The late George Garston

The late and great George Garston

The base article below appeared in the ‘Crosville Memories’ book produced by the CRSSA in 2015 to mark its 50th anniversary.  From this original article more photographs have now been included for inclusion on this website.

Only a limited number of the Crosville Memories publication was  produced for CRRSA members, friends and family capturing a number of memories shared by members of the Crosville family over the years.  I myself made an addition to this wonderful book which will be cherished always.

It was an absolute privilege and an honour when approached by Lynn, the daughter of the late and great George Garston to add the following article to this website.

For those visiting this website from a non bus industry/Crosville background, the great man himself, George Garston was a long serving Crosville man, one of the best engineers you would ever find and an inspiration to all who knew him as well as those on all levels of the bus industry and a true Crosville legend.  Furthermore, George was an absolute gentleman always and was very approachable.

George started his career with Crosville Motor Services as an engineering apprentice on 16 January 1941, working through the ranks to Area Engineer with the company before his full time retirement in 1985 having worked for the company for an impressive 44 years.

The term full time retirement is used here as George continued working for many years beyond his retirement in the bus industry.

George became the president of the Crosville Retired Staff Association (CRSSA), 75 years from the day he started with the company.

At CRSSA events, George was  inseparable from his close friend and another great Crosville man,  that being our dear friend Glyn Jones no less.

Sadly George passed away on 1 November 2017 but he will never be forgotten.  We send our grateful thanks to Lynn and family for providing the article below as we remember George with the greatest of respect.  Sadly Glyn Jones also passed away on 18 August 2024.  We remember both with much fondness.

Our grateful thanks also go to the Crosville Retired Staff Association for their kindness in allowing the article that was included in the book to be reproduced below for the benefit of a wider audience through this website.  With grateful thanks in particular go to Graham Turner, Andrew Cudbertson and Andy Hamer.

75 Years association with Crosville

Crosville took me on as an engineering apprentice on the 16th January 1941 just two days after my 14th birthday.

It was the apprenticeship I always wanted, living in Vernon Road Chester so close to the Crosville engineering buildings in Sealand Road and Walls Avenue/Crane Street. 

A young George Garston is seen here undertaking an inspection of Crosville’s AEC Matidor which was based in Sealand Road.

My apprenticeship lasted a full six years, because conscription came in the middle of it. I did two years in the Army serving in the South Lancashire Infantry Regiment before returning to my job, though I needed to do a further six months before I could move up from an apprentice wage to skilled worker rate.  

In those days, the Sealand Road site was used for bodywork and painting, whereas major overhauls, stores and general repair work were carried out in what later became the Head Office in Crane Wharf, and in premises on the other side of the road between Walls Avenue and Crane Street. 

Vehicles for major overhaul were taken into the erecting shop in Walls Avenue where everything would be stripped down. We would put the bus on stanchions or trestles as we called them; take the engines and gearboxes out and leave just the body standing on the four trestles. The parts were all steam washed and taken into a tank to remove all the grease and carbon. Finally, they were swilled clean and taken over the road to the riverside buildings. There they were completely overhauled and put back as engines and gearboxes before being brought back to the erecting shop.

It was all done in one week. We could strip the bus down on the first morning  and then get on with other things like cleaning our tools before around Wednesday midday. Then it would be a race, one crew against another. You would  get all your bits and pieces back and you would have the vehicle re-assembled by dinnertime on Friday. We had a tester called Archie Randall who would take the vehicle out on the Friday afternoon and check the vehicle thoroughly. After Archie retired he was succeeded by Harry Brown. 

I reported to the works superintendent, Trevor Harper. I didn't see the Chief Engineer very often, he had a sidekick, Whitham, and they always went round the works together. 

There were four other apprentices but after finishing they all went their different ways. Gordon Jones was one, and he ended up chief engineer over in Yorkshire.  There was a similar sort of system over at North Western and that's where Ron Holding would have trained before he came over to Crosville.

At Sealand Road, before all engineering was consolidated onto a single site there, there were bays used by Vickers Armstrongs for maintaining aircraft parts. They used their own staff and rented the bays. 

The remaining bays were for Crosville for bodywork and paint preparation.

We could get three vehicles in one bay because of the length of the bays; there were doors that dropped down between each vehicle, because you could have black painting on one vehicle, green on the next and red on the last.  The extractor fans were the same; they had to be kept clean all the time.

After being an apprentice, I was a fitter. Whilst some engineers specialised on gearboxes and some on differentials, I trained on a more wide ranging set of skills to pick up all the various trades. I worked my way up as first chargehand, then shop foreman. Eventually I went to Chester Depot in charge of engineering, covering not only Chester but Mold and Flint. 

I enjoyed my time at Chester Depot or "The Rink".  The passageway at the back of the depot was a popular spot with kids from Victoria Road School, who cut through to reach Tremlett's, the sweet shop. Two of our lads at Sealand Road who worked in accounts took over the shop. 

When I first started there we used to have all the buses queuing up on the main road to get into the depot but I wouldn't have any of that. I reversed it so they had to go around Delamere Street and then through Victoria Road to reverse the motion. 

