EST. 1919

 

Our Heritage

 

As 2024 marks the company’s 105th anniversary, Skills continues to be a family-run operation holding the same ‘fair, open and honest’ values instilled by Arthur Skill in 1919. Nottingham has seen four generations of the Skill family, something which we still pride ourselves on today.

 

Founded in 1919 in Radford, Arthur began delivering fish but later started taking local miners to and from Bestwood Colliery on the back of his cart. In 1921, he purchased a Crossley Charabanc – Skills’ first bus – and it was there that the business really began!

A workers’ service to the Celanese factory at Spondon was followed in 1927 by services to Bridlington and Scarborough and later to Mablethorpe, Skegness, Cleethorpes and Southend-on-Sea. From 1937 onwards, the purchase of other operators has, at various times, added colliery services to Bilsthorpe and Gedling, stage carriage services to East

Bridgford and Bestwood, shop premises on Alfreton Road and a picking-up point and booking office on Derby Road, Nottingham.

 

Driving Forward

 

Nigel and Simon Skill began work with the family business while at school. Alongside their brothers and sister, they would clean the coaches and then see them off from the Skills Bus Station at the bottom of Derby Road (now the roundabout at the top of Maid Marian Way) during the school holidays. His father, who was by now running the firm, insisted they all learned to drive early and at ten years of age, Nigel would manoeuvre coaches around the depot for washing. Nigel would continue to help out, cycling from Blidworth to earn pocket money cleaning coaches as a teenager, leaving home at 4am.

 

Nigel and Simon Skill bought the firm in 1987 to become directors. Following changes in the industry in 1986, Skills has concentrated on coaching, investing in a first-class fleet of modern vehicles, and offering luxury coach hire and tours ranging from day trips and weekend breaks to extensive tours of Europe and beyond.

 

In 2002, Skills Motor Coaches moved to a new, larger headquarters, garage and workshops in Bulwell, ending the company’s long association with Nottingham’s Radford district. To this day, Skills continues to work hard to provide new and exciting holidays, invest in our first-class fleet of modern executive vehicles, perfect for enjoying your holiday, break or day out, and continue to commit to sustainable travel and doing all we can to limit our environmental impact through fuel efficiency, water recycling and solar panels.