PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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PLYMOUTH CORPORATION TRAMWAYS DEPARTMENT Mr H P Stokes replaced Mr C R Everson in October 1919 as General Manager of the Plymouth Corporation Tramways Department. He not only commenced a complete reorganisation and refurbishment of the tramways network but in 1920 announced that the use of motor buses in districts not served by the tramway network should be encouraged. Although it is claimed that an ex London Transport bus was brought to Plymouth for trials, no local references to this vehicle have so far been uncovered. What is known is that a tender from Messrs W Mumford & Son was accepted on March 15th 1920 for the supply of twenty Straker Squires 34-seat 55hp buses at a cost of £1,725 each. Apparently the chassis of the first vehicle to be completed, with a temporary body, was brought to Plymouth for testing on the local gradients and succeeded in climbing Ford Hill in second gear, at 12 miles an hour, with no fewer than 46 passengers on board. Mr Stokes had designed the vehicle, which had a wheelbase of 14ft 6ins and a turning circle of 25 feet. It was capable of seating 34 passengers in normal use, with a facility to increase that number to 42 by utilising the gangway seats. The upper bodywork was of white enamel while the lower part was painted in a light primrose yellow livery. The light interior was of ash and mahogany and the seats were of dark green leather. It even had electric lights. The first of Plymouth's motor bus fleet left the Straker Squires works at Edmonton, London, at 1.30pm on Saturday July 10th 1920 accompanied by Mr Stokes, Mr J Hayne Pillar, the Chairman of the Tramways Committee, and Councillor B Hipwood. Sadly the driver's name is not recorded. The party spent the night at Salisbury and set off again at 8am on the Sunday morning. The bus arrived in Plymouth at 8pm that evening. It was put on show outside the Guildhall on the Monday and was later used to run the members of the Tramways Committee and invited guests around the proposed new bus routes. Delivery of the remaining vehicles was extremely slow. The second bus was expected in August and ten more in September but it would appear from the Western Morning News that by September 21st only numbers 1, 2 and 3 had been received. Bus 19 was displayed at Olympia in October and the last two vehicles were not expected until Christmas. The total cost was reported to have been £38,500. The first bus route was to be from Durnford Street, Stonehouse, along Millbay Road, George Street, Russell Street, York Street and Alma Road to Milehouse and thence through Wolseley Road, and Kent Road, to the junction of Station Road and Goschen Street at Keyham Barton. On June 21st the Council decided that the minimum fare should be two pence and thence a penny per mile after that. Hostilities within the Council itself immediately broke out. The Watch Committee wanted to charge the Tramways Committee 1½d per mile for each vehicle. They were asked to waive this charge but refused to do so. The Deputy Mayor, Alderman J Y Woollcombe regretted the coming of the motor buses and expressed the hope that the Council would never again enter the domain of the private tradesman. Councillor L M Jacobs was opposed to all municipal trading and Councillor J L Cornish questioned the folly of purchasing 20 vehicles when five were quite sufficient. However, the residents of the village of Crownhill were more positive and they appealed to the Council for a reliable bus service. This did not prevent the Council from purchasing just over 3 acres of land from the Manor authorities in order to build a garage for the buses at Milehouse. The land cost £3,000 plus fees and the tender of Messrs A C Jones & Son of Pennycomequick in the sum of £16,916 was accepted for the erection of the building. It was later reported that an error in the calculation of the estimate had been found and the correct amount was actually £17,562 6s 11d. And so it was time to start the first motor bus service. This turned out to be a little premature as the tickets had still not been printed. As a result it was decided to give the public the benefit of joyrides for a week to encourage use of the vehicles. These started on Wednesday July 14th. For the princely sum of sixpence, these trips ran from the Theatre Royal through Alma Road to Milehouse and then along Tavistock Road to Fore Street, Devonport. From there the buses ran to Albert Road, St Levan Road, Wolseley Road and back to Milehouse, where they then turned off for Peverell Corner, Mutley Plain and back to the Guildhall. Possibly they terminated here so that if anybody wanted another sixpennyworth they would have to run through o the Theatre Royal and join the back of the queue. The routes provisionally adopted at that time were:
A service to Plympton was also proposed but no details were given. Although initially the routes were numbered, this caused much confusion to Plymothians and by 1926 the numbers had been replaced by letters. By 1929 the network had become:
The detail of these routes varied over the decade and full details can be found by clicking on each individual service. During the 1930s, after giving thought to running trolley buses, Plymouth Corporation finally decided to start a tramway replacement programme. The programme would have been complete by the end of the decade had not the declaration of War in September 1939 stopped the closure of the final stretch of tramway from the Centre to Peverell Corner. The destruction of vehicles, lack of manpower and need to conserve fuel brought about discussions on co-operation between the Corporation and Western National, who were the only other major operator in the area by then. Those discussions resulted in the Plymouth Joint Services Agreement being signed in October 1942. |
