ADAMS OF HANDLEY (VICTORY TOURS)
|
Based in the unusually named village of
Sixpenny Handley near where Dorset meets Wiltshire the Adams family
provided local
bus services for the area over many years, with the business founded in
the 1920s by Cyril Adams. The timetables illustrated
are from the later years, from the 1980s, when the seemingly inevitable
dilution of routes and timings was taking place.
|
|
|
1986 timetable with the Salisbury service adjusted post-deregulation to
reflect the daily Wilts & Dorset service which now
entered Handley village
(rather than the cross roads a mile or so away) for the first time.
|
|
Return to history page
|
|
BERE REGIS COACHES
|
This
is but a small selection from the myriad timetable leaflets
produced the sixty six years that the firm ran buses across its
home
county of Dorset . . . these few leaflets from the 1980s show a range
of rural services, some one day a week, some more frequent.
|
|
|
|
With the changes in
legislation from the 1985 Transport Act the services originally
registered to operate by Bere Regis
from 27th October 1986
were as follows, representing the part of the previous wider ranging
rural network that were
judged to be commercially
sustainable without council support subsidies..
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
In 1988 a town service was introduced by
Bere Regis in the county town of Dorchester in competition with the
minibuses
of Southern National. Ray Roper, manager of Bere Regis at the time, saw
opportunity to take advantage of the restricted
carrying capacity of the competing minibuses. Operation was
subsequently extended to include Saturdays.
|
|
|
| Return
to history page |
|
BARTLETT
AND NICHOLS (BLUE COMFY CARS) OF SWANAGE
|
Leonard
Nichols in partnership with Reginald Bartlett started their bus service
in 1920 from their home village of Langton Matravers. Competition came
from Southern National and Safety Coaches of Corfe Castle (Lovell and
Ford, previously Hunt). Both of the
private businesses were acquired by
Southern National in 1937 and melded to form their route 271.
Five vehicles were in the
fleet at the time and Nichols continued as manager of the new Swanage
Southern National depot. The B&N 1936 summer
timetable included service to
Worth Matravers village six times a day.
|
|
|
INTERBUS
|
From 1982 to 1987 Barrys Coaches of Weymouth (using the name Interbus)
operated the town services in the county town
of Dorchester, and also the short links between Wool station and
Bovington Camp, a substantial miltary establishment.
|
|
| Return
to history page |
|
LYNE
OF TARRANT RUSHTON
|
From the villages of the Tarrant valley
to Blandford with a small fleet of modestly sized vehicles Fred Lyne
was in operation in the area until the outbreak of war in 1939, when
the routes seemed to have faded away.
|
|
Return
to history page
|
|
PEARCE OF CATTISTOCK
(COMFY LUX)
|
Cattistock
lies tucked in the Dorset downs and was famous for the carillion in the
village church. Albert Pearce set up in business
in 1919 and acquired his first motor bus in 1923. Originally
concentrating on the route to Dorchester operations were
expanded in 1954 to include Yeovil and Sherborne by the take over
of the routes of Legg of Evershot.
|
|
|
|
After deregulation and the regrettable
loss of their traditional routes a fight back on selected 'best
timings' ensued.
|
|
|
In the summer of 1988 a coastal service
was operated for one summer season along the Chesil Beach from Weymouth
to Bridport,
now known as part of the Jurassic Coast. The operation was usually with
one or other of the two vintage Bedfords.
|
|
Return
to history page
|
|
POOLE AND DISTRICT
(VENNER AND RUSSETT)
|
Originally founded by H W Godfrey, and
believed to have started in 1926, before Hants & Dorset obtained a
near
monopoly of
services in Poole and surrounding area. In 1928 Hubert Venner became
involved and in March 1929 the ownership
transferred to Russett Brothers of Bristol. Services were operated from
Poole to Wimborne; Upton through Poole
to Newtown; Wimborne to Holton Heath; Wimborne to Colehill; and
Wimborne to Holt and Woodlands. There
was suggestion at the time that the licencing committee of Poole
Council unfairly favoured Hants & Dorset at the
expense of Poole and District and thus their planned expansion was
inhibited. Perhaps because of that, and with the
subsequent effects of the Road Traffic Act 1930 looming, the routes were sold to Hants & Dorset
in September 1930.
|
|
|
| Return
to history page |
|
SMITHS OF PORTLAND
|
The
1980s and 1990s saw intense competition on bus routes in and around
Weymouth. One of the main routes that was competed for
was the road to Portland. Smiths were lomg established operators in the area but had not run bus services for many years until
re-emerging into this competitive arena on their home patch.
|
|
|
