Shearings at Tunbridge Wells

[Clive Cheeseman]

I have been in contact with a Nicholas Speakman who used to work for Shearings in the North West, and he is interested in clarifying details of which services Shearings operated whilst they had a depot in Tunbridge Wells.

One timetable for the 28 October 1990 shows the following services;-

280 Tun Wells - Molyneux Park

283 Tun Wells - Ravenswood Ave

285 Hawkenbury - Tun Wells - Speldhurst

and 677 and 681 (which I think were in the Southborough area?).

Presumably thre was a seperate one for other services.

Unfortunately my timetables and records mysteriously disappeared some years ago.

Nicholas has also seen reference to a 20C (Tun Wells to Pembury), 148/150 (Tun Wells to Chatham - with possibly a 152 variation?), 214/274 (Tun Wells - Willow Lea - Ramslye - Sundays?), 252 Tun Wells - Heathfield, 281/289 (Tun Wells to East Grinsted) and an unnumbered service from Tun Wells via the high Weald to Canterbury One of KCC's Sunday experiments?).

My recollection is that Shearings acquired Eagle Coaches and their existing contracts which included the Tun Wells 'locals' and the 148/150 but I may be wrong. If anyone could correct or add to the list or information it would be appreciated. Similarly any views that he may be interested in e.g. the Double Deckers).

Clive Cheeseman 

[Neil Bays]

Eagle Coaches certainly operated the Sunday 148/150 from T/Wells to Chatham/Gillingham for a while, so presumably this transfered to Shearings.

 

The 677 was the Sunday KCC financed Tun Wells - Sherwood (also operated by Southdown for a while from Haywards Heath garage before closure). The 681 would of been the Sunday Rusthall - High Brooms (281 during the week).

Shearing commercially operated a 215 from Willow Lea to Ramslye a few minutes ahead of the M&D service, certainly M-F and, I presume, Saturday too.

 

The 214 was an M&D operated Willow Lea - Sherwood evening and Sunday service. Living on Sherwood at the time I don't remember a Shearing operation on this service. I don't remember a 274 I'm afraid.

 

Before Eastbourne Buses/Stagecoach operation the 252 was a tendered service so maybe Shearings operated it for a while, I remember Warrens of Ticehurst operating it with Ex M&D VRs for a while.

 

I have a couple of naff shots of a Shearings leyland Tiger, which I believe is E32 UME, recently operated by Autocar of Five Oak Green. I'll dig out and post.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Neil B

[AECBus]

More than just the Sunday service on the 148/150.  They had it seven days a week and it was the major part of their operation in this area.  Later they sold their operation to M&D, along with four Leyland Lynx buses which ran with M&D as 3045-8 for many years after.  I have a picture of one on the 150 with M&D still in Shearings livery, some (but possibly not all) made it into M&D privatisation green very briefly before being repainted for the Maidstone P&R, before they went green again and moved to bus routes at Hawkhurst and TW.

Warrens of Ticehurst ran the 254 around 1990.  Did they have the 252 as well, I don't remember that - I think Wealden Beeline or maybe still plain Beeline had it then.

Neil G.

[simo...@yahoo.co.uk]

Hi there,

Here is a photo of one of the Shearings Leyland Lynxs  that they used and were then sold onto Maidstone & District

3047 leaving the Pentagon Centre in Chatham  https://www.flickr.com/photos/43911105@N00/12173502583

Cheers

Simon

[Clive Cheeseman]

Sorry Neil but I'm certain that the 148/150 only operated on Mondays to Saturdays. The Sunday operation between Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells was on services 6 and 7 which at one point were operated under contract by Auto Reps who also once operated the 148/150 (one of those operators who grew like topsy). The Sunday service on 6 and 7 never carried great numbers and was withdrawn when KCC had to make major budget cuts many years ago - just don't remember when!

I think Warrens actually operated the 254 and 256 to Hawkhurst etc. - but likewise my memory has gaps!

Clive C

[Clive Cheeseman]

My apologies Neil having just posted that the 150 did not operate on Sundays I find that it did immediately after deregulation with Eagle as the operator. I don't know when that changed just have a memory that it did. 

