Glenton Tours …… the coach company that was the luxury motor holiday

Our dad worked for Glenton Tours for over half a century and the story of his part in that company and its part in the modern holiday industry is fascinating.*

Dad and Elizabeth recieving awards, date unknown

It started with an estate agent settling a debt and acquiring five motor coaches which became the core of a business which ran sight seeing tours across Britain and into Europe from 1929.

Elizabeth and Dad, date unknown

The company was in the right place at the right time, as rising disposable income allowed midddle class families the opportunity to go on a new type of coach holiday.

Not that these were run of the mill excursions, but carefully planned tours which lasted for seven, twelve and fourteen days and guaranteed the customers first class hotels, three good meals a day and an itinerary which provided the travellers with all they might want to do about the places of interest.

Added to which there were commentaries which offered up instant historical information along the way.  

These were provided by the driver on home tours and by a courier on the Continental journeys.

Father did both, starting with trips across Britain at the start of the season but slipping in to the Continental tours in late Spring and through to autumn.

Elizabeth, Dad, Frank and unknown courier, date unknown

We still have many of the notebooks and pictures he used for the home tours, and these are now a wonderful insight into the Britain of the 1930s and 40s.

He was pretty there from the start, and so we also have photographs which record the different coaches the company used from the beginning and the differing style of uniforms, from the peaked hat and white long coat to the fitted and style uniforms of the 1950s and 1960s.

And because father kept everything we also have some of the brochures which advertised the individual tours, prices and helpful information.

So from the 1951 brochure came the reassuring comments that “You do not have to bother about luggage, frontier, monetary or language difficulties” and the cost included “the inclusive charge provided for all food and accommodation, the sea crossing and gratuities to hotel staff."

Dad and unknown courier, date unknown

But given that this was soon after the war passengers were informed that “Ration Books are not necessary on any of our tours” but that passengers are advised take "a towel and soap in case some hotels are still unable to supply them.”**

All of which has reignited my interest in the company after receiving a collection of photographs from the grandson of the founder of Glenton Tours.  

Some of the pictures are of a Brighton Coach Rally which I can date to sometime in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 

 In his covering note he  wrote  “If your Father went to Brighton Coach Rallies there is a good chance that there is a picture of him”.

And there are heaps of him, mostly holding trophies he had won for successfully competing against other drivers in demonstrating driving skills before the public.***

Interior of one of the 1950s fleet, date unknown

What makes the pictures even more significant is that in the group pictures I can identify not only Dad but also his fellow Continental driver who was called Frank and who lived very close to us on Queens Road, and one of the couriers who we knew as Elizabeth.

One of the Glenton fleet, date unknown

All of which is a nice Sunday afternoon trip back through the story of Glenton Tours and our dad.

Pictures; Brighton Coach Rally, date unknown, courtesy of Peregrine Smith

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

*Motor Coach Holiday Tours, 1951

** UK Coach Rally, https://coachdisplays.co.uk/history/

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/

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

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

1951 ....... a Glenton Tour brochure and a window on a world we have lost

I was too young to remember 1951 but I know it was a year of promise.

It was after all the year of the Festival of Britain, the beginning of the sixth year of year of peace and for many a time when the Welfare State was offering care from the cradle to the grave.

And it was the year when Glenton Tours resumed their coach trips to the Continent.

The firm had begun in the 1920s when an estate agent settled a debt with a customer by accepting a coach and that started “Glenton Motor Coach Holiday Tours.”

Dad worked for them from the very beginning and finally retired in 1987 having driven their coaches around Britain and Europe from the early 1930s.

All of which I have written about already but today I came across their 1951 brochure advertising four, seven and twelve day tours Scotland, the Romantic West, Wales and the Lake District.

And it was on one of the Lake District trips that he met my mother who was working at the Queens Hotel at Matlock Bath sometime in the late 1940s.

The tours were all inclusive, offering “first class accommodation” and the “Chauffeur-Couriers have been chosen after exacting tests of their reliability and skill and give every attention to travellers.  

Nearly all of them were with Glenton Tours before the war and returned to the Company when we re-started in 1947.”

And it is this little entry which opens up the brochure as a wonderful record of that post war period.

Contained also in the “notes and information” is the advice that “Ration Books are not, necessary on any of our tours” and that passengers are advised take "a towel and soap in case some hotels are still unable to supply them.”

The cost ranged from 9 guineas for the “Special 4-Day Easter Tours to  58 guineas for the thirteen day trip to France, Austrian Tyrol, Italian Lakes and Switzerland.”

It is easy to get cynical of a holiday which in just under a fortnight took you through five countries and which you risked missing one if you fell asleep on the journey.

