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Alder Valley routes

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nw1

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Hi,

Alder Valley was my local bus company in the 1980s. I've found a Flickr group with historical photos of Alder Valley services from the 1970s-90s and have a few questions; as it was my local bus company I'm curious about a few things.

- Firstly did Alder Valley in the 1980s ever operate 'low number' routes from 1-99? The 200-299 range was used by the Alton, Hindhead and Guildford depots; 400-499 was used for Aldershot services; 100-199 appeared (this wasn't my area) to be used by services in the Newbury-Reading-Bracknell area, with numbers increasing as you go further east; while 300-399 appeared to be used in the High Wycombe-Maidenhead-Henley area. Were 1-99 ever used in the 80s? I get the impression that NBC companies favoured three-digit routes but curious as to whether Alder Valley (specifically the 1980s pre-deregulation) ever used the low numbers below 100.

I am aware that post-1986, low numbers were used extensively in the Guildford and Aldershot areas, resurrecting old route numbers, but I am thinking more of before that.

- Secondly the photos reveal some routes which had disappeared by 1984 but were in existence in 1978. For example, the 251 to Petworth, from, I would guess, Guildford (the photo shows a '251 Petworth' bus at Chiddingfold). How long did that last? How frequent was it? I presume that some 271 journeys (the 271 was also extant at that time) were numbered 251 and extended beyond Chiddingfold, giving places like Northchapel a regular bus service, something it hasn't had since pre-1984.

- Another photo shows the 211 (Haslemere to Woolmer Hill) passing the pub at Hammer Vale, not part of its route by 1984. Did the 211 extend further west originally? This photo was from 1980, I think.

- Did Alder Valley and Badgerline/Bristol Omnibus ever meet? I'm asking that as Badgerline later on became my local company, in the mid 1990s. I'm guessing it's possible they may have met at Marlborough (maybe Alder Valley ran a Newbury-Marlborough and Badgerline/Bristol a Bath-Marlborough? Certainly by 1993 the latter, if it ever existed, was gone).

Thanks.
 
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JonathanH

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Firstly did Alder Valley in the 1980s ever operate 'low number' routes from 1-99?
The kind of renumbering you refer to was the outcome of the early 1980s market analysis projects - basically they moved route numbers into a range for each area within one of the bus companies. Historically, the routes from Reading had the lowest numbers - eg 1 was once Maidenhead to Newbury, 5 was Reading to Oxford via Wallingford, 12 was Reading to Aldershot and so on. The answer about route numbers 1-99 is that those were retained for local services around Slough - eg numbers in the 50 / 60 range did not get prefixes. However, it wasn't until Reading Transport took over Reading routes in the 1990s that the 5 route was renumbered 105. Newbury locals were in the 1xx range before this renumbering.

As an example of what happened pre-1980s, see this picture (taken from the Oxford-Chiltern bus page) showing a new Bristol VRT running route 29 from High Wycombe to Marlow (later 329 of course)

- Did Alder Valley and Badgerline/Bristol Omnibus ever meet? I'm asking that as Badgerline later on became my local company, in the mid 1990s. I'm guessing it's possible they may have met at Marlborough (maybe Alder Valley ran a Newbury-Marlborough and Badgerline/Bristol a Bath-Marlborough? Certainly by 1993 the latter, if it ever existed, was gone).
Alder Valley and Bristol didn't meet because Hants and Dorset was in the way. Even today, the Swindon to Salisbury corridor is a Wilts & Dorset route. I think at one point Thamesdown ran a Swindon to Newbury service. Thames Valley at one time did run from Newbury to Hungerford and separately to Swindon but the Swindon route (via Lambourn) was sparse in 1965 let alone the 1980s.

I once had a NBC map covering the whole country as it was in the 1980s which I really would like to see again as these kind of boundaries and the lack of services across them are a very interesting feature of today's operations.
 
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TheGrandWazoo

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Hi,

Alder Valley was my local bus company in the 1980s. I've found a Flickr group with historical photos of Alder Valley services from the 1970s-90s and have a few questions; as it was my local bus company I'm curious about a few things.

