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| The company started out in
1916 as Bournemouth & District and became Hants
& Dorset in 1920. During the nineteen twenties
it spread up through the rest of Hampshire and into
Dorset, covering Bournemouth, Poole, the New Forest,
Hythe, Southampton, Romsey, Eastleigh, Winchester
and Fareham. The Tilling group and the Southern
Railway became major shareholders. With railway
nationalisation in 1947, the British Transport Commission
became a shareholder. Shortly afterwards Tillings
sold their bus interests to BTC and Hants &
Dorset became a state owned company. When I started
with the company in 1967 some older vehicles had
BTC ownership plates, complete with the British
Transport lion emblem. |
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| Following the setting up of
the National Bus Company in 1969, the company's
Tilling green buses were repainted in poppy red.
During the NBC's brief existence, Hants & Dorset
was combined with Wilts & Dorset, Shamrock &
Rambler coaches and in 1970 the Gosport and Fareham
company (Provincial). The coach operation became
part of National Travel. |
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| The NBC was broken up, then
privatised. The bus services of Hants & Dorset
were split into Wilts & Dorset in the south
and west, Provincial in the Gosport and Fareham
area and Hampshire Bus for the remainder. Shamrock
& Rambler, which had become part of National
Travel, was taken back and the engineering department
was set up as a separate company. The Southampton
coach operation was set up as Pilgrim Coaches. |
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| Hampshire Bus and the Pilgrim
coach company were bought by the Stagecoach Group
in April 1987. In July of that year they sold the
West Marlands bus station to be redeveloped as The
Marlands Shopping Centre and also disposed of the
Grosvenor Square garage and the Bedford Place coach
station. In October Stagecoach
sold the Southampton area routes of Hampshire Bus
to Solent Blue Line,
a new company owned by Southern Vectis. |
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| Provincial was sold to its
management and staff and bought by the First Group
in 1995. Wilts & Dorset was bought by its management
and was sold to Go Ahead in 2003. In
2005 Go Ahead bought Southern Vectis and with it
Blue Line and (Southampton) Unilink. |
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| Shamrock
& Rambler and Hants & Dorset Engineering
were also sold and Hants & Dorset was wound
up in 1990. However, the name was resurrected by
Wilts & Dorset as a subsidiary company trading
as Damory Coaches. |
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