Then we took over Northwich and Macclesfield depots from North Western Road Car and I became an area engineer with responsibility for those depots. It was difficult at first as they had to turn red systems into green ones. But they all worked hard and for example the lads at Macclesfield got to know me and worked well with me. I would make sure that if someone in one depot was in trouble then another depot help them out. So the ex North Western depots began to integrate with the Crosville ones.

I worked well with divisional managers like Walter Edwards and Harold Ffoulkes. Harold was my mate; he knew nothing about engineering because he was on the operating side, but we worked well together and our families were great friends.

Dic Jones has been a lifelong friend. He lived in Vernon Road next door but one to us. The street was very well situated - you could leave home and go down a passageway to Sealand Road, then loosen the railings at the back of the paintshop and then you were in work! 

My daughter Lynn also worked for the company in the 1980s, so Crosville has played a huge part in our family life, continuing right through to today with my role as President of the Retired Salaried Staff Association, a full 75 years from the day I nervously entered the works as a very young apprentice.

Photograph - Crane Wharf

These are the works on Crane Street, later Head Office. The foreman's office was in the middle section there.

You can see work on the brake drum. These would have scores all the way round them and you would get a collection of sludge building up so the brakes would be grinding. We would have to take the drum off and re-skim it then put a thicker liner on the brake shoes. Bill Jones was the foreman in his office at the back. The stores known as the cowsheds were over on the right containing all sorts of miscellaneous parts. Beyond them is another set of windows and then you're looking onto the river.

The divisional offices were in office space at the back. At that time the company head office was in a separate building, Crane House, before moving into these premises when the engineering move to Sealand Road took place.

The Erecting Shop

Note the Douglas truck over to the left. Maud Parker seen at the wheel drove it around the works. Basically it carries a table, suitable shaped for bits and pieces and hydraulically lifted up so that it could move from one area to another as the need arose. The other lady is Mrs Whitehouse who was a supervisor. In the foreground are four-cylinder petrol engines. It looks like the vehicle behind the ladies is N 48 a Leyland Cub. Behind it is a KA a double-decker with a six cylinder diesel engine.

Erecting Shop with Blackouts

This one is taken in the Crane Street erecting shop looking towards Crane Wharf. Over on the left you have a gas trailer, and over on the right with me is Works Supt Trevor Harper in a bowler hat. We've got a petrol engine behind and with us is Jack Fellowes. In the middle is an apprentice from Denbigh. If you look at the roof you can see the blackout blinds.

On the following photograph, you can see a Dennis Tipper over to the left, which was a sort of delivery truck. Behind it is a vehicle without an engine, they were all in the paint shop with the engines being overhauled elsewhere. This is a clearer shot of the blackout blinds.

My own Bristol single decker

Above is the bus I once owned, here taken at Sealand Road in front of the joiners shop run by Jack Mills. Unfortunately I had to sell it, not because of the cost of maintenance but it was the cost of renting space. I was being charged £20 a week.

General Manager David Meredith seen here with the Traffic Commissioner Mr Roy Hutchings at a Safe Driving function. Over to the right next to me is Fred Dixon. And the rest are Chester drivers receiving their Awards.

On the extreme left of the police visit is Tony Long and next on the left at the front is the chief engineer. At the back is John Hargreaves, General Manager, who went on to greater glories. I got on well with John.

I am not sure of the event, but from left to right are Peter Jenner, Fred Leese, Fred Dixon, Bertie Boys, Walter Edwards, Traffic Manager Algie Elwin and myself. It was probably taken at the Mollington Banastre.

Finally, here is my good friend Harold Ffoulkes, centre, looking typically jovial, with me on the left and Joe Jones on the right. This was not Joe Jones the superintendent at a Flint but Joe Jones the superintendent's assistant, also based at Flint!

Crosville Motor Services senior management are seen here.  George can be seen standing to the right.

Crosville Motor Services senior management are seen here with one of two Royal Doyen coaches behind, branded in the Euro Lynx livery in preparation of its European programme.  George can be seen on the far left.

The Crosville Salaried Staff Association (CRSSA)

The CRSSA began in 1965 and included W. J. Crossland-Taylor as one of its three vice presidents, whose father had founded Crosville back in 1906.  Members of the association originally consisted of salaried officials who had retired from the company.

George was an active member of the CRSSA and became its president, 75 years from the day he started with Crosville Motor Services.

For the association's summer outing in 2008, preserved CRG163 was used as the main transport. On the day however one of the air valves underneath wasn’t performing as it should.  Whilst standing next to CRG163 George diagnosed the issue, pinpointing the valve concerned simply by listening to the vehicle idling.  What an engineer!

Here is an image of retired Crosville Motor Services management from the CRSSA on the day.  George can be seen on the right.

At CRSSA gatherings, George was inseparable from his long time Crosville friend and respected fellow engineer, Glyn Jones.  Both gentlemen were highly respected by the Crosville family and everyone who knew them.  The images below were taken at the CRSSA’s September 2016 gathering.

A wonderful image of George and Glyn, side by side.

Two long standing and highly respected friends from Crosville.  George and his dear friend Glyn Jones at a CRSSA gathering in September 2016.