I have separately posted a list of those services which were provided by independent (not NBC Municipal) operators around Tun Wells which I drew up at the time. Just wish I had managed to keep the later timetables etc!

Clive C

On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 9:59:04 PM UTC+1, Neil Bays wrote:

[Darryl Meades]

I'm sure that M&D ran the Sunday service on routes 6 and 7 (as 806 and 807), and that both routes ran via Fant at the Maidstone end.

D.

[Group_owner]

Clive

Shearings took over the Eagle operation in October 1990 and at that stage the Sunday service (with some journeys numbered 152 via Snodland) was still in operation - it last ran on 24th March 1991, after which the contract was not renewed.

The Eagle timetable appears in the M&D leaflet covering other Sunday services in Medway (then numbered 120-129 - remember those?) dated November 1987, making it unnecessary at that stage for Eagle to produce their own leaflet.  Shearings published their own version in December 1990, and the later version dated April 1991 was the first to show just the weekday service.

If you have the Club's P42 independent timetable publications (which I was editing at the time) there are editions dated May 1990 and May 1991 which give you the picture before and after.

Derek J 

[Clive Cheeseman]

Many thanks Derek.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of not keeping my copies of those excellent publications - how I now wish I had!

Clive 

[Eric]

I think the East Grinstead routes were 291 via Hartfield and 239 via Holtye (and possibly Cowden village unlike the 97 before it) both operated by Eagle and/or Shearings.  The 291 was of course for many years M&D (originally as 91) and continues with Metrobus.  The 239 was very short-lived by comparison.

 

Eric

 

On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 5:39:04 PM UTC+1, Clive Cheeseman wrote:

[Shearings Tiger]

Hello - Thank you for adding me to the group and thank you for replying to the request left here by Clive!

Having worked at the Wigan Depot of Shearings I never managed at the time to keep a track on the services operated down at Tunbridge Wells. It established that Shearings operated the 280 (Molineux Park), 283 (Ravenswood Avenue) and 285 Hawkenbury - Tunbridge Wells - Speldhurst Mondays to Saturdays on contract to Kent CC with Sunday workings on behalf of Kent CC on the 677 (Sherwood) and 681 (High Brooms). These are all listed in Shearings own timetable from 28th October 1990.

The other services that I have raised the question about operating have all come from photographic evidence. A large collection of photographs of both Eagle and Shearings vehicles were sent to me by a local enthusiast which show the following routes operated;

6      (Operating by Shearings Leyland Tiger Bus 31 E31UNE)

20C  (Operating by Eagle Leyland National NWT702M) (Under Shearings ownership ?

142   (Operating by Shearings Leyland Tiger DP Plaxton coach 845 G845RNC)

150  (Operating by Shearings Leyland Tiger Bus 32 E32UNE)

152  (Operating by Shearings Leyland Tiger Bus 32 E32UNE)

206  (Operating by Eagle Leyland National NWT702M) (Under Shearings ownership ?

229  (Operating by Shearings Leyland Tiger Bus 37 F37ENF)

214  (Operating by Shearings Leyland Tiger Bus 32 E32UNE)

274  (Operating by Shearings Leyland Tiger Bus 36 F36ENF)

252  (Operating by Eagle Nationals NUA909P, RNV483M & NEL859M, Eagle and Leopard EBM437T

285  (Operating by Eagle Nationals NWT720M & NUA911P all 4 of the CKC/L and JDB/F Fleetlines and Leopard EBM436T

         Shearings Atlanteans HOR314/315N, Tiger Coaches G841/845RNC and buses E31/32UNE)

On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 5:39:04 PM UTC+1, Clive Cheeseman wrote:

[Neil Bays]

What was the routing of the 214? As I'm wondering if it was a different route to the M&D route.

Neil B

[BARRY OVENDEN]

Hi,

I had a quick look into my collection and found these 4 interesting views.

The one of the 2 Atlanteans was taken on 18/05/91. I expect this was a Saturday but I have not checked. An Atlantean on the 6!

