The no. 33 bus thread ....

[Philip M. Hicks]

Hello - Further to my post at 12.03 today, I have been looking on Google Earth again. This time at South Bristol. Concerning the #132 / 232 routes I don't now think that there was a destination of ' Broomhill ' but there is a suburb called Filwood Broadway in the right place. I'm almost certain there was another destination connected with these two bus routes but I cannot recall it.
Also I'm not sure that the #238 route finished at Cheddar Grove, by the school. I did finish somewhere near a rank of shops in that area of Uplands.
Remember that in the period I'm talking about Bishopsworth was an outer suburb! Phil. H Oz.

[stantheman]

I was looking at a Google Earth photo of the swing bridge on Prince Street, A sign says ' Weak Bridge' 3 Ton limit! The #99 bus and many others that started in Prince St. used to all roll over it! Their wheels I recall ran in two steel runways with timber bulks in the centre in between them. That was another legacy of horse drawn carts I believe. The horses would have lost their footing on the shiny steel runways. I'm not sure what happened to the larger carts with a pair of horses pulling them?

I believe the reason the 99s were old vehicles was due to width restriction over the Prince Street bridge. When the new wider buses were introduced they carried a warning on the duty-card holder in the driver's cab that stated:

'Avoid Prince Street bridge with this vehicle'

it was white with red letters.

[Philip M. Hicks]

Why was I racking my feeble brain for old Bristol bus routes. 'Pompey Lad' [on the second page of this thread ] gave a web site that gives all the details from wo to go !

www.bvbq.org.uk/Routes.htm

I even got the 138 and 238 around the wrong way. But in 1945/6 the 238 did turn at the Headley Park shops just before Bishopsworth , I know because I lived in Headley Park then. Also in the same year the 22 [ or 22 [ a,b or c ] did only from Cheddar Grove to the top of St. Peters Rise - I went to school at Cheddar Grove Primary School whilst living in Headley Park and used that bus daily for several months. In 1950 the 132/232 buses both went to Inns Court Green via different routes. Regards, Phil H. Oz.

[Robin Summerhill]

I have an idea one might have been destined for 'Filwood Broadway' - I've very little idea where that is but it must be in the South of Bristol. Phil H. Oz.

Filwood Broadway is in the depths of darkest Knowle West.

If you look at the 1962 route map on the BVBG site as an example, you will find it beneath the words "Knowle West" and is shown as the southern terminus of route 4a from the Staple Hill area

[Bill]

Haven't been here since the early days of this thread but you all seem to have enjoyed yourselves with reminiscences!

I believe the reason the 99s were old vehicles was due to width restriction over the Prince Street bridge.

I can remember old vehicles (which we schoolboys always called "crates") on the 99 as well, but only today find out that it needed to keep using the old 7'6" wide vehicles. How was this overcome when they were fnally gone?

Now my greatest recollection of a 99 vehicle was when I wasn't even on it. Waiting at Broadmead for a 3 to return home to Whitchurch, a 99 stopped opposite, and just as it restarted there was a big bang from underneath it and parts could be seen to have fallen onto the road. Once home this excitement was reported by me to my father as "the engine fell out", but now I suspect that the universal joint on the propshaft had failed, and it was this that had dropped down. Apparently a not unknown failure of the period - and a nuisance for the breakdown tender to recover.

There was another sort of "crate" on the Bristol City rutes, and that was the very occasional appearence of a lowbridge Bristol KSW on the city services. These had gone from the country bus routes that ran into Bristol as well by this 1962 (although I was very familiar with the Western National ones in Taunton), but I recall one breasting the top of the hill in Park Street. I did read that there was some agreement on mileage division between City and Country sides of the organisation, the City side regularly loaned vehicles to Country as duplicates for the route to Weston at summer weekends, and presumably it was necessary sometimes for one to loan vehicles to the other to balance the miles out.

I can recall route #17 - It did run from the Centre to Temple Meads as you said. The terminus at BTM was along side of Brunel's old train shed on the left of the ramp as it levelled out. It was always serviced by a single decker bus.

In 1961-62 this was a bit different, because the 17 ran all the way up Park Street to the Zoo. I used to change buses at Temple Meads, over the road from the station, from an inbound 3 to one of the routes up to Clifton, always a bit of a disappointment when the single decker came along. Most single deckers by this time were Bristol MWs, but there were still a few of the old Bristol L type living out their last days.