- Firstly did Alder Valley in the 1980s ever operate 'low number' routes from 1-99? The 200-299 range was used by the Alton, Hindhead and Guildford depots; 100-199 appeared (this wasn't my area) to be used by services in the Newbury-Reading-Bracknell area, with numbers increasing as you go further east; while 300-399 appeared to be used in the High Wycombe-Maidenhead-Henley area. Were 1-99 ever used in the 80s? I get the impression that NBC companies favoured three-digit routes but curious as to whether Alder Valley (specifically the 1980s pre-deregulation) ever used the low numbers below 100.

I am aware that post-1986, low numbers were used extensively in the Guildford and Aldershot areas, resurrecting old route numbers, but I am thinking more of before that.

- Secondly the photos reveal some routes which had disappeared by 1984 but were in existence in 1978. For example, the 251 to Petworth, from, I would guess, Guildford (the photo shows a '251 Petworth' bus at Chiddingfold). How long did that last? How frequent was it? I presume that some 271 journeys (the 271 was also extant at that time) were numbered 251 and extended beyond Chiddingfold, giving places like Northchapel a regular bus service, something it hasn't had since pre-1984.

- Another photo shows the 211 (Haslemere to Woolmer Hill) passing the pub at Hammer Vale, not part of its route by 1984. Did the 211 extend further west originally? This photo was from 1980, I think.

- Did Alder Valley and Badgerline/Bristol Omnibus ever meet? I'm asking that as Badgerline later on became my local company, in the mid 1990s. I'm guessing it's possible they may have met at Marlborough (maybe Alder Valley ran a Newbury-Marlborough and Badgerline/Bristol a Bath-Marlborough? Certainly by 1993 the latter, if it ever existed, was gone).

Thanks.
Can’t help on the two digit question except to say some NBC firms did have two digit numbers e.g. United

Alder Valley ran from Lambourn to Swindon so they met Bristol Omnibus there

https://flic.kr/p/27wEYSQ


credit to photographers. The one with the VR is incorrectly captioned as it being nearly new when, in reality, it’s a 1977 vehicle but is carrying its MAP local fleetname

As for all the routes you mentioned, a lot of changes occurred with Market Analysis Projects c.1980-1 so many links disappeared then
 
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farwest

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Not the 1980s but 1960s I can remember the 75 from Guildford to Reading. A route operated in conjunction with Thames Valley.
 

RELL6L

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Referring to the original post, as I recall the 271 was just Guildford to Chiddingfold while the 251 was Petworth to Haslemere including quite a lengthy double-run up to Chiddingfold. It ran every 2 hours I think. Now the 71 runs hourly to Haslemere but nothing much runs down through Northchapel to Petworth. The 271 was where I first “discovered” that there were REs without ECW bodies, getting on a Marshall bodied vehicle I assumed to be an AEC Reliance only to realise the engine was at the back and it sounded totally like an RE!
 

RT4038

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22 Feb 2014
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4,180
Hi,

Alder Valley was my local bus company in the 1980s. I've found a Flickr group with historical photos of Alder Valley services from the 1970s-90s and have a few questions; as it was my local bus company I'm curious about a few things.

- Firstly did Alder Valley in the 1980s ever operate 'low number' routes from 1-99? The 200-299 range was used by the Alton, Hindhead and Guildford depots; 400-499 was used for Aldershot services; 100-199 appeared (this wasn't my area) to be used by services in the Newbury-Reading-Bracknell area, with numbers increasing as you go further east; while 300-399 appeared to be used in the High Wycombe-Maidenhead-Henley area. Were 1-99 ever used in the 80s? I get the impression that NBC companies favoured three-digit routes but curious as to whether Alder Valley (specifically the 1980s pre-deregulation) ever used the low numbers below 100.

I am aware that post-1986, low numbers were used extensively in the Guildford and Aldershot areas, resurrecting old route numbers, but I am thinking more of before that.

- Secondly the photos reveal some routes which had disappeared by 1984 but were in existence in 1978. For example, the 251 to Petworth, from, I would guess, Guildford (the photo shows a '251 Petworth' bus at Chiddingfold). How long did that last? How frequent was it? I presume that some 271 journeys (the 271 was also extant at that time) were numbered 251 and extended beyond Chiddingfold, giving places like Northchapel a regular bus service, something it hasn't had since pre-1984.

- Another photo shows the 211 (Haslemere to Woolmer Hill) passing the pub at Hammer Vale, not part of its route by 1984. Did the 211 extend further west originally? This photo was from 1980, I think.