But this was before the internet, and before cheap air travel when even television was in its infancy and so the idea of visiting five countries taking in the views and the history while being catered for in first class style was very attractive.

Added to which as the brochure boasted “You do not have to bother about luggage, frontier, monetary or language difficulties” and “the inclusive charge provided for all food and accommodation, the sea crossing and gratuities to hotel staff."

Of course this was a holiday way beyond many working people but by 1973 many who two decades earlier would never have contemplated a coach trip abroad were signing up.

So in that year Glenton’s offered a total of 69 tours of which 24 were to the Continent.

It never appealed to me as a holiday but then I belonged to a different generation.

For those who the tour did go, many will have begun their holidays on train and coach excursions to seaside resorts taking full advantage of the paid holidays which were by the 1930s a bonus to the holiday trade.

And I won’t be sniffy at what gave dad nearly sixty years of full employment, put food on our table and provided a shed load of people with an experience they would not have otherwise had.

Location; Britain and the Continent

Pictures; from Glenton Coach Holiday Tours, 1951, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The one with style ………….. the hotel by the mountains

Now as picture postcards go, this one of the Hotel Pitter is Salzburg has captured my imagination.

Hotel Pitter

It was one Dad must have picked up in his travels and sits with a few more of the same hotel, including the bierkeller.

Dad will have passed through the hotel on a stopover, as part of the guided tour of Vienna and the Austrian Tyrol, which Glenton Tours ran from the 1950s and 60s.

In all there were nine tours which ranged from Holland, the French and Italian Rivieras, to the Rhineland and Black Forest and the Swiss and Italian Lakes.

They ran through from the beginning of May to the end of September, and the brochure advised, that travelers “have the benefit of a courier as well as the services of a most carefully selected driver, [adding that]our many years of experience have proved that a women makes the best courier and that the combined efforts of male driver and female courier ensure a superb carefree holiday”.*

Dad, Elizabeth, the courier, and passengers

The cost included “your own personal seat, hotel accommodation including dinner and continental breakfast, luncheon throughout, as well taxes, service charges, gratuities to hotel staff, cross channel steamer fares and of course the multilingual courier and a guidebook”.

And the Vienna and Austrian Tyrol tour lasted for twelves days, cost £66, and took in the Rhineland, Bavaria, the Black Forest, France and Belgium with three nights in Vienna.

Pitterkeller 

And day three, started at Wiesbaden and concluded at Salzburg which the brochure conceded was “rather a long days’ drive, mostly along motorways, by passing Frankfurt. Wûrburg, Nûrnburgn and Munich, [but] you will think it worth while because it allows a precious extra night in Vienna”, and that night was spent in the Hotel Pitter.

So, I am not surprised that the postcard turns up in Dad’s collection, only that it looks much older than the 1950s, and could easily have been produced a decade or even two decades earlier.

The picture postcard

I suppose it might have been old stock, or like me the hotel just liked the stylized appearance and continued to use it.

The hotel is still there today but its online presence admits no such throwback.

Location; Salzburg

Pictures; picture post cards of the Pitter Hotel and Dad, Elizabeth, the courier and passengers, date unknown, from the collection of Andrew Simpson



*Glenton coach cruisers Britain and the Continent 1967, Glenton Tours, 397 Queen's Road New Cross Gate, London S.E.14

So was that Luxembourg? ............... holidays by hotel labels in the 1950s

Now I don’t even know if hotels still give away suitcase labels.

If they don’t that is a shame because I am sitting beside some of the ones my dad collected in his years as a coach driver and they are fascinating

Not that he ever stuck them on his suit cases, he just brought them home which may have been an earlier version of the tourist habit of collecting the soap and shampoo from the bathroom.

He was at the luxury end of the motor holiday trade and his passengers would whisked on a seven, nine or fifteen day tour of mainland Europe from the Benelux countries as far as the Swiss Alps and the Italian Lakes.

They would be fed and accommodated at good hotels, provided with a first class guide and had time off to wander as they wished.

But it was a fairly rigid timetable which has often prompted me to think if you dozed off or looked away long enough from the window you might well have missed an entire country.

It is not my idea of a holiday but was so successful that it kept Glenton Tours going from the 1920s well past the time Dad retired in 1982.

That said it was still a wonderful way of seeing new places allowing you to get a sense of what  made each country and town along the way that little bit different.

Today most of us just get on a plane and with in a couple of hours have arrived at the destination,  having spent the entire journey ordering a drink, wrestling with a packet of peanuts and pondering on what to buy from "the onboard offers."