Regarding the route 33 to Bath, which started all this off, I recollect that as well, though never used it, because each morning when coming down to the Three Lamps junction there was often a 33 merging in from the Bath Road, distinctive because the fleetname was Bath instead of Bristol, though in all other respects it seemed part of the same organisation.

We didn't understand the nuance of different ownership between city and country vehicles (let alone the Bath operation, they all seemed part of one organisation), but recognised the route differences and what was generally called the "Country Bus" running into the city.

There was also an 84B which ran from Bromley Heath

From time to time we would travel to Stapleton Road station in the evening to see off a relative to Portsmouth on the train, which didn't serve Temple Meads. Returning on whichever bus came first, an 11 was straightforward, but an 84 was always a fascination, as it would turn off into what seemed like a narrow side road, Newfoundland Road, and proceed along a rane of what always looked ill-lit and mysterious streets, to finally emerge at Broadmead and back to familiarity. All these roads, and the dark buildings which lined them, now seem long gone, and much appears underneath the M32 route.

Last one, I have dim recollections of getting bus tickets from a classic Bell Punch operation, the conductor with a block of wood with tickets of different colours on it, a predecessor of Setright ticket machines. When did Bristol change over from one to the other?

[jules]

Its been so quiet around here this week that I thought of perhaps starting a thread called: "Lets All Join Hands And See If We Can Contact The Living" but then I thought better of it

Well Robin. There's always the trusty No 33 Bus Thread to keep us going in times of quiet. Lets see now ... done the 17, 33, 99, 238, 284 etc.

How about this one?

In 1958, the No. 2 ran from Lawrence Weston to Lockleaze, via Sea Mills (not Shire, so presumably it used the difficult Kingsweston Lane), then up through Stoke Bishop across The Downs and down Whiteladies Rd / Park St, Centre, Old Market, then out via Stapleton Road to Muller Road and up Shaldon Road to Lockleaze.

The 2A variant was quite different: It started in Southmead at Lanercost Road by what I always knew as "Penpole Hole". It then ran along Greystoke Avenue to Westbury and up the hill to join the 2 route at the top of Blackboy Hill. Outbound, it didn't turn left at Muller Road but continued on Stapleton Road to terminate at Stapleton Village (I wonder where it turned round?)

The associated 22 started from "the dip" at Stoke Bishop and took the current route of the No 40 round the houses on Julian Road. It then crossed The Downs but turned right at the top of Blackboy and served Pembroke Road. From The Centre, it ran along Victoria Street to Temple Meads and then along "The Cut", past Redcliffe and across Bedminster Bridge, along Coronation Road, before going through Southville and along Luckwell Road. From Parson Street, it ran on to terminate at Headley Park, presumably at the top of St Peters Rise.

I have a long held (and probably oft-repeated) theory that many of Bristol's cross city bus routes from the 1940s and 50s were instigated to connect the new Council Estates - hence Lawrence Weston to Lockleaze, etc.

Sits back and waits for more Bristol bus-riding memories to flood in ...

[Marsh'Un]

Jules

Re your comments on the No.2a terminating at Stapleton Village.

My father was a BOC conductor during the late 1940`s, presumably working from Lawrence Hill depot.

I remember being told of a bus route terminating at Stapleton Church, and of the crews taking refreshment in a cafe that was at the top, left hand side of Bell Hill (the cafe is now a private residence).
Perhaps the bus could have turned in the area in front of Stapleton Church/Colston Boys` School ?

Dad also mentioned a bus service that ended at Duchess Gate (probably an extension of the 2a route).
Apparently, a tall lampost once stood on the site on the present day mini-roundabout, around which the bus turned for the return journey

[Robin Summerhill]

Its been so quiet around here this week that I thought of perhaps starting a thread called: "Lets All Join Hands And See If We Can Contact The Living" but then I thought better of it

Well Robin. There's always the trusty No 33 Bus Thread to keep us going in times of quiet. Lets see now ... done the 17, 33, 99, 238, 284 etc.

How about this one?

The No. 2 ....

I was a regular traveller on the 2 and 2A services from Eastville to Park Row up until 1964 as part of a longer trip from Staple Hill to the house a number of maiden aunts shared in Horfield Road (demolished when they extended the BRI in 1964).

