by David Gambles

The recent picture taken at Wroughton showing Neville standing in front of the Rotherham Corporation Transport Crossley reminded me of my childhood days in the mid to late 1950's when I recall seeing Rotherham buses in Chesterfield. We used to travel from Chesterfield to visit our relations in Rotherham on service 10 which was a joint service operated by East Midland and Rotherham Corporation Transport. I recall that the East Midland vehicles were front entrance, probably Leyland Tiger Cubs and I do recall that Rotherham initially used their unusual centre entrance Bristol L5G East Lancs single deckers, followed in later years by by more modern front entrance AEC Reliances with Willowbrook, Weymann and Park Royal bodywork. The number 10 service departed from one of the top stands alongside Beetwell Street at the East Midland bus station, which I remember was quite tight to manoeuvre into and I used to watch in amazement as the drivers skilfully turned their vehicles from New Beetwell Street left into Tontine Road and then immediately right into the narrow stand.

Our journey took us through Brimington, Staveley, Halfway (a name that used to fascinate me) and Swallownest and then eventually on to All Saints Square in the centre of Rotherham where numerous buses arrived and departed. Our onward journey could be by trolley bus to the Kimberworth terminus followed by a walk, or by diesel bus, almost always a Bristol K double decker, which took us to within yards of our relation's house in Richmond Park Avenue, Kimberworth.

These blue and cream Rotherham buses fascinated me, as well as being a different colour to the ones I was used to in Chesterfield they were different in many ways, Bristol K and L buses sounded so different, they also had Crossleys and Daimlers with different bodywork and interiors to those I was used to seeing in Chesterfield, but it was the trolley buses that were of great interest. Rotherham had a fleet of Daimler CT single and double deckers with twin rear wheels, the single deckers having centre entrance East Lancs bodies and I remember wondering why the double deckers seemed to be new vehicles compared to the single deckers, in spite of their registrations being in the same sequence FET 6XX series as the single deckers. I only discovered years later that twelve of the single deckers had been re-bodied by Roe as 70 seat double deckers and this is why they appeared new, they were new! FET 617 fleet number 37 survives today, fully restored and is based at Sandtoft Transport Museum. (HERE) The trolley buses seemed so powerful and had excellent acceleration and of course were so quiet. Scale models of the Rotherham double decker have been made and details can be found HERE.

At this point I should maybe point out that I didn't know that magazines existed for bus enthusiasts, in fact I didn't know I was a bus enthusiast! All I knew was that I noticed different details about buses and that they were interesting, as were railway engines and if I had ever seen "Buses Illustrated" for sale I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it. The only thing I ever remember seeing in print about buses was a large cut away picture, in a comic, of the then new Guy Wulfrunian, a bus I never saw on the road until just a few years ago when I came across one of the few preserved examples.

Anyway, I hope my recollections about the Rotherham buses that appeared in Chesterfield have been of interest and I have enclosed some photos illustrating the vehicles of the time. Of particular significance is a picture of a Rotherham trolley bus taken outside the Mexborough and Swinton depot at Rawmarsh, a location that became very familiar to me, as in 1957, we moved to Rawmarsh in connection with my father's job. We lived just around the corner from the depot and I spent many hours between the ages of 10 and 13 watching the comings and goings at this busy depot and this could be the basis of another article but I'm not sure whether it could qualify as being of interest to Transpire members? Anyway, the number 10 service became our link back to Chesterfield, as we then used it to travel to visit friends and relations we had left behind in Chesterfield until we moved "back home" in 1960. Whenever we were in the centre of Rotherham I always used to like to see an East Midland vehicle standing at All Saints Square, contrasting with the mass of blue and cream Rotherham vehicles, reminding me that our home town was only a bus ride away.

Richard Lomas adds (10 January 2010):

I lived in Matlock for most of the 1950s and the first Rotherham Corporation buses I saw were in Chesterfield. I was used to Bristols but the centre entrance bodies seemed very strange.

In about 1957 we travelled from Chesterfield to Beighton with a slightly deaf elderly uncle on a Rotherham bus. The conductor had an Ultimate machine with 3d as the highest value. I don't know what the fare was but we can assume it was between one and two shillings. Let's say it was 1/5d adult (5x3d+1x2d) and 8½d child (2x3d+1x2½d). So for three adults and three children some 21 3d tickets would have been required plus others to make up the values. Uncle Rue stuffed the tickets into his waistcoat pocket. Part way two inspectors boarded the bus and Uncle Rue couldn't produce the required number of 3d tickets. A long, loud and embarrassing argument followed until eventually one of the inspectors asked to look at his retired railway servant's gold watch and there it was - a 3d Ultimate ticket that had got detached from the others.

I have looked through my timetables as follows:
East Midland Oct 1st 1942 - service 10 Chesterfield to Swallownest.
East Midland 17th May 1959 - service 10 joint with RCT Chesterfield to Rotherham.
East Midland 28th Sept 1969 - service 10 joint with RCT Chesterfield to Rotherham.
NE Derbyshire May 1981 - service 10 joint EMMS and SYT Chesterfield to Rotherham
NE Derbyshire Oct 1986 - service 10 EMMS Chesterfield to Newbold.

I also remember the 17 Chesterfield buses running through to Matlock Bath and seem to think that latterly this was on Sundays only. I also seem to remember that the first red East Midland bus I saw was a Saro bodied Tiger Cub in Matlock Bath (I thought it was a Ribble bus).