Page 114 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK TWO "BOSTON 1960 TO 1970"

CHAPTER 12
A MEMORY OF A LOCAL BUS DEPOT
Most readers probably have a clear picture of what is today
or what has been in the past their local bus depot; the place
where the buses live and are washed and generally looked
after.
As a child in Harrogate in 1947, our local bus depot was
just at the end of our long row of terraced houses looking out
onto part of the beautiful lush green grass in front of Dragon
Parade. At the other side of the depot from our houses was a
deep railway cutting and only a few yards beyond the railway
bridge was our local fire station. This ‘West Yorkshire’ services
bus depot served a large town and surrounding urban area,
there always seemed to be dozens of buses coming and going.
Later in my life I lived almost opposite the Lincolnshire
Road Car bus depot at Boston, on the London Road. Once again,
all day and late into the evening there were always dozens of
buses on the move.
Now the bus depot of our little story is totally different.
Situated in Coningsby about 25 miles south of Lincoln, George
Milson and his family ran the local rural bus service and had
done for as many years as anyone in the area could remember.
This family had been one of Fred Popham’s first conquests
not long after the Second World War when Fred had been
appointed as the first District Manager for the Firestone
Company in Lincoln.
Almost 2O years had passed but here in rural Lincolnshire
the buses and coaches had hardly changed at all. All the buses
were single deck design and painted a smart maroon colour.
The fleet numbered about 20 vehicles, none of them new any
longer.

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