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{{Short description|British bus manufacturing company}}
[[Image:Roe bodied Atlantean XWG633T.jpg|thumb|right|A November 1978 built Roe body on a [[Leyland Atlantean]] AN68A/1R, new to South Yorkshire PTE as their 1633, pictured in Manchester with Citibus]]▼
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
'''Charles H. Roe Ltd.''' was a Yorkshire [[coachbuilder|coachbuilding]] company. It was for most of its life based at ''[[Cross Gates, Leeds|Crossgates]] Carriage Works'', in [[Leeds]].[http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=2004721_11158388]▼
{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox company
|name = Charles H. Roe
|logo =
|image = Roe bodied Atlantean XWG633T.jpg
▲
|type =
|traded_as =
|genre =
|fate =
|predecessor =
|successor = [[Optare]]
|foundation = 1917
|founder = Charles Henry Roe
|defunct = September 1984
|location_city = [[Cross Gates]]
|location_country =
|locations =
|area_served =
|key_people =
|industry = Bus manufacturing
|products =
|production =
|services =
|revenue =
|operating_income =
|net_income =
|aum =
|assets =
|equity =
|owner =
|num_employees = 440 (September 1984)
|parent = [[British Leyland]]
|divisions =
|subsid = }}
▲'''Charles H
In 1947 it was taken over by [[Park Royal Vehicles]]. Two years later, along with its parent, it became part of [[Associated Equipment Company#Post war|Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV)]] in 1949, which was merged with [[Leyland Motors Ltd]] in 1962. In 1965 30% of Park Royal and Roe's shares were exchanged by [[Leyland Motor Corporation]] for shares in [[Bristol Commercial Vehicles]] and [[Eastern Coach Works]] held by the [[Transport Holding Company]]. Later the THC was succeeded by the [[National Bus Company (UK)|National Bus Company]] and Park Royal, Roe, Bristol, ECW and [[Leyland National]] Ltd became subsidiaries of a new company Bus Manufacturuers Holdings 50% owned by [[British Leyland]] and 50% by National Bus. Leyland took complete control of BMH in 1982 and closed Charles H. Roe in 1984. In the following year, a group of employees from the former business, supported by Yorkshire Enterprise Ltd, began the [[Optare]] coachbuilding business in the former Roe carriage works.▼
▲In 1947 it was taken over by [[Park Royal Vehicles]]. Two years later, along with its parent, it became part of [[Associated Equipment Company#Post war|Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV)]] in 1949, which was merged with [[Leyland Motors
==History overview==
[[File:Preserved Darlington Corporation bus 7 (AHN 451B) 1965 Daimler CCG5 Roe, 2012 Teeside Running Day (1).jpg|thumb|Preserved Darlington Corporation [[Daimler Company|Daimler]] CCG5 in 2012]]
Mr Charles H. Roe was a coachbuilder, draughtsman, engineer and entrepreneur who established a coachworks business bearing his name in [[Leeds]], [[Yorkshire]] in 1917. He continued to be its managing director until 1952. Charles H. Roe Ltd produced distinctive and durable coachwork which although associated most strongly with municipal operators, particularly in Yorkshire, sold to a wide range of bus, trolleybus and coach operators, and there were even a few car, railway carriage, tram and commercial vehicle bodies too. Eventually becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of [[British Leyland]] in 1982 it was closed in 1984. Former workers and management pooled their redundancy money and in 1985 returned to the Roe factory in Leeds with a new bus-building business under the new name of [[Optare]] Ltd.▼
[[File:Woods of Mirfield bus 20 (EVD 406), 2010 King Alfred running day (2).jpg|thumb|Preserved [[Crossley Motors|Crossley]]]]
[[File:Northampton Corporation bus Daimler CVG6 Roe, Northampton, route 21, 24 April 1972.jpg|thumb|Northampton Corporation [[Daimler Company|Daimler]] CVG6 in April 1972]]
[[File:King Alfred bus (HOR 592E), 2007 King Alfred Running Day.jpg|thumb|Preserved [[Leyland Atlantean]] in 2007]]
[[File:1974 Daimler Fleetline NNU123M.jpg|thumb|Preserved [[Daimler Fleetline]] in January 2009]]
[[File:Brislington - Bristol 9554 A954SAE.jpg|thumb|Preserved [[Bristol Omnibus Company]] [[Leyland Olympian]] in August 2011]]
▲
==History==
===Early years===
Charles Henry Roe was born 22 May 1887 in [[York]]. His father Charles Roe worked for the [[North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom)|North Eastern Railway]] at their [[Holgate Road carriage works, York|carriage works]] in the town, eventually rising to a foreman's position. C.H. Roe served his apprenticeship at the drawing office of the carriage works and his first job after gaining his trade in 1912 was as a draughtsman at the [[Wakefield]] works of [[Horbury railway works|Charles Roberts
