COUNTRYBUS

COUNTRYBUS

A historic and nostalgic look at country buses

including Dorset, Normandie and the Faroe Islands

as well as Somerset, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Lincolnshire too

Welcome aboard!

When you have worked in the bus industry for most of your life it gets in your blood in a way that is sometimes hard to explain.

There are many sites on the internet about buses but the interest for me has always been in the history, routes, timetables and service planning rather than the vehicles themselves.

That is not to say that the 'hardware', the buses and coaches, are devoid of interest, but rather that I tend to look to the uses to which they are being put, and how well they (and their drivers and conductors) are being employed, utilised and scheduled.

Over the years, I have worked for several of the Dorset operators in the list below, and although I have always preferred the country bus to its urban counterpart, I have not let the name of this web site preclude me from including some town services with which I have been acquainted. Also included are some of the other interesting British and European operations that I have come across in my travels and researches over the years.

Many children of my generation dreamed of becoming an engine driver when they grew up, but as a child my thoughts turned instead towards running my own bus company. That ambition was realised in part as I was fortunate enough that my transport career in buses and coaches over the years led me to become manager for a time in the 1980s of two of my 'favourite' operations (Rossmore and Stanbridge).

Before all is forgotten, why not click on a link or two below and take a pleasant ride with me down and along the winding lanes of nostalgic memory?

DORSET (RURAL)	DORSET (URBAN)	SOMERSET	WILTSHIRE	HAMPSHIRE
FAROE ISLANDS	FRANCE (NATIONAL)	FRANCE (REGIONAL)	ISLE OF SKYE	LINCOLNSHIRE

There was a time, a simpler time, a quieter time, when the village bus played a significant role in the life of our villages and countryside, taking people to town and market. A time before the proliferation of the private car, a time when farming and agriculture were still major employers, a time before the appearance of even single channel television, when an evening trip to the cinema was still a favoured entertainment. The village bus was part of this country way of life, part of the community, and most often a small business with but a few vehicles and based in one of the villages served.
Bordering Wiltshire to the north, so it was in and around Cranborne Chase in the eastern part of the county of Dorset, in an area of rolling downs and gentle valleys and pleasing villages. And this was good agricultural land too, on which many of the people of the area earned their livelihood over the years. Although in some ways the countryside seemed timeless and unchanging the needs of the villagers evolved through a historical succession of transport, starting with the carrier and his horse and progressing to the motor bus in both its traditional and more modern forms.
Thus the setting of the stories told in these pages which, within the limits of the frailties of memory and the few surviving written records, will attempt to record the efforts of those who served these villages over the years.

SOME OF THE COUNTRY BUSES OF YESTERDAY'S DORSET

Bere Regis & District Motor Services - the ubiquitous brown buses on Dorset's roads

List of operators acquired by Bere Regis & District over the years

Route development of Bere Regis & District bus services from 1949 to 1979

1949 timetable booklet of Bere Regis & District Motor Services

Pictures of Bere Regis vehicles - the brown buses and coaches remembered

Mid Dorset Coaches - the buses run by the three brothers House from Hilton

A Pearce & Co. - the buses of Cattistock and Maiden Newton

Passenger with Pearce - reminiscences of some rural rides in 1972

F Legg & Sons - the Evershot Bus Service

J Crabb and A Lovell - the buses of Sydling St Nicholas

Ernie and Geoff Toomer - the buses that served Witchampton and Crichel

Stanbridge & Crichel - the later story of buses around Witchampton and Crichel

Saturday Driver - a Saturday in the 1970s on the Crichel - Wimborne route

Victory Tours - the Adams family and the buses of Sixpenny Handley

Wimborne and Cranborne - other independent bus operators in the east of the county

Dorset Queen - the buses that were run by Percy Webb and his family

Herrison Hospital - the daily bus that ran unlicenced for 42 years

Interbus - around Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge and out across the Dorset heaths

Dorchester - a bit of serious history about the development of country bus routes

Dorchester 1932 - a list of routes of the Dorchester and District Carriers Association

Past timetables - a selection of independent operator's timetables from bygone days

MORE (BUT NEWER) COUNTRY BUSES OF YESTERYEAR'S DORSET

Blandford Bus Company - a new start in the deregulated 1980s, John Cumming's buses

Weaverbus - the tale of Rory's buses and the Dorset Linkrider services

Oakfield Travel - based in Blandford Forum - like Topsy, they just grew and grew and grew

Shaftesbury & District - operating around where Dorset meets Somerset and Wiltshire

Verwood Transport - blue buses around Verwood over the years

Ray Cuff - thirty years service to the people of North Dorset recalled by Michael Wadman

Ray Cuff - an illustrated fleet list by Paul Welling

Powells's Coaches - a post deregulation operator on the borders of Dorset and Somerset

Deregulation - some timetable examples from bus deregulation in 1986

DORSET (RURAL)	DORSET (URBAN)	SOMERSET	WILTSHIRE	HAMPSHIRE
FAROE ISLANDS	FRANCE (NATIONAL)	FRANCE (REGIONAL)	ISLE OF SKYE	LINCOLNSHIRE

Take a look at our other website

covering an interesting selection of operations past and present!

