A Peak District-based bus company that raised eyebrows among TV enthusiasts last year by apparently adopting a former TV channel’s logo has suddenly ceased trading.
- Company denied at the time it was a deliberate copy.
- Ceased trading last week leaving some villages without a service.
Bus company Hulleys of Baslow has abruptly ceased trading this month, a year after the company came to the attention of TV presentation enthusiasts for adopting a familiar logo.
Hulleys operated services across parts of the Peak District, connecting isolated villages with local towns, including Bakewell, Matlock and Chesterfield. After the local council terminated support for several of its routes over issues with reliability, the company abruptly stopped trading last Wednesday.
On 4th April 2024, Hulleys unveiled a new look for its buses sporting a new logo. Except, as TV enthusiasts pointed out, that logo was rather familiar to anyone from or visiting Devon and Cornwall in the 1980s. Hulleys had apparently copied the former Television South West (TSW) symbol.
TSW broadcast the ITV service from the South West transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority from 1982 until the end of 1992, when it was replaced by Westcountry. Its logo, representing the hills and sea, was miles away from the more polished ITV regional logos of the time, but it was among the most memorable.
Not deliberate
At the time, Hulleys denied it was an intentional copy of TSW, despite the very unique style of the logo.
The logo wouldn’t have been familiar in the towns and villages served by Hulleys, as it wasn’t routinely broadcast on TV in the area, which straddled the boundaries of the ITV Central and Yorkshire regions. It’s unclear if there would have been any copyright implications, as TSW no longer exists. It successor Westcountry Television (later taken over by Carlton, subsequently becoming part of ITV plc) was a completely separate legal entity to TSW.
As for bus passengers in the Peak District, they’ll now be catching buses without the TSW logo. Most routes have now been taken over by alternative operators. However, some locations remain without a service, according to local media, much to the concern of local villagers.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: Hulleys / TSW