The Classic British Isles Buses Website
H. M. S. Catherwood 1925 - 1935 (by Shane Conway)
Page last updated on 13 August 2024
Email Classic U.K. Buses Classic Irish Buses Classic Manx Buses
In January 2010 I received an e-mail from Ken Riis of Washington, U. S. A. asking if I'd be interested in a bus timetable dating from July 1930, issued by H. M. S. Catherwood Ltd. of Belfast. The document had been discovered in the personal effects of Ken's late uncle (1909 to 1974), who was in the U.S. Merchant Marine Service. During 1930 this man made at least three overseas trips on board the S. S. Kerhonkson from New York, and it is likely that he acquired the timetable during one of these voyages. Once the 40 page booklet arrived, I decided to scan its contents and create this page as a tribute to one of the original five constituents of the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board. The page includes a text on the company's history (by Sam Simpson), followed by the timetable pages, and finally a fleet history of the operator.
Company history by Sam Simpson.
Harold Matthew Stuart Catherwood formed his bus company on July 7th, 1925 with money his wife inherited from her late father. The first Catherwood bus (a 32 seat Leyland with Edinburgh bodywork) operated a service from Toomebridge linking Antrim and Portglenone. In July 1927 Harold Catherwood introduced the travelling public of Ulster to the delights of a blue liveried American Fageol Coach which he purchased second hand from Warwick Wright, the Chiswick based Fageol dealer. The vehicle had been used for about two years previously on the London to Brighton service. The Fageol was introduced on the Belfast to Portrush service. The Fageol often fell foul of the Royal Ulster Constabulary who rigidly imposed the 12 miles per hour speed limit resulting in many court actions against Catherwood's drivers for exceeding the speed limit in the Hall Scott petrol powered machine. Harold Catherwood so loved the blue liveried Fageol coach that he adopted the livery for all future Catherwood buses. It was officially known as Cambridge Blue and was likened to an azure shade.
The Catherwood operation soon flourished through the hard work, innovation and pioneering spirit of Harold. Harold Catherwood was a strict Calvinist and member of the Plymouth Brethren, a fundamentalist Protestant group who held that the Lords Day was special. Consequently H. M. S. Catherwood never ran any bus services on Sundays during the whole history of the Company. In 1926 Harold Catherwood appointed Joseph Mackle as his chief engineer, a man who enthusiastically pursued a policy of buying Leyland buses. At the time Mackle joined Catherwood's the Company was operating 63 miles of routes and had a 12 vehicle fleet. By 1929 this had risen to 286 route miles operated by 122 vehicles. Catherwood's rapidly expanded with a fleet of modern, fast Leylands to a very high specification which was the envy of many an operator in the British Isles. Joe Mackle left Catherwood's in 1929 to join the Great Northern Railway of Ireland as its first Road Motor Superintendent and was succeeded by a former British Army officer, Captain Richard Stagg. Stagg introduced the Alexander type fleet numbering system with an alpha character denoting the vehicle type followed by the number. Catherwood dismissed Richard Stagg in 1934.
On August 27th, 1927 a new long distance service (103 miles) was opened between Belfast and Dublin serving Lisburn, Hillsborough, Dromore, Banbridge, Newry, Dundalk and Drogheda en route much to the anger of the Great Northern Railway. Five return workings were introduced between Monday and Saturday. Two additional workings were added in 1929 followed by a further journey in 1931. In October 1930 a further important extension was made to the company's routes when a Dublin to Cork service was introduced. The Cork service was timed to connect with the Belfast - Dublin operations thus providing a 272-mile service from Belfast. Catherwood was not the first operator to run buses between Belfast and Dublin, that distinction was accorded to the International Bus Service who pre-dated Catherwoods using mainly 24 seat Gilford buses. Two well-known Belfast businessmen, Baird and Weir, owned the International. Catherwood bought out the International in October 1929 and used the inherited buses to provide feeder services to the main Dublin service. The feeder services linked the towns of Clones, Newbliss, Ballybay, Castleblayney and Carrickmacross with Dundalk. A short feeder service operated between Clogher and Drogheda. There was also a short dalliance with a working from Dublin Eden Quay to the Baily at Howth just north of Dublin. Catherwood introduced a Sligo - Londonderry service on the 22nd December 1929 adding a leg to Glenties the following July.
