The story of CC 9305 and the search for the Glenton 121 Group

This is CC 9305, and its story is bound up with the history of public transport and the leisure industry from the 1930s, but it is also intimately linked to our family.

CC 9305, 2025

I came across its existence by pure chance earlier in the week and tracked it down to Dover Transport Museum where it has resided for 40 years.*

The chairman of the museum told me that it “is a 1929 Dennis GL fitted with a "toastrack" body by J. Roberts for Llandudno Urban District Council who used it for tours of the Great Orme until 1953 and was acquired in the 1960s by Glenton Tours of Peckham Rye and still carries the Glenton Livery”.

And in those two sentences we cover the early years of motor manufacture, the emergence of coaching holidays and two companies which are part of that history.

CC 9305 was made by Dennis Brothers Limited which my Wikipedia tells me “was an English manufacturer of commercial vehicles based in Guildford. It is best remembered as a manufacturer of buses, fire engines and lorries (trucks) and municipal vehicles such as dustcarts. All vehicles were made to order to the customer's requirements and more strongly built than mass production equivalents. Dennis Brothers was Guildford's main employer.”.**

Happy chara travellers, undated

And as you do I followed this up with a visit to Grace's Guide To British Industrial History which chronicles in great detail the emergence of the firm from one which began in 1885 making bicycles and progressed through motor cycles to a variety of vehicles which whizzed across our roads during the twentieth century.***

So, to CC 9305 made in 1929 and customised as a touring vehicle for a local authority doing the business until 1953. It was just a motorised char a banc replacing the older horse drawn version.

In the collection I have pictures of both which often feature groups of day trippers out for a “jolly” into the countryside or on one of those beery excursions to the seaside via as many pubs as could be found.  

Horse drawn chara, undated

We called the latter "beanos" and were often a workplace adventure, although I guess any organizations went in for the day trip out taking in beauty sights, churches or the houses of the great and the good.

And that brings us to dad whose career was in the leisure industry ferrying happy and maybe not so happy holiday makers across the country and beyond onto the Continent.

Like Toad of Toad Hall, he was fascinated by motor cars and having forsworn a place at grammar school was working with buses and coaches by 1922 and always described himself on official forms as either a “Motor engineer” or “Motor mechanic”.

And some time in the 1930s he left the North East for London securing a position as a driver for Glenton Tours and quickly became one of the two drivers taking Glenton coaches across Europe, to France, the Low Countries, and on to Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Only the war interrupted the holidays, but with the return of peace dad and Glenton Tours were back on the road.

Travelling with Glenton's, 1963

The firm was never backward at promoting themselves and they regularly advertised in the quality newspapers, often with a lightness which suggested a company who mixed seriousness with the silly.  So, in 1963 the Observer carried an advert announcing “Snobs & Char-a-bancs are out of date.  Dowagers and flower sellers equally enjoy Glenton Coach Cruises.  Knowledgeably planned routes, first class hotels and superb char-a-bancs (sorry coaches).***

Dad and Glenton travellers, Gindleward, Switzerland, undated

I don’t know if these ads worked but mother always liked them and was impressed with the anonymous copy writer.

And some time around “Snobs & Char-a-bancs” Glenton’s acquired CC 9305, gave it the company livery and used it to promote the firm.

That work will have been done in their garage in Nunhead and given that dad worked in the paint shop in the winter months he may well have been involved with its makeover.

Back almost where we started in Dover with CC 9305

All of which makes CC 9305 special and rekindled long forgotten stories from dad about the Glenton’s Char-a-banc.

He retired in 1986, and sometime after the firm closed down, just when I have yet to find out, but there is a clue which comes from the archive of the Dover Transport Museum in the form of a letter dated 1996.

In that letter a Ms Kenny comments on the purchase of one of the coaches and refers to “Glenton 121 Group”.

So far, I have only found a few references to the group and pretty much all are a record of them participating in vintage vehicle rallies.

But someone will know, and with that I will get a bit closer to the story of Glenton Tours and where they fit in the history of the luxury coach trade.

And a long the way I may find out a bit more of CC 9305, whose story goes dark between 1953 and its acquistion by Glenton's.  I am hoping that the archives of the Dover Transport Museum my reveal details of the lost years, and here I have to thank the museum for their help in revealing its history,  allowing me to reproduce a picture of the vehicle and their promise to trawl their records for more information.

