Last updated at 12:17, Thursday, 25 June 2009

Margaret Philip tells Margaret Crosby about her days on the buses

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SHE was sad to see the old bus station go, is nostalgic for the double-decker and thinks the bus-stop on Whitehaven’s Lowther Street is pure madness.

In a past life Margaret Philip, 73, was a conductress, a ‘clippie’ working on the buses in the 1950s when travelling by bus was the norm for most people and only rich folk had cars.

It was a busy old time for Margaret, who followed in father’s footsteps to go and work for Cumberland Motor Services. Dad John Glaister from Hensingham was a bus driver, known to all as Honest (Jack) as he would repeatedly say he was “honest by name and honest by nature.’’!

CMS took Margaret Glaister on in 1951.

She recalls: “We had to provide three references in those days, one from someone who knew you from when you were first born, one from school and one from the last place you worked.” Her weekly wage was around £9/£10 and she had to pay for her licence, costing £2/6d

Although she was sad to see the phasing out of the double-decker Margaret remembers having to wear trousers as part of her uniform “so people couldn’t look up your skirt when you went up the stairs for fares!’’

She is most upset by the closure of the bus station “a lovely building which was once so busy and bustling’’ and bewildered by the Stagecoach buses being moved to Lowther Street “it’s chaos’’ she says.

Margaret had her own mishap when one time, picking up passengers at the Haig pit bus stop there was the usual stampede as miners finishing their shift rushed to get on the bus bound for home.

“I got off the bus to let them on and one of the miners rang the bell to tell the driver to set off and I was left behind, in shock, standing on the roadside! I had to wait till the next bus came along. They all got a free ride that day!’’

In the summer Margaret and her fellow conductresses would wear a biscuit-coloured ‘dustcoat’, edged in red (see picture) as it was cooler than the thick navy uniform they wore most of the year.

“You had to be very smart, clean and tidy, well presented and well groomed. There was none of this wearing shorts while on duty. I think things have changed for the worse.

“We also used to help people on and off the buses, women with children and folk with luggage. It was all part of the service.’’

Fares were cheaper then too, it was tuppence ha’penny to go up to Woodhouse and a penny ha-penny for a journey to Bransty.

The Woodhouse run was Margaret’s favourite as it was on that route, while taking fares on the top deck that she first met her husband to be, Peter Philip.

She recalls: “He got off the bus with his mother at their stop, carrying bags of shopping. The bus went up to Windermere Road to turn round and there he was, running across the grass to get on again for the return journey.

“When I went upstairs to take his fare he asked me to go to the pictures with him that Friday night, but I was working back shift. We did go out a few days later, however, to the Gaiety cinema.’’

Sadly, Peter died four years ago. The couple have one son, also Peter and two grandchildren.

The young Margaret Glaister of Main Street, Cleator had gone to Cleator Council School, (now the Grove Court). She had left school at 15 and got her first job at Silbertson’s making clothing and uniforms at Cleator, just like Whitehaven’s Edgards. She left there to work at the Paper Mill at Cleator where Harold Bainbridge was manager.

She was there for two years before going to work as a chamber maid at the Belsfield Hotel, at Bowness on Windermere. She went with her friend Maureen Heddle and worked there for two seasons. Two guests in particular stand out in her memory - an Indian chief in full feathered head-dress and his wife, also in traditional American Indian dress. Margaret remembers being impressed by how they looked “just like off the cowboy films’’ and how she had found in their room the bedding rolled up on the floor and wondering whether that was where they’d slept.

“ People came to the Belsfield from all over the world, it was a a beautiful place.’’

Once on the buses she was under the wing of dad, who kept her straight and would warn off drivers for any amorous advances they made towards his daughter. Sometimes Jack and Margaret would find themselves working together as driver and conductor on the same route and locals would refer to it as “Glaisters’ Bus’’.

When she got the job Margaret went off to “training school’’ for a few days “to learn about a conductor’s job, how to operate the ticket machine, give change and conduct yourself.

“We went all over the place, to Workington steelworks, Chapel Bank, Marchon, all the work places. It was a very interesting job and I loved it. Everyone was very nice, the bus crews, my fellow conductresses, I made a lot of friends.’’ Names from those days Margaret recalls - Connie McDonald (her husband Bob was also a driver), Maisie Harrison, May Sempie, Annie Bennett, sisters Frances and Irene Telford, Dorothy Grearson.......and the traffic area manager of the time was a Mr Carruthers and the station inspector was Tim Drake. Other inspectors were Ted Sheldon and Billy Kinrade.

She got married in 1955 to Peter Philip and a year later left work to have her son, also Peter.

After the birth of her son Margaret returned to the world of work, this time at Mullinders drapery at Egremont, then to the Home and Colonial in King Street and sold petrol at the New Road garage. For 33 years Margaret and Peter ran Philip’s Fruiterers on Cleator Moor High St (opposite Murray’s chemists) selling fruit, veg and flowers.

Latterly the couple lived on Lakeland Avenue, Woodhouse, before Peter died and Margaret moved to her flat at Wellington Row.

Margaret loved the television sitcom On the Buses. “It was just like that,’’ she said, “We had a laugh and some good times but it was all good clean fun. It breaks my heart when I see what has happened to the bus station and the bus service.

Margaret’s grandfather, also John Glaister, had left Cleator in the late 1800s to seek his fortune in America and had managed copper mines in Arizona. He returned when his wife died and the family lived at Hensingham in a small house, now gone, known locally as La’al Castle. Grandad Glaister had worked at Wellington pit.

Though she only worked on the buses for about six years Margaret has very fond memories of those days and has kept as souvenirs her badge and her licence as mementoes of that time. She regrets she never learned to drive herself. She did have some lessons at one time but was put off for good when she had a near-collision – with a CMS bus!

First published at 15:45, Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk