Charles H Roe
November 1978 built Roe body on a Leyland Atlantean AN68A/1R, new to South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, pictured in Manchester with Citibus Tours
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| Industry | Bus manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Successor | Optare |
| Founded | 1917 |
| Founder | Charles Henry Roe |
| Defunct | September 1984 |
| Headquarters | Cross Gates |
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Number of employees
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440 (September 1984) |
| Parent | British Leyland |
Charles H Roe was a Yorkshire coachbuilding company. It was for most of its life based at Crossgates Carriage Works, in Leeds.
In 1947 it was taken over by Park Royal Vehicles. Two years later, along with its parent, it became part of Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV) in 1949, which was merged with Leyland Motors in 1962. In 1965, 30% of Park Royal and Roe's shares were exchanged by Leyland Motor Corporation for shares in Bristol Commercial Vehicles and Eastern Coach Works held by the Transport Holding Company (THC). Later the THC was succeeded by the National Bus Company (NBC) and Park Royal Vehicles, Charles H Roe, Bristol Commercial Vehicles, Eastern Coach Works and Leyland National Limited became subsidiaries of a new company Bus Manufacturers Holdings, 50% owned by British Leyland and 50% by NBC. Leyland took complete control in 1982 and closed Charles H Roe in September 1984. In the following year, a group of employees from the former business, began the Optare coachbuilding business in the former Roe carriage works.
Charles Henry Roe was a coachbuilder, draughtsman, engineer and entrepreneur who established a coachworks business bearing his name in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1917. He continued to be its managing director until 1952. Charles H. Roe Limited produced distinctive and durable coachwork which although associated most strongly with municipal operators, particularly in Yorkshire, sold to a wide range of bus, trolleybus and coach operators, and there were even a few car, railway carriage, tram and commercial vehicle bodies too. Eventually becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of British Leyland in 1982 it was closed in September 1984. Former workers and management pooled their redundancy money and in 1985 returned to the Roe factory in Leeds with a new bus-building business under the new name of Optare.
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