POWELL'S COACHES THORNFORD DORSET

POWELL'S COACHES

With a bus route along the borders of Dorset and Somerset

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

Motor engineer Colin Powell, proprietor of the village garage and petrol station in Thornford in Dorset since 1978, expanded his biusiness activities into bus operation in July 1987 with the assistance of the county council and a grant from the government's Rural Transport Development Fund. This was a scheme to encourage the provison of bus services in rural areas that might have been left unserved following the legislative changes of the Transport Act 1985, after which many of the major companies concentrated their activities principally on urban and interurban routes that were commercially viable.

Powell's route was Y-shaped, linking to the two market towns of Sherborne in Dorset and Yeovil in Somerset, passing through the villages of Thornford, Yetminster and Bradford Abbas on the way. It ran approximately two hourly on three days a week and the first vehicle employed was a Bedford Plaxton Supreme 25-seater, registered LMS223N. This was purchased from an operator in Wales, Brown of Builth Wells. An L-registered 41 seater Bedford SB was acquired at that time as a back up vehicle. Both were painted in Powell's adopted livery of red and white. Southern National had been the previous operators of this route as their service 17 since the 1930s but by 1985 this had declined to a single market journey on Thursday, now numbered 473. After Powell commencing they came back with a competitive minibus operation for a short while but that was unsuccessful.

Amongst other vehicles known to have been operated by the Powells were, in no particular order : TFP25R, a Ford R1014 Plaxton Supreme 45-seater (sold to Cudlipp of Sturminster Newton in 2002); 21 DGX, from Tappins in 1994, and one of two Volvo B58 Plaxton 53-seaters; KIW3076, a Ford R1014 Plaxton 35 seater coach in red and white livery; MIB612, variously recorded as a Bova Futura and later in 1999 as an all red Daf Van Hool (possibly a retained registration as the latter was in the fleet until coach operations ceased in 2013); and perhaps the most interesting vehicle of all, DFX332, a 1948 Bedford OB with 28-seater Mulliner body owned in 1982/83, ex Abbot of Piddletrenthide, Dorset).

The bus service experienced unexpected daily competition from November 1992 from London Country South West through their newly acquired subsidiary Oakfield Travel of Blandford, Dorset. Powell's three day a week operation was reduced to Thursday only as a consequence (by this time the route was numbered 200 in the Dorset County Council numbering scheme). Tuesday and Friday running was reintroduced from May 1993.

The end for Powell's operation of the 200 route came in August 1999 and the immediate replacement was a First Southern National minibus which continued until 2005. Then the route was to become somewhat overbussed as service 74 with daily competitive operation between two operators, South West Coaches and Damory Coaches. This appears to have continued until the blanket withdrawal of bus subsidies by Dorset County Council in July 2017.

After the end of their bus route in 1999 the Powells branched out into day trips and short breaks using the Van Hool coach, with the Volvo B58 kept as a reserve. Their school contract continued running from Thornford to the Gryphon School in Sherborne until 2011 and the excursion work continued until their operators licence was surrendered in November 2013. The Thornford village garage and workshop continued until the proprietor's retirement in February 2022. Today there are no buses in the villages that Powell once served.

(with thanks to Steve Oxbrow for the photos and much additional information)

		Ford R1114 / Plaxton TFP 25R is seen in the Autumn of 1992 at Thornford. The delightful Triumph Acclaim has been cropped out. (photo R S Oxbrow)
		KIW 3076 and TFP 25R (Ford R1114 / Plaxton Supremes) are seen in Spring 1996 at Thornford on a Sunday. (photo R S Oxbrow)
		21 DGX (Volvo B58 / Plaxton Supreme) new to and ex-Tappins of Didcot is seen Spring 1996 at Thornford on a Sunday. (photo R S Oxbrow)
		DAF MB230 / Van Hool Alizee MIB 612 is seen in Yeovil Bus Station c2003 about to go on a tour. What's of interest is where the coach is sitting - on their old stand for the 200 in the bus station which was shared with Ray Cuff and S&D. (photo Steve Oxbrow)

(with thanks to Steve Oxbrow for the photos and much additional information)

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