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HOLME DELIGHT (CAMPLIN OF DONINGTON)
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Timetable booklets dated April 1954 and
March 1963 for the Holme Delight bus service,
provided from 1953/1955 primarily
by two AEC
double-deckers,
Regent III/Park Royal HDO661 and Regent III/ Willowbrook FDO573. The
latter
is preserved at the LVVS
museum
at Lincoln. The bus route (but not the coaching business) passed to
Kime in 1970.
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BLANDS OF STAMFORD |

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CRABTREE
OF GRANTHAM
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This
timetable was current in 1933. Much more activity on Saturday and
Sunday than during the week. Despite the several routes
they could be interworked and covered by one vehicle on Monday to
Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Some very
modest sized villages like Woodnook and Sproxton seem to have been very
well served too.
The routes passed to Lincolnshire Road Car in 1936.
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DELAINE OF BOURNE |
The
example timetables below are for the Bourne to Peterborough and Bourne
to Stamford routes and cover a wide range of years.
The Peterborough route started in
1923 and was the most important for the business as Peterborough grew
in post-war years.
When first formed
as a company the name was
Delaine Coaches Limited with a
mixed fleet of coaches and buses.
Since 1995 it has traded as Delaine Buses Limited, operating with an all bus fleet.
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Three pre-war timetables to start |

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List of routes from April 1938 timetable booklet
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Continuing with post-war timetables from the 1960s
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June
1961 timetable for the jointly
operated Bourne to Sleaford via Billingborough service. From 1961 to 1980 this Bourne to
Sleaford route was unusual in
being jointly operated with Lincolnshire Road Car service 34, thought
to have been one of the first - if not the
first - joint pool operation between an independent operator and a state-owned
company. This initiative saved Road Car outstationing vehicles
overnight in Bourne.
The mileage split between the two operators was
approximately one third Delaine and two thirds Road Car. On Monday to
Friday Delaine ran the 7.20, 11.5, 2.0 and 6.0 departures from Bourne, and
the corresponding southbound return journeys. On Saturday it was the 7.20,
8.50, 12.30, 2.0, 6.0, 10.10 and their southbound return journeys.
Sunday running on the 34 for Delaine was only the 5.0 Bourne-Hacconby and
5.15 return with Road Car providing the other journeys. From August 1980
the service was diverted to run via Quarrington village as it
approached Sleaford, and at the end of October 1980 the route was split
into two halves at Billingborough, Road Car operating from Sleaford to
Billingborough and Delaine from Bourne to Billingborough. |
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Local town service timetable for Bourne from 1975 (market day is
Thursday) |

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GIRDLESTONE OF
GRANTHAM
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Timetable
current in 1933. Arthur Girdlestone (who had driven previously for
Whipple) competed with Reliance on these two routes.
He gave up in favour of Reliance in 1933, despite an offer from
Lincolnshire Road Car for his business. Reliance incorporated
his timings in
their own services on the routes. One vehicle could cover the workings on both of the routes in the timetable below.
Whipple had sold out to Reliance in 1930 but Whipples Garage in Watergate Grantham continued until the mid-1980s when the
premises became a branch of KwikFit.
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GOSLING OF
MAREHAM-LE-FEN
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Founded in 1922 the firm ran
a modest number of bus services to the nearby market towns of
Horncastle,
Boston and
Spilsby. This 1933 timetable was conceived to meet the needs
of shoppers and market-goers.
The bus routes (but not
the garage business) passed to Milson of Coningsby in March 1960.
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The
September 1943 timetable below showed little change over the 1933
timetable above
except for the second route to Boston via Tumby Woodside
on
Wednesday; and a reduction in the number of journeys to
Boston on the original route from Mareham via Revesby (from six to five
on Wednesday
and from seven to five on Saturday). The Skegness
service was suspended during the war with anticipated reintroduction in
1946.
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The timetable below from June
1959 (probably the last issued by Gosling's) shows surprisingly little
change over the
26 years since the 1933 timetable above. The Wednesday
service to Boston via Revesby reduced from five to four journeys but a
Wednesday service introduced on the alternate route via Tumby
Woodside. On Saturday the Revesby route restored to 1933 levels,
increased from five to seven journeys again. The Monday route to
Spilsby has gone; but this appears to have been reinstated after
the takeover of routes by Milson of Coningsby.
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GRESSWELL OF
BILLINGBOROUGH (formerly of Aslackby)
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Pre-war
timetables for three of Greswell's routes before the move of operations
in 1939 to a new base in Victoria Street, Billingborough.