===Sole trader===
By August 1917 C.H. Roe had set up on his own account as an engineer and coachbuilder in a nearby factory unit. Always an innovator with a shrewd grasp of the value of intellectual property Roe applied for his first patent (relating to driving pulleys) on [[Armistice Day]] 11 November
===The first company===
Expansion at the Hunslet site was by the end of 1919 impossible, but C.H. Roe lived with his wife in the [[Cross Gates]] area of the city of Leeds and knew that a large shell-filling factory there had been vacated by the government. Thus for the purpose of purchasing this large site with a modern factory building and space for expansion he registered Charles H Roe
Trading difficulties in the early 1920s recession affected many businesses, the under-capitalised original Roe company being just one, during 1921 two debentures had to be secured to continue trading, the second relating directly to the Birmingham Corporation double deckers. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and the first company was voluntarily wound-up after a directors' meeting in November 1922. The receiver of the original company was able to give the bank a small surplus, whilst among the debts received £3,000 had come from various other purchasers plus £900 from Railless Ltd, who had subcontracted the Birmingham bodybuilding contract to Roe. Late payment can kill many a new business and it seems to have been the death of the original Roe company. C.H. Roe in a personal capacity bought the remaining assets from the receiver for £1,140.
===Charles H Roe (1923)
====The early years====
One lesson had been learned in the formation of the second company (initially Charles H. Roe (1923)
An even more complicated situation arose with the Leeds-based operation Tramway Supplies Ltd. They tendered for complete vehicles and then subcontracted the chassis supply to one manufacturer and the body supply to another. One of the body subcontractors was the [[Blackburn Aircraft]] who also had a factory in Leeds. They built their last bus bodies in 1924, just as Government orders for aircraft (particularly [[flying boats]], a Blackburn
[[File:Tilling-Stevens bi-mode petrol-electric trolley bus type PERC1 for Teeside.jpg|thumb|Bi-mode bus PERC1 for Teesside Railless Traction Board]]
An example of how complicated the whole complete vehicle contract thing could get concerns a [[Tilling-Stevens]] [[Dual-mode bus|bi-mode]] petrol-electric/trolley bus (type PERC1) built-for and patented-by the Teesside Railless Traction Board's manager. [[File:Ford Rail Motor Train at York (Layerthorpe) Station, Derwent Valley Light Ry.jpg|thumb|Ford Rail Motor Train at [[York (Layerthorpe) railway station]]]]
Other odd work in the early years of the new company included in 1924 a 36-seat petrol-fuelled rail vehicle for the [[Derwent Valley Light Railway]]. It was based on two Ford Model T chassis fitted with flanged steel tyres and coupled back-to-back, this rail minibus or petrol multiple unit seated 18 in each carriage and was driven from one end only, the rearward-facing car running in neutral gear with the engine switched off. When worked coupled fuel consumption was stated to be 14.33 mpg and if one unit was run the even more efficient figure of 17.55 mpg was obtained. It wasn't enough to save passenger operations on the line from oblivion however and the units were exported in 1926 to the [[County Donegal Railways Joint
By 1925 Roe were receiving orders directly from
====Independent prosperity====
One of the more significant patents to emerge from Cross Gates was number 313720 registered in 1928 the name of the
Another significant patent was jointly granted in 1930 to the company, Mr Roe and J.C. Whitely the general manager of Grimsby Corporation for a central entrance double decker with a distinctive design of staircase which rose transversely two steps to a wide landing and then branched into forward and rearward ascending longitudinal flights to the upper deck. Roe built bodies to this style until 1950 and licencees included [[H. V. Burlingham]] of [[Blackpool]].
In 1934 five years after the original company was wound up, the board agreed to remove the (1923) from the current company name. At the same time share capital rose to £12,000 and the current mortgages and debenture were repaid in favour of a new first mortgage.
