Ribble 1458 (JCK 533) at Rochdale - circa 1964

Circa 1964 – One of my early schoolboy photographs of a Ribble Burlingham bodied Leyland PD2/12 seen in Packer Street, Rochdale awaiting departure for Blackpool on service 158. Packer Street forms the edge of Rochdale Town Hall Square. This was a Sunday so the gate to the entrance of Moir and Bateman Architects and the Trustee Savings Bank (on the right) was closed and locked. This covered doorway provided shelter for me when watching the buses during my school lunch break.

It is 1458 (JCK 533), one of the batch of 45 ‘JCK’ registered buses dating from 1956. The main service 158 required six buses, Blackburn garage provided 3, Preston 1, Scout 1 and Blackpool garage 1. Blackpool covered the 1240 departure from Rochdale along with the 1840 trip six hours later. Throughout the 1960s the garage was home to a stable (that is to say infrequently changed) allocation of buses from the ‘JCK’ registered batch of vehicles that included 1441/1455/1457-1460 (JCK 516/530/532-535).