The other 3 were taken on 22/09/90. 3 Shearings and not an M&D in sight!

Hope of interest.

Barry

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[Darryl Meades]

I think the 6 would have been evening workings under contract to KCC, which were previously worked by M&D as 826?

D.

[Shearings Tiger]

Hi Neil, The destination on the 214 is showing Ramslye.

[Shearings Tiger]

These are good photos Barry, thanks for posting them and supplying the relevant dates too !

[gingerbus]

According to the review of 1990 the 214 started 24th September 1990 and ran Ramslye to Willow Lea via Showfields, Tunbridge Wells, High Brooms, Southborough, Tonbridge and Trench Wood. Also on 31st Dec 1990 Shearings took over the 142, 148 150 and 185. The 1991 edition will have more of the competition, sadly my copy is in storage.

[Group_owner]

Thanks to everyone for their contributions so far to this thread - it's good to know that events that took place since de-regulation still generate as much interest as those of longer ago.

I think we all struggled to work out who was running what at the time, since published official details sometimes only appeared from the Traffic Commissioners some months after the event.

 

Eagle had surrendered 206 (Tunbridge Wells-Five Oak Green/Paddock Wood) as well as 205 (Tonbridge to Paddock Wood) in the autumn of 1989, and these were transferred to Fuggles of Benenden (with a few journeys sub-contracted to Wealden-Beeline).  Shearings was never involved with these routes as far as I have been able to determine.  What was believed to have been "20C" was almost certainly an indistinct or incorrect blind on a 206, as there was no route registered with the number 20C.

 

The Canterbury route on summer Sundays was Eagle's service 600, which ran from Rusthall via Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Sissinghurst, Benenden, Rolvenden, Tenterden, Ashford, Wye and Chilham to Canterbury at least in 1988, but may not have continued in subsequent seasons and therefore did not survive into Shearings ownership.

 

Although Shearings took over Eagle during April 1990, routes remained registered to Tunbridge Wells Radio Taxis Ltd for some months afterwards, and those that they ceased running were not always formally de-registered immediately - or at least the fact that they were de-registered was not published in N&P for some time.

 

What was quoted as "229" was probably either 225 or 228 (Tunbridge Wells-Crowborough-Jarvis Brook), for which there was an early morning journey (228, clockwise loop at Crowborough) before 0800 on Saturday mornings and an evening journey (225, anticlockwise at Crowborough) on all weekday evenings - if photos exist then the light would have been less than ideal.  At the time the main M&D 228/229 ran straight up or down Crowborough Hill without the diversions to serve Montargis Way, Hillrise and Forest Rise.   During the day, the 228/229 were co-ordinated with the 729 (in those days still joint between M&D, Brighton & Hove and Southdown/Stagecoach) and one M&D bus an hour ran out from Tunbridge Wells as a 229, followed the anticlockwise loop round Crowborough to the Leisure Centre, then turned back to perform the same loop clockwise as a 228 before returning to Tunbridge Wells.  The 225 was a single weekday evening journey that was the same as the 229 including the anticlockwise loop of Crowborough as far as the Cross but then returned direct to Tunbridge Wells, much as the 229 does today but without the diversions off Crowborough Hill.

 

214 was a commercial operation Willow Lea-Tonbridge-Southborough-High Brooms-Tunbridge Wells-Ramslye, which was a wholesale attempt to compete (hourly) with M&D across key parts of the Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells urban network.  It started on 24 September 1990 and continued only until Thursday 4 April 1991 (which in itself was curious as Easter was the previous weekend!), then was succeeded from Monday 8th April by two separate services, 274 (Southborough-Tunbridge Wells-Ramslye, Mondays to Fridays only) and 284 (Rusthall-Tunbridge Wells-Sherwood, Mondays to Saturdays, with odd Monday to Friday peak journeys diverted to and from Pembury Hospital instead of Sherwood).  These in turn were de-registered from 22 July 1991.

