SKYLARK
MOTOR SERVICES
Perhaps
named
after the ground-nesting bird, their buses ran from Salisbury south to
Woodfalls and later west to Chilmark
|
Please
note - this is a site of historical record and does not contain current
service information
|
|
|
|
|
The
name Skylark was long associated with the stage services that
ran from Woodfalls, Redlynch and Downton into Salisbury from the
south. The original proprietors were Frank Shergold and Sons (the
Shergold name is of course also associated with Silver Star
of Porton, but there was no family connection). The Shergolds
were carriers between Woodfalls and Salisbury before the 1914 - 1918
war and during the 1920s they were coal merchants as well. In
September 1926 the motor bus service started with a Reo chassised bus
with Pitt of Amesbury body, running initially on Tuesday
and Saturday. From 1920 Edward Locke of Landford was
operating a motor bus from his home village to Salisbury on Tuesday and
Saturday, running via Woodfalls and Downton; he also owned a charabanc
which was called Skylark. There was
other competition at this time too from Cox of Landford, Newman of
Redlynch and Jack Connolly of
Woodfalls who started back at Hale, the latter business passing to
Wilts & Dorset in July
1933 (who had themselves started on the Woodfalls route in August
1926). After 1931 and the introduction of road service licencing the
Salisbury route was served by Skylark and Wilts & Dorset.
|
|
|
|
|
A Skylark timetable from October
1930 shows
six journeys
each way on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with an extra late cinema
bus from Salisbury on Saturday evening. On Sunday there were four
each way. Wilts & Dorset service 15 was offering eleven
journeys over the route each weekday (eight on Sunday), plus late
cinema bus on Wednesday and Saturday. Also listed by Skylark is
one return journey on Friday only from Downton and Woodfalls via
Landford and Plaitford to Southampton. But Gilbert Haines of
Downton - and landlord of the Kings Arms - was also running a similar
route twice a day (three times
on Sundays) from Downton via Woodfalls and West Wellow and Ower to
Southampton. His route passed to Wilts & Dorset in January 1932.
Frank Shergold left the bus business he founded and from
February 1934 until June 1936 the Skylark business was run by Wilf and
Ralph Shergold and
Horace Barber and then from 1936 until 1947 it was Barber alone -
Barber had started with the firm as a driver and became manager in
1936. By that year Skylark had expanded to a daily operation and
added a short shuttle run of two minutes duration on Tuesday and
Saturday to link the village of Hale to the main Salisbury route at
Woodfalls. A Thursday market service had also been introduced from
Woodfalls via Fritham and the strangely named Nomansland to Romsey.
|
|
|
|
|
sample pages from the 1935 Skylark
timetable (the service to Salisbury ran seven days a week)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
second world war brought increased business. After the war
the main route was extended eastwards across the northern New Forest
through Fritham and Nomansland to reach Stoney Cross Aerodrome.
Double-deckers arrived for the first time. In December 1946 a
service of up to eight journeys a day was proposed from Downton to
Ringwood, via Woodgreen, Fordingbridge, Gorley and Mockbeggar.
This was not pursued, probably because of objections from Hants &
Dorset Motor Services. The firm evolved and became a limited
company in
January 1947. There were fifteen buses and coaches and the company
officials of Skylark Motor Services
Ltd. were listed as Sydney Moody, Horace Barber, Alfred Pullen and Mel
Moody. The Moody family developed a travel agency which was based
in Milford Street in Salisbury. Wilf Shergold had rejoined the
Skylark business after the war and was listed as Chief Engineer in
1955/56, and continued for years subsequently.
In 1946 the Skylark bus operations were substantially
expanded away
from their traditional operating area when the business of F &
R Viney of Chilmark was taken over together with their daily route
from Salisbury to Burcombe, Barford, Dinton, Tefford and
Chilmark. On Tuesday and Saturday it reached Ridge, south west of
Chilmark. (Fred and Reg Viney, the two partners, were brothers who had
both lost limbs in a stone fall at Chilmark Quarry. Their route
was running on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday by 1923,
increased to every weekday from 1932; the Ridge extension started in
1934).
|
|
|
The Skylark fleet lined up in 1949 -
twenty one buses. Two of the three similarly liveried deckers
were ex- Hull Regents still in that livery (RH4776/7). The third
was ex-Huddersfield repainted in Hull livery (VH5729). The fourth
OW4257 is a Thornycroft with AEC engine, ex- Southampton, in two tone
blue and cream, later repainted to Hull style (as was its
replacement BTV572).
More on those double-deckers - the first into
the Skylark fleet was OW4257, withdrawn from the Southampton
Corporation fleet in 1945. This Thornycroft had been new to
Southampton in 1934 as their fleet number 11. Its Park Royal
body seated H26/24R. It arrived in August 1947 and served until
the end of bus operations in June 1951. In Skylark days it had an AEC
engine
and radiator
and was first painted in two tone blue and cream. Later it was
repainted in Hull style blue, but without the streamlining.