Only after the bags have been collected and passport control completed do you get a sense of where you are which even then may be some what muted by the long wait for the holiday tour bus to fill up and set off.

All of which makes me think that the fifteen day coach holiday to the Italian Lakes, taking in a bit of France, lots of Luxembourg and Bellgium and northrn Italy has some merit.

And so for no other reason than I haven’t looked at these labels for half a century I shall post a few a week, and in the fullness of time will go looking for each of the hotels.

Pictures; hotel labels from the 1950s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Travelling Europe ………….. with a suitcase and a clutch of hotel labels

Now, history comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and today I am back with the humble luggage label.*

They were something I grew up with given that Dad’s job took him across the Continent from the beginning of May till the end of September.

Not that he ever used them on his suitcase, instead they sat in envelopes, to be taken out occasionally by me who was fascinated by the magic of the pictures and the destinations.

And now a full sixty years on I am admiring them all over again, more so because of the style of much of the artwork as well as the history behind them.

But the passage of time has been cruel and nearly 40 years stored in a cellar has resulted in some of them for ever being fused together, while others were just lost through neglect.

Still, enough have survived to give a flavor to that world of hotels and travelling during the middle decades of the last century.

The seasoned travelers could also add labels for the steam ships, which took passengers from mundane places of Calais and Antwerp to exotic destinations halfway around the world.

Travel often and far enough and your suitcase was an advert for the holidays you took.

But dad was not on holiday, instead his was the job of driving the coach that took his passengers from London, across the Continent as far as the Swiss and Italian Alps, along with the French Rivera, the Black Forest, and for good measure the Dutch tulips and windmills as well as Paris and a selection of European cities.

All of which meant he accumulated luggage labels from all over, and the fun has been to see just how many of these hotels still exist.

And the surprise is that many are still in business, retaining their old name if a little modified, from the grand Hotel Regina in Venice to the Pitter in Saltsburg and many more.

Of course, most will have undergone change, and I expect dad and his passengers would have wondered what Wi fi was, as well as marveling that each room would come with a television as standard.

Once or twice I have contacted some of the places, offering to share an image of their ancient hotel label, but none have been interested enough to reply.

But then most are now owned by corporations, with hotels across the world, and while the original name may have been retained, most will have added a brand title, and the interior will have taken on a uniformity, which is the same for Paris, Berlin or Rome.

Likewise, each in the chain will sit on the same company web site with little to distinguish its uniqueness and no hint of its distinct history.

Leaving me with just these old bits of their past, when each hotel commissioned their own artist to create something with style, and in some cases a hint of humour which made them stand out from the rest.

Location; across Europe









Pictures; luggage labels, circs 1940s-50s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hotel labels, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Hotel%20labels

All sensible shoes and summer smiles ………

I am looking at one of those pictures which would have been all too familiar in the middle decades of the last century

We are on a private coach tour and the 31 passengers have gathered for the customary photograph outside one of the obligatory stops which in this case offered up “Souvenirs, Novelties & Postcards” along with “Ices & Minerals”.

I have no idea where we are or for that matter when.  But judging by the coaches and the clothes I think we will be in the early 1930s.

And this I think is confirmed by the figure of our dad standing sixth from the left as he would have looked in his mid-20s.

It may even have been before he moved to London to work for Glenton Tours which was in 1932.

If so, he might have been a passenger rather than driver and that may place the day out somewhere in the Northeast.

During the interwar years and into the 1950s the day out to some beauty spot or work’s outing were a popular way to see a bit of the countryside, escape from the city and enjoy an excursion with family and friends.

They predate the motor coach and there are plenty of pictures of horse drawn wagons and later charabancs plying the rural lanes, or parked up outside a pub.

Back in the 1960s to fill up the coach Dad took me and three friends on the firm’s  “Beano” to Brighton which consisted of several stops along the way, a fish and chip dinner, and a crate of beer on the coach.

Three decades earlier Nana regularly went on trips to historic and scenic places in the Midlands, for which we still have postcards bought at the destination and never sent.

Nor can we miss out the “mystery tours” which were still being advertised in the early 1980s in travel agents across the country.

The ones I remember were on display in Simpson’s travels agents on Wilbraham Road.  

The trick was to work out how far the coach could go from leaving Chorlton to return by 6 in the evening.

Not that I am knocking them.  The coach excursions, Beano’s, and mystery tours were an important recreational opportunity for people on limited means and especially before the introduction of paid holidays in the 1930s.

Our picture comes from a collection Dad had, but most are undated, and unnamed.

So there you are …. A little bit of how we had fun sometime before now.

Location; unknown

Picture; All sensible shoes and summer smiles, undated, from the Simpson collection