Title: United Counties A Fleet History 1921-2014
Author: David Beddall
Publisher: Pen & Sword Transport
ISBN: 978-1-52675-554-4 Specification: 285mm x 225mm, 224pp, hardback
Price: £30
Perhaps it is because its large operating territory lacked the domestic holiday destinations that attracted visiting enthusiasts to the territories of Ribble, Crosville, Midland Red, Western National, Southdown, East Kent and others, but for all of its size and vehicular interest, far less has been written and published about the United Counties Omnibus Company.
Yet this is a business that over half a century grew to serve large parts of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and north Buckinghamshire, with tentacles reaching London, Oxford, Leicester, south Lincolnshire, Peterborough, Huntingdon and north Hertfordshire. It had just 37 vehicles when founded in 1921 to take over the Wellingborough Motor Omnibus Company, but there were over 600 by 1970.
Prewar growth came partly by acquiring independent operators — 39 between 1928 and 1938 — while a major expansion came early in state ownership, when in May 1952 it nearly doubled in size with the transfer of the six garages and 247 vehicles in Eastern…
