INTERBUS The buses that served Hardy's Casterbridge in the 1980s |
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Please note - this is a site of historical record and does not contain current service information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The county town of
Dorset is Dorchester. It lies in the heart of Thomas Hardy's
Wessex
and the writer named the county town Casterbridge in his novels.
Town buses had been introduced in Dorchester by Victory Motors Limited of
Weymouth in 1928 with two Dennis Dart 20 seater buses operating
figure of eight loops from Fordington through the town centre to
Gloucester Road and Victoria Park. The operation was acquired by
Richard Deacon in 1932, trading as Dorchester Motor Services. The
business, with four buses and the Cromwell Road premises, was sold to
Southern National in January 1935 for £2000.
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This competition in Dorchester is now just a memory. The minibuses continued, operated for some years by First Dorchester, the new owners of Dorchester Coachways, who succeeded Bere Regis Coaches when the latter downsized and withdrew from west Dorset in 1994. Dorchester Coachways was established as part of the Cawlett group, who also owned Southern National. Now all are in the First group of companies since 1999. The proprietors of Barrys Coaches, Mr and Mrs Newsam, were also at the time the proprietors of the Stanbridge and Crichel business, based near Wimborne in Dorset. Barrys were well established in the private hire and contract business from their operating base on the outskirts of Weymouth, and had started several market day type services in 1980, from Wyke Regis via Portesham and Abbotsbury to Dorchester on Wednesday, and also from Littlemoor via Osmington to Dorchester, again on Wednesday. Another route linked Weymouth to Bridport on Saturday, via Abbotsbury, Long Bredy and Litton Cheney on Saturday. These routes were to continue long after the withdrawal of the Interbus operation. Further changes were to come and the operation of the town routes in Dorchester passed in 2003 to Coach House Travel of Dorchester, but with simplified circular routeings, and a basic hourly service between 0900 and 1400 on three loops through the town. There was a considerable reduction in service outside of shopping hours and no service at all on Saturday afternoons. The Manor Park route had less frequent service than the others. Coach House travel also operated between Dorchester, Charminster, Charlton Down and Forston (as route 007!). This was a continuation of the erstwhile Herrison Hospital bus of years gone by. Barrys Coaches voluntarily withdrew from stage carriage bus operations altogether in 2003, including their own original Wyke Regis - Dorchester route, subsequently operated by Sureline of Portland. The area to the east of Dorchester, where the Southern National 459 used to run to Wool and Bovington - replaced by Interbus amd Dorset Queen, and later served by a grant funded improvement of service with the introduction of Dorset Transit 102/103 routes hourly from Dorchester to Lulworth, Wool and Bovington in 1999, which in turn was operated by First Southern National - saw further alteration from January 2006. There continued to be an hourly service from Dorchester to Broadmayne and Crossways (route 101), with a single journey morning and evening workers service extension as far as Chaldon. But apart from Wool to Bovington schools journeys the rest of the area, including Bovington, Wool, Winfrith, Owermoigne and Lulworth was then served by a part scheduled part demand responsive service (at inception available only to registered users who had pre-booked their journey, although this irksome deterrent to travel was subsequently abolished). This was operated by community transport operator Nordcat (NORth Dorset Community Accessible Transport) of Sturminster Newton. April 2011 saw a return to normal timetabled operation on 103 between Bovington, Wool, Lulworth and Dorchester when Damory Coaches took over the route at request of the county council following the operational difficulties experienced by Nordcat. After retendering the Damory presence expanded to include the hourly Dorchester - Crossways 101 from 25th July 2011, taken over from First.In 2015 the 103 from Bovington, Wool and Lulworth to Dorchester still ran, but reduced to just one market journey on a Wednesday. Damory still provide the 101 hourly to Crossways, and they operated two circular town services in Dorchester (routes 1 and 2) as well as the half hourly 6 to the new Poundbury development to the west of the county town (often operated by an electrically powered bus). With severe cut backs in bus service subsidy by the county council (even on one day a week market day shoppers services affecting many villages) the 103 disappeared in June 2016, with further change from 1st August when the operation of the town services 1, 2 and 6 was taken over from Damory for direct operation by the county council itself. From July 2017 the 1 and 2 reverted to Damory Coaches operation, albeit on a limited 'between schools' basis only whilst the 6 and its electric buses remained with the county council. |
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