KIMES OF FOLKINGHAM

From family business to workers co-operative


Kimes single decker (Wrights)

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







Folkingham is located on the northern edge of the district of South Kesteven with a large market square perhaps out of proportion to the size of the village and its present day population of seven hundred or so. King Edward II granted Folkingham a Thursday market and seven annual fairs. In the days of the stagecoach the impressive red brick Greyhound Inn overlooking the market place from the north was once an important staging post on the London to Lincoln road. The origins of this bus business date back to 1946 when Richard ('Dick') Kime (1912 - 1984) took over the business of A R R King (Alfred King born 1896) of Folkingham - established in the 1920s - with his two Reos. One of King's earliest vehicles was a Crossley with body by Stephensons of Newark, CT4994 of 1922/23. (A man called Arthur King (a son or grandson?) who died in 2009 aged 80 years was also a driver for Kimes). Between the Greyhound on the east and St Andrews Church on the west was 35 Market Place, the base for King and subsequently Kimes. The buses were parked in the street in the market place. In later years purpose built garage premises at nearby 3 Sleaford Road would serve as Kimes base right though to 2013.

The original bus routes were of a market day style operation and were from Folkingham to:
      Sleaford on Monday and Saturday;
      Spalding on Tuesday;
      Boston on Wednesday;
      Bourne on Thursday;
      Grantham on Saturday and Sunday.

With many RAF stations in the county of Lincolnshire Kimes were active in forces leave services in the 1940s and 1950s. From June 1949 until December 1956 the bus routes from Folkingham were extended to serve Folkingham Camp - this was the former RAF Folkingham to the south west of the village, which was not used by the military at the time, but was used to accommodate displaced and homeless people. (Example timetables from the period can be seen here). Some reductions took place in 1956 with the withdrawal of the Tuesday route to Spalding and the loss of the Saturday service to Sleaford and the Sunday service to Grantham. Fleet sizes in both 1949 and 1964 numbered only three.

Richard's son John became involved full time in the business in 1970 when a substantial development of operations took place with the bus service of Camplins of Donington (running as Holme Delight) taken over, along with their busy daily route from Boston to Spalding via Donington on which Camplin had operated two AEC Regent double-deckers. Camplin continued as a coach operator until 1977 when taken over by Elsey of Gosberton. 

Considerable enhancement of the services towards Grantham took place when the Aslackby - Billingborough - Folkingham - Grantham service 26 of Lincolnshire Road Car was withdrawn and its operation passed to Kimes in April 1972. A new vehicle was purchased for this work, WCT901K a Bedford YRQ coach with Duple Viceroy 45-seater body. Kimes had offered to operate the daily route without the benefit of a county council subsidy. In 1974 the route was revised at the country end from Folkingham - Aslackby - Pointon - Billingborough to Folkingham - Billingborough - Pointon - Rippingale - Aslackby. This gave passengers from the large village of Billingborough a quicker journey to Grantham as well as serving Rippingale for the first time. Although subsidy had not been sought in 1972 for the 26 service in 1974 subsidy was sought for the original Saturday route to Grantham via Pickworth, Sapperton and Braceby.

During the 1970s operations moved to a new garage built in Sleaford Road on the site of a former farmhouse. Further routes came as Road Car retrenched during the seventies, including Osbournby - Swarby - Culverthorpe - Welby - Grantham in January 1977, also Amber Hill to Boston. By this time there were three routes operating on Saturdays from Folkingham to Grantham, the original route via Pickworth; the ex-Road Car 26 route via Humby and the other ex-Road Car route via Swarby and Welby.

Kimes bell punch tickets

Kimes Coaches (as they were then called) ran a substantial portfolio of extended holiday tours in both Great Britain and on the continent in the 1980s. A service between Billingborough and Sleaford each weekday was introduced in 1981, again replacing Road Car; this was route 34 which Road Car had operated jointly with Delaine. Deregulation of bus services in 1986 offered opportunities which brought the bus operations to Oakham and Upingham in Rutland and saw new longer routes introduced between Boston and Peterborough (Friday and Saturday) and Boston to Lincoln (Friday). The ex-Road Car route from Boston to Kirton was also added to the route portfolio in 1986.

The Kimes fleet size in 1988 was twenty seven vehicles, nine of which were double-deckers, and in the mid-1990s was twenty, again with nine of them double-deckers. In later years the focus has been on bus operation rather than coaching, but this is not untypical of several Lincolnshire operators, eg Delaine of Bourne and Brylaine of Boston.  A service from Grantham to Stamford via Corby Glen was introduced from January 2004 when Road Car withdrew from the route (this still operates and is now Call Connect service 4). Kimes later gained operation of the Sleaford to Grantham via Ancaster route too as their service 27.


