BREAD, BUTTER and JAM
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And .How Hants and Sussex
Motor Services, Ltd:, of Emsworth Earns Them
NTIL the late 'thirties there were only a few houses and many acres of marshland on Thorney Island, east
of.Hayling Then the Government decided to improve access to the island, and to build an aerodrome there. It then became necessary to carry workmen to and from the site and this development gave Mr. Basil Williams, of Emsworth, the chance he needed.
On April 30, 1937, he registered Hants and Sussex Motor Services, Ltd. He had taken over the private hire connection of Pennicutts Garage, together with a Guy coach, and a Dennis Lancet was soon added. On July, 1937, Mr. Williams applied for a licence to work a stage service between Emsworth Station and Thorney. The hearing was extraordinarily protracted and it was not until February, 1939, that Hams and Sussex succeeded in obtaining the licence; the stage service started on February 27.
The contract work to and from the island had gone on all the time, but the starting of this nine-minute service (fare 3d.) really marked the beginning of Mr. Williams's success. In June, 1939, he bought the business of Mr. J. A. Gavin, of Midhurst, who gave a service on certain days to Graffham and other isolated villages between Midhurst and Petworth and connected them with Chichester on market days.
Growth by Acquisition
Mt. Williams then acquired Liss and District Omnibus Co., Ltd. Subsequently, in 1945, he purchased the services at Horsham of F. H. Kilner (Transport), LW. The Glider service between Fareham and Catisfield and Sunbeam Coaches ,(Loxwood), Ltd., were taken over in 1946. Alexander's County Coaches, the services of A. Lazell (Ewhurst) and W. A. Potter, of Stedham, the excursion and tour business of T. R. .Russell; of Midhurst, and the undertakings of Southsea Royal Blue Parlour Coaches, Ltd., Portsdown Motor Co. (Portsmouth), Ltd., and Triumph Coaches, Ltd., were bought a year later.
As a result of these acquisitions some consolidation and improvement of stage services became possible and Mr. Williams's present organization consists of . 24 services, with Mr. Gerald Nowell as general manager.
Liss and District Omnibus Co., Ltd.," a company which was started by Mr. Cartwright in November, 1929, was ,:cquired by Mr. Williams in January, 1945, and has its depot ra3
at Liss. Under the local manager. Mr. R. Candish, are nine single-deckers and one double-decker, which operate six services, not including extras. Service 1 rtins from Petersfield to Liphook, via Street, Liss and Longmoor. Journey time is 40 minutes and a daily service consisting of three to five journeys is run. Extra services to Longrnoor are run daily from Petersfield and from Liss to Liphook, seven or eight times per day, and one journey on Sundays only.
Petwarth Service 2, Petersfield (Lower Green)—Ilawkley, via Liss L 22 Station, with one extra journey from Liss Station to Hawkley. is a 30-minute journey run three times on Wednesdays and Saturdays only. Service 3 from Petersfield to Midhurst, via Borden and Milland, is a 53-65-minute trip, which is run
on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, two to four journeys being made on each day. On market Wednesdays two extns are run. One daily extra to Hillbrow is run from Petersfield, one extra to Midhurst from Redford on Tuesdays and Fridays only, and on Saturdays two extra journeys are made from Milland to Midhurst.
Service 3a, Petersfield to Midhurst via Harting Combe, is operated on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, when two journeys are made. Full route time is 55 minutes.. One extra is run on market Wednesdays, when service 4 is operated, two journeys being made from Petersfield to Fernhurst via Hartingcombe. This is a 40-minute journey. Services 3, 3a and 4 were originally owned by W. A. Potter.
The only other service operated by Liss and District Omnibus Co., Ltd., is No. 5 (Petersfield Town), running from the Square to Tilmore Gardens 10 times daily.
Hants and Sussex Motor Services, Ltd., itself operates services 11 to 19 from depots at Emsworth and Fareham with 17 double-deckers and 49 single-deckers. No. 11, a 30-minute service from Emsworth Station to Thorney Aerodrome, occupies a journey time of only nine minutes. It is extended every hour for the three-minute run from Thorney Aerodrome to Thorney village, thus forming Service 12.
Hospital Visiting Service
An ex-Glider service, West Street, Fareham, to Catisfield, via Highland Road, is No 14. This runs every hour, and journey time is 12 minutes. Half-hourly extras are run from Fareham to Highland Road Corner. Service 16 is from Emsworth to Rowlands Castle on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and • Sundays, the 14-minute journeys being operated twice or three times on each of those days. On hospital visiting. days the company runs service 19 from Portsmouth to Alton, via Fareham. Journey time is 90 niinutes. From depots at Midhurst. Stedham and Graffham, Mr. B. S. Williams. through his local manager, Mr. R. Candish, operates a number of routes using one double-deck and 13 singledeck vehicles. Service 21 runs from Petworth to Midhurst, via Graffham. Selharn and Heyshott, with daily extras from Graffham to Midhurst. Journey time is 55 minutes. On Saturdays and Sundays service 22 is run from Petworth to Chichester, via Graffham, with extras from Graffham to Chichester. This journey occupies 80-85 minutes. One journey, on Saturdays only, comprises service 23, a 73-minute run from Lurgashall to Chichester, via Seiham.
Each of these services, plus service 24, was originally operated by Mr. J. A. Gavin, and was acquired in 1939. Service 24 runs from Midhurst to Gospel Green, via Lurgashall, with an extra to Lurgashall from Midhurst. The service runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays only.
