In October 1908, Thomas Henry Barton used a Durham Churchill charabanc to start the company's first service, between Long Eaton and the Nottingham Goose Fair.

Starting in 1939, a fleet of Leyland Titan TD5, TD7 and rebodied TD1 double-deckers with stylish, front-entrance, lowbridge bodywork by Duple and Willowbrook was purchased, which appeared very modern by the standards of the day.

[2] Although Barton gained a reputation for having a varied fleet of vehicles during the 1950s and 1960s, from 1946-9 the vast majority of new chassis were from Leyland, and virtually all coachwork was from Duple.

The Duple A type coach was chosen for PS1 Single deckers, some featuring a more compact front-design allowing up to 39 seats in the then maximum overall length of 27 ft 6in.

The 40 postwar double deckers on PD1 or PD1A had an updated version of the forward entrance lowbridge body with more brightwork and power-operation for the entry door.

[3] Many new and secondhand buses also joined the fleet, and Barton kept up its modern double-deck image with Northern Counties bodied AEC Regents, which had wrap-around windscreens on both decks.

Numerous smaller companies were purchased, especially in the 1960s, including Hall Brothers of South Shields on Tyneside (1967), and Robin Hood Coaches of Nottingham (1963), whose emblem was retained and applied to the whole fleet.

[6][7][8] On 1 October 2008, the journey of the first Barton bus, from Long Eaton to Nottingham's Market Square, was recreated to mark the centenary of the company.

At the time of listing the building was still owned by the Barton family company, who had submitted planning approval for it to be "dismantled with care" and eventually re-erected at their corporate headquarters in Chilwell, to allow redevelopment of the city centre site.