- Did Alder Valley and Badgerline/Bristol Omnibus ever meet? I'm asking that as Badgerline later on became my local company, in the mid 1990s. I'm guessing it's possible they may have met at Marlborough (maybe Alder Valley ran a Newbury-Marlborough and Badgerline/Bristol a Bath-Marlborough? Certainly by 1993 the latter, if it ever existed, was gone).

Thanks.
Alder Valley and Bristol Omnibus certainly met in Oxford (on joint services with City of Oxford Motor Services). Bristol Omnibus came in from Swindon on route 466, and Alder Valley from Reading (5?) and Newbury (112).
 

nw1

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Thanks for the replies. I missed "pre-MAP" by a couple of years, I first started noticing bus operations in around 1983-4 so consequently "late NBC" with three-digit numbers were what I was first aware of. Looks like the early-mid 1980s were probably the peak of three-digit numbering as they started slowly to become less popular from deregulation - although many ex-NBC companies were still using them extensively throughout the 1990s. Badgerline (Bath area) circa 1993/94, despite being private for many years, was still rather reminiscent in some ways of Alder Valley in the mid 1980s with its plentiful Leyland Nationals and VRs and three-digit numbers for all routes except Bath town services.


Consequently, when I see photos of say Guildford in 1979-80 with no Friary Bus Station, and those older double deckers (unsure of the name... but they had registrations of AAA XXXC) it seems like something from a bygone age compared to 1983/4. I had moved to the south by this time, so I must have seen these older buses, but I had no interest at the time so they didn't register.

Alder Valley and Bristol Omnibus certainly met in Oxford (on joint services with City of Oxford Motor Services). Bristol Omnibus came in from Swindon on route 466, and Alder Valley from Reading (5?) and Newbury (112).

Interesting the original 112 was different from the 112 I remember (Aldershot-Reading via Fleet). I had assumed - wrongly - that the 112 was a long-standing route but it appears that was originally the 12.

Referring to the original post, as I recall the 271 was just Guildford to Chiddingfold while the 251 was Petworth to Haslemere including quite a lengthy double-run up to Chiddingfold. It ran every 2 hours I think. Now the 71 runs hourly to Haslemere but nothing much runs down through Northchapel to Petworth. The 271 was where I first “discovered” that there were REs without ECW bodies, getting on a Marshall bodied vehicle I assumed to be an AEC Reliance only to realise the engine was at the back and it sounded totally like an RE!

Ah that is interesting. I was thinking that the logical route for the Northchapel area was Petworth to Haslemere (as both are the local shopping towns for Northchapel) so was a bit puzzled by that photo but that would explain it. Guessing it also served Lurgashall and was run as a one-vehicle 'shuttle'? (the two hour frequency would suggest that). Wondering also if it was timed to meet the 271 at Chiddingfold; certainly in Alder Valley days the 219/229 and 260 were always timed at Midhurst to connect.

Northchapel has had nothing regular since at least 1984; there was once (late 80s) a 505 which ran to Haslemere for a morning shopping journey a couple fo times a week with a 'Whippet' minibus but even that didn't last too long. In fact even Petworth went through a phase of having no regular services anywhere IIRC; I remember in 1984 there was a 201 from Midhurst to Worthing but that was very infrequent, something like every three hours. Then post deregulation Alder Valley ran a 225 Midhurst-Petworth shuttle with Whippets which was similarly infrequent; it was only around 1993 (perhaps a bit earlier) that the present 1 route was introduced to given an hourly Midhurst-Worthing service, a rare case of a regular route in existence today which didn't exist in the mid-80s.

Can’t help on the two digit question except to say some NBC firms did have two digit numbers e.g. United

Alder Valley ran from Lambourn to Swindon so they met Bristol Omnibus there

https://flic.kr/p/27wEYSQ


credit to photographers. The one with the VR is incorrectly captioned as it being nearly new when, in reality, it’s a 1977 vehicle but is carrying its MAP local fleetname

As for all the routes you mentioned, a lot of changes occurred with Market Analysis Projects c.1980-1 so many links disappeared then

Interesting to see Alder Valley and Bristol side by side.

I know Hants and Dorset used two-digit numbers historically (as I mentioned in the other thread on long standing route numbers) though the lowest was the 30 Southampton to West Totton. Not sure why that was; maybe to avoid duplication with Citybus routes?