Which in turn will contribute to Glenton’s story.*****

Doing the biz of having fun, undated

Well, we shall see.

Location; with Glenton Tours and Dover Transport Museum which is open from 1030 to 1630 every Wednesday, Sunday and Bank Holiday during the summer and autumn of 2025

Pictures; Glenton Tours memorabilia from the Simpson collection, CC 9305, courtesy of Dover Transport Museum, the horsedrawn char a banc, undated, from the Lloyd Collection and happy holidaymakes, undated courtesy of Ron Stubley

*Dover Transport Museum, https://www.dovertransportmuseum.org.uk/

**Dennis Brothers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Brothers

***Grace's Guide To British Industrial History, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Dennis_Brothers

****The Observer, April 21st, 1963

***** Glenton Tours, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Glenton%20Tours

When a chunk of your history takes an unexpected turn ….. Glenton Tours

I have lived with the story of Glenton Tours for 75 years.*

Luggage label, undated

It was a coach company, offering tours of Britain and the Continent from the 1920s and was at the luxury end of the market.

They began when an estate agent in south east London settled a debt by accepting two coaches and entering the touring business.

Dad & Elizabeth, undated

It was the right thing to do at the right moment, as the growing middle class with money to spend sought holidays which combined a bit of culture, with a lot of sightseeing.

 Added to which Glenton’s promised to do the lot, and the lot included the itinerary, the hotels and meals with drivers and couriers who were pleasant, knowledgeable and always attentive.

In the age before cheap air travel and decades before the internet this was the way to see Britain and a host of European countries. 

Tours lasted between seven, twelve and fifteen days, with plenty to take in and free time built into the journey.

Brochure, 1951

And our dad drove their coaches across the UK and on to France, the Low Countries as far as Switzerland and Northern Italy.

He joined the firm sometime in the early 1930s and continued working for them until he retired in 1986.

Very early on in his career he was chosen as one of the two drivers to take coaches into Europe, and apart from a break during the last war, dad did the business and was highly thought of by the firm, his colleagues and the passengers.

And we grew up with that job, which from spring through to autumn would see him leave one morning to return seven, twelve or fifteen days later.

My treat when younger was to be picked up by him at the end of a tour and after the passengers had been dropped off Dad and I would go up to the garage in Nunhead where the coach would be serviced before starting all over again in the morning.

Now, while we had accumulated a lot of memorabilia from Dad what was missing was the detailed story of the firm itself.

And despite years of research, I had drawn almost a blank, until someone who worked with him got in touch. The message was simple enough with “I ran Glenton Tours until 1985. I am happy to supply information” and the promising news that “the archives are held in the Dover Transport Museum”.**

Dad,ready for the off, undated

So the next chapter is about to open up.

And like all such new twists, the story will offer up much about Glenton's along with how some of us spent our holidays during the last century, and maybe even something about our Dad.

We shall see.

And just before the story went live the museum got back to me with a picture of a vehicle Glenton's acquired in the 1960s. 

It is CC 9305 which Mr. Flood of the museum tells me "is a 1929 Dennis GL fitted with a 'toastrack' body by J.Roberts for Llandudno Urban District Council who used it for tours of the Great Orme until 1953. CC9305 was acquired in the 1960s by Glenton Tours of Peckham Rye and still carries the Glenton Livery".

Now l remember Dad talking about it and given that in the winter he worked in the paintshop of the garage he may well have worked on it.

CC 9305 which is a 1929 Dennis GL, bought by Glenton's in 1960

All of which adds to the excitement of the new chapter.

Pictures; Glenton Tours memorabilia from the Simpson collection, and the Glenton's coach, courtesy of Dover Transport Museum

* Glenton Tours, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Glenton%20Tours

**Dover Transport Museum, https://www.dovertransportmuseum.org.uk/

Three pictures in search of a story ………

Sometimes you know that the story is lost, that no matter how much you dig into the past it will never come out of the shadows.

But in doing so you can come close to revealing a bit of family history and maybe a bit more.

So here are three pictures, two which are part of a commercial pack advertising the sights of the Lake District and one which is quite clearly a “snap” of a party of tourists.

All three come from our dad’s collection which will date from the mid-1920s through to the 1950s.