The starting point in
Aslackby was given as Church Corner. The Bourne service below was
Thursday daytime for market and Saturday
evening for cinema. There
was also another Thurday market route to Bourne via Kirkby Underwood. The Gresswell business was
acquired by Wings of Sleaford in March 1964 (the proprietor of Wings
had once driven for Gresswell). In the late 1950s and early
1960s, and unusually for a private operator
in the shires, Gresswell had a Gibson ticket machine of the type that was used
in large
quantity by London Transport. The machine passed to Wings and wa used by them until at least 1965.
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HUNTS OF
ALFORD |
Based in the market town of
Alford at the foot of the Lincolnshire Wolds, this business was started
in March 1930 by Frederick Hunt with
a 14-seater Chevrolet. That first vehicle was
employed
to run from Alford to and from Boston three times a day, a route continued for many
years. The illustration below shows the 1974 timetable for the route.
Hunts
continue to this day
as operators of a fleet of luxury coaches,
and the family firm still provides
several bus
services in and around the area (but no longer their original route to Boston).
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KIME OF
FOLKINGHAM
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The first timetables below are from 1949
with the extension of the routes from the village to serve Folkingham
Camp.
Typically they also show
the market day type of operation current at that time in the operator's
history,
with services radiating from Folkingham in various directions each day
of the week except Friday.
(The timing point 'Blue Harbour' in the Grantham Saturday timetable
should be 'Cold Harbour').
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The pages below are from a modest but
undated timetable booklet. From the routes shown it would be appear to
have been
published between 1956
(Spalding route discontinued) and 1972 (introduction of daily Grantham
service).
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In 1970 Kime's Coaches took over the route
from Boston to Spalding previously operated by Camplin of Donington
(see above).
This is the timetable
from March 1974. This was their first expansion into regular all day
daily bus operation.
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In 1972 Kime took over the former Road Car route to Grantham. This was
a considerable expansion into another daily operation.
The timetable below from
September 1974 shows route revisions and the extension of the route to
include Rippingale.
The restrictions on certain journeys relating to Ropsley were to
protect the long established Reliance service.
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1981 saw expansion of the Folkingham to
Sleaford service into daily operation as Road Car withdrew from the
road.
By this time Kime was also operating another former Road Car route from
Osbournby via Culverthorpe, Oasby and
Welby to Grantham (taken over in 1977). Hence the reference to connections from
Sleaford
to Grantham on Saturdays. Also see the driver's Saturday instruction
sheet illustrated below.
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Drivers Instruction Sheet
for Saturday services, showing the interworking of the vehicle
operating Folkingham
to Sleaford with other routes
including both Grantham via Culverthiorpe and Grantham via Ropsley.
A busy day - the only
break for the driver being at Grantham from 1115 to 1200.
Through journeys from Sleaford to Grantham possible on Saturdays at
0830, 1025 and 1300.
Returning from Grantham at 0940, 1200 and 1550. Useful alternatives to
the limited Road Car service via Ancaster.
These instructions are believed to have been current from 1981 to June 1996 when the Sleaford route was cut back.
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PULFREY OF GREAT
GONERBY
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Pulfrey
timetable booklet (undated, probably from 1962/1963 because of the
reference to works services for Alfred Wisemans,
an engineering firm in Grantham
that seems to have only operated there under their own name for those
two years).
Market day in Newark was Wednesday and in Grantham it was Saturday,
accounting for the extra activity on that day.
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Pulfrey
timetable dated September 1982.
Lincolnshire Road Car route 22 also ran from Grantham to Newark
but to a more westerly route via Allington, Foston and Long Bennington.
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Pulfrey 2009
timetable for the Grantham to Woolsthorpe route, subsidised by the county council. This was interworked
on a one vehicle basis with Grantham town route 620 to Sunningdale. The 620 was jointly operated with Centrebus.
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RELIANCE OF GREAT
GONERBY
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Two
pre-war timetables, current in the year 1932 for the Simmons Brothers
Reliance services in and around the market town of Grantham..
The frequencies
shown for the
local routes to Gonerby and to Barrowby incorporate the additional
timings which had been obtained with the take-over of competitor
Whipple's
business (from whom had come the rural routes below too).
Other than
Lincolnshire Road Car the other competitor was Girdlestone who was
still operating on these two local Grantham routes at
the time and his business had yet to be acquired. That occurred in just
the following year, 1933.
Local town services in
Grantham had been started in the late 1920s by two operators, J Bland
and A Crabtree, both of whom sold their businesses and routes to the
Road Car in 1936. Work on a corporation-owned bus station on land off
St Peters Hill was started in March 1931 as part of the government's
unemployed persons grant scheme and it opened in January 1933.
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Some timetables from 1978 for W J Simmons
trading as Reliance, including Grantham town services
and the country routes to Ropsley, and to Bourne via Irnham, Corby Glen
and Swinstead.