	DELAINE BUS MUSEUM
	The six members of the Delaine Heritage Fleet form the centrepiece of the Museum. The museum in Bourne (Lincolnshire) is open on the second Saturday of each month from March to October Heritage Bus Running Day 26th April 2025 Twilight Heritage Mini Running Day 25th October 2025 enquiries@delaineheritagetrust.org

DEREGULATION OF BUSES IN GREAT BRITAIN (TRANSPORT ACT 1985)

Often in these pages we make reference to 'deregulation of buses'. From 1931 until 1986 buses operated under a permissive system of road service licencing administered by area Traffic Commissioners around Great Britain. Such licences for individual services protected the established operator from competition along their routes.

This changed from 26 October 1986 (under legislation from the Transport Act of 1985 brought in by government) when bus routes were opened to competition from any other operator. Bus services now needed to be simply notified under a new system called 'route registration' rather than seeking permission through licencing. In many parts of the country such competitive routes were soon introduced, some short-lived and some longer lasting. Over the years since things have in many cases settled down with little remaining on the street competition these days - but still vigorously pursued in some of our towns and cities.

cover of Hampshire Buses by Philip Wallis

Another well researched and closely illustrated book of reminiscence from the pen of Philip Wallis. Not just buses but trolleybuses too as the county of Hampshire at the time encompassed both Bournemouth and Portsmouth, who had established their systems in the 1930s. Arranged in geographical sections around the county the well chosen text and illustrations include all types of operation, major companies, muncipal operators and independents large and small. Many a pleasant hour can be spent leafing through this book to recall the vehicles and their activities in the time and place described in the title.

'Hampshire Buses in the 1960s and Early 1970s' is recently published by Amberley (ISBN 978 1 3981 1251 3) and can be purchased online and from the usual transport bookshops.

If you would like to write or have further information about the operators featured please e-mail countrybusATicloudDOTcom

Please note: this is a site of historical record and does not contain current service information

Grateful thanks for help and encouragement over the years from Roger Grimley, Henry Frier, Derek Persson, Mervyn House,Geoff Toomer,
John Pitfield, Michael Wadman, David Grimmett, Simon Brown, Dave Crowter, Allan Frost, Jon Stagg, Chris Warn,James Prince,
ParisLJM, Eric Steil, Martial Leroux, Jean-Louis Wahart, Clive D'eath, John Carman, Malcolm Chase, Richard Burton, David Gillard,
Maurice Norman, PA Menant, Sylvain Gardie, Andrew Waller, Colin Miller, Valerie Woodcraft, Michael Marshall, Peter Archer, LVVS
Cédric Auvrouin,Luc Hochscheid, John Cummings, Margaret Beards, Barrie Edwards, John Brogden, Laurie James, Andrew Tucker,Richard Ward,
Trevor Kenward, Geoff Currie, Clare Staines, Nick Webster, Peter Gould, Colin Hallett, Mike Watts, Gordon Sharp, Keith Turns,Steve Oxbrow,
Keith Newton, Gerard Delpeuch, Gabriel Samson, Peter Brown, Peter Messer, John Law, Mark Self, Andrew Wood, Paul Welling, Ken Jubb,
Mike Burt,Barry Thirlwall, Jason Hartley, Kenneth Marvin, Jeff Grayer, Mike Lanham, Ken Cameron, Malcolm Knight, Bus Archive, Tony Ethridge,
Philip Wallis, James Bunting, Patrick Collins, 'Busing', Nick Phillips, GG, Jean-Paul Machuré, Jean Pierre Choubrac, Paul Lacey,Maurice Combes,
Richard Jacquemin, Bruno Cassin, ASPTV, J.Tschill,Thomas Salazar, Peter Osborn, Norman Hudson, Brian Hague, Malcolm Thompson, John Veerkamp
David Quayle,Peter Townley,John Sinclair, Gerard Destrais, Malc McDonald, Neil Evans,Wendy Sewell,David Odlin,Anthony Delaine-Smith,
Renno Hokwerda, Mikkjal Helmsdal, Vøgg Guttesen,Jens Tummas Naess, Poul Laust Christiansen, Finnur Johansen, Sólvør Henriksen,Libor Hindica.

MORE COUNTRYBUS REMINISCENCES - three Bournemouth coach operators of yesteryear

THE COUNTRYBUS WEBSITE - TWENTY FOUR YEARS ON THE INTERNET

RESEARCHING AND RECORDING THE HISTORY OF RURAL TRANSPORT

My longstanding friend and colleague Roger Grimley has published many books recording the history of bus and coach operators in the West Country, from Cornwall and Devon to Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. Although there are unlikely to be new titles in the future some of his books can be still be obtained from the website of WHOTT (West Country Historic Omnibus & Transport Trust).

JULY 2017 - THE MONTH THAT THE VILLAGES OF RURAL DORSET

LOST MOST OF THEIR BUSES THROUGH COUNCIL FUNDING CUTS

All copyrights and trade marks freely and gratefully acknowledged. Information compiled with thanks from a miscellany
of sources across the years, including many of my own recollections and experiences and those of colleagues past and present.
Any errors are mine alone. Further information is welcomed on the operators, routes and services featured on the web site,
or other similarly interesting bus operations in the areas described! Peter Roberts, Countrybus, 1st December 2024.

DORSET (RURAL)	DORSET (URBAN)	SOMERSET	WILTSHIRE	HAMPSHIRE
FAROE ISLANDS	FRANCE (NATIONAL)	FRANCE (REGIONAL)	ISLE OF SKYE	LINCOLNSHIRE