Coach or Bus Transport, something that most of us will of experienced at sometime or other during our lives. Modern coaches come in, in excess of £100,000.00, have all manner of luxuries and, so I'm told, are a joy to ride in. Older coaches were a beast of a different kind. I can recall, on outings to the seaside in the forties and fifties, having to get off the coach and follow it up the hill into Hindhead because it couldn't carry the weight of the passengers. The coaches, probably relics of the thirties, needed frequent rests. A journey starting in my home town of Walton-on-Thames, would have its first stop at the Green Man Public House (now gone) in Burpham. This is now a journey of less than 1/2 hour. The next was at the top of the hill into Hindhead, again less than half an hour. The whole journey to Havant or Hayling Island can now be done in less than an hour. Then, with breaks, three or four.
There is much more to coaches than just the travel, some are quite beautiful works of art in themselves, but I suppose that it is their purpose and their use that is of real interest.
This shows a coach on the Bath Road, outside the Ostrich Inn at Colnbrook - the Ostrich is still there but looking old and tired, but alas the coach no longer runs and the road runs closer to the building. This image is from a repro postcard.
The next two images are from Flickr, the first shows a coach being put to a quite unexpected use.
Troops being loaded on coaches at Monchy at the end of the Battle
And, the second, for a far more mundane purpose
The London Transport Omnibus,. carrying out it's duties in the rush hour sometime, I'd guess, in the fifties or sixties.
What a great tour through transportation history. I admit to being totally enthralled by the double-decker tour buses in London - as an unabashed tourist, I couldn't help but marvel at seeing the sights I had read so much about. Thanks for the happy memories! I did not make it to Bath so I am definitely due for a return trip. :)
ReplyDeleteThose wartime retrofitted buses look quite forbidding!
ReplyDeleteWe forget that coaches came before buses but those wartime buses you've shown are remarkable. I wonder how many troops they crammed on. The history of buses is quite daunting when you research it.
ReplyDeleteI always wish I had been around when coaches - either the horse drawn ones or the early motor ones - would stop at wayside inns for refreshments. Alas, in the days I used them alot, they would stop at motorway service stations - and it just isn't the same thing.
ReplyDeletewow. i didn't know they had double decker transport buses during the war. it makes sense, cause you can load so many more soldiers. and they're kind of neat looking, too.
ReplyDeleteNancy Javier
http://ladiesofthegrove.blogspot.com/
The first picture reminds me of the coaches we see on old fashioned Christmas cards. I’m sure it gave a far rosier view of what that type of travel was really like. The wartime buses were an eye-opener for me too.
ReplyDeleteThe old coaches seem so romantic now, but I know they weren't very pleasant to ride in. I was surprised to see a bus being used near a battle.
ReplyDeleteThat wartime photo is very interesting. I'm also intrigued by the idea of a public house in a place called Burpham,so I had to do a search on the Green Man. What a tragedy - and shame on Aldi supermarket!
ReplyDeleteLike many of the other readers, I particularly liked the photograph of the boarded up double-decker London buses with the entrenching tools at the back to use when they got stuck - a common occurrence in the Flanders mud, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen the double decker war coaches before...very interesting!
ReplyDeleteWow, I wonder how fast the double decker buses could go - particularly around curves. They always look so top-heavy to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a collection!*smiles*
ReplyDeleteI find it amazing that those Routemaster buses from the 50s and 60s were still going strong some 50 years later.
ReplyDeleteA London Transport routemaster has retired to Asheville in the mountains of North Carolina, though I can't imagine it was driven here even from the port of entry. It serves duty as a small but popular coffee/tea cafe, and though it is permanently parked on a lot surrounded by an iron fence, city regulations require it to be maintained in a drivable condition! British engineering endures forever!
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