Eastern National was a bus company operating in south-east England, primarily in Essex, from 1929 to the 1990s.

Early history

Eastern National Omnibus Company commenced operating in 1929 as a joint venture between the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

, the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

and the National Omnibus & Transport Company. The National company had originated in 1909 as the National Steam Car Company, operating

steam bus A steam bus is a bus powered by a steam engine. Early steam-powered vehicles designed for carrying passengers were more usually known as steam carriages, although this term was sometimes used to describe other early experimental vehicles too. H ...

services in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The London services ceased in 1919, when the company was renamed National Omnibus & Transport Company. The company expanded outside London, first in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

(1913), where the company bought the bus operations of the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

around

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

, and later in

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

(1919),

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

(1919),

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

(1920),

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

(1921), and

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

and

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

(1927). The National continued to expand in Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The railways developed networks of feeder bus services in the 1920s, but the legal powers of the railway companies (after 1922 the Big Four) to run bus services were unclear and each promoted private legislation (the Road Powers Acts of 1928) to obtain clarity. One result was that the railways were in future to refrain from taking a controlling interest in bus undertakings. This led the companies to enter into partnerships with the bus companies, including the National. In 1929 the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the National formed Eastern National Omnibus Company, to which all three shareholders transferred their bus operations in Essex,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, Bedfordshire and

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...

. In 1931, a controlling interest in the National Omnibus was acquired by the

Tilling Group The Tilling Group was one of two conglomerates that controlled almost all of the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between World Wars I and II and until nationalisation in 1948. Tilling, together with the other conglomerate, British El ...

. From then on Eastern National was run as a Tilling company, although the railways retained their shares until 1948.

Nationalisation

In 1948, the railways were nationalised and, shortly after, the Tilling Group sold its bus interests to the government. Eastern National therefore became a state-owned company, under the control of the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

. The new regime resulted in rationalisation of the company's area of operations. In 1952, the company's operations in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, North Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire were transferred to

United Counties The Province of Ontario has 51 first-level administrative divisions, which collectively cover the whole province. With two exceptions, their areas match the 49 census divisions Statistics Canada has for Ontario. The Province has four types of ...

,; control of Westcliff Motor Services was transferred to Eastern National. On 1 January 1963, Eastern National was included in the transfer of the British Transport Commission's transport assets to the state-owned

Transport Holding Company The Transport Holding Company (THC) was a British Government-owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport C ...

, which in turn passed to the state-owned National Bus Company on 1 January 1969. In 1964 it advertised the following Express Services:- *X1 London - Rayleigh - Southend-on-sea *X10 London - Basildon - Southend-on-sea *X11 Enfield - Basildon - Southend-on-sea *X12 London - Colchester - Clacton - Jaywick Sands *X14 London - Braintree - Halstead - Sudbury .. Hadleigh, Sudbury, Bury St Edmunds *X20 Southend - Basildon - Wrotham - Tonbridge - Tunbridge Wells - Brighton - Worthing *X21 Southend - Basildon - Wrotham - Tonbridge - Tunbridge Wells - Hailsham - Eastbourne *X22 Southend - Basildon - Rochester - Faversham, Canterbury - Dover and Folkestone *X23 Southend - Basildon - Maidstone - Battle - Hastings - Eastbourne *X24 Southend - Basildon - Sittingbourne - Faversham - Canterbury - Margate - Ramsgate *X25 Southend - Basildon - Colchester - Lowestoft - Gorleston - Great Yarmouth *X26 Southend - Basildon - Romford - Southampton - Bournemouth / Isle of Wight (using

Red Funnel Red Funnel, the trading name of the Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Limited,Steamer) *X27 Southend - Colchester - Jaywick Sands, Clacton-on-sea - Holland-on-sea - Frinton-on-sea - Walton-on-naze *X28 Southend - Chelmsford - Dunmow - Cambridge (connections to

Midland Red Midland RedCompanies House extract company no 82681
Midland Re ...

for Northampton, Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham) *X29 Southend - Basildon - Harlow - Hertford - Stamford - Oakham - Nottingham - Derby *X30 Southsea - Portsmouth - Bognor-Regis - Crawley - Dartford - Basildon - Southend *X32/X34 Clacton - Colchester - Chelmsford - Basildon - Sittingbourne, Faversham, Canterbury, Birchington, Margate .. Ramsgate - Dover - Folkestone *X33 Walton - Clacton - Colchester - Chelmsford - Basildon - Dartford - Medway Towns - Maidstone - Hastings *X40 Tilbury ferry- Basildon - Lowestoft - Gorlestone - Great Yarmouth

Privatisation

As part of the

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the National Bus Company, Eastern National was sold in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

. In 1990, Eastern National passed to

Badgerline Badgerline was a bus operator in and around Bristol from 1985 until 2003. Its headquarters were in Weston-super-Mare. Initially a part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, it was privatised in September 1986 and sold to Badgerline Holdings in a mana ...

. Badgerline divided the company into two: Thamesway Buses in the south of Essex and Eastern National in the north. Eastern National was included in the June 1995 merger of Badgerline with

GRT Group :''This article describes the bus group, for the Grampian Regional Transport bus company and successors/predecessors, see First Aberdeen'' GRT Group was a bus operating company in the United Kingdom from 1989 until 1995. It was formed when Gram ...

to form

FirstBus FirstGroup plc is a British Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First Essex First Essex is a bus company operating services in the county of Essex. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. History First Essex arose from an amalgamation of Eastern National and Thamesway Buses. First Essex was originally part of the Eas ...