In 1935, encouraged by the chassis builder, a Commercial Motor Show exhibit was built on an [[AEC Regent I]] chassis for Leeds Corporation, this bus had a rakish streamlined outline and a full-width cab but more importantly had an all-new steel framework patented by the company, Roe and Bramham (who became a director that year) and a 'Safety Staircase' patented by the company, Roe, Bramham and William Vane Moreland, the general manager of [[Leeds City Transport]]. This staircase on a rear platform bus gave less loss of seating capacity than the straight staircase favoured in London and Birmingham but intruded less onto the boarding platform than the normal semi-spiral arrangement whilst being superior to either layout in having two broad landings allowing boarding and alighting passengers to pass on the staircase. It became a standard feature of all subsequent peacetime Roe double-deck bodies for Leeds Corporation and was widely employed by other fleets, 777 examples being built by Roe prior to expiry of the patent in 1950.
[[File:Bevin-bus.jpg|thumb|Bevin-Bus]]
During [[World War II]], Roe mainly continued to build passenger bodies, although supplying the war effort more directly with such specialised bodywork as mobile printing presses for field communications use on [[Edwin Foden, Sons & Co.|Foden]]
In 1945 nominal share capital increased to £108,000 and the valuation of the works increased to £98,000. In 1939 both the [[English Electric Company]] and [[Metro Cammell Weymann]] had approached Roe about amalgamation or takeover and in 1945 talks were opened with Mumford of [[Lydney]] in [[Gloucestershire]]. These talks were inconclusive but in 1947 [[Park Royal Vehicles]] bought a controlling shareholding in the company, three Roe board members were replaced by Park Royal directors and C.H Roe joined the board of Park Royal. In 1949 Park Royal were taken over by Associated Commercial Vehicles by then the parent company of AEC, Crossley and [[Maudslay Motor Company|Maudslay]].
====The ACV years====
Although ACV owned three chassis manufacturers and three coachbuilders (Park Royal, Roe and Crossley) they did not try to tie the hands of customers. Some rationalisation happened early in that any orders for Park Royal composite bodies were transferred to Roe, and steel-framed bodies were either built by Park Royal or by Roe using Park Royal frames. By the mid-1950s all metal-framed bodies by ACV, regardless of coachbuilder, had a Park Royal outline.
The flagship of the Roe composite body range was however exclusively built on [[AEC Regent III]]; this was the Pullman body, the only Roe bus ever to be named. The prototype – a Leeds bus to the specifications of W. Vane Moreland – with its deep windows and four window bays rather than the then standard five had looked ultra-modern when shown on a pre-war Regent at the 1937 Commercial Motor Show in London, it is an acknowledged influence on the [[London Passenger Transport Board|London Transport]] designers whose [[AEC Regent III RT#Prototype|RT1]] appeared two years later with similar construction and outline.
Trolleybuses continued to figure, on Sunbeam/Karrier, Crossley or [[British United Traction|BUT]] chassis. The most striking of these were the Coronation class vehicles built on Sunbeam MF2B chassis for [[Stagecoach in Hull|Kingston upon Hull
After the initial post-war boom Roe also took on a great deal of repair, rebuilding and refurbishment work, adding a workshop for this purpose. [[Plymouth]] Corporation had its entire fleet of [[Guy
As pressure of work eased Roe also introduced a coach body for the [[AEC Reliance]]. This was known as the Roe Dalesman and ran through four separate marks, from 1953
The composite body had been revised post-war, with a new patent waist rail, the teak structural member now covered by rolled steel plate. In 1957 the composite double decker reached its final form with teak framing to the lower deck ceiling or upper deck floor and an aluminium framework above. This was to continue in production, mainly on [[Daimler Company|Daimler]] half-cab chassis until 1968, the last batch being built for Northampton Corporation on CVG6, replacing earlier Roe-bodied CVG6s which at the time comprised the entire Northampton fleet, all but five having composite bodies.
Simultaneously Park Royal bowed to pressure from the [[British Electric Traction]] (BET) group of major regional bus operators and replaced their rather elegant mid-1950s aluminium-framed body with a steel-framed structure of very angular outline, this first appeared as the production version of the integral [[AEC Bridgemaster]], but soon spread to all other steel-framed Park Royal and Roe double deckers. Crossley had been closed by ACV in 1958, having ceased to make chassis five years previously.
Roe metal-framed bodies to this new outline went on a wide range of double deck chassis. A large batch were built for BET on the new [[Leyland Atlantean]], these were delivered in 1960 to [[Trent Barton|Trent Motor Traction]], [[Devon General]] and the [[Northern General Transport Company|Northern General Transport]] group. As well as looking ungainly these buses became notorious for their propensity to corrode. Roe also built both forward and rear entrance bodies using this structure on conventional chassis, [[Swindon]] Corporation taking Daimler CVG6 and both [[Yorkshire Traction]] and Stratford Blue Motors taking rebodied Leyland Tigers.