Alan Watkins remembers that in the late 1950s and early 1960s the Road Car base at Billingborough was home to three crews and two vehicles. A double decker and a saloon, the latter a woefully underpowered 4-cyl LWL.  There was a dormy shed here but the double decker had to stand outside.  The decker worked a duplicate from 8 a.m. Billingborough-Sleaford on Service 34 and then worked various ex-Sleaford journeys until it worked back on the 4.15 p.m. Sleaford to Billingborough.  The saloon spent it's time trundling around 20 miles from Billingborough to Grantham on Service 26, a rural ramble. Grantham worked the Service 26 on Sunday.


Livery was originally green and cream but in modern days had become predominantly cream all over. Expansion had taken Kimes away from their traditional focus of operations in Lincolnshire to routes in Rutland such as Oakham to Peterborough and Stamford to Uppingham. Many of the buses were lettered for specific routes and / or carried a map of the operating area (see pictures below). They also bore the legend "an employee owned company", whilst the modern electronic indicators displayed "with Kimes" underneath the destination place name.

For many years this was to be a typical family owned operation passing from father to son until significant change came in January 1997 when the family business was sold and transformed into a worker's co-operative with eighteen member shareholders, with Paul Brown becoming the manager. At that time John ('JK') Kime (son of the founder Richard) wished to pursue his other business activities although he maintained a financial interest in the bus company. Initially Paul Brown, engineer Richard Searson and driver John Messenger were elected as directors by ballot. Sadly John died a month later and his place on the board was taken by David Odlin.

Kimes Coaches 3d ticket

The co-operative formed in 1997 continued as the modus operandi (although perhaps with insufficient reinvestment by its members) until July 2011 and the sudden death of Paul Brown the operations manager after which Kimes Buses was sold to Centrebus. The Kimes routes formed a useful extension to the Grantham-based network operated since 2005 by Centrebus (as successor to Mass Transit). However articles in the trade press in June 2013 gave expression to doubt over the continuation of the Kimes base in Folkingham. Routes nearer to Grantham and Sleaford (eg 26 Aslackby - Folkingham - Grantham, 27 Sleaford - Ancaster - Grantham and 4 Grantham - Corby Glen - Stamford) would be integrated further into the Centrebus Grantham operation whilst the more operationally distant routes involving not inconsiderable dead mileage at the start and the end of the day (eg 9 Peterborough - Oakham, 12 Stamford - Uppingham and 58 / 59 Boston - Kirton / Donington - Spalding) would relocate their base of operations. Subsequently the 58 and 59 passed to Brylaine of Boston (with five ex-Dublin Bus Olympians and some of the staff) and the Folkingham site closed at the end of August 2013; route 9 passed to the Melton Mowbray (Saxby) depot of Centrebus and the 12 to the Corby operation of Centrebus.



map of routes
cover of 1974 timetable booklet                      

cover of 1974 timetable booklet

Kimes Coaches  -  bus routes in operation in 1977
Folkingham - Osbournby - Pickworth - Sapperton - Grantham
Saturday
the original Kimes route to Grantham
Folkingham - Billingborough - Pointon - Bourne
Thursday

Folkingham - Billingborough - Helpringham - Heckington - Boston
Wednesday

Helpringham - Heckington - Boston
Wednesday and Saturday

Folkingham - Osbournby - Silk Willoughby - Sleaford
Monday

Boston - Swineshead - Bicker - Donington - Gosberton - Spalding
Daily
ex-Holme Delight 1970
Aslackby - Billingborough - Folkingham - Humby - Ropsley - Grantham
Except Sunday
ex-Road Car 1972
Amber Hill - Holland Fen - Boston
Wednesday and Saturday
ex-Road Car c.1975
Osbournby - Swarby - Oasby - Welby - Grantham
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday ex-Road Car 1977


Two pictures taken at Boston bus station in 2009 illustrate the green and the cream liveries. Also visible on the cream bus is the extensive signwriting.
(both photos from the hesterjenna collection on Flickr)

WAZ8278 (was G675TCN). Leyland Olympian / Alexander . New 1989 to Northern General (their NG3675) passing to Go Gateshead then Kimes.



V929FMS. Kimes fleet number D1. 1999 Dennis Trident / Alexander (ex-demonstrator). Bought from Portsmouth University in 2006.
Kimes at Boston in 2009 green livery
Kimes at Boston in 2009 cream livery

Kimes Leyland National PAZ3185, new to Brighton & Hove in 1985 as C457OAP.
Showing route 35 to Bourne is a puzzle, the 32 went to Bourne, the 35 went to Sleaford.
(picture by Keith Newton)
Kimes Leyland National PAZ3185

Kimes  of Folkingham: 2011 fleet list upon the sale to Centrebus
(with acknowledgement to the GB Bus Group for the information)

