A HUNDRED years ago, the Craven Herald was full of advertisements for ‘motor chars-a-banc’ - charabancs - outings. Front page adverts from different companies competed for custom, advertising trips of both long and short distances.

Grassington based C Chapman Ltd, which had the easy to remember telephone number of ‘7 Grassington’, offered taxis, ‘at any hour, any distance and motors for private parties’.

As for its ‘motor tours’, Chapman’s, in April, 1920, urged customers to ‘arrange your season’s tours now’. The company boasted five ‘luxurious chars-a-banc’ which were at the time already being booked, with more vehicles to follow.

People were urged to ‘arrange quickly’ as ‘delay is dangerous’. Chapman’s offered a daily char-a-banc service from Skipton to Buckden, which took a little over two hours.

During the week, the vehicle left Skipton Post Office at 6.15am, reached Grassington at 7.05am and Buckden at 8.20am. A Sunday service also ran, leaving Skipton a little later at 8.45am, Grassington at 9.45am and Buckden at 10.50am.

During the week, the char-a-banc left Buckden at 4pm, arriving back in Skipton, via Grassington, at 6.05pm, and on Sundays, setting off from Buckden at 4pm, arriving in Skipton, via Grassington, at 5.05pm.

Meanwhile, Stephenson and Co, based at the Ship Hotel Garage, Skipton, announced it was ‘happy days’ and that it too was ‘booking orders for the coming season’. ‘Send your requirements to us’, it said. ‘We shall be pleased to quote you prices’. No journey was ‘too long’, no party ‘too large’, it boasted, adding ‘ease and comfort was its motto and ‘reliability’ its watchword.

Stephenson and Co also offered taxis for hire, either ‘open or closed’ on the shortest notice, and urged people to telephone 125 ‘day or night’, or send telegrams.

Another Skipton based company, Skipton Transport Co Ltd, based in Mill Lane, urged people to ‘look ahead’ and book one of its two ‘luxurious, 28 seater char-a-banc’. It offered summer trips and day excursions and in April, 1920, was ‘booking now’.

The company also offered transport of goods of any weight and of any distance, and also furniture removal. Its covered van could move up to 100 miles in the same day for a ‘reasonable rate’ and offered ‘quick delivery’..

Sadly, there was to be a tragic accident involving a char-a-banc later in the same year, and resulting in the deaths of five young men.

In November, 1920, a party of men, including four ex-soldiers, were on their way from Skipton to a Burnley football match when disaster struck.

The charabanc they were travelling in left the road at Blacko, near Barrowford, and crashed into an old Toll Bar House on the Gisburn Road.

Two of the men died instantly when they were thrown out of the vehicle into the toll house, while three others died soon afterwards from their injuries.

Four of the men, all in their 20s, had been part of an organised trip of three charabancs to set off from Grassington to see Burnley play Newcastle United. The fifth, just 16-years-old, had been on his way to Waterfoot to spend the weekend with his aunt.

It had been very much a day out, the motor-buses had set off from Grassington before lunchtime, there had been stops at hotels along the way and the route to the Burnley ground had taken in picturesque Bowland.

It was about 2pm when the char-a-banc, which had been attempting a sharp bend, left the road and hit the toll bar house. The men, who died at the scene, including one who lost his fight for life as he was being put onto a stretcher, were transported to the Cross Keys Inn in Blacko, while the injured were taken to Reedyford Hospital in Nelson.

News of the accident caused a “sensation” in Skipton, reported the Craven Herald.

One man from the town who actually survived the accident was originally reported dead and the following day many motored to the scene to take a look at the mangled vehicle.

The driver, from Burnsall, was arrested and charged with being drunk in charge of a vehicle and with manslaughter. He first appeared at Colne Magistrates’ Court and was sent to Manchester Assizes for trial.

In February, the following year, he was acquitted after a doctor who examined him at Barrowford Police Station declared him not drunk at all, but perfectly sober and that his demeanour immediately following the accident had been of shock and not of drunkenness. An inquest concluded all the deaths had been accidental.