A Visit To The Circus (2)

Round The Corner ...

... from The Circus you will find Darwen's Market Hall and Market Square. In the square was a small bus station, originally with just one posh shelter.

An extra stand was added with inappropriate concrete shelters.

The original quality rain protector peeps in to the above picture on the far right.

And today?

You will find a couple of open shelters and little else, such is progress.

Some buses leave from the nearby street.

Buses to Pothouse ...

... left from the traditional Circus stops.

Pothouse's Past Provision

When fbb first looked at the above picture he suspected that Darwen was the location, but confirmed it by the Lancashire registration.

A further search revealed an eponymous pub ...

... and an eponymous lane ...

... and third eponymousness, (but tatty!) bus stop.

fbb thinks that the Corporation bus would have turned round by the pub.

On the Open Street Map extract, Darwen Circus is bottom left ...

... with Pot House Lane top right.

So now you know!

Fortunately, the Internet has a full copy of a Darwen bus timetable for 1970 ...

... priced in preparation for decimalisation. The index reveals ...

... that the Corporation Transport department saw no need of route numbers although they appeared after the merger with the Blackburn operation.

Readers may be surprised to see the 1970 frequency!

In 1970, most Darwenians travelled by frequent and reliable Corporation bus.

Pathetic Present Provision!

We start with a Rochdale and Darwen route diagram.

It would  appear that three routes provide buses to or near Pot House (Pothouse?). The 33 (BROWN) is the "nearby" route and takes folks to Blackburn via  back road run.

The route does go "near" Pothouse Lane ...

... and offers an hourly frequency ...

... although there us no time point given for Pothouse. The route is operated by "Moving People" aka Travel Assist ....

.... a local Community Interest Company.

Which leaves the TA05 and TA07 circulars.

These do serve the traditional Pothouse stops. The direct (BLUE) TA05 ...

... doesn't quite match the 1970 frequency! The TA07 (PINK - the long way round) is twice as frequent!

It is likely that both of these are minibus routes.

Indeed Travel Assist has posted a sweet little video which, sadly, does not really make things better.

Pretty graphics but it is a drastic reduction!

But next month there is better news for the poor, pushed-away public transport people of Pot House.

All will be revealed, in glorious tecnicolor (?), as part of tomorrow's  "bits and pieces" blog.

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Peterville Progress

fbb has bought another Metcalf card kit. This time it is for four "workers' cottages" 

But their "sitz im leben" is going to be a bit of a bodge. They will sit here, on top of the door frame that surrounds the under eaves storage at fbb mansions.

A bit of a challenge!

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  Next Variety blog : Saturday 31 Oct 

A Visit To The Circus (1)

 

Maybe not that one above; but, equally, we could go here, especially in view of the recent happening in the area.

But actually it is here ...

... where you might have once found these ...

... better "colourised".

The trams are from Blackburn; but we are not IN Blackburn. This town's trams were red ...

.... but there was a link to Blackburn. The main road route was shared!

The picture with the two older trams was taken in Darwen, Lancashire - and not Darwin Northern Territory ...

... with is NOT in North West England. 

fbb had visited Darwen whist a student at Sheffield University (1963 to 1966). He has no idea WHY he went to Darwenpr hiw he got there, but it was in the company if some Sheffield Transport staff chums.

He remembers little of the trip, except one event. He watched a bus on service set off from near The Circus. It climbed a hill, disappeared behind trees and, after a few brief moments it re-appeared to return to The Circus.

It was one of the shortest bus routes fbb had ever observed. Today's TA6 to Bold Venture ...

... is similar but serves a wider area, so is longer.

Back when fbb visited. the bus, like Darwen's trams, was painted red ...

... and operated by Darwen Corporation Transport.

In 1974 Darwen Borough merged with Blackburn Borough to create the rattily named Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Neat, eh?

So Darwen's shiny red buses were to be merged with Blackburn's shiny green buses ...

... which seemed to change to a lighter green.

Later, the livery had lost its distinguished but expensively complex black and cream lining ...

... and even later had become a plainer green and cream.

Thus it was that, as a sop to the swallowed (absorbed?) Darwen fleet ...

... "Blackburn" buses gained a less than appealing red roof.

From cream and green ...

... Blackburn buses became white (off white?) and green ...

... then with a dash of yellow and the fashionable curved bit!

Apologies if fbb has misunderstood the calendar order of these9 liveries. Blackburn post deregulatoon will be covered in tomorrow's blog.

But what originally provoked today's posting was a Darwen bus to Pothouse!

But, at first, fbb wasn't sure whence it came as no fleet name was visible.

Tomorrow's blog will reveal all!

 Next Pot hole house blog : thu 29 Oct 

Innings, Outings And Stackings (3)

Festive Revelation At Falcon Road

A street walk from one side of Clapham Junction station to the other would take you via Falcon Road. In general terms it was not a very attractive environment for a stroll! 

Until now, that is.

Ever changing coloured lighting has been installed plus stove enamelled decorative panels on the walls. The pictures were taken when the road was closed to traffic for the official launch.

The bridge is now named officially ...

... and is a vast improvement on the previous gloom!

The wall panels were made by Isle of Wight firm, A J Wells, also renowned for London Underground signage. Peter Wells was a regular preacher at the fbbs' IoW church and Peter's boy, Alex, is a good friend of the fbbs No 1 son. All Peter's progeny have, at various times, been regular attendees at the fbbs' Bible groups. A J Wells has always been run on Christian principles.

They do excellent stove enamelling and also make excellent stoves!

Back To The 344

This route is relatively new in the lengthy near-century of London Transport history. 

The story begins with route 44. which, in 1950 replaced Trolleybus 612 ...

... seen here at its Battersea terminus.

It's ancestor, Tram 12 which only ran to Wandsworth. 

Bus 44 ...

... ran every 5 to 6 minutes Monday to Friday, slightly less frequently on Saturdays and every 10 on Sundays.

In May 1991 the 44 was cut back to run from Vauxhall to Tooting and a new 344 was introduced to cover the deleted bit.

The 344 ran, and still runs, from Liverpool Street to Clapham Junction.

Best not try to cope with the 344 map on the TfL web site.

Ian Armstrong tells us that the 344 has had a wide variety of rolling stock. In its early days it enjoyed (?) diddy midi buses.

The route must have been successful ...

... as it now runs a 24 hour service, every TEN minutes at night!

The daytime service is designated as "frequent", which means the timetable may well be fictional - whilst maintaining a frequency of less than every 10.

The timetable terminus is opposite the exit of the shopping arcade at Clapham Junction ...

... as seen in this map extract.

Here is the alighting stop c/o Google Maps.

After disposing of its passengers, the 344 trots off to its little "stacking" area. 

It picks up outside the arcade.

Also terminating and picking up, like the 344, are two night services.

The N19 is much less frequent than the 344.

Also a night time terminator is the N31 ...

... sharing a joint frequency with part of the N28.

So there are plenty of night travel options from Clapham Junction!

There are, of course, other stops on Falcon Road and Grant Road. The ever helpful London Buses does not now produce a 'Spider' map for Clapham Junction, so unravelling what stops where is always a challenge for the non expert.

So best of luck if you are intending to change from train to bus or bus to bus.

Thanks TfL!

It Did Set

The station fence did stick to the wodge of foliage-encrusted hillside.

Latest carriage to join the Peterville collection ...

... is a bit of mystery.

Tomorrow we expect to go to the North West of England ...

... or is it Australia?

It sounds the same!

 Next Pot hole house blog : thu 29 Oct