Frank Williams - Victoria Motorways

Frank was born and raised in Treorchy during the 1940s. He became a motor mechanic following a seven-year apprenticeship at Hutchings in Ton Pentre, and a bus driver for his own firm, Victoria Motorways, known locally as Williams’ Buses, for 25 years. Named in honour of Queen Victoria, the business was established at the turn of the twentieth century by Frank’s grandfather and namesake.

Listen to 'Frank Williams - Victoria Motorways'

Transcript

“My grandfather started the business and his name was Frank Williams. So I was named after my grandfather and they always called me ‘Little Frank’. And he was a wonderful man – strong as an ox!... I saw him one day working down the garage and the jack slipped and he went under the bus and picked it up with his shoulder and stuck a jack under it! I couldn’t believe that! He was the strongest man I’d ever seen… My favourite bus was... my grandfather had a Fin. It was called a Fin because it had a fishtail on the back and it was a Harlington 33-seater bus… It had a 600 Leyland engine in it! And it could go up the Bwlch in top gear!”