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STANBRIDGE
AND CRICHEL
The
continuing story of the buses of Crichel and Witchampton
In
memory of my friend and colleague
Geoff Toomer
1932 - 2021
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These routes have their origins
in the horse drawn days of
the 19th century,
with an appropriately named carrier called Benjamin
Carter. It
became a motor bus service in the 1920s, run originally by Ernie Toomer of Manswood. Ernie ran the
routes for
the best part of forty years, latterly with the help of his son
Geoff. In January 1958 the routes then passed to Reg Essex
under the trading
name Stanbridge Motor Services.
The Stanbridge Motor Services
business
subsequently passed in turn on Reg's retirement in April 1977 to a new
owner John Walker (formerly the traffic
manager of Cosy Coaches in Parkstone). He inherited a motley
collection of four vehicles:
three Duple Fireflys and a
somewhat unique Thames service bus VFN549 that had come to Dorset from
an operator in
Kent, Wren of Canterbury. BOU205C was one of the vehicles
transferred, a Ford Duple Northern C41F
acquired by Essex in October 1973.
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Stanbridge
fleet at April 1977
(John Walker takes over from Reg Essex) |
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into
fleet |
out
of fleet |
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VFN549 |
Ford Thames / Duple bus
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42 seats |
?
Feb 1964 |
see below
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from Chartham Bus, Canterbury, Kent
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6217TE |
Ford / Duple Firefly coach
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41 seats |
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sold 31/08/77 |
new 1963 to Cowburn, Westhoughton
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ADY119B |
Ford
/ Duple Firefly coach
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41 seats |
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sold 31/08/77 |
from Regent, Whitstable, Kent
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BOU205C |
Ford
/ Duple Firefly coach
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41 seats |
Oct 1973 |
sold 31/08/77 |
new 1965 to Corp, Fair Oak. Sold to
G Clarke, Wimborne 1977.
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VFN
549
and ADY119B both new to Wren, Chartham Bus Service, Canterbury, Kent
(VFN in 1960, ADY in
1964). Indicator blind of VFN had
Canterbury area destinations such as 'St Augustins Hospital' and the
three Dorset titles added were
'Wimborne', 'Blandford', 'Witchampton and Crichel'. VFN remained
derelict in Stanbridge yard for many years after withdrawal and was
subsequntly sold to travellers.
The present writer had spent many a pleasant hour driving VFN on
Saturdays! |
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On the left VFN549 is in Wimborne Square in 1977, waiting to depart on
the service to Witchampton and Crichel. On the right we are in 1961 and
she is on the cover of the book The Chartham Bus, published by the Omnibus Society in 2016 : the memoir of a Kent independent by David J Bubier.
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John Walker undertook
considerable expansion of the
coaching
activities
with six modern touring coaches (five of which were ex-Excelsior of
Bournemouth Ford/Plaxtons)
joining the previous four Stanbridge
vehicles for the first season. One of the coaches from Excelsior was HLJ97N, remembered for having
an eight speed gearbox
rather than the usual six. Two school contracts were operated
at that time, one from Long Crichel to Pamphill QE2 School; the second
from Barnsley to Colehill School and Pamphill QE2 School. |

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Stage services were
modestly expanded in March 1978
when a Saturday morning journey was reintroduced on the Blandford route
(this proved quite popular) and the Saturday afternoon service
on the Wimborne - Long Crichel route was extended north a few miles to
serve
Gussage St Michael and Cashmoor. The town terminus of the
Wimborne route
has changed several times over the years; originally in the Corn Market
it had moved
slightly further away from the town centre to East Borough by the early
1960's
and by the 1970's was in The Square alongside the Midland Bank, which
is the stopping place still used currently.
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The range of
Stanbridge Motor Services tickets as still used in 1977
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A new Bedford
53-seater coach
APR986T was obtained with aid of Rural Bus Grant in November 1978,
notionally for the stage services, in fact the flagship of the coaching
fleet usually driven by Geoff Toomer. Unfortunately the
expanded Stanbridge Motor Services operation ultimately did not prosper
under John
Walker and after a few years in 1980 the business passed to a newly
formed company
entitled Stanbridge and Crichel Bus Co Ltd, set up by Barry Newsam of
Barrys Coaches of Weymouth,
Dorset (who were also to become the operators of the Interbus services in and
around Dorchester).
Additional school contracts were
obtained, including to Cranborne Middle School, Winchelsea School
Parkstone and to Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth. Most of
the touring work was given up as unprofitable.
