The History Is No Mystery ...
... but the detail is a bit beyond fbb's ability! Of note on the 1978 map is route 10, entering the map at Halfway (map, centre top) and running to Chesterfield (off map bottom left). When the service licensing system was introduced, Corporation buses had the unalienable right to operate within their urban boundary. If, for historic reasons, the Corporation wished to continue to run outside the boundary, they could apply to the Traffic Commissioners to retain that right.
Somehow or other, the Rotherham undertaking managed to garner very extensive operating rights including on a joint route with East Midland to Chesterfield. fbb well remembers taking such a trip with his knees in his face on the less-than-comfortable single deckers that were used on the route.
An East Midland Leyland National is pictured below having arrived from Rotherham and ready for its next trip from New Beetwell Street in Chesterfield.
The through route disappeared soon after its inclusion in the 1978 East Midland map.
For the record, below is a part of the route 10 timetable.
But our interest for today's blog focusses firstly in the 1978 route 27.
From Chesterfield, the service 27 (RED) followed the 10 (and others) to Staveley; and after a wiggle via Woodthorpe ...
... nice, small and quaint but much expanded into a dormitory suburb, buses struck north to Renishaw. This was the ancestral home of the Sitwell family, famous for their writing and eccentricity. Their names alone (Edith, Osbert, Sacheverell) should strike terror into any students of art or literature. Of the three, Edith was the most "memorable". Her work 'Facade' was set to music.
From Renishaw, the 27 continues to Killamarsh then hooks back south to Clowne. Here is a timetable extract for the 27 from the 1978 timetable book.
Then we must consider route 46 (BLUE).
This ran from Sheffield (off map upper left) via the Mansfield Road and Mosborough before also coming to Killarmrsh then continuing via Harthill to Clowne. Here is a 46 timetable extract also from that 1978 book.
From here on in, fbb's knowledge of the history of these services becomes somewhat hazy. But at some stage or other ...
... the historic and long standing Sheffield Transport route 26 to Killamarsh disappaed. (It was the same as the first section of East Midland 46)
Like the 46, it ran hourly.
It lasted into the PTE era when it was numbered 226 as an "out of county" route. Later, to fit in with services 261 and 262 to the developing new town of Mosborough, it was re-renumbered 260. fbb has the evidence in his back yard!
If you look closely, you can see where the "26" has been scraped off the plastic and repainted with "60" - clever chaps were the Sheffield "route equipment" team!
Anyway, and here things do get a bit mysterious, the advent of privatisation led Stagecoach to, as it were, join the 27 and the 46, cut out Clowne and run through from Chesterfield to Sheffield via Killamarsh.
Route numbers used at various times were 70, 70a, 71, 71a and 72.
The 70a & 71a were, at one time, evening, early morning and Sunday variants. fbb drew the map below for a previous blog way back when (2015?).
But do not be afraid, dear reader, fbb is not going to attempt a full review of these various services between Chesterfield, Killamarsh and Sheffield - it is just too complicated for one simple blog written by one simple and aged chubby one. A further snippet will suffice to get the concept of complexity.
The whole caboodle eventually involved the short lived Supertram Link 3 from Owlthorpe to Killarmrsh.
It was a failure.
So tomorrow fbb will clean down the slate and join the tale in more recent times with nice simple (?) routes 70, 71 and 72.
And, at last, we will see how Hulleys fit in; or, as it so happens, don't.
We all know that the public craves a stable, simple bus timetable and we know equally that bus operators delight in giving their customers frequent route changes, frequent route number changes and frequent timetable changes.
Good, innit!
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It was A real frustration that provoked Jesus to clear out the traders and money CHANGERS. In turn his action provoked the authorities even more. This was a planned confrontation which Jesus could, in theory, have avoided by NOT going to Jerusalem, bur a job had to be done.
Provocation continued when the Messiah told a parable that was pointed very obviously at those same "authorities".
On Jesus parable, the owner (God) expected his share of his people's commitment (rent) but his staff (The prophets) were largely ignored, rejected or killed. In the end the owner sent his Son (Jesus) and he was also killed.
"Give the people enough ---- and they will hang themselves" might be a way of looking at it?
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Next Hulleys blog : Wednesday 27th Narch
