Cumberland ceased to exist as a county 44 years ago, so in imagining a revival of Cumberland Motor Services, The MHD Partnership creative team argues that the time is right to change its name and break with its red bus heritage
IDENTITY PARADE
Cumberland Motor Services was an oddity among Tilling companies, a subsidiary that preferred Leylands to the group’s own Bristols. That was thanks to a controlling shareholding by the Meageen family, who until 1948 owned slightly more shares than Tilling or the London Midland & Scottish Railway.
Cumberland was formed in 1921 when the BET group’s British Automobile Traction renamed the Whitehaven Motor Service Company in which it had just acquired a 50% shareholding. It became part of Tilling & BAT in 1928 with a railway investment from 1929, then a Tilling company when the alliance ended in 1942. Six years later, the railways and Tilling’s bus operations came into state ownership, ending the relationship with Leyland Motors soon after.
Cumberland buses were Tilling red and cream until the National Bus Company’s corporate identity brought in poppy red and white from 1972, and in 1986 it absorbed Ribble’s Carlisle and Penrith operations. It retained its nam…
