Wallace Arnold and Shearings Holidays – The Old to the New

Wallace Arnold one of the leading UK coach holiday companies was established in 1912 and was named after its founders Wallace Cunningham and Arnold Crowe. Based in Leeds, its coaches operated throughout the British Isles.

Wallace Arnold was famous for the classic British coach tours it operated across the UK, mostly to seaside resorts. They were one of the early operators of this type of holiday which proved very popular to its customers, mainly of the older generation. As they expanded the company grew and its coaches became an ever-present in bus and coach stations and emerged as one of the leading coach holiday companies providing exceptional value coach holidays throughout the UK.

From 1930 they ran daily services to Blackpool seaside resort and European tours to Germany. By 1948 Wallace Arnold had offices in 10 UK towns and took millions of people on coach tours to the country and to the seaside.

On the 1st June 1956 the Wallace Arnold bought out the Kippax & District bus company and introduced Double Decker buses. By the 1980’scoach holidays were suffering because of cheap air package holidays and Wallace Arnold diversified by teaming up with P&O and launching Coach & Cruise. When the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994 many more tours were operated throughout Europe using high quality coaches to quality hotels.

In 2005 Wallace Arnold merged with Shearings to become WA Shearings. In 2007 the original name was dropped and the company is now known as Shearings Holidays. Shearings Holidays now belong to several trade organisations, including the FTO (Federation of Tour Operators), CPT (Confederation of Passenger Transport UK), PSA (Passenger Shipping Association) and ACE (Association of Cruise Experts). They are a founder member of BEST (Better Escorted Touring), a body comprising the country’s leading escorted tour operators.

By Suzana