Charabanc Outings

First topic message reminder :

Who remembers them. Fighting for who sat on the back seat. Stopping off somewhere for fish and chips Sing songs on the way home. Going round with the hat for the driver at the end. I can remember queueing up on White St Pemberton waiting for our Charra to show up.

..and everybody went to the local seaside resort and bumped into all their fellow workers. But they were a friendly lot back then and must have enjoyed the company...

There was a story going round Wigan at one time about a charabanc outing
its a believe it or not story

A mens darts and dominoes trip went to Blackpool from Wigan,whilst two of the party
were walking down the prom they came across a workmate lying on a bench
obviously worse the wear for drink.they carried him to the chara , upon reaching Wigan he was still
out of it, they took him to his house propped him up at the door and knocked several times but
there was no answer . Eventually the next door neighbour leaned out of her bedroom window
and shouted

Give it a rest you wont get in, they've gone to Blackpool for the week!!

Hilarious and believable, Gassey...

We always met somebody we knew. Once met the next door neighbour in Blackpool while on a charra outing.

"I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.
Chorus:
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back"

This was always sung.

I remember in what would have been the early 1960's my first school trip, from Bamfurlong to Alton Towers, I would have only been about five years old at the time and me and the other kids were singing ....

"Glory Glory Hallelujah
Teecher it me with a rooooler
So I hit her in the eye with a piece of apple pie
AND SHE NEVER HIT ME AGAAAAIN"

We usually called them "Sharrabangs" or "Sharras".

The word is from the French "char-à-bancs" literally, car with benches.

More knowledge.

Second pic shows 12 miles an hour on the body work. I don't suppose they could go much faster with all those people aboard

They are a bit "packed" aren't they

Admin wrote:Second pic shows  12 miles an hour on the body work.  I don't suppose they could go much faster with all those people aboard

I don't think you'd want to be going quicker. What with the solid rubber tyres etc.

...and that would have been considered quite fast compared to the pony and trap or stagecoach previously.

Someone always "got a coach up" fer t'luminations" and we kids were so excited for weeks in advance. The nights were just beginning to draw in, and we squashed on the coach, all the neighbours and kids, and we stopped at a café on the way to Blackpool. On the way back, we sang "For 'e's a jolly good driver, for 'e's a jolly good driver, for 'e's a jolly good dri-hi-verrrr......'e's just run o'er mi Dad!". Years later, I took my five-year-old son and my baby daughter on a coach-trip to The Illuminations. To my horror, we had to get off the coach in Blackpool and spend an hour at The Pleasure Beach. To be there with two small children wasn't a good experience; there were a lot of unsavoury characters about, and I felt very vulnerable....bustling Blackpool can be a very lonely place under certain circumstances. Never have I been so glad to get back on a coach and be on the way home! x.

Used to go to Soputhport with a fiver in the sky. Wealthy men (and women )all.

Them old Chara,s i the photos had their seat taken off during the week & used to deliver coal.

More knowledge.

Has everyone gone on a charra.. Its the season

These coach trips were the only chance of a holiday for a lot of us. My Mam used to tell me of 'holidays at home' during the war. This was a trip to Haigh and back on a canal barge. I wouldn't mind doing that now.