Beaulieu, with its ancient abbey was once promoted as the 'beautiful
place in the New Forest.' A later attraction was the National
Motor Museum. A mile or two down the river lies Bucklers
Hard, an
18th
century village where ships were built for Nelson's navy. Alfred Cecil
Marvin of Beaulieu started running services in
1920 in this part of the New Forest, to Hythe and Southampton, using a
Trojan van. A list of routes from 1933, and the services of A
Rowe-Davies of East Boldre were taken over in 1932.
The
typical 1950s service pattern is
as shown in the 1956 timetable illustrated below when Marvin's routes
linked Beaulieu and
Bucklers Hard
to Southampton
daily, also Lymington by two different routes, as well as a
service from East Boldre to Hythe.
I recall a dark blue Bedford OWB at Marvin's garage and petrol station
by the river in Beaulieu in the
early 1950s. The Wednesday only route to Lymington via East Boldre was
withdrawn soon after and the other route to Lymington via Bucklers Hard
dropped
from three times a week to Saturday only. The remaining services passed
to Jennings Coaches Ltd of Dibden Purlieu from Spring of 1959, who
ran them for a few more years. The Lymington service was
withdrawn in the Spring of 1965, whilst the Southampton service was
progressively reduced in frequency, dropping to Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday operation from Autumn of 1959; then to Tuesday only from
Summer of 1961. It was still running on that once a week
basis until withdrawn in
1972.
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