The commercial ones were used as an aide memoir when he was working for Glenton Tours who ran touring holidays across Britain and the Continent.

He worked for them from 1932 until he retired in 1982 and was quickly promoted from home tours to those which took passengers to France, Germany, the Low Countries, and Italy.

And so, the pictures were what he studied in preparation for the British tours which were accompanied by a set of notes.

By the mid-1930s he was also on the Continental runs, but for these he was joined by a “courier” who was fluent in several languages and took the responsibility of describing the sights and liaising with the hotels.

Today we might be cynical of this type of holiday which if you weren’t careful and you turned away from the window you might miss a country, added to which you might need to check the day and match it with the itinerary to be sure of where you were.

But that said these were not cheap holidays and were aimed at the middle class who wanted to explore from the comfort of a motor coach and relax at the end of the day in a luxury hotel.

All of which must date the two “Lake District” pictures to sometime before the last world war, and if I was familiar with Ambleside, I might be able to match them to their modern equivalent.

As for the seven tourists I am stumped.  

I think we are in the same period as the two commercial ones, and the rounded towers suggest a Scottish location.

But that is it.  Given that it was with Dad’s other “work” photographs I am guessing he took it or was given it by another passenger on one of his tours.

It is an intriguing one and provokes a heap of speculation as to who the seven were, whether they were students, possibly a group of diplomats or just a family group.

Location; Ambleside and somewhere else, dates unknown.

Alas I doubt their identities and reason for being in the picture are lost.

Pictures; the Ambleside two and the seven tourists, circa 1920s/30s. from the Simpson collection 

Travelling the Lakes in comfort ….. a century ago

You might be forgiven for passing over this tired looking picture of the Bridge House, Ambleside which according to one source “is possibly the most photographed building in the Lake District, and a popular subject for many artists including Turner.”*

Bridge House, circa 1920s

So, it is not surprising that it found its way into our Dad’s collection of Lakeland locations.

What make it a little different is that it must be coming up for its 100th birthday, or at the very least its 90th.

Dad and passengers, circa 1920s-30s

Dad was a coach driver who from the early 1920s was working for Glenton Tours of New Cross in southeast London.

They specialized in coach trips across Britain and by the 1930s to the Continent.

The tours lasted for seven days and offered a wealth of historic as well as beauty spots with full board in first class hotels.

And dad’s job was to drive the coach, give a commentary along the way, and ensure the passengers had all they needed.

Leaving the “guests" to get to the pickup point in New Cross or Central London and then sit back and enjoy the holiday.

It isn’t my choice but then cheap air travel and the internet have made all those places very accessible.

Back then they provided a luxury holiday utilizing the motor coach which was itself at the start of its long history.

Bridge House, 2022

Leaving me just to add that Bridge House is “tiny building, originally an apple store for nearby Ambleside Hall, was built over Stock Beck to escape land tax. 

Once five mills were driven by the power of Stock Beck and some may still be seen nearby. 

It is said that at some time a family with six children lived here in the two rooms.

In 1926 it was purchased by a group of local people who passed it into the care of the National Trust, which 20 years later they turned into their first information and recruitment centre. 

You can now visit without charge to see the 2 sparsely furnished rooms”.*

Location ; Bridge House, Ambleside

Pictures; Bridge House, Ambleside, circa mid 1920s into the 1930s, from the collection of the Simpson family, in 2022 courtesy of Google Maps

*Visit Cumbria, https://www.visitcumbria.com/amb/bridge-house/

When you are only just a picture away from a long time ago .......

You know you are old when a picture like this is not some funny old “gent” in silly trousers with a car that belongs in a museum, but a familiar friend and the man is your dad.

For our kids and grandchildren, the scene is not just old but ancient.

For me on the other hand, I have seen it lots of times, and it connects me with Dad before I knew him and before he became just Dad, the teller of silly jokes, the craftsman who could turn out the most wonderful Christmas toys made of wood and the man of mystery who in the summer was gone for months driving posh people on coaching holidays across the Continent.

So, this is that other dad, sometime in the late 1920s into the following decade when he was single with that glint in his eye, heaps of charm and a smile that instantly made you at ease with him.

Added to which there were the cars, and I mean cars, because across several pictures he is beside the wheel of some very sporty numbers along with cheaper but no less magic automobiles.

