80 years ago . . .

As the torrential rains came down all around and our planned trip out today was postponed, I sat and reminisced about what was happening in the world 80 years ago in 1932. Those thoughts were largely triggered by a radio programme about walking and the mass trespass at Kinder Scout in that same year, and without which perhaps the freedom to ramble as we know it today would not have happened.

What has that got to do with Dorset and buses you may well ask? The year is the connection. One of the treasures from a lifetime of collecting transport memorabilia and ephemera is a copy of the 1932 poster issued by the Dorchester and District Carriers Association, complete with a list of their routes and times..

Sixty three villages are listed as being linked to Dorchester by bus, not quite from A to Z but ranging from Affpuddle and Ansty through Chebbard and Littlemayne to Waddock and Wrackleford. Many of the services shown were run only two days per week for the market on Wednesday and Saturday whilst a smaller number of villages could lay claim to a daily service, including the roads to Frampton, Bloxworth, Cerne Abbas and Puddletown. Many of the routes terminated in the Council Yard in Trinity Street, opened in 1922. Others continued to 'put up' in the time-honoured way at inns such as the White Hart, the Phoenix, the Plume and the Ship.

Some of the operators names are now long forgotten, whilst many others were taken over by the ever expanding Bere Regis & District Motor Services during the war or shortly after. The name of Davis – one of the partners in the Bere Regis business - appears on the poster with his service from Bloxworth. One of the other partners – Toop – appears with a route from Winfrith. Other names that lasted into comparatively recent times include House of Hilton and Pearce of Cattistock.

It was in Pearce's garage that this little piece of history from 1932 hung above the office desk for many long years. Coincidentally it was in 1932 that Pearce obtained their first school contract to Maiden Newton from Cattistock. Many years have passed now, operators have come and gone, routes and vehicles have changed. How many of those village journeys are still possible today, are there still buses in Southover or Hillfield?

Deregistering what was registered . . .

Dorset is turning out to be interesting these days.  Damory (Go Ahead) may have very much upset the county council by deregistering the several routes that they registered commercially a few months ago at the time of the county retendering exercise. These were routes that were deliberately registered apparently to block out Yellow Buses who had won those particular routes originally. The routes involved being 103 Bovington to Dorchester; 347 / 387 Poole to Dorchester; and 1, 2, 3, 4 Dorchester Town. Damory have also deregistered 7 Dorchester - Herrison Hospital, but this has always been commercially operated. 
An intriguing possibility mooted is that the county themselves mighty divert one of the two electric buses on order for their new 6 route from Dorchester to Poundbury and operate the 7 to Herrison directly themselves. 
All these changes happen from 18th February and it might well be poetic justice if Yellow Buses now regained the routes they had originally won. One thing for sure it is going to cost the county council a great deal of the money they thought they had saved by their new pan-global method of tendering!.

Around Casterbridge Town

So for once the driver's rumours have been shown to be correct, and their prophesy has come to pass.  The business of Coach House Travel of Dorchester (home of Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge) has been sold to Damory Coaches, the rapidly expanding Go Ahead subsidiary company which has recently gained a considerable percentage of the tendered bus and school work across Dorset.  This will mark the end of thirty years of independently operated town services in Dorchester, from Interbus through Bere Regis to Cawlett to Coach House.  Also transferring to Damory will be the long established Herrison Hospital bus route with its intriguing history: a route that has been commercially operated since Coach House Travel acquired it from the health authority in the mid-1990s.  Interestingly Damory are to operate the town services commercially - rather than under subsidy - when they take over in October.  Perhaps the real value of Les Watt's business to Go Ahead is for parking space rather than for the bus routes per se  (-:

Adieu Shamrock

A fateful day in Dorset as Shamrock Buses ceased trading at short notice yesterday 6th July.  Several pieces of tendered work had been lost or were about to be lost (eg bus routes 32, 22, 111). These were the icing on the cake, three of the five public bus routes that fitted between and around some of the not inconsiderable amount of school runs that were being operated. Their loss left the main thrust of the Shamrock operation as peak time only, no doubt unviable with full time labour costs to bear. Whilst one could hope it is but 'au revoir' this time perhaps it is 'adieu'.   Shamrock, you will be missed.