A RHYL man’s unique collection of more than 600 photographic negatives of the charabancs, omnibuses and coaches that carried tourists around the Edwardian beauty spots of North Wales have been saved for posterity by the national Omnibus Society.
Archivist Derek Broadhurst from the Society travelled from Powys to Colwyn Bay for the Rogers Jones Co auction to secure the collection with a winning bid of £2,800.
He fought off private collectors and bidders from across the UK and Europe, including a representative from the Crosville Archive Trust, to secure prized collection.
The lot, which was valued at an estimated £1,000 to £2,000 had been amassed over a lifetime of collecting by Rhyl enthusiast John Nickels and was featured in the Journal last week (see picture right)
He was a member of Crosville Enthusiasts’ Club and the Model Bus Federation, but his main interest was the White Rose Motor Services company, founded in Rhyl in 1912 by the Brookes Brothers.
They started by running charabancs to local beauty spots but grew quickly, the fleet comprising just under 100 buses and coaches before they were taken over in 1930. The company also owned omnibuses, tipper wagons, removal vans, ambulances and hearses.
White Rose was acquired by Crosville in 1930.
Mr Broadhurst said: “I thought the collection had been lost. I knew John Nickels but following his death, I feared it had been destroyed or thrown away.
“I’m pleased it has eventually surfaced and I’m delighted to have been able to secure it for the archive rather than it ‘lost’ by going in to a private collection.
“It will join the archive, which is kept in the Midlands, and will be available for research and to illustrate articles and books.
“I understand Mr Nickels planned to write a book about the White Rose company - now perhaps someone else will come forward and take on the project.”
Despite holding a HGV licence, John Nickels never drove a bus. After seeing action in Africa, throughout Europe and Greece with REME, he was forced to come home to a desk job, working for Rhyl council, first in the finance department and then the tourist office.
Fascinated by the early privately operated vehicles that plied North Wales, he resolved to rescue mementos and reminders of the golden age of late Victorian and Edwardian tourism.
John Nickels died in 2000 at the age of 80.
Mr Nickels’ collection of 200 model buses, many of which he had made himself, sold for an above estimate £400.