There was considerable expansion of bus activity from 1st December 1980
when Stanbridge and Crichel assumed operation of the Wilts and Dorset
247 (the
erstwhile Hants & Dorset 97) service which ran from Cranborne
to Wimborne by two routes. The westerly route was via
Wimborne St Giles and Gussage All Saints, which Stanbridge and Crichel
ran as the 98, and the other easterly route was via Edmondsham and
Woodlands, and ran using the traditional route number 97. The
westerly route was merged with the existing Crichel and
Witchampton to
Wimborne service. The easterly route was amended to serve the sizable
population
of Verwood, whilst market day services brought Broomhill,
God's Blessing Green (what a wonderful place name!) and Shapwick
into the Stanbridge
network for the first time. |
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Geoff Toomer at the wheel of APR986T |
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A
new weekly Tuesday route north to Salisbury
from Woodlands, Verwood and Cranborne was
started on 18th August 1981, which proved very successful and often
required duplication. This was later
extended back to start from Wimborne and Colehill and a Saturday
service added. Thursday and Saturday journeys on the
Cranborne - Wimborne service were extended to Poole from 22nd July
1981. An urban route
was added to Stanbridge's collection of country routes in 1983 when the
Rossmore Bus route in Parkstone was
taken over from Cosy
Coaches. Also in 1983 the Handley - Poole / Bournemouth
Friday service of Victory tours was taken over, although this was very
poorly patronised and could often be covered by using a car or
minibus. Through fare was 79p single in 1983. Then in
1984 a
new service was started on Wednesday from Cranborne and Alderholt to
Ringwood Market. |
Stanbridge
& Crichel fleet summer 1985 |
seats |
date new |
date acquired |
acquired from |
notes |
RLN775W |
MAN SR280 / MAN body |
C53F |
1980 |
1984 |
Carnell,
Sheffield |
Geoff's coach |
OKE398F |
AEC Reliance / Plaxton |
C53F |
1968 |
1984 |
Ironside,
Sevenoaks |
Rob's coach |
DWT639H |
Bristol LH / Plaxton |
C53F |
1970 |
1982 |
Douglas,
Windsor |
Alf's coach |
GCK251N |
AEC Reliance / Plaxton |
C53F |
1974 |
1985 |
Lawrence,
Hillingdon |
Maurice's coach |
KUF239F |
Bristol RE / Marshall |
B45F |
1968 |
1983 |
Southdown |
Sandra's bus |
SYC684R |
Ford
Transit / Deansgate |
B12F |
1976 |
1984 |
Sykes, Tolpuddle |
Paul's minibus |
RPR747K |
Bedford
YRQ / Plaxton |
C45F |
1972 |
1984 |
Rendell (Cosy), Parkstone |
Brian's coach |
OLE583E |
AEC
Reliance / Plaxton |
C53F |
1967 |
1984 |
Rendell (Cosy), Parkstone |
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TUO74J |
AEC
Reliance / Willowbrook |
B41F |
1971 |
1984 |
Ironside, Sevenoaks |
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TUO79J |
AEC
Reliance / Willowbrook |
B43F |
1971 |
1983 |
Vaughan, Copthorne Bank |
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EPK106J |
AEC
Reliance / Willowbrook |
B51F |
1971 |
1984 |
Ironside, Sevenoaks |
young David's bus |
JUN199P |
Ford
R1014 / Duple |
C45F |
1975 |
1983 |
MiniTrips, Bournemouth |
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Buses
brown and cream livery. Most coaches white, brown and orange
livery. RLN775W was now the fleet flagship in replacement for
APR986T. RPR747K had grey livery and had previously operated
the Rossmore Bus Service for Cosy Coaches for some time (with the same
driver Brian)
until that service's acquisition by Stanbridge and Crichel.
KUF239F then became the regular performer on Rossmore with driver
Sandra. VFN549, stalwart of the bus route for many years, was
now in honourable retirement, slumbering peacefully away at the top of
the yard. |
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When I worked full time
managing and running Stanbridge
in the mid-1980s, Friday was our busiest day on the bus routes.
Two
buses were needed to maintain the runs on the country services, one
starting in Cranborne and one in Wimborne St Giles. A bit of
somewhat hectic interworking and four routes were covered (as
below). Plus a third bus away all day in Poole working the
Rossmore route from 8 am to 6 pm. The morning and evening peak
time buses to and from Verwood (7.25 am) and Wimborne (5.55 pm)
were operated by our 12-seater Ford Transit, driven by our mechanic
Paul who lived in Verwood and kept the Transit at his home overnight
during the week. Add to that our seven school contracts morning and
afternoon and our two works contracts to and from Bovington Camp and it
made for a busy life.