Eastville depot worked the services, and my enduring memory of the service 2 is those Leylands they had at Eastville, which were boneshakers even by the standards of the time! One of them has been preserved but I have not actually seen one since they were withdrawn from Eastville.

http://www.bvbg.org.uk/images/LAE13%20P ... 0LAE13.jpg

I have a long held (and probably oft-repeated) theory that many of Bristol's cross city bus routes from the 1940s and 50s were instigated to connect the new Council Estates - hence Lawrence Weston to Lockleaze, etc.

Yes - oft repeated

However, my British Bus Fleets no.13 dating from around about 1964 says on page 10:

"The opening of the Bristol Bus Station in 1958 was the occasion of the biggest change-over in one day in the history of public transport. Not only were the country services terminating at various points in the City brought together under one roof, but the whole of Bristol Joint Services was completely reorganised, involving the cross-linking of many City services which had previously terminated at three different points in the centre of the City."

There are a number of arguments you could pick with that paragraoh after the passage of time. Firstly: "the biggest change-over in one day in the history of public transport." Clearly the author had never heard of Richard Beeching .....

Secondly, there were a number of cross-city services prior to 1958, as is confirmed on the bvbg routes web pages http://www.bvbg.org.uk/routes.htm

However, I always understood that the reason for cross-city services was not to link up the estates (because as I have said on previous threads, the people who went to those estates tended to all come from the same original area), but to limit inner city congestion with buses laying over between runs - far better if they could do that in the suburbs rather than clutter up Old Market, the Centre and Prince Street.

[Robin Summerhill]

Dad also mentioned a bus service that ended at Duchess Gate (probably an extension of the 2a route).

My 1963 Country Services timetable shows a "conditional" service 147C, Patchway BAC Works to Duchess Gate. No times, just the standard note "journeys operated to meet traffic requirements"

Am I the only sad case around here with a collection of old bus and railway timetables?




By the way, I bought a May 1964 WR timetable on Ebay yesterday - info on services immediately before closure to Portishead, Henbury loop, Severn Beach to Pilning, Gloucester stoppers, Chalford auto trains, Berkeley Road to Sharpness etc should be available next week

[Marsh'Un]

Robin

I am almost ashamed to admit that I have rather tatty copies of BOC Country timetables from 1960-61 and 62-63, also for City Services, July 1962. Have never really been a bus enthusiast , the timetables were acquired for nostalgic reasons.

You are probably right about my bus service to Duchess` Gate being the 147c - In the early to mid 1950`s, my father worked at the BAC site and lived in Frenchay, so he could well have caught this bus to and from work.

On starting employment at Rolls-Royce in 1973, I caught the No 316 from Fishponds (Cross Hands) to the Patchway works (aka Shadow Factory).
The service was operated using Bristol KSW`s.- The engine noise on tackling the climb up Blackberry Hill was impressive, to say the least!

[Philip M. Hicks]

Today I read the comment from Robin in it he said - "I was a regular traveller on the 2 and 2A services from Eastville to Park Row up until 1964 as part of a longer trip from Staple Hill to the house a number of maiden aunts shared in Horfield Road (demolished when they extended the BRI in 1964). "
This is nothing to do with buses but gee it is a small world! When I was small and before I can remember, the first house I lived in was at [ wait for it! ] #33 HORFIELD RD. Your Aunts might have looked at me in my pram, Robin! I hadn't made the number connection before writing this - It is quite appropiate! Regards from Phil H. Leura. Oz.

[Philip M. Hicks]

Quote by Jules today:- "The associated 22 started from "the dip" at Stoke Bishop and took the current route of the No 40 round the houses on Julian Road. It then crossed The Downs but turned right at the top of Blackboy and served Pembroke Road. From The Centre, it ran along Victoria Street to Temple Meads and then along "The Cut", past Redcliffe and across Bedminster Bridge, along Coronation Road, before going through Southville and along Luckwell Road. From Parson Street, it ran on to terminate at Headley Park, presumably at the top of St Peters Rise. "
Jules I lived in Sea Mills in 1958 and used the #22 bus many times and I'm sure it's terminus was on Sea Mills Square. Previously the #22 route terminated at the top of Blackboy Hill at the small triangle to the West of the school there. Also when it ran to Sea Mills I'm pretty sure it went straight up Stoke Bishop Hill onto the Downs and didn't follow the route around the houses as did the #2 bus did by turning right two thirds of the way up Stoke Hill [ Sorry my recall of the exact street names is hazy. Regards, Phil H. Leura. Oz.

