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Carried away with routes

In the years leading up to the first world war - before the establishment of rural bus services - travelling into Newark for most people meant using the local carriers cart.

These slow, horse-drawn vehicles acted not only as the main means of passenger transport but also (and more importantly) as a delivery service for village produce to be sold at market - such as eggs, butter and vegetables.

As motor vehicles began to prove themselves more effective, however, the dominance of the mainstay of rural mobility began to wane.

In the village of Elston, for instance, the local miller, William Gash, acquired a secondhand Beeston-Humber truck which he began to use for transporting corn, bags of coal, and various other goods to and from market in Newark.

By 1921 he had introduced a new dimension to his service by fixing two wooden benches across the platform of the lorry allowing ten or so villagers to ride into town along with their goods (albeit completely exposed to the elements).

Gash's bus service was born and from these humble beginnings there grew a business which, over the next 50 years, developed an invaluable network of services connecting many small village communities with Newark and Nottingham.

Another locally based bus company which was founded in this immediate post-first world war era - and one which is still very much in evidence today - was Wright and Sons (now Travel Wright) on Lincoln Road.

Like Gash's, Wright's (founded 1826) began life providing much valued village services into Newark and their main area of operation lying to the north and west of the town - Ossington, Laxton and Ollerton.

Both Wright's and Gash's are names which continue to be well known in Newark (in spite of the latter having ceased trading fully ten years ago), but how many people, I wonder, can remember the names of any other local bus companies which started up at around this time?

Is there anyone now who can recall such names as the Trent Motor Traction Co, The Grove Motor Co, Underwoods, C. Cave and Son or Silver Queen (pictured).

In those pioneering days when many soldiers felt that the driving skills they had gained in the first world war could be turned to good effect, the number of new applications for motor omnibus licences increased dramatically.

In Newark, by the mid Twenties, the watch committee of the town council was receiving as many as four new applications a month - Robert White of Parliament Street, Newark, to operate a 14-seater single-deck omnibus between Newark and Farndon; Mr L. Spence for permission to run a service into Newark from North Clifton; Mr R. Bray to run services between Sleaford and Newark; Mr J. Hollingsworth to run services from Coddington to Newark: and from Charles Scott of Carlton-le-Moorland to operate a 14-seater through Newark on Saturdays only - the list goes on and on, and although most of the names have long since disappeared, at the time the sheer volume of bus traffic converging on Newark became a major cause for concern - particularly as there was no effective co-ordination over timetables or where each company should pick up or set down.

In the early years many of these fledgling bus services established their own makeshift bus stations in pub yards continuing the tradition established by the carrier carts and, indeed, the stage coaches before them.

The yard of the Saracen's Head off the Market Place, for instance, was used by a number of operators including Gash's and Mr George Moyes' service to Foston (est. 1925).

Next door at the Clinton Arms the Newark form of Baxter's provided bus services to meet every train at the towns two railway stations while the Robin Hood on Lombard Street was (among many others) the pick-up point for the Newark to Farndon Service run by Mr Robert White (inaugurated December 1923).

As the number of bus operators increased, however, these yards became ever more crowded and alternative roadside stopping places had to be introduced.

Church Walk on Appletongate was one of the most sought-after pickup points with the Grove Motor Co. utilising it for its 'shopper' services from Hawtonville and Gilstrap Estate.

Further down Appletongate the bus companies vied with one another to secure a pitch outside the newly opened Palace Theatre, while elsewhere streets which lay immediately adjacent to the main shopping area became greatly prized - Baldertongate, Castlegate and Beaumond Cross.

Most favoured of all, however, was Beastmarket Hill where the prevalence of buses belonging to such operators as the Trent Motor Traction Co or C. Cave and Sons began to cause serious congestion to other traffic attempting to enter the town.

The problem was finally addressed in May 1928 when the watch committee authorised part of the Town Wharf to be levelled as a new bus stopping place.

It was not until December 1932 that the town acquired its first purpose-built bus station beside the Robin Hood Hotel followed, in 1964, by the opening of the present bus station on Lombard Street.

The great heyday of the single bus operator persisted until the end of the Twenties when some of the more successful concerns began to extend their influence and buy out smaller businesses.

The well known Nottingham firm of Barton Bros, acquired its first licence to run services into Newark (via Southwell) in June 1925 and three years later Silver Queen (pictured) succumbed to a takeover from Lincolnshire Roadcar - a company which, of course, continues to supply many of Newark's bus services to this day.

ABOVE: A Silver Queen bus stops off in Bassingham on its run from Lincoln to Newark sometime in the late Twenties. Standing beside the vehicle is driver Bob Kirk.

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