 

Everything else was tendered by one of the County Councils, either Kent (the majority) or East Sussex (252 and 225/228).  Operation on the 6 involved just one weekday evening return trip leaving Tunbridge Wells at 1827 and returning from Maidstone at 2002, and the 252 also was a weekday evening return trip only, with the bulk of that service during the day then provided by Wealden-Beeline.  Shearings also ran a single trip numbered 126, also on weekday evenings, from Chatham to Maidstone via Davis Estate (Tiger Moth).

The bulk of these were registered by Shearings from 28/29 October 1990 (225/228, 252, 280/283/285 and 677/681), while 142, 148/150 and 185 were added (taken over from M&D) from 31 December 1990.

All services were taken over directly by M&D (along with Leyland Lynx buses F45-8 ENF, which became M&D 3045-8) from 2 December 1991 (142, 148/150, 185, 280/283/285, 228 (the number 225 being dropped) and evening 6 and 252), although (again) the Shearings registrations were not formally cancelled until 20 January 1992.

Derek J

[Shearings Tiger]

Thank you for this very detailed information Derek and also to everyone else who has contributed. A special thanks also to Clive Cheeseman too!

So from your notes Derek am I right to assume that services 225, 228, 252, 280, 283, 285, 677, 681 and possibly 600 were inherited by Shearings from Eagle ?

Also do you know the route details for Services 142, 152 and 185 and when did Shearings start to operate them from? and when did Shearings end the 152 service? 

Do you also know the dates that Shearings ended operations on Services 126, 274 & 284 ?

You have not mentioned services 239/291 East Grinstead routes 291 via Hartfield and 239 via Holtye as posted by Eric earlier in the thread which he suggested were operated by Eagle and possibly Shearings ?

Many Thanks!

[Shearings Tiger]

Thank you for this very detailed information Derek and also to everyone else who has contributed. A special thanks also to Clive Cheeseman too!

So from your notes Derek am I right to assume that services 225, 228, 252, 280, 283, 285, 677, 681 and possibly 600 were inherited by Shearings from Eagle ?

Also do you know the route details for Services 142, 152 and 185 and when did Shearings start to operate them from? and when did Shearings end the 152 service? 

Do you also know the dates that Shearings ended operations on Services 126, 274 & 284 ?

You have not mentioned services 239/291 East Grinstead routes 291 via Hartfield and 239 via Holtye as posted by Eric earlier in the thread which he suggested were operated by Eagle and possibly Shearings ?

Many Thanks!

[Group_owner]

Sorry ST, I've not had time to research this fully yet.  Some of the answers are already in my earlier notes, but I will look at the outstanding items this weekend and come back to you.

Derek J

[Group_owner]

Thanks ST - answers added in italics under each question:

On Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 5:45:59 PM UTC+1, Shearings Tiger wrote:

Thank you for this very detailed information Derek and also to everyone else who has contributed. A special thanks also to Clive Cheeseman too!

So from your notes Derek am I right to assume that services 225, 228, 252, 280, 283, 285, 677, 681 and possibly 600 were inherited by Shearings from Eagle ?

            Correct for all except 600 which I don't think survived into Shearings operation. 

Also do you know the route details for Services 142, 152 and 185 and when did Shearings start to operate them from? and when did Shearings end the 152 service?  

 

142 was Chatham-Blue Bell Hill Village via Cookham Wood;   185 covered Monday to Friday peak-only journeys between Chatham and Princes Avenue via Davis Estate, Walderslade and Lords Wood.  

 

These were taken over from M&D along with weekday 148/150 after re-tendering from 31 December 1990 (so not operated by Eagle), but were transferred back to M&D from 2 December 1991.

         152 was a Sunday-only variant of 148/150 which ran Gillingham-Tunbridge Wells via Rochester, Strood and Snodland and thereby omitted the section via Lords Wood, Walderslade and Maidstone.  This was an existing Eagle operation, along with Sunday 150, and would have passed to Shearings with the other services in 1990, but was withdrawn after operation on 24th March 1991 as a result of Kent CC economies.

Do you also know the dates that Shearings ended operations on Services 126, 274 & 284 ?

