A few weeks ago during our weekend spent at the cottage, we decided to re-wind time a little and participate in the Kingsbridge Vintage Bus Day.
It was fabulous to hop on board these beautiful old buses dating back to the early 30's and motor around the picturesque coastal villages making up the South Hams. An added bonus was that the whole event was totally free and no pre-booking was required.
2009 marks the centenary of the Great Western Railway's first bus service in the area which first ran on the 1st July 1909 between Kingsbridge and Salcombe. The network grew across the South Hams reaching many small communities along narrow Devon lanes. We all thoroughly enjoyed visualising what it would have been like all those years ago with the buses being the only method of transport to access such remote villages.
There were many open mouths and looks of admiration as we tootled along the lanes in these fine buses! There were also a few close shaves when meeting other buses along the way bringing the traffic to a total stand still whilst some expert reversing skills were put into practise.
We loved motoring along the coast in our old bus looking out to sea....although these old buses without ventilation made for a rather warm journey...look at big shrimp's Rosy cheeks here!!
We stopped off along the way to pick up passengers and for short breaks, which gave us time to have a good look at the bus we were travelling on....
You can just imagine turning back time to 1934 when this bus was built as it arrived at the bus stop to take you on your way...........
These buses were beautiful, I loved all the curves...not like the angular things we have today...these truly were a work of art............
We had some great memories of the day and big shrimp took some pictures of her day to take to 'Show and Tell' the following week!
