History of the Bus Service

This section came about when I found a booklet in Winterbourne Steepleton church  "Along the Dusty Road"  (Part IV Cerne Valley and the Bridport Road). This booklet is one of four dealing with the carriers and early motor bus operators who ran to Dorchester before 1939.

This is one of many such series dealing with most counties in the south west. An incredible amount of research by the author Roger Grimley with the Dorset editions being published in 2009. All information has been extracted from the above publication.

One thing that is very clear - like today, the services were not really viable and the villages suffered from poor communications as a result.

Horse drawn carriers 

For many years in the late C19th,  two local horse drawn carrier services served the population in the south Winterbourne villages. 

Mr Bowditch drove a pony and trap to Dorchester on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and used the "Plumes of Feathers" in Princes Street, Dorchester as a terminus.  This building still survives as No 3 Princes Street : Portfolio House - a grade II listed building opposite the Princes Street junction and close to the top end of the Antelope Walk.  It was a "spit and sawdust" pub with a wooden floor and skittle alley. Drinkers enjoyed "stingo" - a popular local drink of barley wine and bread, cheese and picklied onions were the only food served. 

Mr John Carpenter stopped at the Soldier's Home but later moved to the "Three Mariners". He ran four days a week and parked his van in North Square. The Three Mariners was once the Old Pale Ale Brewery on the north side of High East street. The archway with "Pale Ale Brewery" still exists. 

Both these operators took a few passengers as well as a variety of goods. Like the motor bus operators below, these early operators especially on market days, carried everything from chickens, live or dead pigs or sheep plus vegetables and other produce.  

Ted Markey 

The first locally based motor bus service was run by Edgar "Ted" Markey. During WW1 he had married and after the war returned to resume his position as groom to Col Balfour at Steepleton Manor. He and his wife ran a smallholding keeping chickens and sometimes a cow or a few pigs. 

In May 1925 he purchased a 14 seater Chevrolet bus [PR 4720] from Tilley's garage in Dorchester.  He kept this vehicle in a barn at Winterbourne Abbas and picked up passengers in Steepleton and Martinstown on his way to Dorchester. He provided this service on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. For a short while he had extended the service to Compton Vallence north of the A35 but small numbers made this uneconomic.  He was more successful when he extended the service to Littlebredy on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In the early days, he also operated a taxi service but few could afford this so it did not last very long.

In 1927, the County Education Committee asked him to tender for conveying Compton Vallence children to and from Winterbourne Abbas daily. He offered this service for 16s per day "in a comfortable roomy bus". However, it was deemed more economic to keep the Compton Valence school open. By 1931, pupil numbers had declined to 17 and the matter was re-examined. From Easter 1932, Ted Markey did transport children to and from Winterbourne Abbas in a Dennis 20 seater bus [TP 6943]. See below for his problems and operations after 1931.

Above left :  Ted Markey's 1934 Bedford bus [JT 1185] (with a later owner)

Above right : Ted Markey's 1937 Bedford 26 seater [JT 451] in Dorchester which replaced the above vehicle

Charlie Ralph

Another local operator was Charlie Ralph, once the licencee of the Brewer's Arms in Martinstown who also had a coal round. He had bought a Chevrolet tourer in 1926 and ran to and from Dorchester at first on market days but later daily under the title of "Enterprise Bus Service". There were also day excursions from the village with villagers recalling that the bus raised clouds of dust on the unmade roads.

On Boxing day 1929, Charlie Ralph was questioned by two policemen in Trinity Street, Dorchester who questioned the effectiveness of his bus's brakes. Even with the brakes applied, the vehicle could still be pushed along so Charlie landed up before the local JP's and was fined £1 and he promised to remedy the problenm before opearting again. Contemporary reports from publications such as "Commercial Motor" commented that these hard used general utility vehicles served a graet need in rural communities but they varied greatly in their condition and road worthiness. 

Frank Whitty

Frank Whitty & Son dated back to before WW1 in Dorchester. Since 1920, they had operated a motor chars-a-banc and during the 1920's had moved from premises in Colliton Street to a garage in Bridport Road. On 6th September 1930, they offered another rival bus service for market day passengers between Winterbourne Abbas, Steepleton, Martinstown and Dorchester. See below for their difficulties during the early 1930's with getting licences. However, although they could not operate the Winterbourne Abbas route, they did operate services for the Education Committee and in 1930 opertaed the Bradford Peverell and Charminster routes. Alkthough they retained some parts of their business, the bus and coach services were sold to Bere Regis & District Motor Services in February 1942. 

By 1930 there were also other operators on this route :

Southern National  : Operated a bus service from Bridport to and from Dorchester

C F S Gillham's "Blue Bird Service" ran a service connecting Bridport with Southern Railway Station in Dorchester.

1931 - National System of Licencing bus services :  This required every operator to prove a need for their services and allowed others to object. The newly form Traffic Commissioners sat in judgement and initially granted licences to Ted Markey, Charlie Ralph, Southern National and C F S Gillham.  However, they refused to licence F Whitty & Son whose buses had to stop running between Winterbourne Abbas and Dorchester from November 1931. Whitty's buses had been popular locally and it appears that the licence was refused at the instigation of two rival carriers Markey and Ralph. Whitty's service had been under cutting his rivals  on cost and it seems very unfair that they were treated in this way. 

Markey then wanted to reduce his services to a Wednesday and Saturday only. Charlie Ralph then withdrew his service as well.  Frank Whitty & Son naturally applied to fill the vacuum left. Another operator C & E Biggs who operated a filling station at Winterbourne Abbas, offered a service running on Tuesday, Wednesdays, Friday and Saturday.  At a further hearing, Frank Whitty was again refused a licence and the route was granted to C & E Biggs.  Ernie Biggs ran the service and tried to expand the routes. However they suffered the same problems as the other operators with too many passengers on Market Days and not enough on other days. Bigg's services stopped in 1935.

After Bigg's ceased operating, Ted Markey was reinstated and ran Tuesday and Friday trips from Winterbourne Abbas. In 1937, he purchased a new 26 seater Bedford bus [JT 7451] which was twice the size of his previous vehicle.  His services expanded and also covered transporting school children. During WW2 in 1942, Ted Markey decided to semi retire and as his son was too young to take over the business, it was sold to the rapidly growing Bere Regis & District Motor Services. The Markeys moved to the Wimborne area and Ted Markey died in 1970 aged 89.