Click here to return to main index pageLINKS TO OTHER RELATED SITES
John Pitfield tells the History of Bere Regis in Pictures - a fascinating gallery of images of this Dorset village in days gone by.
This site tells the story of an American lady's holiday in Evershot, when Joanne Paul rode some of the Country Buses of Dorset
For information about Preserved Bournemouth Buses (and trolleybuses and tram), this site by Mark Maidment shows the details and locations of all known preserved vehicles.
And for more pictures and information about buses and trams in Bournemouth, Kevin Clapcott's site will be of interest.
Another 'favourite' operator of mine was Silver Star, running into the cathedral city of Salisbury from 1923 to 1963 - in Wiltshire yes, but only a dozen miles from the Dorset county boundary.
Winchester, another cathedral city - but in Hampshire, was home to the fondly remembered King Alfred Motor Services. A name and operation kept alive today by the Friends of King Alfred Buses.
If your interests include buses in the Thames Valley area then follow this link to the series of operator histories written by Paul Lacey.
For further information about the buses of Lincolnshire the LEYTR site is well worth a look.
And here is a comprehensive history of Harrington the body builder - with those oh so well remembered dorsal fins!
For the history and fleets of a diverse range of bus operators around the country, see Peter Gould's pages (formerly Mobile Museum and British Bus Archives). This informative site includes the history of Hants and Dorset Motor Services Ltd. To access these histories, go to Peter Gould's web page and consult the alphabetical index of operator histories and fleet lists.
If tickets are of interest, then the Transport Ticket Society site will be of interest to you.
The sites of two French transports associations are worthy of mention: Car-Histo-Bus and also France Passion des Transports Urbains.
And lastly Steve Annell's site The Bus Station has links all over the country and the world .................
LINKS TO SITES OF OTHER TRANSPORT INTEREST
PADDLE STEAMERS
This is the site to visit if the names of Cosens steamers like Embassy, Monarch and Emperor of India evoke fond memory.
And Tom Lee's site the Paddle Steamer Picture Gallery is of great interest.
"Cosens of Weymouth" by Richard Clammer, published in September 2001, tells the story of the Cosens paddle steamers from 1918 until the end of operations in 1966. ISBN 0 906294 47 9. Obtainable from Twelveheads Press, Truro, Cornwall. A second volume, covering the period from 1848 to 1918 was published in Autumn 2005 and this is obtainable from Black Dwarf Publications.
And on this site you will find out about the journeyings of the PS Princess Elizabeth - now moored at a new home in Dunkirk
And this is the place to go for information about the last sea going paddle steamer of them all, the Waverley.
RURAL RAILWAYS
ACoRP - the Association of Community Rail Partnerships, with over 60 member partnerships working to enhance the local and rural railways of Britain.
TRAMSIf like me you are interested in trams and light rail, this is the homepage of the Light Rail Transit Association.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
For more information about the Rossmore Bus Company and Louie Dingwall, see "Horsewoman: the extraordinary Mrs D" by Alan R. Bennett. Particularly Chapter 3, pages 44-46. ISBN 0 902129 34 9. Published in 1979 by Dorset Publishing Company.
For more information about Bere Regis and District see "A History of Western National" by R C Anderson and G G A Frankis. Particularly pages 163-164. ISBN 0 7153 7771 X. Published in 1979 by David & Charles. Also "History of the Hants & Dorset Motor Services Limited" by Colin Morris. Particularly pages 112-113. ISBN 0 7153 60541 5. Published in 1973 by David & Charles. Lastly, a history of Bere Regis is understood to be currently being prepared for publication by a local Dorset author.
Further information on both Rossmore (pages 117-128) and Bere Regis (pages 111-117 and 205-206) appears in "Trams and Buses of Poole" by C G Roberts and B L Jackson, published in 2001 by Oakwood Press. ISBN 0 85361 572 1. Brian Jackson's earlier book "Isle of Portland Railways, volume three, Railway, Associated and Other Bus Services", also published by Oakwood Press (in 2000), has much information on the several independent bus operators of earlier years in the Weymouth and Portland area. ISBN 0 85361 566 7. A further book by Brian Jackson "Rail and Road Transport on the Isle of Portland - a pictorial survey" brings the bus history of the Weymouth and Portland area up to date to 2001. (Oakwood Press, ISBN 0 85361 581 0).
And for more general information about the country buses of England, the classic work is of course The Country Bus by John Hibbs. Published in 1986 by David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 8687 5. Another general work with a selection of histories of private operators around the country is The Independent Bus by Keith Turns, also published by David & Charles in 1974. ISBN 0 7153 6438 3.
A new work by John Hibbs, published in autumn 2003, tells of his career in the rural bus business in years gone by. It struck many a chord with me and my own career in running a bus company - perhaps I should write a book too? A Country Busman - the story of two young men who purchased an old established business called Corona Coaches Ltd., based near Sudbury in Suffolk. This is a book that contains humour, pathos and tragedy but is also a month by month record of what it was like (and still is like) to run a country bus and coach business and raises questions about the rural bus business and rural transport problems that are relevant today. Published by DTS, Croydon. ISBN 1 900515 30 X.
A very interesting work (but hard to find) on the transport history of the Manche département is Quand les petits trains faisaient la Manche by Alain de Dieuleveult and Michel Harouy. Published in France by Editions Cenomane of Le Mans in 1988. ISBN 2-905596-29-5.
For more information on Hutchings & Cornelius and Safeway Services please consult Somerset's Buses by Laurie James, this develops the story of these two operators in far more depth. It was published by Tempus in the spring of 2004. ISBN 0 7524 3171 4.
A recent book by Jeff Grayer is about the closure of the Somerset & Dorset rail line in 1966. It has information and pictures about the replacement buses too. 'Sabotaged and Defeated' was published in 2006 by Kingfisher Productions, price £9.95. ISBN 0-946184-78-X
For those with an interest in country buses (especially
Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon
and Cornwall) my great friend and
long time colleague Roger
Grimley has written and published many individual operator
histories. These include a recent series on Dorset
entitled Along the
Dusty Road - motor buses
and carriers from Dorchester. The series
is in ten parts.
Part one - The Piddle Valley; part two - Around Bulbarrow; part three -
The Blandford Road; part four - The Cerne Valley; part five - Sydling
St Nicholas; part six - Frank Legg of Evershot; part seven - A Pearce
& Co of Cattistock; part eight - The Bridport Road; part nine -
The Wareham Road; and part ten - The Poole Road.
If you would like details of how to contact Roger
to purchase copies or obtain a
catalogue, follow this link.
We endeavour to keep the links up to date, but sometimes web sites change address or close down altogether - if you find a dead link on this site, our apologies. But do please let us know!