I have no idea how he came across them, whether they were bought, hired or borrowed, but he and they were companions along with a variety of other “companions” who always look happy in his presence.

I never thought to ask who these young women were, and I doubt Dad would have said, offering instead an enigmatic smile followed by a clearing of the throat and a change of subject.

Nor with the passage of ninety or so years are we ever going to know.

If there were tender letters of affection exchanged with these friends none have survived and now there is no one left to ask.

Not that I think I would ask, after all even your dad deserves a little privacy, as do we all.

But I do like the way that three very old pictures of cars that belong in a museum span the near century and are a direct line of continuity to me sitting in our house and a different historical landscape.

They are a cut down version of how we sometimes connect to the past. 

I remember asking one of my uncles about his memories of the General Strike of 1926, when he was living in Gateshead.  I was expecting accounts of workers at meetings, and of strike breakers driving lorries and railway trains, but instead I got the memory of just how clear the skyline was, freed from the smoke thrown up by hundreds of factory chimneys.

In the same way I was fascinated by two accounts of women from the 1940s.

In the first, a woman in her 80s recalled a conversation with an even more elderly woman who worked as a servant in the court of King George III, while another woman talked about her great grandmother’s reaction on hearing the news of the execution of the French Queen in 1793.

What I like is that in just two people’s memories we are back at the end of the 18th century, and that makes me wish I could have eavesdropped on the conversation between the philosopher Bertrand Russel and one of his relatives who had discussed the passing of the Great Reform Bill in 1832 with Lord John Russell who had campaigned for Parliamentary reform.

Or I could just have asked Dad where he got the cars.

Location; unknown

Pictures; Dad, a friend and three cars, undated from the Simpson collection

Nineteen men .......one driver and a dog ……….

Now I suspect you can make many things of this picture of a “men’s outing” somewhere at some time before now.

And I shall start with the one certain thing I know which is the chap standing on the back row to our left with that jauntily placed hat is our dad.

He spent his whole working career from when he left school at 14 around motor coaches, and as soon as he could qualified as a driver.

His early years were with several coach companies in and around Newcastle before moving south to London in 1932 to work for Glenton Tours of New Cross.

Glenton’s were one of the premier coach companies, offering luxury tours of Britain and the Continent and our dad was one of their drivers.

His skill, professionalism, and dedication to the job saw him swiftly promoted to driving tours across Europe, from France, the Low Countries, and onward to the French, Italian and Swiss Alps from the mid-1930s.

The holidays involved seven to fifteen days, taking in the sights with overnight stays at luxury hotels, and accompanied with a detailed itinerary and a courier to point out the more interesting sights.

All of which was yet to come when Dad posed for this picture, which I think must be before 1932 when he was still employed to drive passengers on mystery tours, trips to the “scenic North East” and of course those works outings.

And if pushed I rather think that the nineteen men and the dog were just such a “works outing”.  We called them a “Beano” or “Jolly” and while the ostensible plan was a day at the seaside, the journey was punctuated with frequent stops at passing pubs and fortified by crates of beer for the bits in-between.

All of which takes me to the picture.  They are a mixed bunch, these party goers, dressed in their finest with flat caps winning out over the more stylish hats, and the fob watches on display.

We will never now know whether this was a works do or a day out from their local pub, but the range in age with the oldest in his seventies might suggest a pub outing.

And that leads me to reflect that this picture takes us effortlessly back to the 1860s and maybe into the decade before.

At which point I must guard against that silly observation which all of us can make, that here are a group of men who have seen and come to terms with great changes, from the wireless, and the motor car, to the telephone and the cinema.

It is silly because it is also true of other generations down the centuries.  

Our Uncle George was born in 1898 and died in 2001, and so not only welcomed the wireless, and the motor car, telephone and cinema, but talked happily to his nephew and nieces about their holidays by air to foreign places and was curious to know how he could use a computer .

But I digress there is much more in the picture but that I will leave to you.

Other than to say this is still the time when a man or a woman with a cigarette would not have seemed odd.

Indeed in the collection of about 50 photographs of Dad from the 1920s through to the 1950s there are a few where he hasn't got a cigarette in his hand.

And just finish with that other obvious observation that it is all men.  But Nana I know did regularly Take  trips out into the Derbyshire countryside in the 1930s and 40.

So that is it.