.Companies House extract company no 1961457
First Essex Buses Limited formerly Essex Buses Limited formerly Eastern National Limited

Depots

The following locations hosted depots to maintain Eastern National's fleet:

Brentwood (BD)

Brentwood depot was a small site, located near to the High Street on North Road.

Braintree (BE)

Braintree depot was situated on Fairfield Road, in Braintree town centre. Fairfield Road had originally been used by Hicks Brothers, a bus operator which Eastern National took over in 1949. A house adjacent to the old depot site survives, to remind us of a link with the Hicks era.

Basildon (BN)

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

depot is located on Cherrydown East, near to

Basildon railway station Basildon railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend line, serving the town of Basildon, Essex. It is down the main line from London Fenchurch Street and is situated between to the west and to the east. Its three-letter station ...

. It was opened by Eastern National in 1961 to replace premises at Bull Road, Vange.''Eastern National and its Predecessors – 60 Years of Service to Essex 1930 – 1990''; edited by GWH Dodson

Chelmsford (CF)

depot was located on New Writtle Street, with some maintenance duties carried out at the 1930s bus station on Duke Street. Chelmsford had an outstation at

Great Dunmow Great Dunmow is a historic market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is situated on the north of the A120 road, approximately midway between Bishop's Stortford and Braintree, five miles east of London Stanst ...

(DW).

Clacton (CN)

Clacton depot had been sited at Telford Road, on the Gorse Lane industrial estate, since 1988 at premises previously occupied by Coastal Red, a one-time competitor on the Tendring peninsular who were later bought by Eastern National. Telford Road replaced the garage at Castle Road, near Clacton town centre, which was later redeveloped as flats. There was an outstation of Clacton at

Walton-on-the-Naze Walton-on-the-Naze is a seaside town on the North Sea coast and (as Walton le Soken) a former civil parish, now in the parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district in Essex, England. It is north of Clacton and south of the port of Ha ...

, until May 1996. This was a small garage at Kino Road, just off the seafront, and housed four vehicles. Walton had the depot code of WN and was demolished in 1998, with bungalows built on the site. However, the enquiry office survives as a gift shop. The predecessor of Walton garage was Warners Iron Foundry at Naze Park Road, a building stands to this day. This had its origins with Silver Queen.

Colchester (CR)

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

garage was located on Queen Street, which was on the site of the Theatre Royal that burned down circa 1917. Until 1973, Eastern National had a one bus outstation at

West Mersea West Mersea is a town and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in Essex, England. It is the larger (in terms of population) of two settlements on Mersea Island, south of Colchester. History Roman buildings and Ro ...

, acquired from Primrose Bus Service in 1935. The building there survive, but, in 1979, it was heavily modified to become part of a new leisure centre. Service buses still terminate outside and locals still refer to it as ''West Mersea bus station''. Until 1969, Eastern National also had a one bus outstation in Victoria Place,

Brightlingsea Brightlingsea is a coastal town and an electoral ward in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, on Brightlingsea Creek. At the 2011 Census, it had a popu ...

. This was acquired with the business of Berry & Sons in 1937.

Canvey Island (CY)

Canvey (CY) depot closed in April 1978 and has since has since become a transport museum.

Dovercourt / Harwich (DT)

Harwich Garage - First Essex 32810 (T810LLC), 32818 (T818LLC) and 44517 (YX09ACY)

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

depot at Harwich Bus Station, off Main Road, was opened by Eastern National in 1974. It replaced the old

Dovercourt Dovercourt is a small seaside town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Harwich, in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. It is older than its smaller but better-known neighbour, the port of Harwich, and appears in th ...

depot at Kingsway, whose building is now used as a public library.

Hadleigh (HH)

Hadleigh garage is located on London Road, just west of Hadleigh shopping centre. It is a former Westcliff-on-Sea Motor Services depot, controlled by Eastern National from 1955. Hadleigh expanded its operations in 1992, after Southend's Prittlewell depot was closed.

Maldon (MN)

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

was a full depot until 1993, when it became an outstation.

South Woodham Ferrers South Woodham Ferrers is a town and civil parish in the borough of Chelmsford, in the English county of Essex. It is approximately from London and southeast of the city of Chelmsford, and had a population of 16,453 at the 2011 Census, a decr ...

(SW) was an outstation with the allocation of one bus in the late 1980s.

Southend (SD)

Southend (SD) depot was originally sited on London Road, but closed in 1987 and has now disappeared under a Sainsbury's store. Operations moved to a new site in

Prittlewell Prittlewell is an inner city area of Southend-on-Sea in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. Historically, Prittlewell is the original settlement of the city, Southend being the ''south end'' of Prittlewell. T ...

Walthamstow (WW)

This depot was opened to support the CityBus operations in east London. Ponders End (PD) was an outstation.

References

External links

{{Defunct British Bus Companies 1929 establishments in England Former bus operators in Bedfordshire Former bus operators in Buckinghamshire Former bus operators in Essex Former bus operators in Hertfordshire