Page 16 - Jigsaw January 2019

Glance at the past.......................................................................................
Let’s get down to ‘bus’iness, Eric Franklin hits the road...
Last month I showed four pictures taken in Thrapston. The locations are:
1. The bell tower on top of the Methodist
Church in Market Road.
2. Lady Justice statue on top of the
Courthouse, Huntingdon Road.
3. Bedford Terrace is the narrow gap
between the Courthouse and Crowson’s, the sign being carved high up into the cornerstone.
4. The water spout is on St James’ Church, as indicated on the picture.
During 2019 I shall make occasional references to various local businesses, some still in existence but many no longer with
us. This time, a brief glance at Keystone Coaches and Recovery. Others to come include the Gas Works, Thrapston’s
water supply and a narrow gauge railway discovered along the Town Walk which will include a mention of the Thrapston Washed Sand and Ballast company. If you have suggestions about other articles covering Thrapston, Islip and Denford, please let me know.
In the early 1980’s Cambridgeshire County Council introduced an innovative bus service for West Hunts under the brand name “Stagecoach 400’’. The basis of the scheme was to combine school, commuter and shopping facilities in a single group of services covering villages in West Hunts.
To save costs a telephone booking system was introduced, allowing some villages
to be served only on request. The service was operated by Keystone Coaches
of Thrapston. The service ran with only minor changes until Easter 1998, when it was replaced by a new group of services operated by Whippet Coaches.
Keystone operated from their depot at the bottom end of Oundle Road, opposite Coronation Gardens, sited where the Co-op is now. The pictures shown below were taken in December 1993 of the Keystone depot still in operation and in February 1994 of the new Co-op being built.
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