Certain things from way back to my very young age now seem almost archaic.
When I first went to school, I went by bus. From Lingfield, I travelled to East Grinstead to my pre-Prep' school, then to Ashurst Wood to my Prep' school. Later from aged about 7 onwards, I boarded.
I loved those times spent on the top of a bus. There was one particular farm where I always watched out for their huge Turkeys, there was an enormous Monkey Puzzle tree on the way into East Grinstead that kept me fascinated for years, and I swear blind that I once saw King George VI standing by a bus stop somewhere en route, and for ever after looked out for him again.
Bus conductors were usually quite cheery folk. When I was very small they looked after me, and when I was a little older they watched me like a hawk.
Tickets came in long wooden clips that looked like multiple mouse traps filled with bits of printed cardboard. The destination was given and a ticket released from it's sprung clip, a small amount of money changed hands, and a hole was punched in the ticket. It was all very hands-on, simple, and civilised.
Today's children, on hearing this, might imagine that the bus was also pulled by horses, but no such luck; and we didn't wear doublets and hose either!
Great picture you paint of the olden days when children could roam and be safe. King George was a long was from his palace, wonder who he had been visiting!
ReplyDeleteI think he'd been looking for me, but I was on the bus!
DeleteI'd forgotten about those wonderful racks of tickets! I travelled to school on a steam train, under the watchful eye of the prefect who lived next door to us. No chance for mischief with her about, she was bossier than my mother.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about 5, I fell asleep on my way home from school, and ended up miles away. Some kind conductor took me back again.
DeleteHaha .... the good old days ..... I loved riding on the bus, always upstairs and, if we were lucky, up the front in our younger days then, as a teenager, the coveted back seat !!! After those lovely colourful tickets came the tickets on the roll of white paper. I always felt sorry for the conductor when the roll of paper ran out and he had to fiddle about changing it !!!
ReplyDeleteFunny that you should see King George V1 at the bus stop ... I saw Prince Philip in Woolworths .... those Royals certainly got around !!!!! XXXX
I don't really use busses any more, but loved riding on top; the views were wonderful.
DeleteTop deck. No doors. All jump off at the traffic lights near the school. Stand up and let oldies sit down. 1/3d return, 9d single. Those were the days.
ReplyDeleteFront seat upstairs was always my aim. The best seat in the house.
DeleteThe 410 route always had a strange upstairs with long seats across the bus and a deep gulley on the RHS to go from back stairs to the front.
ReplyDeleteI think the bus I took was the 409.... did we live close to each other?
DeleteReigate. 424, 430, 447 and The Green Line Bus. I think the later did Luton- Heathrow-Gatwick.
DeleteThere was a Green Line bus that went through Lingfield that went to Hemel Hemstead. I always thought it sounded very exotic.
DeleteWhile the buses may not have been horse pulled, they were rather utilitarian and not especially comfortable, compared to trains and trams.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever considered the comfort of a bus. I was probably too busy thinking about strange things. I'm still much the same.
DeleteI dont remember conductors ......but i dont think we ever rode buses here as children
ReplyDeleteNor did you ever wear doublet and hose; I imagine.
DeleteDay trips from Horsham to Brighton(or was it Worthing) on South Downs buses, top deck front seat. They all had bus conductors in those days with their ticket machines.
ReplyDeleteThat's very much my hunting ground. My father was born just outside Horsham, and I even attended the tiny Art School there for a while to bump up my portfolio.
DeleteOf course all of you in England had a much more pleasant, picturesque time on your busses. I was a bus child / teenager, but mine was a long yellow school bus. In the winter, the whole floor of the bus eventually became a soup of sloppy black melted snow and dirt. Back seats were for older students and the biggest thrill on a country road was if the bus driver purposefully hit the bumps so we would fly up in the air! I think I would have much preferred your bus experience. (No royalty spotted from my window). -Jenn
ReplyDeleteYour bus driver sounds like a comedian. Our busses sound quite demure in comparison.
DeleteI used to enjoy my twenty minute bus rides to school except on wet days and then the smell from wet clothing was nauseating.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked riding on busses, especially on double deckers in England.
Delete....just to say that I am also old enough to remember those tickets!
ReplyDeleteGood, I'm glad I'm not the only one.
DeleteI can't imagine anyone putting their young child on a bus by himself/herself these days. However, back then, the world seemed safer and people looked after each other, or so it seemed. I also rode a train/bus by myself or with a friend when I was young and neither I nor my parents ever worried.
ReplyDeleteI was a very independent child, and as you say; things were different then.
DeleteWhen I was little enough to hold an adult's hand, the trolley was the method of transportation.I was too small to step up, and remember being lifted to the first step. Then I proceeded ahead and dropped the tokens into the chute.
ReplyDeleteMy family lived in a small town when I began going to school at age 6. The bus journey that my friends and I took to school required taking two buses with a transfer in between. I think we also had to buy tickets, and it cost a bit extra for the transfer. Lots of independence for 6 year olds.
ReplyDeleteThe number of my school bus which went past that other photo (1930s Dennis) was 63.
ReplyDeleteHere in India we still have buses and tickets. Surprising that this is a thing of past in Britain/France
ReplyDelete