The Delaine business of today has origins that lie back in the 19th century. In 1890 William Smith used a horse and cart owned by his father Bennett to take Bourne folk to and from the Tuesday market in Spalding. Bennett had started in business about 1867 as a general contractor. A fire occurred at their Spalding Road depot in 1907 with sad loss of carts and horses. After William died in 1913 his son Thomas Arthur (1896-1958) married a Miss Emma Weston in 1915 who, through her family connections, brought the Delaine name to the business. Starting with taxis in 1910 Thomas acquired his first motor bus in 1919, PW1558, a 14-seat Ford model T bought for £495. Routes were established to Spalding via Twenty, Grantham via Corby Glen and Stamford via Greatford. In 1923 what was to become the main route from Bourne to Peterborough was started. For some years there was competition from Peterborough Electric Traction along this route; in 1930 by agreement PET withdrew north of Market Deeping although still serving the road south from there to Peterborough on their route from Spalding.

With a fleet size of five the timetable for March 1928 for 'The Delaine Saloon Buses' showed a Tuesday journey to Spalding for the market, leaving Bourne at 9.45 am and returning from Spalding at 3.00pm. Stamford was served on Fridays, leaving Bourne at 9.45 am via Witham, returning at 2.45pm; an alternative journey left Bourne at 11.15am via Braceboro, returning at 4.00pm. Grantham was served on Saturdays, leaving Bourne at 9.15am and 5.30pm, returning at 3.45pm and 10.30pm. On the route southwards to Peterborough there were 8 journeys from Bourne Market Place to Peterborough Broadway on Wednesdays and Sundays, and 10 journeys on Saturdays; first departure from Bourne 9.00am (10.30am Sundays), last return journey 10.30pm. Subsequently this route terminated at the Cattle Market until Bishops Road bus station opened in 1937. In that same year the single fare from Bourne to Peterborough was 1/3d and the return fare 2/0d. At the time there was also a subsidiary depot in Brook Street, Peterborough, opened in 1932 and closed in 1939; this was primarily established to enable operation of tours and excursions from Peterborough, for which permission had previously been refused because of the distance of dead running to and from the depot at Bourne.

A second disatrous depot fire occurred in November 1928 causing much damage and destroying several buses. This led to the cessation of the Grantham service. The business of W H Walpole of Dyke was acquired in 1932 and that of W H Haines of Deeping St James in 1934. The depot site in Bourne was expanded eastwards in 1934.  A more direct route from Bourne to Stamford via Toft and Essendine came into operation after January 1937 with the takeover of the 'Betterway' service of Thomas Bett of Billingborough from Boston through Billingborough and Bourne to Stamford (the Boston to Bourne section passing to Lincolnshire Road Car, with whom Bett's business had been jointly purchased).  In May 1941 the business became acompany: Delaine Coaches Limited. The bus services continued in wartime under often difficult conditions with the addition of workers transport to airfields in the area, including South Witham, Woolfox and North Luffenham.

After the war

Over the years the business developed substantially (despite the two depot fires in 1907 and 1928) and has passed down through several generations of the Delaine-Smith family.  The first double-decker bus came in 1948, the second in 1951; others were acquired through the 1950s. Delaine was to have experience of a rail replacement bus service in 1951 when the line closed between Bourne and Essendine. A daily bus was put on, running via Thurlby and Braceborough. However it incurred such losses that it was soon cut down to two round trips on Thursdays and Saturdays only, and those only between Bourne and Braceborough. Closure of the M&GN rail line through Bourne in 1959 brought further (mostly short-lived) rail replacement routes, although the last remained until 1999 in truncated form as a Thursday only journey from Greatford to Bourne.

In 1961 over 1,100,000 passengers were carried by Delaine, of whom  420,000 were on the Peterborough route (at that time two-hourly in frequency, increased to hourly on Saturday). The bus station in Bourne opened in 1974 and a town service started in December 1975. An hourly frequency six days a week was introduced on the Peterborough route in 1976.  For a number of years workers contract buses to factories in Stamford and Essendine formed an important part of the business but they declined as factories closed and the last such operation ended in December 1988. Route numbers were introduced in 1992. Hugh Delaine-Smith was awarded the MBE for his services to public transport in the New Year Honours List for 1995; sadly he died just two months later in March. The company name Delaine Buses Limited was adopted in 1995 and the company's first low floor bus was acquired in 2000, a Volvo B7TL double-decker registration X7OCT.		A cameo of the then fourteen vehicle Delaine fleet as it was in 1963 comes through information found in an article by David Kaye in a back number of Commercial Motor magazine, with six coaches, five deckers and three dual purpose saloons. KTL780 (45) and RCT3 (50) are still part of the Delaine heritage fleet in 2020. Only two Double Deck bodies were ever built by Yeates of Loughborough, both especially for Delaine (fleet numbers 48 and 50). The second of the pair has been continually licensed as a PCV since new and makes it the longest serving Yeates bodied PCV vehicle. An all time illustrated fleet list of Delaine buses and coaches over the years can be found here.

The main Delaine 101 route from Peterborough Queensgate bus station to Bourne continues half hourly and was enhanced to three times an hour on the southern section between The Deepings and Peterborough (route 102) when Stagecoach East withdrew their long standing hourly service 22 over that part of the route in April 2011 following cuts in local authority funding.  Midday commitment for the principal services then was about twelve buses. A substantial number of extra and duplicate journeys are needed on the regular routes to cater for schools and college traffic, including no less than fourteen buses serving the afternoon outmuster at Bourne Grammar School.  Almost uniquely in the second decade of the 21st century the operation is fully commercial without support subsidies - a proud achievement reflecting the dedication and attention to detail of this successful family business.

The other main Delaine route (201) links Peterborough with Stamford via Barnack and was introduced in 1988 when Barton Transport closed their local depot and withdrew from the Stamford area (Barton had in turn taken over Cream Buses of Stamford in 1961).  At that time Kimes of Folkingham introduced an alternative replacement service between Stamford and Peterborough on another route via Wittering and Wansford. Originally Delaine's 201 ran alternately via Barnack and Ufford or via Barnack and Helpston but all journeys now use the latter routing via Helpston. Delaine's other routes from Stamford were the 202 which provided the hourly link to the home town of Bourne by way of Essendine and Toft, whilst the 203 ran from Stamford to The Deepings, extended at school times to Bourne.

Changes from mid-January 2016 saw routes 201 and 202 combined to give a through bus every hour on the Bourne - Stamford - Peterborough route, whilst also improving connections within and across the town of Stamford. October 2018 saw the addition of a new route 205 between Stamford and Peterborough via Wittering and Wansford, replacing Centrebus route 9 (who had acquired the Kimes business in 2011). This meant that Delaine was now operating both of the traditional routes between Stamford and Peterborough that in days gone by had been the preserve of their friendly rivals at Cream Bus. January 2019 saw service 203 from Stamford to the Deepings extended onwards to Spalding, creating a new connection across the county. The fleet size in 2019 was thirty, all Volvo chassis, comprising twenty three double-deckers and seven single-deckers (the latter primarily used on the Stamford routes). Weekday outturn in the middle of the day is currently eleven buses but that is more than doubled at school times. Saturday operations require nine buses and Sunday is the quietest day with just two vehicles and drivers out working the 101 to Peterborough hourly. State of the art ticketing came in September 2018 with the introduction of Ticketer machines across the fleet. 2019 sees the 100th anniversary of the first Delaine motor bus - and still in the blue and cream livery introduced back in 1919.

and incorporating information from articles and publications by

A L Baker, Peter Moore, David Kaye and Anthony Delaine-Smith.