In fact were Bristol Omnibus themselves not the best known company with low numbers, as the 1-99 range was used on Bristol City routes, which unusually for a large city, were run by them rather than a Bristol City Council operation?
 
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A0wen

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Were 1-99 ever used in the 80s? I get the impression that NBC companies favoured three-digit routes but curious as to whether Alder Valley (specifically the 1980s pre-deregulation) ever used the low numbers below 100.

I'm not sure that's correct - other companies have been cited, I'd add United Counties also used 2 digit route numbers in the Luton / Hitchin / Aylesbury area which became Luton & District at separation.

London Country didn't use 2 digit route numbers (except on shared routes, e.g. the 44 between Luton & Stevenage which was joint with United Counties), but that was a legacy of their LT ownership, whereby back in the 1930s the route number blocks had been allocated 0-299 to Central Area, 300-399 to Country North, 400-499 to Country South and 700-799 to Green Line.

In fact with a number of the route-swaps which took place between London Country and United Counties in the late 70s, the routes were usually re-numbered by the 'new' operator to their standard e.g. UCOC 82 which ran from Hitchin to Welwyn was renumbered to 314 by LCBS, the LCBS 364 became UCOC 43.
 
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nw1

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Not sure that's correct - other companies have been cited, I'd add United Counties also used 2 digit route numbers in the Luton / Hitchin / Aylesbury area which became Luton & District at separation.

London Country *didn't* use 2 digit route numbers (except on shared routes, e.g. the 44 between Luton & Stevenage which was joint with United Counties), but that was a legacy of their LT ownership, whereby back in the 1930s the route number blocks had been allocated 0-299 to Central Area, 300-399 to Country North, 400-499 to Country South and 700-799 to Green Line.

In fact with a number of the route-swaps which took place between London Country and United Counties in the late 70s, the routes were usually re-numbered by the 'new' operator to their standard e.g. UCOC 82 which ran from Hitchin to Welwyn was renumbered to 314 by LCBS, the LCBS 364 became UCOC 43.

I definitely remember the London Country 4xx in the Guildford area. I'm surprised that 200 numbers were enough to cover the whole London Country area though, to be honest - I was aware of the consistent numbering with London Buses but I probably imagined the numbers were in the 300-699 range with 4xx being South West (rather than South) specifically.
 

JonathanH

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Interesting the original 112 was different from the 112 I remember (Aldershot-Reading via Fleet). I had assumed - wrongly - that the 112 was a long-standing route but it appears that was originally the 12.
412 in post-MAP Alder Valley days as a through route. 112 later when cut back to just run from Reading.
 

A0wen

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I definitely remember the London Country 4xx in the Guildford area. I'm surprised that 200 numbers were enough to cover the whole London Country area though, to be honest - I was aware of the consistent numbering with London Buses but I probably imagined the numbers were in the 300-699 range with 4xx being South West (rather than South) specifically.

There weren't that many routes in the 1930s when that standard was set - and LT used the suffix approach to extend it e.g. 303 303A etc.

Post war the 800 block got opened up for London Country which was used for some of the town services before the move to 'Alpha-numberic' sometime in the 70s, so SB for Stevenage, S for St Albans, H in Hemel, W in Watford, C in Crawley etc.
 
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Fast Track

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The kind of renumbering you refer to was the outcome of the early 1980s market analysis projects - basically they moved route numbers into a range for each area within one of the bus companies. Historically, the routes from Reading had the lowest numbers - eg 1 was once Maidenhead to Newbury, 5 was Reading to Oxford via Wallingford, 12 was Reading to Aldershot and so on. The answer about route numbers 1-99 is that those were retained for local services around Slough - eg numbers in the 50 / 60 range did not get prefixes. However, it wasn't until Reading Transport took over Reading routes in the 1990s that the 5 route was renumbered 105. Newbury locals were in the 1xx range before this renumbering.

As an example of what happened pre-1980s, see this picture (taken from the Oxford-Chiltern bus page) showing a new Bristol VRT running route 29 from High Wycombe to Marlow (later 329 of course)


Alder Valley and Bristol didn't meet because Hants and Dorset was in the way. Even today, the Swindon to Salisbury corridor is a Wilts & Dorset route. I think at one point Thamesdown ran a Swindon to Newbury service. Thames Valley at one time did run from Newbury to Hungerford and separately to Swindon but the Swindon route (via Lambourn) was sparse in 1965 let alone the 1980s.