        274 & 284 de-registered from 22 July 1991 so last dates of operation would have been 19 July (274) or 20 July (284, which had a Saturday service),  

        126 (Chatham-Maidstone) was effectively an evening positioning journey off the 148/150 so would have finished at the same time, i.e. last day would have

        been 30 November 1991.

You have not mentioned services 239/291 East Grinstead routes 291 via Hartfield and 239 via Holtye as posted by Eric earlier in the thread which he suggested were operated by Eagle and possibly Shearings ?

 

Eagle did have a brief spell on 239/291 during 1988, but this returned to M&D in September of that year, and they continued to run it throughout the period involved (until 1992 when the next retendering transferred it to Wealden Beeline and East Surrey as a joint operation).  I have no evidence that Shearings were ever involved in those routes.

 

Hope this provides the missing details you need.

        Derek J 

On Monday, April 6, 2015 at 11:25:14 PM UTC+1, Group_owner wrote:

Thanks to everyone for their contributions so far to this thread - it's good to know that events that took place since de-regulation still generate as much interest as those of longer ago.

I think we all struggled to work out who was running what at the time, since published official details sometimes only appeared from the Traffic Commissioners some months after the event.

 

Eagle had surrendered 206 (Tunbridge Wells-Five Oak Green/Paddock Wood) as well as 205 (Tonbridge to Paddock Wood) in the autumn of 1989, and these were transferred to Fuggles of Benenden (with a few journeys sub-contracted to Wealden-Beeline).  Shearings was never involved with these routes as far as I have been able to determine.  What was believed to have been "20C" was almost certainly an indistinct or incorrect blind on a 206, as there was no route registered with the number 20C.

 

The Canterbury route on summer Sundays was Eagle's service 600, which ran from Rusthall via Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Sissinghurst, Benenden, Rolvenden, Tenterden, Ashford, Wye and Chilham to Canterbury at least in 1988, but may not have continued in subsequent seasons and therefore did not survive into Shearings ownership.

 

Although Shearings took over Eagle during April 1990, routes remained registered to Tunbridge Wells Radio Taxis Ltd for some months afterwards, and those that they ceased running were not always formally de-registered immediately - or at least the fact that they were de-registered was not published in N&P for some time.

 

What was quoted as "229" was probably either 225 or 228 (Tunbridge Wells-Crowborough-Jarvis Brook), for which there was an early morning journey (228, clockwise loop at Crowborough) before 0800 on Saturday mornings and an evening journey (225, anticlockwise at Crowborough) on all weekday evenings - if photos exist then the light would have been less than ideal.  At the time the main M&D 228/229 ran straight up or down Crowborough Hill without the diversions to serve Montargis Way, Hillrise and Forest Rise.   During the day, the 228/229 were co-ordinated with the 729 (in those days still joint between M&D, Brighton & Hove and Southdown/Stagecoach) and one M&D bus an hour ran out from Tunbridge Wells as a 229, followed the anticlockwise loop round Crowborough to the Leisure Centre, then turned back to perform the same loop clockwise as a 228 before returning to Tunbridge Wells.  The 225 was a single weekday evening journey that was the same as the 229 including the anticlockwise loop of Crowborough as far as the Cross but then returned direct to Tunbridge Wells, much as the 229 does today but without the diversions off Crowborough Hill.

 

214 was a commercial operation Willow Lea-Tonbridge-Southborough-High Brooms-Tunbridge Wells-Ramslye, which was a wholesale attempt to compete (hourly) with M&D across key parts of the Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells urban network.  It started on 24 September 1990 and continued only until Thursday 4 April 1991 (which in itself was curious as Easter was the previous weekend!), then was succeeded from Monday 8th April by two separate services, 274 (Southborough-Tunbridge Wells-Ramslye, Mondays to Fridays only) and 284 (Rusthall-Tunbridge Wells-Sherwood, Mondays to Saturdays, with odd Monday to Friday peak journeys diverted to and from Pembury Hospital instead of Sherwood).  These in turn were de-registered from 22 July 1991.