Similarly, services 25 to28 were originally owned by W. A. Potter, and all start from Midhurst. Service 25 runs to Treyford three times on Tuesdays and Saturdays and twice on Thursdays. This is a 24-minute journey. Service 26 is an irregular daily service running to nearby Staiham, occupying only 5-7 minutes. On Thursdays, service 27 runs to Milland from Midhurst, via lping. The 23-minute journey is scheduled once outward and
twice inward bound. The other ex-Potter service, No. 28, is a 41-minute run from Midhurst to Liphook scheduled three times on Mondays and twice on Thursdays, via Lynch and Milland. Service 29 is a daily service from Midhurst to West Lavington.
The remaining services are operated by F. H. Kilver (Transport), Ltd., from the depot at Roffey. Five double-deck vehicles and 16 single-deckers under the manager, Mr. R. A. Howard, operate services 31 to 34. Numbers 32, 32a and 33 were formerly operated by Comfy Coaches, whilst service 34 was formerly, owned by Mr. Lazell..
,Horsham to Plaistow, a 55-minute run. is Covered by service 31. Ten journeys are made on weekdays arid'12 on Wednesdays and Satut'clays. Seven trips are imide on Sundays ; Service 32 and 32a are worked all day from Horshain to Roffey Corner direct and via Littlehaven, respectively. The tirhe for the journey is nine minutes. Service 33, from Horsham to Three Bfidges in 50 minutes, runs twice on. Mondays to Fridays and three times on Saturdays.
Extras are worked on various days to Wield, Roffey Corner and Mount Lodge and to intermediate points. Service 34 runs in the opposite direction—Horsham to Eyvhurst, via Oakwood, in 45 minutes. On Thursdays and Saturdays five journeys are made, Six being made the rest of the week. : At first sight the. experienced reader will be tempted to exclaim that this : is an extraordinary situation. " Here are four undertakings operating between extreme points some 70 miles apart and, althought under the same ownership, quite separate.
The Kilner company is isolated; so is Hants and SuSsex and, in fact the latter 's territory is itself split into two isolated piartions. Mr. Williams's own routes tind,rhose of Liss and .. District do touch at Midhurst ;' but are worked separately; moreover they cannot give a direct Service hebaeen Petersfield and Midhurst or Midhurst and Petworth, is themain rdids are covered -by Southdown Motor SerViceS,:•Ltd: The fares Of both concerns are the same between Petersfield and itilidkiittSt:blit the Southdown jOtirney..time is much shorter, whil§t between IiIidhufst.and Petwortli there is a sing of both'tiine and money by. the-SouthdOWn concern. It is obvious that nothing like the number of vehicles specified as being operated by each company is required to work the stage services, and this is really the key to the position.
Results of Regrouping
For instance, Mr. Gavin worked from Graffham to Heyshott and Midhurst on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and from Graffham to Chichester on Wednesdays and the first Saturday in each month—all With one bus. -To-day, even with the improved service, two buses (exclusive of duplicates) can provide the Saturday service (which is the heaviest of the week) on the ex-Gavin routes, whilst three buses would cover the Saturday workings on the ex-Potter services. Yet the Midhurst, Graffham and Stedham depots house 14 vehicles. Hants and Sussex is even more striking, as the standard time-table for Thorney can be worked with one bus and so can that for the Fareham route.
The fact is that Mr. Williams wisely uses his stage services as his all-the-year-round breadwinners; his butter comes from the duplicates he has to run on scenic routes in the summer and the jam is _earned from coaching and private
hire. The bigger his undertaking has grown the better his position. has been.
The small operators from whom he took over were in.-a dilemma and wondering how to make ends meet. They %s ere bound to provide their fixed services, particularly on market days but, with more than one market to serve and only one or two vehicles to play with, they were tied up hi:
contract and excursion work. • . •
Mr. Williams, with his greater resources; can afford to have more vehicles at each depot than the stage Services demand and he can use the scattered depots and offices as agencies for those of his businesses which deal solely with coaching." These can be summarized as: Sunbeam Coaches (Loxwood), Ltd., under the management of Mr. V. Candish an4 possessing five post-war Bedford Vistas with picking-up points at LoXWood, Alfold and Kirdford. Southsea Royal Blue Parlour Coaches, Ltd., owning five Leyland Tigers with Harrington bodies; and TriumphCoaches, Ltd., with nine Leylands with Harrington or Duple bodies.
Royal Blue and Triumph have their offices at Savoy Buildings, South Parade, Portsmouth, where, Miss . C. E. Savage is in charge. They can pick up on the Front (new South Parade tier), in Edinburgh Road and Fratton. Road. on The Hard' (Portsmouth Harbour) and at Clarence Pier.
Tours in Profusion
,The.uptisually large number of 140 tours, and excursions is licensed .and, in addition to day and half-day trips, extended tours are run to the Wye Valley, Mid and North Wales and the Lake District. Although the whole of the Hants and Sussex fleet has been quoted under one heading. in fact a number -of vehicles is working on private hire in Southampton, Worthing and Bognor areas. The Portsdown Motor Co. (Portsmouth), Ltd., at Cosham, in addition to possessing a public garage there and a privatecar repair shop at Exmouth Road, Southsed; undertakes the main overhaul work for all the companies, although Liss and Kilner do their own running repairs. The Cosharn premises, 'recently acquired, are also used as the coach booking office and coach station for all tours starting from Portsmouth and Southsea.
Of the 130 vehicles possessed by the group, 94 are postwar models. Particularly interesting are the six Bedfords with Duple bodies used in the Midhurst area for services in the Downs country. These buses have luxury seating and observation windows in the domed sides of the roof so that excellent visibility is provided. They are too good for ordinary country services, but • their purpose, of course, is to attract the tourist. Since the war, the original black and white colour scheme has been given up in favour of a light red and maroon with cream lining.