I once had a NBC map covering the whole country as it was in the 1980s which I really would like to see again as these kind of boundaries and the lack of services across them are a very interesting feature of today's operations.
Newbury always seemed well served by bus connections to many towns in the 70’s including route 80 Salisbury to Newbury via Andover I think that was Wilts & Dorset.

I recall Newbury to Maidenhead, Basingstoke, Swindon and I think there was an Oxford. Of course it had lost the Didcot Winchester rail links.
 

Robertj21a

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Thanks for the replies. I missed "pre-MAP" by a couple of years, I first started noticing bus operations in around 1983-4 so consequently "late NBC" with three-digit numbers were what I was first aware of. Looks like the early-mid 1980s were probably the peak of three-digit numbering as they started slowly to become less popular from deregulation - although many ex-NBC companies were still using them extensively throughout the 1990s. Badgerline (Bath area) circa 1993/94, despite being private for many years, was still rather reminiscent in some ways of Alder Valley in the mid 1980s with its plentiful Leyland Nationals and VRs and three-digit numbers for all routes except Bath town services.


Consequently, when I see photos of say Guildford in 1979-80 with no Friary Bus Station, and those older double deckers (unsure of the name... but they had registrations of AAA XXXC) it seems like something from a bygone age compared to 1983/4. I had moved to the south by this time, so I must have seen these older buses, but I had no interest at the time so they didn't register.



Interesting the original 112 was different from the 112 I remember (Aldershot-Reading via Fleet). I had assumed - wrongly - that the 112 was a long-standing route but it appears that was originally the 12.



Ah that is interesting. I was thinking that the logical route for the Northchapel area was Petworth to Haslemere (as both are the local shopping towns for Northchapel) so was a bit puzzled by that photo but that would explain it. Guessing it also served Lurgashall and was run as a one-vehicle 'shuttle'? (the two hour frequency would suggest that). Wondering also if it was timed to meet the 271 at Chiddingfold; certainly in Alder Valley days the 219/229 and 260 were always timed at Midhurst to connect.

Northchapel has had nothing regular since at least 1984; there was once (late 80s) a 505 which ran to Haslemere for a morning shopping journey a couple fo times a week with a 'Whippet' minibus but even that didn't last too long. In fact even Petworth went through a phase of having no regular services anywhere IIRC; I remember in 1984 there was a 201 from Midhurst to Worthing but that was very infrequent, something like every three hours. Then post deregulation Alder Valley ran a 225 Midhurst-Petworth shuttle with Whippets which was similarly infrequent; it was only around 1993 (perhaps a bit earlier) that the present 1 route was introduced to given an hourly Midhurst-Worthing service, a rare case of a regular route in existence today which didn't exist in the mid-80s.



Interesting to see Alder Valley and Bristol side by side.

I know Hants and Dorset used two-digit numbers historically (as I mentioned in the other thread on long standing route numbers) though the lowest was the 30 Southampton to West Totton. Not sure why that was; maybe to avoid duplication with Citybus routes?

In fact were Bristol Omnibus themselves not the best known company with low numbers, as the 1-99 range was used on Bristol City routes, which unusually for a large city, were run by them rather than a Bristol City Council operation?
Those AAA-C registrations were Dennis Lolines - also batches of nnn KOT and, previously, SOU nnn.
 

RELL6L

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There weren't that many routes in the 1930s when that standard was set - and LT used the suffix approach to extend it e.g. 303 303A etc.

Post war the 800 block got opened up for London Country which was used for some of the town services before the move to 'Alpha-numberic' sometime in the 70s, so SB for Stevenage, S for St Albans, H in Hemel, W in Watford, C in Crawley etc.
London Transport country area, and then London Country, was very clearly demarcated with 3xx in the north and 4xx in the south. To the east the boundary was the Thames, but to the west it was a little fluid, with the 441 running up to High Wycombe, Slough and Windsor routes in the 4xx series but the 335 and 353 running to Windsor. Then there were a few routes in the 800s (north) and 850s (south) when they ran out of numbers. There were few, if any gaps, in the 3xx and 4xx series in the early 1970s at least.

Newbury always seemed well served by bus connections to many towns in the 70’s including route 80 Salisbury to Newbury via Andover I think that was Wilts & Dorset.