Far less conventional was the [[Guy Wulfrunian]] which was even more avant-garde than the Atlantean, it was designed to the requirements of the independent West Riding company and featured a front engine on the front entrance platform, instead of a front radiator it had two Cave-Browne-Cave heat exchangers on the upper deck front face to provide passenger heating and ventilation as well as engine cooling. The front wheels had double wishbone independent suspension and like the rear axle had a self-levelling air suspension system, the foundation braking was by disc brakes on all four wheels with a drum brake on the driveshaft providing the parking brake and the [[fluid flywheel]] adapted to serve as an integral retarder. At a time when only [[Jaguar Cars|Jaguar]] and [[Ferrari]] road cars had front discs this was a technological adventure, like the [[AEC Routemaster]] and Midland Red's motorway coach it was shown with its Roe body in a cutaway-centre spread of boy's comic [[Eagle (comic)|The Eagle]] where it took its place alongside [[V-Bombers]],
The Wulfrunian body was lower built as this chassis was designed as a low height bus with stepless entrance and centre gangways on both decks. Roe also softened the outline of the body with a subtly curved rear dome; the use of equal-depth windows on both decks produced a much more balanced look. Of the 131 Roe-bodied Wulfrunians built, only two survive and both are in the [[Dewsbury Bus Museum]] collection.
Other oddities at the dawn of the 1960s included single-deck buses on the double-deck [[AEC Regent V]] chassis, most of these were built for [[South Wales Transport]] for a route with a very low railway bridge in [[Llanelli]] under which underfloor engined single decks could not work but there were also one each for the Leeds Council Welfare department (with a rear ramp for wheelchair access) and for the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation.
In 1962 ACV merged with [[Leyland Motors]] to form the Leyland Motor Corporation. In 1965 LMC sold a 30% shareholding in [[Park Royal Vehicles]] and Charles H Roe to the state-owned [[Transport Holding Company]] in return for a 25% stake in [[Bristol Commercial Vehicles]] and [[Eastern Coach Works]]
By 1939 Charles & Kathleen Roe were living in [[Boston Hall, Boston Spa]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gracesguide.co.uk/Charles_Henry_Roe|title = Charles Henry Roe - Graces Guide}}</ref> Charles H Roe retired as company chairman in 1962 and died in 1965.<ref>[http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/10th-december-1965/26/obituary Obituary] ''[[Commercial Motor]]'' 10 December 1965</ref>
====The mixed economy====
The original outline of the body for rear-engined double deckers was widely considered unsatisfactory and [[Sunderland Corporation Tramways|Sunderland Corporation]] took a heavily revised version on [[Daimler Fleetline]] from 1962
In 1964 Leeds, the last provincial bastion of the rear-open platform double decker took a batch of Fleetlines to Great Yarmouth outline and the first of these was also shown at the 1964 show, Leeds continually revised this design over the next few years, in 1966 it was extended to 33 ft long rather than the previous 30 ft 10in, both decks had double curvature screens and side glazing became panoramic, with double-width window glasses. In 1968 angled flat glass at the front and a glass-fibre dash was added and a centre exit was fitted whilst the rear dome reverted to a square outline. This made the appearance similar to the Oldham Corporation variant supplied with conventional side glazing on standard wheelbase Atlanteans since 1965. The Leeds design was produced until 1975 with a few going to independent operators in England and Scotland. The Leeds and Oldham designs in turn led to the Park Royal–Roe standard design for Atlantean and Fleetline built from 1969 to 1981, which had a deeper front screen optionally to Alexander layout or flat-glazed and wider pillar spacing than the previous standard but not as long as that fitted to the Leeds style or the Manchester Corporation [[Mancunian double-decker bus|Mancunian]]. Roe built one batch of 34 Mancunians on long Fleetlines in 1972. These buses had been due to be bodied by [[East Lancashire Coachbuilders]] in 1970, but they suffered a fire destroying their works in [[Blackburn]], so the contract was transferred to Park Royal, who in turn transferred it to Roe
The standard design was adopted by [[West Yorkshire
====Nearing the end====
In 1982 Leyland Vehicles, the truck and bus division of the by now state-owned [[British Leyland]] bought out the National Bus Company's 50% shareholding in the joint-venture Bus Manufacturers Holdings Ltd which had not only owned Bristol, ECW, Park Royal and Roe but also the [[Leyland National]] factory at [[Workington]].<ref>[http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/4th-december-1982/13/nbc-sells-bus-share NBC sells bus share] ''Commercial Motor'' 4 December 1982</ref>
