneath the dormer roof visible in this photograph. The single deckers were accommodated either side of that central part.

An added bonus to see was a very smart Duple Vega bodied Bedford SB3. UDL 454 had been new to West Wight Coaches on the Isle of Wight in August 1960. It was privately owned around this time and carried here it carried lettering for use in the BBC television series ‘Heatbeat’.

In this view the name ‘Merryweather’s Coaches’ was carried on the front and sides, a fictional company name. Beneath the name on the sides were the words ‘Town Street, Ashfordly, North Riding. Tel: 4236’. Ashfordly was the fictional town featured in the programme.