[Robin Summerhill]

Today I read the comment from Robin in it he said - "I was a regular traveller on the 2 and 2A services from Eastville to Park Row up until 1964 as part of a longer trip from Staple Hill to the house a number of maiden aunts shared in Horfield Road (demolished when they extended the BRI in 1964). "
This is nothing to do with buses but gee it is a small world! When I was small and before I can remember, the first house I lived in was at [ wait for it! ] #33 HORFIELD RD. Your Aunts might have looked at me in my pram, Robin! I hadn't made the number connection before writing this - It is quite appropiate! Regards from Phil H. Leura. Oz.

My aunts lived at 34 Horfield Road. If I remember correctly, there were Almshouses (or a building that looked like Almshouses) on the opposite side of the road to the house. I presume no.33 was also on the opposite side of the road, so as it was only "their" side that was demolished for the BRI extension, presumably it is still standing.

I don't go that way very often these days, but if I go up there sometime I will have a look to see where no.33 is (unlesss somebody around here knows anyway!)

[Philip M. Hicks]

Robin wrote :- "My aunts lived at 34 Horfield Road. If I remember correctly, there were Almshouses (or a building that looked like Almshouses) on the opposite side of the road to the house. I presume no.33 was also on the opposite side of the road, so as it was only "their" side that was demolished for the BRI extension, presumably it is still standing"

Robin, I was born in January 1937 and according to family history lived in #33 Horfield Rd. for the first two years or so. I have no personal memory of living there. My first memories are from our next house in Maytree Close, Headley Park. Then WW2 took over and we moved to Swansea at around about Christmas 1940. So I didn't know much about Horfield Rd. and can't remember what I might have known! Phil.

[43126]

I can remember spending all night on a no 33 bus, It was Wednesday 10 July 1968, The Bristol flood, I was a young bus conductor of 21 years of age Newly married based at Marlborough Street Bristol, I was on what they called spare duty for the evening and was asked to go on the Bath service as a conductor had gone sick, To my surprise the bus was a single deck R E, unusual at that time, The driver was a regular on this service for many years, We knew nothing then about what was going on outside of the depot but is was raining quite heavy when we departed, I cannot remember the time we left sometime between 7 and 8 pm i believe, We knew nothing of flooding until we got to Brislington Village, The police were there stopping cars, A policeman said we could go through but to take care, To which we did, We were the last bus to go through as the next bus a double decker got stuck in the village, There was a photo of the bus in the evening post the next day, It was a night i shall never forget most of the journey it was like going along in a boat, We managed to go through Keynsham there were no people about waiting for the bus we were picking up stranded motorists from the roof of their cars as we went along, We eventually arrived at Newbridge Road Bath about Midnight thats as far as we got, The police would not let us go any further, The passenger/stranded motorists were transferred on to large lorries to get them through to Bath, We then turned around and headed back to Bristol, We got back as far as Stockwood on the outskirts of Bristol, By then i believe the road bridge at Keynsham had collapsed, Thank goodness for the Keynsham bypass, Both roundabouts at either end were flooded but my driver managed to get through, The police said Brislington and many parts of Bristol were flooded and to stay where we were, As luck would have it my driver lived just down the road in West town Lane, so we walked to his house it was now about 2 am the next morning, The drivers wife got out an old fold up camp bed and i settled down in their front room to sleep. About 6.30 am i was woken by the drivers wife with a nice cup of tea and a piece of toast, How lucky i was that the driver lived in West Town Lane, As soon as soon as we could we got ready and walked back to our bus, No cars were being allowed through to Bristol but it was decided we would be allowed to proceed, We arrived back at Marlborough Street Depot about 08.00am, I was booked to work my rest day Thursday on an early start and was of course already late, When i told the depot inspector i was now going home he said are you not going to work today, I will not repeat what i said to him and headed home, Sadly i cannot remember my drivers name he certainly knew his stuff driving in those conditions keeping the engine running, A year later i passed my test and went driving myself until 1977, Thank goodness i never seen anything like that again just the occasional snow storm, I was driving on the 352/3 and 362/3 Weston and Clevedon service mainly and had a few hairy moments in the snow, Fond memories, John M Hobbs, Bristol Omnibus Co, Brislington and Marlborough Street Depots, 1965- 1977.