When you have worked in the bus industry for most of your life, it gets in your blood in a way that is sometimes hard to explain.

There are many sites on the internet about buses but the interest for me has always been in the history, routes, timetables and service planning rather than the vehicles themselves.  That is not to say that the hardware, the buses and the coaches, are devoid of interest, but rather that I tend to look to the uses to which they are being put, and how well they (and their drivers and conductors) are being employed, utilised and scheduled.

Over the years, I have worked for several of the Dorset operators in the list below, and although I have always preferred the country bus to its urban counterpart,  I have not let the name of the web site preclude me from including some town services with which I have been acquainted.  Also included are some of the other interesting British and European operations that I have come across in my travels over the years.  

Many children of my generation dreamed of becoming an engine driver when they grew up, but as a child I dreamed instead of running my own bus company.  That ambition was realised in part as I was fortunate enough that my transport career led me to become manager for a time of  two of  my "favourite" operations (Rossmore and Stanbridge).

Before all is forgotten, why not click on a link or two and take a pleasant ride with me down and along the winding lanes of nostalgic memory?

SOME OF THE COUNTRY BUSES OF DORSET

Bere Regis & District Motor Services  -  the ubiquitous brown buses and coaches that plied the roads of Dorset for nigh on seventy years

            List of operators acquired by Bere Regis & District

            Route development of Bere Regis & District bus services from 1949 to 1979

            1949 timetable booklet of Bere Regis & District

Mid Dorset Coaches - the buses run by the three brothers House from Hilton

A Pearce & Co. - the buses of Cattistock     

            Passenger with Pearce - reminiscences of some rural rides in 1972

            F Legg & Sons - the Evershot Bus Service

            J Crabb and A Lovell - the buses of Sydling St Nicholas

Ernie Toomer - the first buses that served Witchampton and  Crichel

Stanbridge & Crichel  -  later buses around Witchampton and  Crichel

            Saturday Driver - a 70's Saturday on the Crichel - Wimborne route 

Victory Tours - the Adams family and the buses of Sixpenny Handley  

Wimborne and Cranborne - the other independent bus operators in days gone by in the rural east of the county

Dorset Queen - the buses to Winfrith, Chaldon and Lulworth Cove that were run by Percy Webb and his family 

Interbus  -  from Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge across the Dorset heaths through d'Urberville country

             Dorchester - a bit of serious history about the development of country bus routes to and from the county town

             Dorchester 1932 - a copy of a poster with a list of the routes of the Dorchester and District Carriers Association

             Can you help me? - you may have information of interest for this site

AN URBAN FORAY BUT STILL IN DORSET

Rossmore Bus  -  up Monkeys Hump and down Heavenly Bottom, the story of Miss Foott's buses

           Rossmore Relief - a hectic Saturday lunchtime in the sun

Roadliner - the Rossmore Flyer reborn, and again in private operator's hands from 2006 until summer 2009

Routemaster Bournemouth  -  competitive operations on the streets of the south coast holiday resort in 1993 and 1994 

            Late turn 114 duty - or the joys of driving a Routemaster

Shamrock Buses - recalling the orange and cream livery of Shamrock & Rambler Coaches of days gone by  -  and now on Rossmore too!

Poole Bay Services  -  an early entrant in the annals of bus deregulation back in 1986

WEYMOUTH HAPPENINGS

Dorset Transit  -  a newer operator with a most interesting raison d'etre, but now sadly no more

Weybus  -  Steve Oxbrow tells of competition in the Dorset seaside town of Weymouth from 1995 to 1998

Smiths of Portland - buses to Portland that were run by Portlanders a few years ago

Sureline - blue buses on the Portland route, then further afield too

Weaverbus - the tale of Rory's buses and the Dorset Linkrider services

MORE (AND NEWER) COUNTRY BUSES IN DORSET

Blandford Bus Company - a new starter in the deregulated 1980's, the story of John Cumming's buses 

Oakfield Travel - based in Blandford Forum - like Topsy, they just grew and grew and grew

Ray Cuff - thirty years service to the people of North Dorset recalled by Michael Wadman

SOME OF THE COUNTRY BUSES OF SOMERSET 

Hutchings and Cornelius - one of the two independent operators that were once based in South Petherton

Safeway Services - the other South Petherton operator - the story of Miss Gunn's buses

Wakes Services - the Somerset operator on the Yeovil to Shepton Mallet road, now South West Coaches

Somervale Coaches - rail replacement services for the Somerset and Dorset line

Brutonian Bus Company - Michael Wadman tells the story of this interesting operator  -  a play in three acts

Air Camelot - when an airline ran a Somerset bus company

SOME OF THE COUNTRY BUSES OF WILTSHIRE

Silver Star - named after a waltz, the famous silver coloured buses that ran from the cathedral city of Salisbury  

Skylark Motor Services - another Wiltshire operator, blue buses running into Salisbury until 1951

Salisbury and District Coach and Bus Operators Timetable - as published in June 1949

