Sentimental for Sentinels

For much of his married life, Ron Dean was in the driving seat. And his wife Greta was his conductor.

They were a husband-and-wife team who were brought together by buses, and were on the same one for years.

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It's been an enjoyable journey. They are full of tales of those days working for H Brown and Sons of Donnington, where they had their "own" bus - a Sentinel, registration number HAW 374.

Ron, who is 85, was still driving buses up to the age of 75.

The pair, who live in Donnington, have followed with interest recent features in the Shropshire Star with memories of the old days on the buses at Brown's and other companies, and have been irritated at one or two things that have been said.

"People keep saying that the one with the handlebar moustache was Harry Brown. But it wasn't. It was Alfred, the managing director, the youngest son of Harry," said Greta.

"Alfred was a ladies' man, and a gentleman. A lot of ladies called him Richard (the last syllable rhyming with 'hard'), because they were trying to be 'posh'," she added.

H Brown and the Trench-based AT Brown were originally run by brothers Harry and Alf, but it had been suggested that the Browns were also connected with Eagle Coachways. Not so, say Ron and Greta.

"It was in the paper that Eagle Coachways were big friends of Alf Brown. They weren't. They were the biggest enemies on the road," said Greta.

When Ketley-born Ron became old enough, at 18, he started to conduct for Brown's part-time. War service in the KSLI intervened, and in 1947 he went back and passed the test to be a driver.

He was to work for Brown's for 27 years.

From the age of 18, Greta conducted with him.

"I used to conduct for Cooper's in Oakengates. I was on the service from Wellington down to The Humbers, which was the back road then. It's all altered now. We stopped on the one side of the island and Brown's stopped the other side. We started talking, and that's how we met up.

"I conducted with him for 18 or 19 years, and then it went to one-man service," said Greta, whose maiden name is Glaze; she hails originally from Shifnal.

They married in 1954.

"The buses were our life until 1972 when we moved into the Red Lion in Wrockwardine Wood and kept that for 18 years," she said.

Nevertheless, Ron still found time to do a bit of driving.

And his favourite bus?

"I always say Sentinels. They were lovely coaches."

Greta concurred: "You thought you were the bees knees if you conducted on the Sentinels, because they were the posh buses."

They say Brown's had eight buses in total - six coaches, with plush seating, and two service buses.

Even back then there were some problems late at night, because of the large numbers of soldiers stationed locally.

"They would go to the Crown in Oakengates and get themselves really plastered, and then get on our buses. The police would say 'get them on! get them on!' We would say we couldn't get them on and they would say 'We want to get them out of Oakengates'.

"We had them so packed on we couldn't get the fares from them and would hope we would get them as they got off," said Greta.

And then there were the inevitable spills, one of which, when an Army Land Rover hit Ron's bus, almost ended his career.

"It unnerved me. I rang the boss and said I had finished driving. He said: 'Get behind that wheel.' He went with me and made me drive for three hours non-stop to get my nerve back."

Ron and Greta were not unique in being a husband-and-wife team at Brown's.

Win Taylor of Leegomery wrote to us to say: "My parents May and Arthur Bucknall both worked for Brown's. Dad drove and mum conducted. They worked for many years on the old bull-nosed bus, prior to the Sentinel's arrival.

"They were two-man operated until the late 1960s and early 1970s when the doors were moved from the centre to the front for one-man operation.

"Alf Brown was the man with a handlebar moustache. Sadly, he is no longer with us.

"HNT 49 was classed as my dad's bus. Each driver had to make sure everything was in good working order before they took the bus out on service.

"We were very lucky when we were children. We were off on some history trip or to the seaside most weekends. Blackpool was the best. We would sit on the small seat at the front of the Sentinel and bet my dad who would see the tower first. He always won.

"My dad knew every hole in the road from Donnington to Oakengates, he drove that road so many times."

Also chipping in has been 80-year-old Tom Butler, of Wellington, who was a service engineer at Sentinel in Shrewsbury from 1948 to 1955, and as such was familiar with the local bus operators, as he would visit them.

"The fleet of Sentinel buses owned by Brown's of Donnington consisted of one 40-seater service bus - the body was built at the works - and the others were 35-seater coaches, with more seats after the conversion by H Brown's. These bodies were built by Beadles of Dartford," he said.

"Eagle Coaches was owned by TG Smith of Trench. He operated a 40-seater service bus. Mr Smith senior was still driving it himself in his late 80s and always drove it to the Sentinel Works for servicing."

By Toby Neal

A Brown's Sentinel bus crosses the Stafford Road bridge in Oakengates in March 1963. Ron and Greta Dean thought this showed them with 'their' bus, HAW 374, but in fact under magnification the licence plate can be read on the original print as HAW 302.

Ron and Greta Dean today.

Ron Dean (left) with Marion Bould, a conductor, and Kenny Pitchford, another driver on Brown's buses.

Ron Dean posing with one of the fleet.