ERF-NGC-European:
Many thanks for posting those, Birdie4x4! I grew in Nottingham as a nipper and I remember well their fascinating fleet of buses. Barton used to rebuild its own buses and there was a an ultra-lowbridge AEC double-decker that they built (I think on a Loline chassis). They were a very innovative lot and I believe they more or less led the way in post-war Continental coach travel, pioneering trips into war-torn Europe in the late '40s and early '50s.Cheers! Ro.
Barton did indeed have one ultra-low-height 'decker, and you’re right, it was built on a Loline chassis, which makes it a Dennis by default!
Before the advent of low-height bus chassis (usually achieved by a drop-centre axle at the rear), “lowbridge” buses were built to a reduced height by having raised rows of 4 seats together upstairs, and a sunken gangway down the offside:
Lowbridge Crossley interior by Geoff Dowling, on Flickr
Once the low-height chassis started to appear, such as the Bristol Lodekka, Albion Lowlander and then the rear-engined Daimler Fleetline, that lowbridge body style became obsolete. What Barton did was to combine a lowbridge body with a low-height chassis, to achieve an overall height of (I think) 12’5", making it the lowest covered 'decker ever built, I believe. A standard highbridge bus was 14’6" and lowbridge about 13’1".
The Bristol Lodekka was available only to member of the Transport Holding Company, i.e. nationalised bus companies, Bristol itself being state-owned at that time. Dennis Bros came to an agreement to build the Lodekka design under licence for the open market, and that was the Loline.