Location, somewhere, at sometime

Picture; Nineteen men, one driver and a dog, undated, from the Simpson collection

Looking for the answer to a tiny mystery …..

Among the pictures our dad collected in the 1920s and 30s is this one.

It is a war memorial and I guess is in Scotland.

But there are no accompanying notes or a date.

That said I think it will date to the mid decades of the last century with just a possible extension into the 1950s.

And the reason for this was that this picture and the rest of the collection were used by Dad in his work for Glenton Tours, driving and hosting coach parties on holidays across Britain.

From the early 1930s he worked for Glenton Tours who were based in New Cross in south east London, and the pictures may well have been an aide memoir when preparing for the trips.

So all suggestions gratefully accepted.

Location; somewhere

Picture; the unidentified war memorial, undated, from the Simpson collection

The picture with secrets ………. or what to do with Montague?

 We will all have one of these pictures.

It is undated, has no name on the back and could be anyone in our family or no one in our family.

What I do know is that it comes from a large collection of photographs which date from the early 1920s into the 50s which belonged to our dad.

They have pretty much lain undisturbed since they came north from London in the mid-1990s.  

Every so often I look through them trying to identify some of the people and the locations and others I will use for stories.

But this one has always eluded me and at the same time fascinated me.

And yet again I am drawn back to it.

I doubt that his name was Montague who was my great grandfather and belonged to my mother’s side.

It is more likely that he was connected to Dad and if so perhaps I am looking at my paternal great grandfather, which means the baby could be dad, or one of my uncles.

But dad was born in 1908 and the picture I think may be a little later.  I am pretty confident it isn’t me, so he might be my cousin Mary who was born in the 1930s.

Or it might just be a distant family member.

So, with no idea of the identity of the man or child, what do I do with the picture?

I could bin it, but that seems outrageous, and an act of betrayal on dad who felt sufficiently connected to it to have kept the picture in his collection for perhaps 60 years.

And even though Dad will never know, I will, so it will go back into the collection prompting me to ponder that I should get the entire collection in order, given that at 74 there are fewer years ahead of me than behind.

And in doing so give our kids and perhaps grandchildren a better context on what they are looking at.

Leaving me just to reflect on the scene behind the two of them with its vague view of a cut glass bowl, a fireplace and what looks like another person.

The full picture reveals that they were sitting outside, possibly under a veranda with a door to the right and a bamboo thing to the left.

And that is it.

Location; unknown

Picture; unknown man and baby, undated, from the Simpson collection

False dawns…. promising leads ……. the search for Glenton Tours goes on

Glenton Tours was a coach company at the luxury end of the market offering high class trips across Britain and the Continent from the 1920s into the late part of the 20th century.*

Luggage label, undated

And I have gone looking for their story, partly because they were the backdrop to my life in Peckham and later Eltham and because Dad worked for them for 50 years from 1932 till he retired.

Dad and the courier, Elizabeth, undated

In the summer he drove their coaches to the Lakes and into Scotland as well as France, the Low Countries, Switzerland, and Italy.

In the winter he worked in the garage off Brabham Grove, and later in Charlton.  So linked were they with Peckham that when the garage was demolished and replaced by a housing development it was called Glenton Mews.

Their head office was 397 Queens Road and as well as the offices in New Cross they had a West End office at 109 Jermyn Street.

From the 1965 brochure

I have written about them over the years but recently I have also become aware of just what a presence they had on our family.**

Last week I came across a newspaper account of the company from 1983 which had been reissued in Commercial Motor Archive and my interest was reignited.

Undated

Glenton’s had been owned by an estate agent in New Cross called Saxton, and today I went looking for them.

The good news was that the firm still exists, but the bad news is that they were bought out leaving me to wonder where next to go.

One lead is an employee of the old company who may get back to me tomorrow, and there are always other routes which I am convinced will yield results.

And on the way I will reveal a bit more about the people dad worked for, from Elizabeth a courier, Frank, Taffy and Wishy Washy who worked in the garage and the Saxton family.

We shall see.

Location southeast London

Brochure, 1951

Pictures; Glenton Tours memorabilia from the Simpson collection

Grindelwald, undated

* 1951 ....... a Glenton Tour brochure and a window on a world we have lost, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/06/1951-glenton-tour-brochure-and-window.html

**Glenton Tours, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Glenton%20Tours