A complete 1961
timetable booklet can be found here.
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For completeness, an example timetable
from the Mass Reliance era, dated June 2004, for the Grantham to
Sleaford route.
This can be compared with
the June 1932 timetable immediately below for the same route when
operated by Rickett of Ancaster.
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RICKETT
(CLASSIC SAFETY COACHES OF ANCASTER)
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Rickett's route between Grantham and
Sleaford passed to Lincolnshire Road Car in 1934 although discussions
had taken place
previously for the route
to be acquired by Wilfred Simmons (Reliance of Great Gonerby). Rickett
also operated an express service
to Skegness as well as
excursions from Ancaster. The emphasis of the route appears to have
been on Sleaford rather than Grantham.
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PRINCE COACH SERVICE
(SEARSON OF BARKSTON)
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Prince Coach Service, undated pre-war
timetable but current in 1932.
Their route to Marston
left
Grantham on the Lincoln road, whereas the
other (Pulfrey) route to Marston
left
Grantham on the Great North Road.
Founded by Billie Searson the bus route and business was continued by his son
Brian and grandson Stephen until passing to Pulfrey of Great Gonerby in 1969.
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Prince
Coach Service, undated post-war
timetable, with the route extended to Brandon.
Although buses arrive at
Brandon and depart immediately the possible
use of
a circular route
returning
direct to Marston from Brandon seems not to
have been considered.
The road between Grantham and Barkston was also covered by Road
Car services to Lincoln and Sleaford.
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SHARPE OF
HECKINGTON
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The first timetable is labelled
'proprietor J. Sharpe' so can be no later than 1947 when the business
became Sharpes Motors Ltd.
The timetable is finely
tuned to local needs running Monday daytime for the market and Saturday
evening for the
cinema, even distinguishing between
when the cinema in Sleaford had one or two evening performances.
The second timetable would have been current circa 1977, possibly until
the end of the service.
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SILVER QUEEN
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Silver
Queen derives from Clacton and District Motor Services, Ltd., started
by Mr. William Percy Allen in December 1913. A branch
was established in
Lincolnshire in 1922, running as Silver Queen, and becoming a limited
company in 1926. By 1928 ithe fleet in
Lincolnshire numbered
sixty and in August of that year the company became Lincolnshire Road
Car, with Tilling participation.The
timetable below, from the
Grantham Journal, courtesy of the Bus Archive, may have been from the
start of operations in the county.
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WING OF
SLEAFORD
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A 1982 timetable booklet from Wings
Coaches of
Sleaford with special offer fares during the school summer holidays.
The timetables are for
the alternative routes to Helpringham and Billingborough, one via
Heckington, the other via Scredington. The 0930 trip from Sleaford worked through to Bourne for the Thursday
market, returning to form the 1455 from Billingborough.
The route to Billingborough via Heckington was previously operated by
the Lincolnshire Road Car whilst the alternate route via Scredington
was amongst the routes that came to Wings in March 1964 when they
bought the long established Gresswell business.
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VALE OF BELVOIR BUS
SERVICE
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The January 1932 timetable for their
routes from Plungar through the Vale of Belvoir to Grantham, Newark and
Melton Mowbray,
attuned to the
local market days and the needs of schoolchildren to and from Grantham.
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WATSON'S BUS SERVICE
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Although described as the shortest service
between Melton and Grantham that might not have been the case as the
Watson
route diverts from the
main road route via Waltham to serve local villages. There is also a
reference in the
bottom right hand corner of
the page suggestting a change of both vehicle and operator at Knipton.
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THE GEM BUS SERVICES
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This is the 1932 timetable of Blankley
Bros. of Colsterworth (Cecil and John), trading as The Gem Bus Service,
who started up in
1926 with a second hand Chevrolet . The village lies
on the A1 Great North Road
just about
halfway between Grantham and
Stamford. Competing services were operated by Rex Buses and Meads
Coaches (proprietor B. Porter), also of Colsterworth.
Principal focus
for both companies was on routes to
and from Grantham and Melton Mowbray. Both operators sold out
to Lincolnshire Road Car in 1934 or 1935 (sources differ). Cecil
Blankley restarted as Gem Luxury Coaches during
the war, which developed into a substantial private hire and excursions business, lasting
until 1986. The coaches are
reputed to have been named after a one time popular brand of cigarettes. Mr Blankney, aged 78, died in 1984.
At one time he had also owned Bartletts Coaches of Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, which was sold to island
operator Southern Vectis, believed to have been in the 1950s.
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apologies for quality of reproduction -
too long to accommodate in one scan
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SPALDING CARRIERS 1936
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