GREYFRIARS COACHES OF WINCHESTER

The buses of the Matthews family

The Greyfriars business, run by the Matthews family, was to be the last of the small private firms to run buses into the cathedral city of Winchester (there were still eight such operators in 1949). The Owslebury route started in 1921, operated by a Mr Dovey of that village, with a Ford model T. It was taken over by Greyfriars in the late 1920s, but the Matthews family had been in business for years previously as coachbuilders.  Based at a garage in Eastgate Street, just round the corner from the main bus departure point in The Broadway with the statue of King Alfred, the firm was to run two bus routes. The country route linked Winchester to Morestead and Owslebury. By the time of the introduction of road service licencing in 1931 there was also a short city route which ran a dozen or so journeys each day from Broadway to Vale Road and Fivefields Road in the Highcliffe Park district of the city. There was a short lived postwar extension from Owslebury to Upper Upham on Saturdays - this was so in 1949 but had gone by September 1950. The timetable appears to have been arranged so that, except on Saturdays,  one vehicle usually covered both routes (until an increase in frequency on the city route to half hourly in 1951).

The two bus routes ran under Matthews proprietorship for the last time in October 1955, although Greyfriars continued for another fiftteen years as a coach operator.  A little reluctantly King Alfred introduced new route 15 on 7th November 1955 with three off-peak journeys to Owslebury after a gap of about a week. There was a delay of several months though until January 1956 before King Alfred, after pressure from the Winchester city council, introduced the 16 to cover the local route to Highcliffe. At the time King Alfred were themselves stretched with staff shortages a particular difficulty.  Greyfriars had used Bedford Utility buses and these did not pass to King Alfred.