In 1981 and 1982 Roe-bodied six 18-metre long articulated buses for [[British Airways]], these employed Leyland National body sections on Leyland-[[Danish Automobile Building|DAB]] underfloor-engined chassis, Roe modifying the body for the higher frame height. They featured five entry-exit doors, two on the offside, and were used to transport passengers from their aircraft to the terminal at [[Heathrow Airport]]
In 1981
Production peaked at this point, because the Government was phasing out the New Bus Grant which had provided up to 50% of the cost of a bus used on local services, provided it met certain rules. In order to compensate for this drop in bus sales, Leyland Bus (as it had now become) decided to produce a new flagship product for the booming deregulated coach market, following the [[Transport Act 1980]]. This was the [[Leyland Royal Tiger|Royal Tiger]] [[Chassis|underframe]] and the Roe Doyen body. This was a sophisticated product, as the [[Leyland Tiger|Tiger]] coach chassis competed head-on with the [[Volvo B10M]]. The Royal Tiger Doyen was designed to provide a British alternative to the high-end [[Setra]] coach from Germany. Production got off to a slow start, not helped by overly centralised control from Leyland and a rigid set of body specifications, which did not initially provide all the features more demanding coach customers wanted. In 1983, the year of launch, only 10 complete Royal Tiger Doyens entered service, a further 13 underframes being supplied to [[Van Hool]] and [[Plaxton]] to receive versions of their standard coachwork. In 1983, production of the underframe was moved to Workington and 22 coaches were completed by Roe, as well as 86 Olympians. The plant was not at that point viable for British Leyland, who had been impoverished by the chronic failure of its Austin mass-production car division.
Former workers and management pooled their redundancy money and in February 1985 returned to the Roe factory in Cross Gates with a new bus-building business under the new name of [[Optare]]. The factory closed in 2011 when Optare relocated and was demolished in 2012.<ref>[http://www.optare.com/news/2014/7/9/one-era-ends-and-a-new-one-begins One era ends - and a new one begins] Optare 28 October 2011</ref>
Many Roe bodies survive in preservation and some on special tourist services, the earliest design being a replica of a 1929 body on a Leyland Lion at the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport.▼
▲Many Roe bodies survive in preservation and some on special tourist services, the earliest design being a replica of a 1929 body on a Leyland Lion at the
Three diecast model manufacturers produce 1:76 scale models of Roe vehicles, EFE have a pre-war Leyland Tiger bus, Corgi OOC produce the final style of rear entrance composite body as a half-cab or a trolleybus and Britbus make the NBC version of the standard Atlantean body in single or dual-door format.
==Recognition==
In 2016, the Transport Yorkshire Preservation Group started a campaign to get some form of recognition for Mr Roe, after the [[Leeds Civic Trust]] had refused a request for a blue plaque on account of no original fabric remaining.<ref>[https://www.typg.org.uk/roe.htm Transport Yorkshire Preservation Group page]</ref> The developer Avant Homes who built houses on the factory site did not respond to requests to allow a memorial garden. Pub developer [[Wetherspoons]] did however respond positively to lobbying and have agreed their forthcoming Cross Gates outlet, opened on 21 July 2020, would be named 'The Charles Henry Roe'.<ref>[https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/best-in-leeds/gigs-clubs/jd-wetherspoon-moves-opening-date-18599121 JD Wetherspoon moves opening date of new Leeds pub again] ''Leeds Live'' 15 July 2020</ref>
==Text sources==
;Books
*Lumb, Charles H. Roe includes Optare, Shepperton 1999
*Kaye, Buses and Trolleybuses
*Roberts & Senior, Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft- A Retrospect, Glossop 1995
*Curits, Olympian Bristol • Leyland • Volvo, Hersham 2010
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==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{
*http://www.brindale.co.uk/ach/prv_site/external_links/prv_history.htm
*http://www.brindale.co.uk/ach/prv_site/external_links/roe.htm
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom}}
{{Bus manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Associated Equipment Company]]
[[Category:British Leyland]]
[[Category:Defunct bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Former defence companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Leeds]]
[[Category:
[[Category:1917 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1984 disestablishments in England]]
[[Category:United Kingdom in World War I]]
[[Category:United Kingdom home front during World War II]]
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