GOSLING OF MAREHAM-LE-FEN and MILSON OF CONINGSBY

GOSLING

The pleasant Fen village of Mareham-le-Fen in Lincolnshire lies strung out along the A155 road between Spilsby and Coningsby. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and has had successes in the Best Kept Village competition winning seven times in total between 1969 and 1983. Gosling was the local garage proprietor, trading as T H Gosling & Son, with his premises on the main road at the eastern end of the village. Founded in 1922 the firm also ran a modest number of bus services to the nearby market towns of Horncastle, Boston and Spilsby, departing from the Royal Oak in Mareham. The timetables were conceived to meet the needs of shoppers and market-goers, but Gosling did not have the routes to themselves as Road Car service 15 also ran seven days a week from Horncastle through Mareham-le-Fen and Revesby to Boston.

Amongst the early vehicles was one supplied new to them, FW2378, a 1931 Bedford WLG with Rainforth B20F body. Eric Bawden notes that Gosling can lay claim to possibly being the very first operator of a Bedford PSV as they took delivery of Bedford WLG (goods chassis) FW 2378 with Rainforth body in 1931 before the WLB (bus) chassis actually went into production. It stayed in their fleet until about 1947 when it left the road and ended up in a ditch with a twisted chassis frame amongst other damage. But it was recovered and put into store where it remained until the 1970s when it was purchased by the late Nick Lord who carried out a ground up restoration, including stripping it back to a bare chassis and having the frames straightened. It was then rallied in the original Gosling livery by Nick until his untimely passing in his mid forties. It is currently preserved as an exhibit at the Lincolnshire Aviation Centre, East Kirkby - a village that the bus would once have served. Whilst in preservation it was was photographed at Brighton in 2004.

A later vehicle was Leyland Tiger PS1 half cab FBE865. Another known vehicle in the fleet in 1955 was Leyland CPO1 Comet GBE81, with Rainforth C32F body; delivered in 1949 and sold in March 1960. Coincidentally the only other Comet built with a Rainforth body was just down the road with Fenwick of Old Bolingbroke. Gosling had had three earlier vehicles with Rainforth bodies - a Chevrolet in 1930, a Dodge in 1935 and a Leyland PS1/1 in 1948. A post-war picture of unknown date below, possibly mid-1950s, from the excellent village website shows six of their coaches and buses on the garage forecourt (the Comet is fourth from the left).

The founder of the business, Thomas Henry Gosling, died in 1947 at the age of 77 years, and his son George Henry Gosling (who was active in the bus business started in the 1920s) in November 1964. The Gosling garage and car dealership business continued in Mareham-le-Fen after the sale of the buses and coaches into the start of the 21st century - a 2006 view of the garage is here - but the site now appears abandoned. The bus routes and two Leyland PS1/1 and a Bedford OWB of the then fleet of six vehicles (three buses and three coaches) passed to H H Milson Ltd of nearby Coningsby in March 1960.