|
|
|
|
And
thanks to David Gillard we can
identify all of
the vehicles in the fleet picture above - starting from the right hand
side: |
|
Albions
11
AMW 432
2
WV 5837
3
BRV 568
4
ATP 105
AEC
Regals
5
MW 8981
9 *
OW 1390
12
BU 8756
- **
EHR 89
8
TP 9098
Thornycroft
17 ++ OW
4257
* old body ** assumed to
be No 16
++ this was 56 seater with Skylark
|
|
AEC Regents
18 RH 4777
10 RH 4776
19
VH 5729
Dennis Ace
1 WV 6535
Bedford
OB
6 = EMW
145
7
= EMW 788 Bedford OWB
14 DHR 381
13
DHR 380
20
GTV 295
21 GTV 296
= Utility style,
upgraded by Lee
Motors
|
|
That
is the SMS fleet that David remembers - subsequent double deck
arrival BTV 572 became fleet number 22 . |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A
line up of buses in New Canal, Salisbury. A busy scene familiar to many
and seen frequently in the post-war years. A picture that can be dated
as taken between 1948 and 1951. On the left is Bedford OWB BJT 217 from
Adams of Handley (Victory Tours). Next is Skylark double-decker AEC
Regent
RH4777, on the Redlynch and Woodfalls route. Next is Albion
single-decker BRV568 on the Chilmark route; then another Skylark
double-decker VH5729 from Redlynch also. On the extreme right is a
single-decker of Bell's Winterslow and Pitton Motor Services.
|
1947 also saw the first double-decker come into
the fleet, a second hand Thornycroft from Southampton. For a brief
period from September 1949 until
October 1950 the main
Salisbury - Woodfalls - Stoney Cross route was extended to Lyndhurst.
But as told above, the routes were never entirely the province of
Skylark, and there was always strong competition with Wilts &
Dorset (especially between Salisbury, Downton and Woodfalls) who were
to buy the bus operations from Skylark on 17th June 1951. It is
reputed they paid £2,000 for the goodwill of the Woodfalls and Chilmark
routes. These were integrated into their existing
operations. Until comparatively recently several W&D vehicles
were
out-stationed
at Downton to operate the Woodfalls route (Skylark continued for
another 13 years as coach operators from their Woodfalls base).
In 1950 they had expanded to the market town of Lymington in
Hampshire, with an associated company Skylark Motor Services
(Lymington)
Ltd buying the long established business of Edgar Morton on his
retirement. This was sold in 1955 to the Maitland family, owners of the
well-known Excelsior European Motorways of Bournemouth, and was the
starting point of the long lasting Excelsior subsidiary
based in Lymington (Hampshire Motorways).
In 1964 Skylark Motor Services of Woodfalls was
purchased by A
E Budden
and Sons Ltd of West Tytherley. At that time the
Skylark business comprised a rented shed for the repair of 2 vehicles
at any time, and a fleet of other vehicles on a parking plot of
approximately one acre (near where Skylark Motors is based today).
Buddens had a proper garage built, and Wilf Shergold stayed on as
manager, and then as director of the company (renamed Buddens Skylark
Coaches Ltd in 1973). Buddens transferred all repairs to the Woodfalls site but
still parked some vehicles at their West Tytherley base.
|
With the Buddens
acquisition of
Skylark came the Salisbury Travel Agency at 21b Milford Street. with Mr
Mel Moody being a director of Skylark and manager of the travel
office. He became a director of Buddens Skylark Coaches Ltd and
subsequently the travel office in Salisbury was closed. Skylark had
excursion licences from the New Forest area including Wellow, Landford,
Nomansland, Woodfalls, Redlynch, Downton, Breamore, and Woodgreen.
The
Budden and
Skylark businesses amalgamated in 1973 to become Buddens Skylark
Coaches Ltd. The old Skylark depot at Woodfalls remained Budden's
main workshop until April 1991. (Buddens were originally stage
operators with a daily West Tytherley - Salisbury service which had
started in 1926. They grew from their village origins to become a
front line coaching business - with thirty vehicles in 1978 - and were
associated with Len Wright Travel of London from 1976 until
1983). In 1991 the Buddens activities were concentrated on a new
base in Abbey Park at Romsey, Hampshire with the name of Buddens Coches
and no further reference to Skylark, and under management of Peter
Budden's son Simon. The former Woodfalls base was no
longer used except as a petrol station and car repairs (under
Shergold ownership), but did return to running buses for a while as
mentioned
below.
|
|
|
|
|
The Skylark office in Salisbury decorated for the Coronation in 1953
|
Skylark returned briefly
to bus service
operation following deregulation after the 1985 Transport Act
with a short lived Tuesday and Saturday return journey to Salisbury
over their old route from Hale, Woodfalls, Redlynch and Downton.
Then they were at various times contracted to Hampshire County Council
for various local routes in the Fordingbridge area. In 1993 Skylark
Motors separated from
Buddens, having operated for the previous two years as a petrol station
and repair and MOT centre for cars and light commercial vehicles.
Having parted from the parent company Edward Budden took over and
immediately began a local bus service as well as developing
the garage and forecourt. 1994 saw Skylark purchasing its first band
bus
(a Scania Berkhof double decker). They continued to develop this side
of the business and bought three more coaches before converting them to
band
buses also. The
last incursion
into the bus business was in 1999 when a timetable leaflet issued in
February showed two services (i) Elmwood Avenue - Fordingbridge -
Godshill - Downton - Salisbury (four journeys each way Monday to
Saturday) and (ii) Downton - Woodfalls - Godshill - Fordingbridge -
Hyde - South Gorley - Ringwood Market (one return journey
Wednesdays). Those services too had gone by 2002 although Skylark
continued with their garage and motor engineers business in
Woodfalls, whilst remaining successful in developing its band bus fleet.
|
|
|
|
|
|