Fleet
Number
Registration
Number
Former
Registration
Engine / Chassis
Body
Build
42
YAZ4142 P904PWW DAF SB220LC550 N/C Paladin 1996
43
YAZ4143
M850RCP DAF SB220LT550 N/C Paladin
1995
46
PAZ9346
M848RCP DAF SB220LT550 N/C Paladin
1995
61
TAZ4061
G679TCN Leyland Olympian ONCL10/1RZ Alexander RH
1989
62
TAZ4062 **
H960PTW
Leyland Olympian ON2R50C13Z4 Alexander Belfast
1990
63
TAZ4063 **
H961PTW
Leyland Olympian ON2R50C13Z4
Alexander Belfast
1990
64
TAZ4064 **
H664PTW
Leyland Olympian ON2R50C13Z4
Alexander Belfast
1990
73
YAZ8773 **
H950PTW
Leyland Olympian ON2R50C13Z4
Alexander Belfast
1990
74
YAZ8774 **
H808PTW
Leyland Olympian ON2R50C13Z4
Alexander Belfast
1990
84
PAZ3184
H690PTW
Leyland Olympian ON2R50C13Z4
Alexander Belfast
1990
302
DAZ4302
V394KVY
Optare Excel L1150 Optare
1999
D1
V929FMS

Dennis Trident 10.5 SLF Alexander ALX400
1999
D2
PO51WNN

Dennis Trident 10.5 SLF
Plaxton President
2001
D3
T648KPU

Dennis Trident 10.5 SLF Alexander ALX400 1999
D4
GK04NZU

VDL DB250PS East Lancs Lowlander 2004
D5
PO51UMS

Dennis Trident 10.5 SLF East Lancs Lolyne 2001
D6
PO51UMW

Dennis Trident 10.5 SLF East Lancs Lolyne 2001
D7
GX06AOE
Volvo B7TL East Lancs Vyking 2006
S1
YN51MJE
Scania L94UB Wright Solar 2001
S2
W178CDN
DAF DE02GSSB200 Ikarus Citibus 481 2000
S3
Y284HUA
DAF SB120 Wright Cadet
S4
FX04TJY
DAF DE02CSSB200 Wright Commander 2004
S5
YJ04BMV
DAF DE02CSSB200 Wright Commander 2004
S6
YJ55KZZ

DAF DE02CSSB200 Wright Commander 2005
S7
V159EFS
Dennis Dart Plaxton Super Pointer
S9
AN09BUS
VDL SB200 Wright Urban Eclipse 2009
S10
KB10BUS
VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2 2010

The five Olympian / Alexander double deckers marked ** in the table above were sold to Brylaine of Boston in August 2013 when the Folkingham depot of Kimes closed and Brylaine assumed the operation of routes 58 and 59.


Kimes  of Folkingham: 2011 route list upon the sale of the business to Centrebus

Service
Number
From
To
Via
Days of
Operation
4
Grantham
Stamford
Corby Glen
Weekdays
6 / X6
Grantham
Bottesford
Barrowby
Weekdays
9
Oakham
Peterborough
Stamford
Weekdays
12
Stamford
Uppingham
Rutland Water
Weekdays
22
Osbournby
Grantham
Oasby
Schooldays
26
Aslackby and Billingborough
Grantham
Folkingham
Weekdays
27
Sleaford
Grantham
Ancaster
Weekdays
29
Quadring
Billingborough

Schooldays
31
Folkingham
Bourne
Aslackby
Schooldays
32
Folkingham
Bourne
Billingborough
Thursdays
33
Stamford (Saturday) / Bourne (Tuesday)
Lincoln
Bourne, Sleaford
Tuesdays and Saturdays
34
Folkingham
Sleaford
Osbournby
Schooldays
35
Folkingham
Sleaford
Osbournby
Mondays and Fridays
36
Billingborough
Boston
Helpringham
Wednesdays
44
Boston
Lincoln
Heckington
Fridays
58
Boston
Kirton

Weekdays
59
Boston
Spalding
Donington
Weekdays
71
Peterborough
Arthur Mellows College

Schooldays

old view of Folkingham looking up to the Market Place and Greyhound Inn
view of Folkingham

Kimes in action in Folkingham - market bus to Bourne
In relation to the older picture above the bus is at the top right hand side of the hill
Kimes in Folkingham


For a flavour of 1980s rural bus operation in 'Kime Country' consult the article by
Cedric Greenwood in the April-May 2018 issue of Classic Bus magazine.

Other examples of Kime's timetables can be found
here

incorporating information from articles and publications

found in the libraries of Lincolnshire,

the map adapted from a 1980s timetable.


DORSET (RURAL)
DORSET (URBAN)
SOMERSET
WILTSHIRE
HAMPSHIRE
FAROE ISLANDS
NORMANDIE
ISLE OF SKYE
LINKS
LINCOLNSHIRE