No Longer Poor in Poringland [1]

It Gets Interesting.

Wikipedia tells us the Poringland's church is one of just a few that have a rounds tower. It hasn't - it is octagonal! Helpfully the every helpful Wiki also says that the origin of the village name is "uncertain".

Some believe the name derives from 'Poor spring land', because it has poor soil. It lies 5 miles south of Norwich city centre and a further 6 miles away from Bungay.

The population of Poringland has rapidly grown in the past 50 years. This village contains many public services. These include 2 pubs (both run by Poringland local Greg Lochhead), a supermarket, estate agents, takeaways, a restaurant and various shops.

Histoprically the village was strung out along that road between Norwich and Bungay ...

... and named East Poringland. West Poiringland was nearby but not much more than a cluster of dwellings formerly associated with The West Green Farm.

In recent years, Poringland has expanded significantly, filling in the triangle with Framlingham Earl at its apex.

Just north of the roundabout at the PH (map top) is a "One Stop" shop (owned by Tesco!) and the Post Office ...

... rebuilt from a more primitive establishment in the late 1970s.

In the tear 2000 edition of the Great Britain Bus Timetable, buses to and through Poringland were all in the hands of Eastern Counties owned by First Bus. Service 87 ran via the village to Bungay every hour ...

... and alongside this is the hourly Poringland only route 87A.

The 87A follows a different and slightly longer route. But the rigid policies of Moir Lockhead, then boss of First, led wo the progressive pulk-out of First and replacement by new-start independents.

One such was Anglian Bus.

Anglian Bus was formed in 1981 by David and Christine Pursey, operating charter services and school services from a depot in Loddon.

In January 1999 Anglian Bus began operating its first public bus service numbered 580 between Diss and Great Yarmouth under contract to Norfolk County Council.

In October 2000 the depot was relocated to Beccles Business Park, where a purpose built garage was constructed on 5 acres (20,000 m2) of freehold land. In 2003 the company began its first commercial service from Halesworth to Norwich. As of April 2014, Anglian Bus operated 58 buses, mostly Optare and Scania products.

In April 2012 Anglian Bus was sold to the Go-Ahead Group.

In the last years of the much lamented xephos system, the "shorts" to Poringland had become an hourly service 587 run by Anglian

At Framlingham Earl Norwich Road (effectively the Post Office as illustrated above which isn't at Framlingham Earl!) the bus takes a looping route via Long Road and St Mary's Road (bottom right) ...

... rejoining the main road at the church before completing the loop. This serves the newer development in the village, housing that progressively filed the triangle to the east of the main road.

St Marys Road Poringland

Tomorrow, we bring the story up to date and add in a significant change that is on the way.

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Have We Missed A Bus to Bicester?

A while back, fbb was reporting on the mess caused by local authority tender changes, leaving a mbig question mark over buses between Silverstone, Brackley and Bicester. Ever vigilant, your eagle-eyed blogger has been monitoring the Northamptonshire on-line timetable list.

Something, we are told, starts in four separate timetables, on April 17th, 18th, 18th and 18th. Click on the icon and this is what appears:-

New timetable available here soon
Updated timetable information available on the Traveline website:
http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/se/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en&timeOffset=15

Click on the link and you get the the Traveline South East index pages ...

... and this leads to: ...

... a table heading that matches NONE of the new 88s in the Northamptonshire list; but does match this:-

Irrelevant and wrong!

But the Traveline timetable, despite its erroneous heading, does contain the new times for the 88; that's the 88 to Towcester and Silverstone.

It does show, amidst the confusion and electronic dottiness, that buses between Silverstone and Bicester have been reprievd.

So, Northamptonshire, why not make a copy of the Traveline PDF, put the correct heading on it and maker it available to your web site users?

But it must be OK if it's on the internet!

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 Next Portingland blog : Tuesday 8th March