#AmazingAccrington

Accrington Pals Bus Please help us return it to it’s former glory

Watch the Video

The bus in its unloved state.

Need help to get it back to its original running order.

Stephen Lowe talking about the bus.

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This vintage vehicle, a 1975 Leyland Leopard, is one of the last known surviving buses of its type in the world, and the only one painted in the original colours of the Accrington Pals Battalion.

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You may remember the Accrington Pals Bus that was displayed outside the Town Hall at the Food Festival in 2017.

The town is situated at the mid-point of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal which contributed to its importance, and the Trust already has close links with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society with whom we wish to organise joint events. Accrington remained at the leading edge of technology into the 20th century with the invention of Terylene at the Broad Oak laboratories in the 1940s and the manufacture of components for the English Electric Lightning jet at the GEC works in Clayton.

The bus is owned by Accrington Heritage Trust, a local charity, who have been seeking grant funding to restore the bus as a lasting reminder of the town’s heritage, and as part of a programme of education about the town’s industrial and transport history. We had many visitors to the Food Festival and many more who visited stands at locations such as Accrington Stanley where we showed pictures of the bus and asked for comments. There were those who remembered the actual bus, including a few who had actually driven it, and even the police officer who drove it back from Blackburn after it was once stolen! All were enthusiastic about the bus returning to the streets of the town in its former glory. The plan is to restore the bus to a modern safety standard, such as fitting seat belts so that it is available to tour local historic sites and for use by schools and other local organisations. The Trust had been in the latter stages of a bid for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, but the availability of such grants for new projects has been curtailed by the Covid-19 restrictions, and so the bus remains in storage. We are now looking for help for a more modest project to simply get the bus into a roadworthy condition. Once on the road this will give us the opportunity to use it for the benefit of the community and at the same time to look for funding opportunities for a full restoration. In the early nineteenth century Accrington was the original ‘Northern Powerhouse’ at the forefront not just of textiles for which it is most famous but also the chemical and dyestuffs industries.

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The bus will become a tangible means to promote the industrial and transport heritage of Accrington.

01254 300779|eet@nltg.co.uk

PLEASE HELP US TO BRING THIS HERITAGE VEHICLE BACK ONTO THE STREETS OF ACCRINGTON

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We will be grateful for any help, however small. For anyone who wishes to help please visit www.amazingaccrington.co.uk/palsbus

As a thank you to all those who donate before 20/12/20 we will send you a certificate by email... ...or why not give it as a gift?

CONTACT US AT NLTG TODAY!

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