The Leyland Lion (PLSC3) 17 seat buses used on the Belfast/Dublin service were specially bodied by the London firm of Hall Lewis and featured underfloor luggage lockers and a 2 + 1 seating arrangement with foldaway tables at every seat and a small chemical toilet on the offside rear of the vehicle. These rare features were indicative of the innovation demonstrated by the H. M. S. Catherwood company. H. M. S. Catherwood became a limited company on the 20th July, 1928, and at that time its operations were further developed with the acquisition of a Limavady - Londonderry service from Hutchinson Brothers. The nominal share capital of £25,000 was primarily held by members of the Catherwood family and the Northern Bank.
Catherwood was one of the principal parties to the Belfast bus war when they competed fiercely with Belfast Corporation Tramways. As soon as the bus war was settled by the Northern Ireland government through the introduction of new legislation Catherwood turned his attention to Northern Ireland's second city of Londonderry. The company introduced services in the Maiden City competing with the municipally run Londonderry Corporation Services, which had been running since March 1st, 1920. Lower fares and more frequent services ensured that within a very brief period of time the Corporation run bus service was on its knees and suing for peace! In May 1929 the Ulster Unionist controlled Londonderry Corporation voted unanimously to award a 20-year franchise to H. M. S. Catherwood to run all the City services. The only opposition in the Londonderry Corporation came from members of the Labour Party. Catherwood opened a new bus garage on Strand Road to service the fleet of vehicles. In 1932 a new bus station was opened on Foyle Street for the operation of all the city services. A plan to open another bus garage at Rosbeg, County Donegal was not realised.
Catherwood placed an order with Leyland for 50 single deck and 50 double deck buses in 1930, an order valued at £176,000. The order was later reduced as a result of the economic depression and the downturn in business confidence generally. At the time Leyland claimed it was the largest single order from any Irish bus company. In 1928 Catherwood established a tours business under the direct control of its Traffic Manager, Mr. William Adam Agnew (who was also Harold Catherwood's son-in-law) and these were run from the company's head office at 51 - 55 Upper Library Street, Belfast. William Agnew, although a shareholder in the company, left its employment in 1932 to take up the position as tours manager with the L. M. S. (N. C.C.) and G. N. R (I) railway companies, a position he held until 1936. Arthur Culbert was Catherwood's traffic manager working from offices at 9, Eden Quay Dublin until its Irish Free State operations were compulsorily acquired by the Great Northern Railway of Ireland in 1933. The G. N. R.(I) finally paid H. M. S. Catherwood £50,000 compensation on the 27th March, 1935.
The chief inspector of Catherwood was William Andrew Kissick who himself became a shareholder in the business in July 1932. 1932 also saw Thomas Tilling purchase a 58% stake in H. M. S. Catherwood and it became a subsidiary of the Tilling Group who nominated two Directors, H. C. Merrett and Stanley Kennedy. Harold Catherwood then became a Tilling director in return. H. M. S. Catherwood established a central works in Belfast, on the south side of the Donegall Road, near Celtic Park football ground. Major repairs and overhauls were carried out at these premises. A number of bus bodies were also built replacing worn out Hall Lewis bodies on earlier buses. It is believed that the Catherwood bodies were in fact Weymann frames completed in Belfast. There was a tendency for Irish bus operators to rebody vehicles every five years or so, such was the wear and tear exerted by poor Irish roads.
H.M.S. Catherwood also ran a Road Freight department, which undertook deliveries of parcels and small consignment traffic as well as offering a passenger luggage in advance delivery service. The road freight fleet consisted of a small number of Leyland lorries together with some buses which were converted to Parcels Lorries. H. M. S. Catherwood obtained the first of a total of 10 double deck buses in 1931 (the 1930 double deck order was cancelled) represented by two Leyland TD1 51 seaters with lowbridge bodies (necessary to navigate the L. M. S. (N. C. C.) Railway Bridge at Templepatrick) designed to operate between Belfast and Portrush. A 1932 delivery of Leyland TD2 machines with Leyland bodies was joined two years later by a tranche of Leyland TD3 deckers with Northern Counties Bodywork all to a lowbridge specification.
