GREYFRIARS COACHES OF WINCHESTER The buses of the Matthews family |
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Please note - this is a site of historical record and does not contain current service information |
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The
Greyfriars
business, run by the Matthews family, was to be the last
of the small private firms running into the cathedral city of
Winchester (there were still
eight such operators in 1949). The main route was taken over from
Dovey, the Owslebury carrier, in the late 1920s, but Matthews had been
in business for some 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 ran two bus routes. The country route
linked Winchester to Morestead and Owslebury. There was a short lived
postwar extension to Upper Upham on Saturdays - this was so in
1949 but had gone by September 1950. 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. 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). |
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some Greyfriars
Coaches bus tickets (front and rear) |
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The only photo of a Greyfriars vehicle I have been able to trace is here, taken by Peter Gale in 1967, showing JDG967, Leyland PS2/3 (1950) Plaxton FC33F |
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Information about working on the buses in Winchester and Southampton is on Bob Mockford's site | ||||||||||
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