Rose Hill Reconnoitre Happening

You'll Have Guessed It Isn't ...

... Rose Hill Campus, part of a University located in The Bronx, New Yoick. Nor does in refer to the late actress and opera singer, Rose Hill ...

... who played the bed-ridden Madame Fanny (and unwilling guardian of the British airmen!) on thr glorious TV series "Allo Allo".

For a public transport blog it might just be something to do with a roundabout in Surrey ...

... where, according to Ian Armstrong's London bus routes site,  it is still served by toute 280.

Or maybe a railway station in Marple south of Greater Manchester.

There it is on the map. Its trains cut across from the former Woodhead line, now the local service to Glossop and Hadfield. Trains join the Hope Valley route at Romily then immediately leave it!

Rose Hill (Marple) has an odd timetable running hourly with occasional gaps of half an hour.

Of more interest, perhaps, than the unhelpful timetable frequeny, is the decoration on the end of the station building.

Note the former Midland Region "hot dog" totems, preserved and not sold off for a fortune to collectors.

Of course, fbb's alert and knowledgeable readers will have worked out that the chubby teasing one is in Oxford, where Rose Hill is a housing estate off the Iffley Road.

Rose Hill was the name of the road that is a stretch of the A4158, is derived from the name of an old farmer's cottage on the A4158. Prior to the building of the present buildings between the A4158 and Lamborne Road, the land was used primarily for agriculture. The area between the road of Rose Hill and Annesley Road includes the site of a Roman pottery. Some specimens of the pots are in the Ashmolean Museum.

Note the River Thames on the left. Only, just because Oxford has to be different, it is here called the Isis!

fbb guesses that the estate of council homes for rent was developed in the 1930s ...

... as above on Ashhurst Way; and that bus stop looks the part.

But fidgetting with brightness etc, some detail of the head of the street lamp is lost, but it looks very much like it is powered by gas! 

Today's street view reveals refurbished houses ...

... a posh bus stop sign and electric street lighting.

Other parts of the estate have been flattened and replaced with newer buildings which probably won't last as long as the originals!

Above is the bus terminus at "The Oval" with some of said newer housing on the right. 

And look! There is a service 3 bus on Ashurst Way speeding back to Oxford Centre - and it is blue!

How far back the original C O M S was running a service 3 to Rose Hill, fbb cannot discover, but certainly way back!

Here is a 1964 timetable ...

... and an extract from he City route map.

Route 3 was clearly iconic enough to warrant a 1:76 model.

fbb did gingerly tackle something of the crazy competitive times in yesterday's blog but tomorrow he will be considering the route today, with perhaps a nod to the recent past.

As well as route 3, there is a 3A, a 3B and a 20 to add to the mix. We also need to involve a business park, a footy stadium, a branch of Aldi and a possible monastic terminus.

Bet you can't wait!

P.S. NOT Aldi, fbb meant Lidl!

 Next Rose Hill blog : Friday 23 May