Wallace Arnold (Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust) was one of the UK's largest holiday motorcoach tour operators.

History

Wallace Arnold was founded in 1912 and was named after two of its founders Wallace Cunningham and Arnold Crowe. In 1926, the Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust was founded by Robert Barr. In February 1969, the Evan Evans tour business in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

was purchased. In the late 1970s, Wallace Arnold commenced operating services under the Euroways banner to Europe. By 1980 it operated 290 coaches from its headquarters in Gelderd Road, Wortley,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

, and owned a subsidiary based in

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. Devo ...

. When coach services were deregulated by the

Transport Act 1980 The Transport Act 1980 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced deregulation of coach services in the United Kingdom and allow authorities to deregulate bus services on a trial basis. It was introduced by the Conservative go ...

in October 1980, Wallace Arnold was a founding member of the

British Coachways British Coachways was a consortium of independent coach operating companies in the United Kingdom. Formed immediately after the deregulation of coach services in October 1980, it competed with the state-owned National Express and Scottish Bus G ...

consortium that competed with the state-owned

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

. It left after a year and briefly ran its own service from

Torbay Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ...

. In April 1994, the company gained media attention when five of its fleet transported all of the audience members of an episode of ''

Don't Forget Your Toothbrush ''Don't Forget Your Toothbrush'' was a British light entertainment TV programme that aired on Channel 4 from 12 February 1994 to 25 February 1995 and was hosted by Chris Evans. Background ''Don't Forget Your Toothbrush'' was written ...

'' to Disneyland Paris, after the two selected audience members won the "Light Your Lemon" game. In April 2005, Wallace Arnold merged with Shearings to become WA Shearings. In 2007 the Wallace Arnold name was dropped and now the company is known as Shearings Holidays. The merger included eight travel shops in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, rebranded from Wallace Arnold Travel to WA Shearings. These kept the WA Shearings name until 2010, when they reverted to their original Wallace Arnold Travel name. Wallace Arnold owned 2 stage carriage bus services, Kippax Motors and Farsley Omnibus. These were sold to Leeds Corporation in 1968.

Vehicles

Wallace Arnold was the largest operator of the

Bedford VAL The Bedford VAL is a type of coach chassis that was built by Bedford in the United Kingdom from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. It was unusual at the time for its multi-axle design, in a " chinese six" wheelplan, i.e. with two front steerin ...

3 axle coach. After becoming a large

Leyland Leopard The Leyland Leopard was a mid-engined single-decker bus and single-decker coach chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1959 and 1982. History The Leyland Leopard was introduced in 1959. It was developed from the Leyland Tiger Cub, one of ...

and Volvo B58 customer, in later years it standardised on

Volvo B10M The Volvo B10M was a mid-engined city bus and coach chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1978 and 2003. It succeeded the B58 and was equipped with the same 9.6-litre horizontally mounted Volvo diesel engine mounted under the floor behind the ...

and Volvo B12Ms, mostly with

Jonckheere Jonckheere was a Belgian motor coach and bus builder, founded in 1881 by Henri Jonckheere in Roeselare. History In 1881, Henri Jonckheere began to build horse-drawn carriages in the village of Beveren, near Roeselare in the province of Wes ...

and

Plaxton Plaxton is an English builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Scarborough. Founded in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton, it became a subsidiary of Alexander Dennis in May 2007. In 2019, the maker was acquired by Canadian bus manu ...

bodies.More for Wallace
''Commercial Motor'' 19 April 1990 page 18

References

External links

{{Commons category, Wallace Arnold (bus company), Wallace Arnold
Flickr gallery
Defunct companies based in Leeds Former coach operators in England 3i Group companies 1912 establishments in England 2005 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1912 British companies disestablished in 2005

History

Vehicles

References

Further reading

External links