I recall Newbury to Maidenhead, Basingstoke, Swindon and I think there was an Oxford. Of course it had lost the Didcot Winchester rail links.
Not sure about Newbury to Maidenhead as Reading is in the way! But there was a good service to Reading (still is). There was a 2 hourly service to Oxford which for a while was 312 by Oxford and 112 by Alder Valley, at one time pretty much exclusively by series 1 VRs from both operators. Extra Oxford journeys from Harwell northwards. Now there is nothing south of Harwell and virtually no bus to East Ilsley. Yes also Hungerford, Andover and I think a very limited service to Winchester via Whitchurch.

And I am sure the 251 and 271 connected in Chiddingfold. I think the 271 was every 30 minutes then anyway, it terminated right by the attractive village pond.
 

JonathanH

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Not sure about Newbury to Maidenhead as Reading is in the way!
Newbury to Maidenhead through Reading was a trunk route for Thames Valley - route 1. It had gone by the 1980s though - Reading to High Wycombe via Maidenhead was 315. Reading to Newbury became 102.

The 315 shared the High Wycombe to Maidenhead corridor with a 317/318/319/320 from High Wycombe to Windsor.
 
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RELL6L

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Newbury to Maidenhead through Reading was a trunk route for Thames Valley - route 1. It had gone by the 1980s though - Reading to High Wycombe via Maidenhead was 315. Reading to Newbury became 102.

The 315 shared the High Wycombe to Maidenhead corridor with a 317/318/319/320 from High Wycombe to Windsor.
I stand corrected on the 1. Looking at the late 1960s timetable on Timetable World I see a through service every 30 minutes. I only remember from mid 1970s and I don’t think it ran through then. I think I remember it being a 2 to Newbury but may be wrong. I see then that the 112 was hourly to Oxford!
 

nw1

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London Transport country area, and then London Country, was very clearly demarcated with 3xx in the north and 4xx in the south. To the east the boundary was the Thames, but to the west it was a little fluid, with the 441 running up to High Wycombe, Slough and Windsor routes in the 4xx series but the 335 and 353 running to Windsor. Then there were a few routes in the 800s (north) and 850s (south) when they ran out of numbers. There were few, if any gaps, in the 3xx and 4xx series in the early 1970s at least.


Not sure about Newbury to Maidenhead as Reading is in the way! But there was a good service to Reading (still is). There was a 2 hourly service to Oxford which for a while was 312 by Oxford and 112 by Alder Valley, at one time pretty much exclusively by series 1 VRs from both operators. Extra Oxford journeys from Harwell northwards. Now there is nothing south of Harwell and virtually no bus to East Ilsley. Yes also Hungerford, Andover and I think a very limited service to Winchester via Whitchurch.

And I am sure the 251 and 271 connected in Chiddingfold. I think the 271 was every 30 minutes then anyway, it terminated right by the attractive village pond.

Interesting the 271 was every 30 minutes. Later on (by 1984) it had reduced to hourly with the 268 (Aldershot via Haslemere and Whitehill) and 271 combining to give a 30 min frequency north of Witley, and the 292 (Eashing Lane) and 294 (Aarons Hill or Petersfield, alternate hours) then forming a 15-minute frequency at Godalming. Wondering if Godalming-Guildford was as frequent as every 10 minutes in those days? (Was pre-MAP frequency generally higher than post, or was it just the routes they cut?)

Just found this from 1969 on timetableworld, a bit earlier than the period I was enquiring about, but still fascinating. A Southdown timetable but with some neighbouring Aldershot and District routes.


The 251 existed as the 51 in 1969, and was indeed a two-hourly clock-face service linking Petworth with Woolmer Hill, though it didn't cover Chiddingfold at that time. Not bad for something that didn't even exist in any shape or form 15 years later.

There was even an irregular, but usable weekday service from Hindhead to Horsham cross-country at the time. Those wishing to explore the countryside in 1969 would have had far more options available to them than 50 years later.

... and the 19 (Midhurst to Aldershot) was almost identical in timing to that which prevailed on the 219 as late as 1986 (i.e. xx25 off Midhurst, xx45 off Aldershot). It continued one hour later into the evening though, and in 1969 there did not appear to be the variations for school services run by double-deckers which necessitated diversions via Kings Road or Shepherds Hill in Haslemere due to the low bridge. Guessing all the 1969 journeys were single-deck.
 
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