All Creatures Great and Small

Bus Driver

Apologies that it has been a while since my last post looking at the real life equivalent people of the characters in the TV series All Creatures Great and Small, now often known as ACGS.

This time we’ll take a look at the life of a bus driver in Grassington (the real Darrowby in the current series).

The bus arriving at Darrowby is a regular site in the All Creatures Great and Small TV series; the production team create an excellent illusion that the pretty village green where the bus pulls up is fictional Darrowby, it is in fact the village of Arncliffe, a few miles further north than where the market square scenes are filmed in the actual village of Grassington.

Check out this clip to see James on the bus All Creatures Great and Small: Episode 1 Scene on YouTube 30 Dec 2020. For motor enthusiasts the bus was a The Leyland Lion KW 1961 which started service in 1927.

So, who would be a real person who drove the bus in the 1930s and 1940s of Grassington, aka Darrowby?

The 1939 Register has a listing for John S. Falshaw living on Wood Lane, Grassington and an occupation of Bus Driver. John’s date of birth is given as 17^th March 1902 and he was married.

A search of the Yorkshire Baptism record set on www.findmypast.co.uk gives 3 possible baptism entries for a John Falshaw in 1902/1903; a John George, a John William and a John Sydney. Fortunately, the entry in the 1939 Register gives an initial S. after John; therefore, it is likely the bus driver was John Sydney Falsaw. The baptism record shows parents Frederick and Ada Ann and the baptism took place in Hubberholme Parish Church. Hubberholme is 12 miles north of Grassington, higher up Upper Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales; it is the parish church for Buckden. The baptismal date is 18^th May 1902, two months after the birth date on the 1939 Register, and John’s father, Frederick, is a farmer.

Hubberholme church dates from the 12C and is in an idyllic setting on the banks of the River Wharfe. J. B. Priestley, writer and playwright from Yorkshire, was a regular visitor to Hubberholme and his ashes are buried in the church yard. The wooden church furniture was made by the ‘Mouseman’, Thompson of Kilburn, North Yorkshire.

To verify we have identified the correct John Falshaw a search of the 1911 census will hopefully show his parents as Frederick and Ada and add more detail of the family.

The 1911 census does indeed provide verification of John’s parents as Frederick and Ada. At the time John was a schoolboy and had a younger brother, Frederick, and two younger sisters, Nora and Alice.

The family were living at Prospect House in Buckden at the head of Upper Wharfedale where Frederick was a farmer and mail contractor; probably this was the connection to John becoming a bus driver.

Frederick born c.1877 Aysgarth, Wensleydale

Ada Ann born c.1877 Preston under Scar, Wensleydale

John Sydney born 1902 Buckden, Upper Wharfedale

Frederick Arthur b. c.1904 Buckden

Nora born c.1908 Buckden

Alice Ann born c.1910 Buckden

The family also had a farm servant living with them to help on the farm, 24 year old Robert Banks, he will have been known to the family as he was also born in Buckden.

The map below shows the locations of the places mentioned at the head of Upper Wharfedale and in Wensleydale; Aysgarth is about 7 miles from Buckden over a large hill dropping into Bishopdale in the direction of Aysgarth. It is a very rural area with a sparse population.

Grassington is 10 miles south of Buckden, further down the valley of Wharfedale.

The farm where Helen, in the TV series, lived before she married James is filmed just a few miles north west of Hubberholme, in Langstrothdale, a branch off Wharfedale where the road leads to Hawes, Wensleydale.

The next census of 1921 gives an update on John Sydney Falshaw, the place where the family were living was actually the hamlet of Cray, just north of Buckden; as marked on the map. The farm was quite substantial as Frederick employed agricultural labourers including three itinerant workers living at the family home, each of these men gave their place of work as no fixed place. The census was taken in June 1921 therefore the farm will have been busy preparing for hay making requiring the extra labourers.

By 1921 John had 2 more younger siblings, James aged 6 years and Marjorie was a baby of 6 months; John was now 19 years old.

We know from the 1939 Register that John was married and had moved to Grassington. On the 25th October 1928 John returned to Hubberholme church to marry Clara Rigby, she was a 22 year old spinster living in Buckden, her father was Richard Rigby. We now know that John was a bus driver from at least 1928. Coincidentally, his witness at the marriage was William Arthur Chapman who is an ancestor of my own grandchildren. The Chapman family started public transport in Wharfedale from their premises in Grassington, after moving from the Buckden area; originally horse-drawn vehicles which then progressed to charabancs – open topped motor buses.

The image below will be familiar to viewers of All Creatures Great and Small, Chapman’s horse-buses ready for passenger in the square. The large building at the top of the square, known as the Liverpool Warehouse, is often filmed where Siegfried, Tristan and James walk to the ‘Drover’s Arms’, really the Devonshire Hotel. The building used as the home and veterinary practice can just be seen above the carriage with the upper window showing.

Below, Chapman’s charabanc before the introduction of the motor buses John Sydney Falshaw drove.

By looking into the life of a bus driver in Grassington, using the character of a bus driver in All Creatures Great and Small, it has provided a glimpse into the introduction of public transport in this rural area and of the migration within Upper Wharfedale.

References

1939 Register www.findmypast.co.uk

Yorkshire Baptisms www.findmypast.co.uk

Hubberholme The Churches of Upper Wharfedale and Littondale (upperwharfedalechurches.org)

1911 Census of England, Wales & Scotland www.findmypast.co.uk

1921 Census of England & Wales www.findmypast.co.uk

Yorkshire Marriages www.findmypast.co.uk North Yorkshire County Record Office; reference PR/HBB 1/10