This is the story of RED & WHITE Services Ltd & the surviving buses and coaches from their once large fleet.
From 2012 to 2025 this site focused on one preserved Red & White coach. We called her Ruby - read her story >
RED & WHITE was a bus & coach operator (based in Chepstow). It provided services in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, the Glamorgan & Gwent valleys between 1929 & 1978.
History
In 1921 brothers John & Arthur Watts of Lydney started two bus companies: Gloster Transport (Lydney) & the Valleys Motor Bus Services (Tredegar). Both companies expanded quickly by acquiring nearby operators.
In 1926 the Lydney business adopted the name Gloster (Red & White) Services. By 1928, the companies were running buses in an area bounded by Hereford, Gloucester & the South Wales valleys.
In June 1929 John Watts formed RED & WHITE Services Ltd to bring together the bus companies he established or acquired. The same year it entered the long distance coach market, initially from South Wales valleys towns to London via Gloucester. In the early 1930’s coach operators were acquired further afield, with services between London, Liverpool and Glasgow & between Cardiff & Blackpool.
RED & WHITE expanded rapidly during the 1930s, by now from new head office in Bulwark, Chepstow. It acquired several bus companies in the Swansea area & elsewhere in South Wales. In 1933 ‘Red & White’ acquired the business of Red Bus Services of Stroud. 1934 saw Associated Motorways express coach services consortium formed.
By 1937 RED & WHITE & subsidiaries had a fleet of over 400 vehicles. In that year Red & White United Transport Ltd was formed as a public company to hold the group's various interests. The group's operations in the Swansea area were brought together in 1939 as United Welsh Services Ltd. The group also bought Cheltenham District in 1939.
Expansion continued during World War II. In 1944 the group bought Newbury & District. In 1945 they bought Venture (Basingstoke) and South Midland Motor Services (Oxford). The later ran express coach services between Worcester, Oxford & London.
Nationalisation
The Labour Government of 1945 planned to nationalise all road & rail transport, so in 1950 the Directors of RED & WHITE sold their UK bus operations to the British Transport Commission (a state quango). Then in 1962 RED & WHITE was transferred to the ‘Transport Holding Company’ (once part of Tilling Group of bus companies).
In 1968, the year our Ruby was new, RED & WHITE had:
- 13 garages;
- 392 vehicles: 244 saloons, 86 decker's; 62 coaches. Details.
- carried 36.5 million passengers;
- made
£72,685
profit
(in £/S/D).
NATIONAL
RED & WHITE became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company on 1 January 1969 & gradually worked more closely with nearby Western Welsh (also an NBC subsidiary).
The fleet name RED & WHITE was used until 28 April 1978 (when the company was merged with Western Welsh) to become the National Welsh Omnibus Company Ltd.
Back to private enterprise
National Welsh was privatised by Management Buyout in 1987, but struggled financially and went bankrupt in 1991.
Western Travel bought the Gwent valleys, Monmouthshire & Forest of Dean operations naming them RED & WHITE.
In 1995 Stagecoach acquired the company. 'RED & WHITE Services Ltd' remains the legal title of Stagecoach South Wales.
Operations
RED & WHITE ran a dense network of local bus services across the Forest of Dean, Monmouthshire, the Glamorgan & Gwent valleys from 1929 to 1978.
RED & WHITE were also main participants in the Associated Motorways express coach service consortium.
RED & WHITE became a subsidiary of the NATIONAL Bus Company on 1st January 1969. In April 1978 the fleet name disappeared.
