Based in premises in Main Street in the Rutland village of Cottesmore, the well known coach operator Blands ran several local bus services as well, stretching from their home county into the nearby market towns of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. For many years the village was associated with nearby ironstone mining. Cottesmore village is not far from the RAF station of the same name which opened in March 1938. The 1939 timetable below shows a Tuesday service from Castle Bytham as well as extra services to and from the RAF station, including Saturday midnight departures back from both Melton and Oakham. RAF Cottesmore was taken over by the army in April 2012 as Kendrew Barracks.  

Reginald's son Tony (A R Bland) joined the firm in 1953 and ran it until 1997, when he was well into his 80s.  The founder R H Bland died in 1985, and two of Tony's sons Ian and Stephen then took part in the busines.. In the same year the business of Clapham's Coaches of Stamford was acquired and it was soon rebranded as Blands (Stamford) Ltd which company was in operation by the time of bus deregulation in summer 1986. Based in Ryhall this operation was run by Stephen, one of Reginalds's grandsons. At this time the 'traditional' routes from Cottesmore to Stamford and Oakham were registered to 'R H Bland of Cottesmore deceased' whilst Blands (Stamford) Ltd registered route 9 from Stamford to Peterborough via Wittering and Wansford (on a limited basis of two return journeys a day); market services to Nassington and Duddington; weekly shoppers services to Kettering and Leicester; and workers services from places such as Swinstead, Sleaford, Pinchbeck, Oakham, Uppingham and Market Overton to the now closed Mirrlees Blackstones engineering works in Stamford.

After the 1986 deregulation of bus services new routes such as Grantham to Melton Mowbray followed the withdrawal of Lincolnshire Road Car route 618 (Grantham - Melton - Leicester) As well as the services to Stamford, Oakham, Grantham and Uppingham shown in the 1987 timetable illustrations below there were also the 'traditional routes' between Melton Mowbray, Cottesmore, and Oakham which were included in a separate leaflet. Ian Bland (one of Tony's sons) was also involved in the operations in the 1990s along with his brother Stephen. At this time a Saturday service linked RAF Cottesmore to Peterborough via Stamford. Unexpectedly operations ceased abruptly from the long established Cottesmore base on 7th August 1997 with most of the bus routes passing to Lincolnshire Road Car. 

In 1988 Blands (Stamford) Ltd had routes from Stamford to Peterborough via Wansford (by now increased to six returm journeys a day), Stamford to Nassington via Duddington as well as a Stamford town service. This was the year that Barton Transport had withdrawn from the Stamford area (in April, with closure of their Radcliffe Road depot and thirty redundancies), which meant that their services to Peterborough (two different routes) and to Nassington (all ex-Cream) were discontinued. At this time also Delaine of Bourne started to run the other route from Stamford to Peterborough via Barnack (still continuing today as their service 201). Barton in turn had earlier acquired the routes to Peterborough and Nassington (cut back from Oundle in 1959) from the Cream Bus Service of Stamford in 1961.  It is possible that the route to Peterborough was a competitive operation as Kimes of Folkingham were also running over this road in 1989. In January 1989 Stephen Bland of Blands Stamford advocated a daily commuter run from Stamford and Peterborough to London which would offer better fares than using the train. In July 1990 Blands of Stamford was sold to Midland Fox who had ambition to extend their operations to include Peterborough. They ran it under the Fairtax Coaches name (more usually associated with Melton Mowbray).

In 1993 Mark Bland (born in 1967) set up his own business at Creeton, Mark Bland Travel. In 1999 Mark Bland Travel was operating what had been the Blands (Stamford) route to Nassington, and by 1999 the operation of the Peterborough route via Wansford was solely by Kimes. In 2001 the Stamford town service had been taken over by Mark from Stagecoach Viscount. The relationship between the Stamford and Cottesmore businesses of Blands is not totally clear but the original Blands of Stamford business seems to have been run originally by Tony and Stephen Bland. They had sold their operation to Midland Fox in 1990. Subsequently when Midland Fox withdrew from the Stamford area the Mark Bland Travel business took over their Ryhall premises (which had been the Arriva Midland Fox depot).

Local bus services in and around Stamford were run by Mark Bland Travel, as well as schools, private hire and tour work. The market day service from Stamford to Oundle via Duddington ran until 2015. The main current bus routes operated (2019) are schools orientated services from Colsterworth, Corby Glen, Whissendine to Stamford, nnd to Grantham from Corby Glen and Stamford,  together with the Stamford Hopper town service 182. Since autumn 2016 Adam Barrett has joined the firm as joint owner and a move of base from Ryhall to a purpose built depot at nearby Essendine was made during 2019. Since then the Bland family have no longer been involved in the running of the business despite the company name now being Blands (Rutland) Ltd.  More recently when Centrebus withdrew from their route from Stamford to Uppingham the tender award from Rutland Council was made to the Blands company who now operate it as service 12.

So, spanning three generations, all of  Tony's sons, Mark, Stephen and Ian, and thus the grandsons of the Cottesmore founder Reginald Bland, have been involved in bus and coach operation over the years in one way or another..

1974 timetable for services to Stamford

Blands of Cottesmore BTK397C, a Bedford VAL14 with 'classic' Duple Vega Major coachwork seen at Stamford on 24 July 1976,
waiting to return to Castle Bytham and Cottesmore.     (Photo by courtesy of Steve Thoroughgood)