Beaulieu Motor Service - the blue buses of A C Marvin, running from the beautiful place in the New Forest

Greyfriars Coaches - running into the cathedral city of Winchester, the buses of the Matthews family

Amport and District - where Hampshire blurs into Wiltshire

Skye Transport  (SCWS) - the buses that the Co-op used to run on the Misty Isle

Neil Beaton - the other principal operator on the Isle of Skye for many years

Some other Skye operators - both from years gone by and more recent times

        Over the sea to Skye - a quick look at the island ferries as they were in 1937

        Islands Area - the David Macbrayne bus timetable for the islands for 1955

Mull in the 1960's - a snapshot of the buses of yesteryear on the Isle of Mull

EVEN FURTHER NORTH TO THE FAROE ISLANDS  (FØROYAR)

Bussleiðin  -  the red town buses of the capital city Torshavn

Bygdaleiðir  -  the blue country bus network of the Faroe Islands

        All change!  - Faroe Islands transport update since 2004 - Bussleiðin and Bygdaleiðir

        North with Atlantic – a busman's holiday in Faroe in 1998  

        Buses and Bridges - a note on some recent Faroese transport history

        Fóroyar av nýggjum - a 2009 update on the Faroe Islands

AND SOUTH ACROSS THE CHANNEL TO NORMANDIE

Transports Schmidt, La Glacerie, Manche - the blue buses that ran from Cherbourg to Flamanville 

Société des Transports de Normandie - the interurban operator in the département of Manche

Buses of Cotentin 1934  -  a reprise of country and interurban services from 70 years ago

 

Buses of Cotentin 2004  -  later country bus routes in the département of Manche

Compagnie des Transports de Cherbourg - the town services in the Cherbourg urban community

Transports Pasquier, Octeville, near Cherbourg, Manche - up the hill to Octeville many years ago

Cars Arcangioli, Fécamp, Seine Maritime - grey buses  from Le Havre to Etretat and Fecamp

Cars Périer, Lillebonne, Seine Maritime - to and from the oil refineries of Port Jerome

Transports Verney - a brief historical reprise of the group, and timetable illustrations from 1969

Transports Drouin Freres -  Britanny rather than Normandie!  A famous bus and haulage operator of years gone by

INDULGENCES - SOME OTHER INTERESTING OPERATORS FONDLY RECALLED

Reading Mainline  -  competition (and Routemasters) again - but it all finished some years ago now on 22 July 2000 ..........

Shropshire Omnibus Association - one of the fascinating "rota" operations of days gone by    

Birch Bros Ltd - double deckers from London through Hertfordshire to Hitchin, Henlow, Bedford and Rushden   

FURTHER INDULGENCES - JUST A MISCELLANY OF OTHER TRANSPORT SOUVENIRS

British Memories - some items that don't fit neatly into the other categories above

French Memories - other items from my collection from past trips to France over the years

SOME LINCOLNSHIRE OPERATORS AND THEIR TIMETABLES REMEMBERED  -   mainly by courtesy of John Brogden

Hunts of Alford - a timetable for the Alford - Spilsby - Boston service

Holme Delight - with the 1963 timetable for the Boston - Donington - Spalding route

Sharp - from Boston out to Freiston Shore on the banks of The Wash

Elseys of Gosberton - along the fenland lanes of South Holland from Quadring to Spalding

Fowlers of Holbeach Drove - still serving South Holland after almost sixty years

The Delaine of Bourne - over a hundred years of service to south Lincolnshire 

Gash of Newark - actually In Nottinghamshire but only just across the county boundary

Blands of Cottesmore - another cross border operator based nearby in Rutland

LINKS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Links to other interesting transport sites and books

My friend and colleague Roger Grimley has researched and written an informative set of operator histories for the county of Dorset.  This is now a series of  four volumes which are being reissued during the early part of 2009, priced £5 per volume. Part One - The Piddle Valley, Hazelbury Bryan, Bulbarrow and the Blandford Road; Part Two - The Poole and Wareham Roads; Part Three - The Yeovil Road and Sydling St Nicholas;  Part Four - The Cerne Valley and The Bridport Road. Follow this link if you would like details of how to contact Roger to enquire about these books and to obtain a copy of his catalogue of other (Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Wiltshire) operator histories.

CHALK IN THE RADIATOR - EARLY MOTOR BUSES FROM SALISBURY

Another series of books from Roger Grimley describes the early motor buses which served both Salisbury Plain and the five river valleys that radiate from the cathedral city.  Two volumes have been published so far - Part One - the Upper Avon Valley and Part Two - the Nadder Valley.

VILLAGE BUSES OF EAST DORSET   and   BERE REGIS & DISTRICT MOTOR SERVICES

Two recent additions to the published history of the development of rural bus services in the county of Dorset. From the Countrybus Dorset series and published in June 2008.  A few copies still available.  Please e-mail the writer if interested.

BEDFORD  JT8077