Service 122 Gravesend to Brighton

[Clive Cheeseman]

Am I right in thinking that this service was jointly operated by Maidstone & District and Southdown outside of the Heathfield Pool?

I remember travelling on a Southdown decker from Gravesend to Tunbridge Wells in the mid sixties, with a brief stop at Borough Green depot where there was a connection with M & D service 9 (Sevenoaks to Maidstone). If my memory is correct it was an M & D crew.

[Richard Ratcliffe]

I believe it was jointly operated by the two companies before the “Heathfield Scheme” came into being but then became part of it.

 

Richard Ratty

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[n.ki...@btinternet.com]

Yes, this and interworked 119 were entirely independent of the Heathfield Pool.

    My understanding is that no Southdown crews worked north of Tunbridge Wells.  I’m not sure whether there were southern limits for M&D crews from Borough Green and Gravesend; I suspect they didn’t go south of Tunbridge Wells.

    The Southdown club is currently working on a new publication which will cover this and other joint services, following their successful Heathfield item earlier this year.

 

Nicholas King

 

From: Clive Cheeseman

Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2017 1:53 PM

To: Invicta Bus & Coach Newsgroup

Subject: [Invicta] Service 122 Gravesend to Brighton

 

Am I right in thinking that this service was jointly operated by Maidstone & District and Southdown outside of the Heathfield Pool?

 

I remember travelling on a Southdown decker from Gravesend to Tunbridge Wells in the mid sixties, with a brief stop at Borough Green depot where there was a connection with M & D service 9 (Sevenoaks to Maidstone). If my memory is correct it was an M & D crew.

[BARRY OVENDEN]

Clive,

Yes this is so, no doubt because the route did not pass through Heathfield. All the Pool services actually passed through the town. 

The SEC booklet on these arrangements makes interesting reading.

Barry

----Original message----
From : clive12c...@gmail.com
Date : 26/09/2017 - 13:53 (GMTDT)
To : mdekb...@googlegroups.com

[DRH]

I too remember travelling to Brighton on the 122 on a Southdown (Leyland or Guy) from Gravesend with M&D crew and issued with an M&D ticket.  I think crews changed at Uckfield, at the old SMS garage where an SMS crew rook over.

The return journey from Brighton as it happens was also an SMS car but I don't remember whether the crew were SMS or M&D or what they did with the return ticket.

DRH

[Peter Sales]

You are correct, the buses worked through but Southdown crews did not wok north of Tunbridge Wells

 

Buses were from Brighton, Lewes, Uckfield and Crowborough for Southdown, and From Tunbridge Wells,  Borough Green and Gravesend for M&D

 

 

 

From: mdekb...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mdekb...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Clive Cheeseman

Sent: 26 September 2017 13:53

To: Invicta Bus & Coach Newsgroup <mdekb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Invicta] Service 122 Gravesend to Brighton

 

Am I right in thinking that this service was jointly operated by Maidstone & District and Southdown outside of the Heathfield Pool?

 

I remember travelling on a Southdown decker from Gravesend to Tunbridge Wells in the mid sixties, with a brief stop at Borough Green depot where there was a connection with M & D service 9 (Sevenoaks to Maidstone). If my memory is correct it was an M & D crew.

--

[Group_owner]

Clive (& Nicholas)

The 122 started in 1948 (it was really a result of extending the former 22 (Gravesend-Crowborough) to Brighton to replace the 119 via Five Ash Down (enabling the 119 itself to run hourly via Fairwarp and Maresfield - it had previously served either variant only in alternate hours). It lasted as a through service until 1970, after which the 122 ran only between Gravesend and Tunbridge Wells and its southern half via Five Ash Down became 219.  There was also a 319 providing occasional journeys via Nutley and Maresfield for a while, then in 1975 219 & 319 were renumbered 129 & 139.  Eventually the 729 came into being in January 1977, but that (as they say) is another story!

One other point of interest is that from 1970 the 122 (or the 322 as it became in 1974) and the 119 group both terminated at Lime Hill Road in Tunbridge Wells, a terminal previously used only by LT Green Line services. Use of Lime Hill Road by the 729 (by then shared with Brighton & Hove as well as Southdown) continued until early 1989.

Derek J

[n.ki...@btinternet.com]

I would add that vehicles often ended up at “other company” depots on 48-hour working cycles.

    There is documented evidence that a Southdown vehicle finished up at Gravesend on alternate nights and started the next day with a trip to somewhere on the Grain peninsula (Cliffe?) before taking up the 122.  One imagines that M&D vehicles overnighting at Southdown depots may have had similar experiences.

    However, whether by luck or judgement, the Borough Green vehicle (traditionally DH387 for many years) got back home each night.

    There was some fleeting discussion about the 119 and 122 in the History Corner of Invicta a couple of years or so ago, from which a few fragments emerged which I have yet to knock into publishable form.

 

Nicholas King

 

From: DRH

Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2017 7:33 PM

To: Invicta Bus & Coach Newsgroup

--

[n.ki...@btinternet.com]

Sorry, but it was never part of the Heathfield scheme, although in its lesser way it shared many of the same operational characteristics.

 

Nicholas King