H. M. S. Catherwood lost all its services in the Irish Free State to the G. N. R and the Cork service to the Great Southern Railway in December 1933. Two years later the Northern Ireland government effectively nationalised all bus and road freight transport outside Belfast when it formed the highly unsuccessful Northern Ireland Road Transport Board (N. I. R. T. B). H. M. S. Catherwood, its buses, lorries and staff were all absorbed into the N. I. R. T.B on October 1st 1935. This resulted in the sun setting on the Catherwood empire. It really was the end of an era, which had lasted just over 10 years, during which so many innovative ideas and concepts, which we take for granted today, had been pioneered by H. M. S. Catherwood. The company was formally wound up by the Thomas Tilling organisation on the 10th July 1939.
Below are copies of each page of the Catherwood timetable for July 1930 (apart from pages 5 and 6, which were missing from the book). Apart from the route schedules, it also details the company's tour programme, and contains advertisements for various hotels, cafes and shops in towns on the company's route network. Ex Catherwood routes today are operated by Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus and Ulsterbus, having also been undertaken previously by the Ulster Transport Authority, Northern Ireland Road Transport Board, Irish Omnibus Company, Great Southern Railways, Great Northern Railway and Coras Iompair Eireann.
Apologies for the fact that some pages appear slightly out of line, but great care had to be taken with the scanning process of this booklet, which was just a few months short of being 80 years old at the time of creating this page.
Front cover: Note no Sunday service message in corner.
Inside front cover: List of places served, and advert for Johnston's Umbrellas.
Page 1: Route map.
Page 2: Adverts for hotels in Portrush.
Page 3: Adverts for hotels and restaurants in Belfast and Portrush.
Page 4: Adverts for private hotels in Portrush.
Page 5: Missing from book -- anyone got a copy?
Page 6: Missing from book -- anyone got a copy?
Page 7: Adverts for hotels in Portstewart.
Page 8: Belfast - Portrush (via Antrim Coast) timetable.
Page 9: Belfast - Portstewart - Portrush timetable.
Page 10: Portrush - Portstewart - Belfast timetable.
Page 11: Portrush to Derry timetable.
Page 12: Derry to Portrush timetable.
Page 13: Belfast to Derry timetable.
Page 14: Derry City services timetable.
Page 15: Derry City services fares.
Page 16: Belfast to Garvagh timetable.
Tours supplement page 1: Tours from Portrush.
Tours supplement page 2: Tours from Coleraine and Ballymoney.
Tours supplement page 3: Tours of Ireland and Scotland.
Tours supplement page 4: Adverts for hotels in Derry and Portrush.
Tours supplement page 5: Tours from Belfast.
Tours supplement page 6: Tours from Portstewart.
Tours supplement page 7: Adverts for hotels in Derry, Coleraine, Castlerock and Strabane.
Tours supplement page 8: Tours from Derry and Limavady.
Page 17: Belfast to Derry (limited stop) and Belfast to Ballycastle timetables.
Page 18: Coleraine to Bushmills and Portrush to Glens of Antrim timetables.
Page 19: Belfast to Portrush and Derry to Newtownstewart timetables.
Page 20: Derry to Dungiven timetable.
Page 21: Derry to Sligo timetable.
Page 22: Donegal to Portnoo timetable.
Page 23: Ticket prices.
Page 24: Belfast to Dublin timetable.
Page 25: Dublin to Ardee and Drogheda to Clogher timetables.
Page 26: Advert for J. C. Holland.
Page 27: Advert for J. Robb and Co.
Page 28: List of cattle fairs for July 1930.
Page 29: Adverts for R. Martin, W. J. Purdon.
Page 30: Advert for A. E. Dickson.
Page 31: Adverts for McWilliams and Archer, James A. Pollock.
Page 32: Adverts for Potts and Houston, W. Cameron.
Inside back cover: Adverts for E. W. Gwynne, Castle Pram and Toy House.
Back cover: Advert for R. McDowell.
Known vehicles operated by H. M. S. Catherwood
Note: This fleet list is incomplete as there may be other vehicles which were operated by the company. Also, details concerning the fleet numbering system are incomplete (known numbers are listed below). Further information will be published as it becomes available.
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
Email Classic U.K. Buses Classic Irish Buses Classic Manx Buses