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Bus One, Fridays: |
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Bus Two, Fridays: |
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morning schools
9.18 St Giles - Crichel - Wimborne,
service 98
10.15
Wimborne - Shapwick - Wimborne, 99
11.10
Wimborne - Crichel - Gussage, 98
11.45
Gussage - Crichel - Wimborne, 98
12.30
Wimborne - Shapwick - Wimborne, 99
1.15 Wimborne - Crichel - St Giles, 98
afternoon schools
5.15 Wimborne - Crichel - Gussage, 98
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morning schools
9.27 Cranborne - Verwood - Wimborne,
service 97
dead to Holt
10.35
Holt - Broomhill - Wimborne, 96
11.45
Wimborne - Verwood - Cranborne, 97
1.32 Cranborne - Verwood - Wimborne, 97
2.35 Wimborne - Broomhill - Horton, 96
afternoon schools
5.55 Wimborne - Verwood - Cranborne, 97
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Following bus deregulation on
26th October 1986,
the Cranborne
via Verwood or via Crichel routes to Wimborne were
expanded once again to run through to Poole each weekday, obviating the
need to change
to a Wilts and Dorset bus in Wimborne. At this time the long
established market route to Blandford from Witchampton was lost to
Wilts and Dorset, and the Shapwick route introduced in 1980 was lost to
Maybury Coaches. A five days a week feeder service from
Broomhill, Colehill and Cutlers Place connected with the Poole route in
Wimborne Square. The Salisbury route now needed two buses
each Tuesday, one starting at West Moors and the other in
Wimborne. Only the latter operated on Saturday. The
Wednesday route to Ringwood was diverted to serve Verwood after leaving
Alderholt. A short lived Friday service was introduced
between Poulner, Ringwood and Wimborne Market, which made use of the
dead legs of a school contract - at least one day of the week!
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Rob's
coach: OKE398F, AEC Reliance - often used
on the bus routes on a busy
Friday!
photo
from the Roger Grimley collection
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After a few more years under
the proprietorship of the Newsam family, the Stanbridge and
Crichel operation was acquired in 1989 by Oakfield
Travel of
Blandford
(proprietors Joe Smith and
Terry Greenslade). The November 1989 timetable
shows the extension of the Cranborne route to Poole as cut back to
three days a week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The route
was now renumbered 250 to fit more readily into the county council's
route numbering scheme although in practice the numbers were rarely
shown on the vehicles. Otherwise things were much
as in 1986.
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After
a few years the owners of
Oakfield sought to retire and
their
business was sold in 1992 to a somewhat unlikely purchaser Guildford
and West Surrey Buses Ltd of Reigate (part of what had once been London
Country buses).
They reduced the Cranborne - Wimborne route to a basic minimum shoppers
service on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after council
subsidies were cut right back. Most places served had at least one
journey on three days a week. The timetable from 11 September
1993 is copied below for information.
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But it was not long before these
"out-of-area" operations were
sold
on again in November 1993, this time to Damory Coaches of Blandford, by
then a recently acquired subsidiary of Wilts and Dorset.
Damory still operate to this day over considerably slimmed down
versions of the
Stanbridge routes (since August 2003 as part of the Go Ahead
group). The Cranborne - Wimborne route is their service 300,
and was then still basically a four days a week shoppers / market bus
type
of
service.
With
passengers seemingly in constant decrease, there were renewed local
authority concerns about the cost of the subsidies needed to support
rural bus services. Thought was given to how services could continue to
be provided practically. Damory Coaches still provided the 301 and 302
from Wimborne to Salisbury on Tuesday and Saturday, the 303 from
Cranborne to Ringwood on Wednesday and the 325 from Gussage and St
Giles to Blandford on Thursday.
But the major change started on 24th July 2006 with the progressive
introduction of a flexibly routed 'Door
to Dorset'
replacement for the main Cranborne via Crichel (or via Verwood) to
Wimborne 300 service, and also the Witchampton - Tarrants - Blandford
route. This is run by community transport operator Nordcat of
Sturminster Newton on behalf of the local authorities. This type of
semi-public on-demand type of operation was favoured by Dorset County
Council in this and several other parts of the county at the time. A
seeming
disadvantage is that would be passengers have to pre-register with the
scheme as well as booking their journeys in advance by telephone - a
major disincentive to travel by removing the possibility of a
spontaneous unplanned trip! Apart from a regularly timetabled five days
a week school run from Manswood and Witchampton to Wimborne, since 16th
April 2007 the by then totally flexible operation offered pre-booked
passengers from Crichel, Witchampton, the Gussages and St Giles a
travel facility to Wimborne on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings,
and to Blandford on Thursday.
