GREYFRIARS
COACHES OF WINCHESTER
The
buses of the Matthews family
The Greyfriars business, run by the Matthews family, was to be the last
of the small private firms running into the cathedral city of
Winchester (there were still
eight such operators in 1949). The main route was taken over from
Dovey, the Owslebury carrier, in the late 1920s, but Matthews had been
in business for some years previously as coachbuilders. Based at
a garage in Eastgate Street, just round the
corner from the main bus departure point in The Broadway with the
statue of King Alfred, the firm ran two bus routes. The country route
linked Winchester to Morestead and Owslebury. There was a short lived
postwar extension to Upper Upham on Saturdays - this was so in
1949 but had gone by 1950. By the time of the introduction of
licencing in 1931 there was also a short town route
which ran a dozen or so journeys each day from
Broadway to Vale Road and Fivefields Road in the Highcliffe district of
the city. The
timetable was arranged so that one vehicle usually covered both routes.
The two bus routes ran under Matthews proprietorship for the last time in October 1955, although
Greyfriars continued as a coach operator. Under pressure from the city
council King Alfred introduced their new route 15 with a limited number of
journeys to Owslebury after a gap of a week. There was a delay of
several months until January 1956 before King Alfred introduced route
16 to cover the local route to Highcliffe (at the time King Alfred were
themselves stretched with staff shortages a particular difficulty).
Greyfriars had used Bedford Utility buses and these did not
pass to King Alfred.
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