A Short History of Brown's Buses
Leonard Brown was 29 years old when the First World War ended, following which he founded The Invincible Bus Company in Burslem with Messrs. D. Sherratt and F. Goodwin. The name proved overly optimistic and by 1923, this company had evolved into Bailey's Buses, an undertaking in which Leonard was not involved. Instead, with his brothers Reg (see below) and Alf, Len formed Brown's Buses. The business was initially based at the Swan Inn, at 110 High Street, Tunstall, which their father, John Edward Brown had run for many years prior to his death in 1917.
A newspaper clipping dated 19th June 1924 reports on the Tunstall Traders' Association outing to Chester. It described utilising "... two of Mr. Brown's charabancs (one of which was driven by himself) containing about 45 people..."
By 1936, Len and his wife Doris were living at 143 Victoria Road, Tunstall, whilst Alf and his family were at No. 83. The bus company, by now Brown's Motor Co. (Tunstall) Ltd., was based at Scotia Road, Tunstall. The same year, the company acquired three second-hand Leyland LT2 32 seater buses from Potteries Motor Traction, allocated fleet numbers 9, 10 & 11.
Brown's operated under the "brand" of Brown's White Fleet with a distinctive diamond symbol next to the destination blind as their logo. In 1939, the fleet was expanding to the point they were able to buy three brand new 39 seat A.E.C. Regent buses. Part of this expansion was due to Len’s activities within the Traders Association in Tunstall, gaining their support for additional town bus services which Browns were all too happy to provide. The competition was immense, however, with over 70 bus companies in the Potteries at the time, no fewer than 20 of them operating routes between Tunstall and Hanley.
Inevitably, rationalisation and takeovers were the order of the day. By the early 1950’s there remained only six major bus companies in the Potteries, with the Potteries Motor Traction company, by far the dominant force. Brown’s were the largest of the other five with 43 vehicles - their highest fleet number then being No,62. In May 1951 Brown’s were taken over by PMT and briefly operated as a stand-alone subsidiary. In February 1952, the remains of the company was absorbed into the PMT fleet - though all but 17 vehicles had been scrapped or sold in the meanwhile.
A.E.C. Regal II GVT521, new in 1939, Brown's fleet No. 30.
See some more photos of Brown's Buses on Page Two....
Some biographical notes about Reg Brown
Kindly provided by Charles Woolam
Reg was an officer in the Merchant Navy before the Great War and a member of the Royal Naval Reserve. He ended the war with the rank of Lieutenant, having served in the elite submarine service, as a submariner and, later, on submarine supply ships.
During the Second War, Reg was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the local Home Guard. There is quite an amusing piece about him on the website at the end of this link, together with some photographs. There is a watercolour showing one of the old Brown's Buses which he had had converted into his "mobile command centre" - much like Montgomery in Africa.
Lt. Reg Brown RNR