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| When the King Alfred company
pulled out of running bus services in Winchester
in 1973, Hants & Dorset were given the
licences. By the end of the year they were
short of staff and asked Southampton to provide
some on loan. A number of us were misguided
enough to volunteer. |
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| Winchester
city services were still being run on a separate
rota but most of the former King Alfred buses
had been replaced. The routes mostly followed
the King Alfred ones but had been renumbered
which was slightly confusing for me because
I knew the old numbers. We operated services
to Harestock, Highcliffe, Oliver's Battery,
Stanmore, Weeke, Winnall, and out of town
to Owslebury and Whitchurch. The Fisher's
Pond services had been withdrawn earlier. |
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| Some of the former King
Alfred buses were still in use, although now
in Hants & Dorset red livery, but we had
mostly Hants & Dorset vehicles including
Leyland Nationals. |
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| Unfortunately
the people of Winchester proved
to be the most unhelpful and pompous
any of us had ever met. Although
they made the same journey regularly
they would not tell us the fare.
If their stop was not on the fare
chart they would not tell us where
it was. They sat silently in their
seats until we had driven past
their stops and were then extremely
abusive. |
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| Most of the
other conductors refused to go
back after the first day. I stuck
it out for a week but that was
enough. No wonder they could not
keep conductors if they looked
down on them like that. With such
an attitude I would be surprised
if they still had any servants
at home! |
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| I am certain
there must have been some nice
people in Winchester. I just didn't
meet them during that week and
I met a lot of people. If this
was the impression I got even
though I had lived there as a
teenager and managed to survive
the week, then how bad must it
have seemed to the others? But
that was in the early 1970s, it
would be different now, right? |
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| The holy city was a name
used by Southampton crews to describe Winchester.
It was not meant as a compliment. |
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| Hants
& Dorset Bristol VR number 3397
pictured in the Broadway a few years
later, on a 187 to Oliver's Battery. |
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