| More Pioneers | |
| Around
the same time that the Watts brothers were setting up their bus company other pioneers,
Thomas John Jones and Guy Bown, started The Griffin Motor Company which specialised in
motor repairs and filling stations. Its head office was based in Brynmawr, at the Old
Griffin Yard, formerly used for stabling horses for the brakes travelling between Brynmawr
and Nantyglo. Miners, who had experienced trips in their 'Dennis' charabanc during the summer tours, were quick to take up the new Tredegar service 'colliery bus', with a second-hand 'A.E.C.'. However, the strike of 1921 did create a problem for this venture. Another bus company, Imperial Motor Services, was also created in Glamorgan by Howell M. Davies, about the same time. It was these men, along with the Watts group, who initially combined their resources and formed the Red & White Services Ltd. The South Wales valleys was at this time well serviced with railways, but people wishing to travel from valley to valley had long distances to travel, because trains could only travel along the valley floors. It wasn't unusual to travel ten miles down one valley and ten miles up another in order to achieve a journey of just two or three miles over a mountain road. Photographs Top: T.J.Jones Middle: Guy Bown Bottom: H.M.Davies |
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