Change came again on 8th April
2008 when the county council recognised the difficulties of advertising
a service which may not be readily seen and identified. The service
needed a higher profile in the community. So the Nordcat service became
semi-scheduled and more places given as fixed time points, so
that where stops were more or less always served and were on a direct
run
in to Wimborne it was no longer be necessary to pre-book. The stops in
Verwood were thus always served and the bus departed from both
Wimborne and Cranborne at fixed times. Tuesday and Friday reverted
to a timetable similar to that operated prior to 2007 with shoppers
journeys via both Witchampton and Verwood to Wimborne. In school
holidays the first and last runs start in Handley. Wednesday
journeys for the Gussages and the Crichels to Wimborne also reverted
to a timetable similar to that in existence prior to 2007. On Thursday
the service from Cranborne and Witchampton to Blandford via the
Gussages, Crichels and Tarrants also became semi scheduled with
fixed times from the Tarrants in to Blandford. A new Saturday service
similar to the Tuesday and Friday route started from Handley and
provided a return journey to Wimborne via Verwood. And it
became possible to travel from Wimborne to visit some of the
destinations in the surrounding countryside.
Operation of the 300
Cranborne - Crichel or Verwood - Wimborne and the 319 Cranborne -
Gussage - Witchampton - Blandford reverted to
Damory Coaches of Blandford from April 2011 as normal fully timetabled
services following difficulties experienced
by operator Nordcat. This - with similar alterations in the
Dorchester, Maiden Newton, Cerne Abbas, Piddle Valley and Bovington
areas as well - saw the virtual demise of pre-booked operation under
the Door to Dorset banner - farewell
to cumbersome pre-booking! The years went by until April 2016 when - as
the result of funding cuts by Dorset County Council - all the
ex-Stanbridge services disappeared apart from a single school run on
the 300 from Witchampton to Wimborne and back.
In 1998 the
yard at
Stanbridge was taken over by Victory Tours
(Adams) of Sixpenny Handley. The
Victory business passed to new owners in the autumn of 2004 and they
have ceased to use Stanbridge as a base. After 47 years no
more buses sleep overnight in Stanbridge garage yard, so full of
memories for me from my days working there.
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A
historic day for Stanbridge.
It's
the 1st December 1980 in Wimborne
Square - and Stanbridge & Crichel are running on the first day
of their newly extended
network of routes to Verwood and Cranborne.
Bedford
53-seater APR986T (Geoff's coach) waits to leave on the lunchtime
departure of service 97. APR had been obtained with help of
the then available bus operators grant for stage vehicles.
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Another
regular performr on the Stanbridge routes in the 1980s, SRD15 - "Alf's
bus",
so called for it's regular driver - waits in the yard between runs
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A
general view of the yard at Stanbridge from the office window one damp
1980s morning.
Old
friends VFN549 and SRD15 are now in the "honourably retired" line on
the right.
Geoff's
new MAN coach RLN775W on left, alongside JUN199P, a Ford/Duple 45
seater.
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Here is Ford R1114 NWD779P coming back
from Blandford and going through the watersplash at Tarrant Monkton.
photo by Keith Newton
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Bristol
RE KUF232F with Marshall 45 seat body is seen here in sylvan
surrounds near Pamphill on the Friday only Shapwick - Wimborne
service. It was new to Southdown in 1968. At one time it worked for the
Blandford Bus Company, and served with Stanbridge & Crichel from
about 1982 to 1987.
photo by Keith Newton
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A
tight squeeze on the bend at Witchampton church. The car driver has not
heeded the approaching bus that could have been seen in the roadside
mirrors erected there for the purpose. The recently acquired Bristol RE
has yet to be painted into livery.
photo by Keith Newton
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Two
Stanbridge buses in Cranborne at the same time. Probably a Saturday
when the Cranborne to Wimborne afternoon bus has met the bus returning
on the Salisbury market service. AEC Reliance EPK106J leads, its
companion unidentified.
photo by Keith Newton
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Another
view of the yard at Stanbridge. From 1983 we also operated the Rossmore
route in Parkstone as well as our rural routes. Bristol LH VMO233H is
ready to start work for the day in this 1988 view, with AEC
Reliance OLE583E parked behind.
photo
from the Peter Messer collection |
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Please
note - this is a site of historical record and does not contain current
information
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Two historical footnotes about places on
the Crichel bus route -
At the junction where the road splits towards Manswood or Moor Crichel
stands White Farm. The farm is
so called because at the start of the
20th century everything there, both buildings and animals, were indeed
white! Even the workers were dressed in white smocks. This was a
deliberate decision by the sometimes eccentric owner, Lord Allington of
nearby Crichel House. A documentary film about the farm was made in
1909.
In the post-war years of the 1940s and 1950s the old rectory alongside
the church in the village of Long Crichel hosted what was perhaps the
last literary salon of the 20th century. Amongst famous guests who
visited at the time were Benjamin Britten, Nancy Mitford, Laurie Lee,
Cecil Beaton, Somerset Maugham and Greta Garbo. This is described in
the recently published book 'The
Crichel Boys' by Simon Fenwick.
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