As promised, here are photographs of the bus that ferried passengers from the nearby station on the Mid Norfolk Railway to the Hardingham Village Fete. Although painted-up quite correctly in the 1970s National Bus Company livery (slogan: 'Together we can really go places'), on its arrival in Norfolk in 1967 this Bristol bus would most likely have been signed in the original gold 'Eastern Counties' logotype on the side panels. I await cries of anguish from bus savants. But we just loved this. As fete openers we were allowed to go on it back and forth, so for a while we had it to ourselves. Well, apart from the conductor. And driver. "What's 'Stubber' mean dad" Youngest Boy asked, running his fingers over the raised surface of one of the little metal plates attached to the rear of every green upholstered seat. "It's where you were allowed to stub your cigarette out" I replied, and he just looked at me in sheer disbelief. What joy, the two of us sitting in different parts of the bus, me with my father's Panama on, he with mine. "Oh no, look!" he shouted, "That's all we need". And coming towards us on the empty green Norfolk lane was an open-topped Morris Minor. I buried my head in my hands, half expecting Hattie Jacques to get on when I looked up again.
Modern buses don't have that lovely fusty smell of those green ones from my childhood memory. I reckon the smell must have been from the cigarette and pipe fumes that seeped into those moquette covered seats over the years.
I like all those notices in old buses. I can't remember which buses in my childhood had notices saying 'Please refrain from spitting'; maybe it was the vehicles of the wonderfully named Lincolnshire Road Car Company. I hope you minded your heads 'when leaving seat'.
Leicester Corporation buses had 'No Spitting' above the windows at the top of the stairs. I think it was because of the contemporary risk of catching TB off somebody's misguided sputum. What character these buses (and coaches) had. Lincolnshire Road Car still exist, and still have a half decent green and yellow livery I think.
I always recall the signs in our local buses that read, "All season tickets must be shewn." I never saw that spelling anywhere else. Those moquette seat covers were very prickly as I recall and only slightly better than the plastic-type seat coverings.
Very Biblical, that 'shewn'. I like moquette, prickly or otherwise, and very pleased that the Transport Museum for U, or whatever it's called in Covent Garden, are marketing the fabrics. So now you can have a sofa upholstered like a Routemaster bus. Honest.
I am a designer, writer and photographer who spends all his time looking at England, particularly buildings and the countryside. But I have a leaning towards the slightly odd and neglected, the unsung elements that make England such an interesting place to live in. I am the author and photographer of over 25 books, in particular Unmitigated England (Adelphi 2006), More from Unmitigated England (Adelphi 2007), Cross Country (Wiley 2011), The Cigarette Papers (Frances Lincoln 2012), Preposterous Erections (Frances Lincoln 2012) and English Allsorts (Adelphi 2015)
"Open this book with reverence. It is a hymn to England". Clive Aslet
Preposterous Erections
"Enchanting...delightful". The Bookseller "Cheekily named" We Love This Book
The Cigarette Papers
"Unexpectedly pleasing and engrossing...beautifully illustrated". The Bookseller
Cross Country
"Until the happy advent of Peter Ashley's Cross Country it has, ironically, been foreigners who have been best at celebrating Englishness". Christina Hardyment / The Independent
More from Unmitigated England
"Give this book to someone you know- if not everyone you know." Simon Heffer, Country Life. "When it comes to spotting the small but telling details of Englishness, Peter Ashley has no equal." Michael Prodger, Sunday Telegraph
As promised, here are photographs of the bus that ferried passengers from the nearby station on the Mid Norfolk Railway to the Hardingham Village Fete. Although painted-up quite correctly in the 1970s National Bus Company livery (slogan: 'Together we can really go places'), on its arrival in Norfolk in 1967 this Bristol bus would most likely have been signed in the original gold 'Eastern Counties' logotype on the side panels. I await cries of anguish from bus savants. But we just loved this. As fete openers we were allowed to go on it back and forth, so for a while we had it to ourselves. Well, apart from the conductor. And driver. "What's 'Stubber' mean dad" Youngest Boy asked, running his fingers over the raised surface of one of the little metal plates attached to the rear of every green upholstered seat. "It's where you were allowed to stub your cigarette out" I replied, and he just looked at me in sheer disbelief. What joy, the two of us sitting in different parts of the bus, me with my father's Panama on, he with mine. "Oh no, look!" he shouted, "That's all we need". And coming towards us on the empty green Norfolk lane was an open-topped Morris Minor. I buried my head in my hands, half expecting Hattie Jacques to get on when I looked up again.
9 comments:
"Smokers are requested to occupy rear seats" - wonderful stuff. Always been a big fan of passive (and active) smoking.
Me too Ron.
Modern buses don't have that lovely fusty smell of those green ones from my childhood memory. I reckon the smell must have been from the cigarette and pipe fumes that seeped into those moquette covered seats over the years.
I like all those notices in old buses. I can't remember which buses in my childhood had notices saying 'Please refrain from spitting'; maybe it was the vehicles of the wonderfully named Lincolnshire Road Car Company. I hope you minded your heads 'when leaving seat'.
Leicester Corporation buses had 'No Spitting' above the windows at the top of the stairs. I think it was because of the contemporary risk of catching TB off somebody's misguided sputum. What character these buses (and coaches) had. Lincolnshire Road Car still exist, and still have a half decent green and yellow livery I think.
I always recall the signs in our local buses that read, "All season tickets must be shewn." I never saw that spelling anywhere else. Those moquette seat covers were very prickly as I recall and only slightly better than the plastic-type seat coverings.
Very Biblical, that 'shewn'. I like moquette, prickly or otherwise, and very pleased that the Transport Museum for U, or whatever it's called in Covent Garden, are marketing the fabrics. So now you can have a sofa upholstered like a Routemaster bus. Honest.
Love the Eastern Counties Norwich poster.
I seem to remember that John Betjeman favoured the 'shewn' spelling. No doubt he liked the Biblical flavour of this form.
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