 

Everything else was tendered by one of the County Councils, either Kent (the majority) or East Sussex (252 and 225/228).  Operation on the 6 involved just one weekday evening return trip leaving Tunbridge Wells at 1827 and returning from Maidstone at 2002, and the 252 also was a weekday evening return trip only, with the bulk of that service during the day then provided by Wealden-Beeline.  Shearings also ran a single trip numbered 126, also on weekday evenings, from Chatham to Maidstone via Davis Estate (Tiger Moth).

The bulk of these were registered by Shearings from 28/29 October 1990 (225/228, 252, 280/283/285 and 677/681), while 142, weekday 148/150 and 185 were added (taken over from M&D) from 31 December 1990.

[Shearings Tiger]

Hello Derek

Many thanks again for the detailed information. I have almost now completed the Shearings Eagle 'Jigsaw' but have discovered I have one or two last pieces missing which are my fault for not listing in the last enquiry. 

I just seem to be missing Start dates for services 6 & 126 the end dates for services 677 & 681 and the frequency/operating days of service 142. 

Kind Regards

[Group_owner]

Thanks ST.

For some of these last few odds & ends there are conflicting dates between KCC contract awards, dates of registrations and (in some cases) dates advertised by Shearings themselves, while other things were going on at the time (not least during the closing months of Boro'line Maidstone) which is why it's not always easy to be certain when operation actually started or finished, but the answers as far as I have been able to determine are:

6 & 126 started on 31 March 1991 (KCC contract date), but 6 was not published as having been registered until 25 April 1991 (which in any case was a Thursday!).

677 & 681 - last day of operation by Shearings was 1 December 1991; they passed to New Enterprise, Tonbridge (which had been a subsidiary of M&D's holding company, Einkorn Ltd, since 1988) from the following Sunday, 8 December 1991.  Again, formal transfer of registrations was not approved until 20 January 1992 (so technically up to and including 19 January the service was operated by New Enterprise on hire to Shearings, not that that meant anything in practice!).  After a further KCC re-tender these were withdrawn under those numbers from 29 March 1992 and replaced on Sundays by renumbered 277 (Boro'line Maidstone) and 281 (JRS Traveline of Hadlow), although Boro'line themselves ceased just a couple of months later so the 277 Sunday service passed to M&D.

142 ran Mondays to Saturdays off-peak and was three return trips (plus one additional single trip each way on Saturdays) between Chatham (Pentagon Bus Station) and Blue Bell Hill Village via Rochester, St William's Hospital and Cookham Wood.  Its timetable was published three times, wef 31 December 1990, 1 April 1991 and 28 October 1991, each time along with routes 148/150 and 185 (together with Sunday 150/152 in the 31 December 1990 edition only, as that was subsequently withdrawn).

Derek J

[Shearings Tiger]

Thanks again Derek for this information, it now looks like I have a complete picture of the short lived operation by Shearings in Tunbridge Wells.

Do you have any copies of the Shearings Timetables available? I have one dated 28th October 1990 but not the other two. Did Eagle produce a timetable or were their services printed in KCC publications instead ?

[Group_owner]

I have a copy somewhere of the relevant leaflets, but am in the process of packing things away as I will be moving house in the near future, so it will be a while before I have ready access to the relevant box again - sorry, but this will have to wait for now.

Derek J

[Shearings Tiger]

That's fine, thank you for all your help so far, very much appreciated !

[Shearings Tiger]

I now have copies of 5 timetables that Shearings produced for the service in the Tunbridge Wells area. These are dated, 24th September 1990 for service 214; 28th October 1990 for services 280,283,285,677 & 681; 1st April 1991 for services 142, 148/150 & 185 and showing the 126; 8th April 1991 for the introduction of services 274 & 284 and 28th October 1991 for services 142, 148/150 & 185. I appear to be missing one dated 31st December 1990 that I assume was for the introduction of services 142, 148/150 & 185?

However, I can not trace any timetables for services 6 which started 31st March 1991; Sundays only 152 which was inherited from Eagle and ceased in March 1991 and finally services 225, 228 & 252 which were also inherited from Eagle and were operated until the end of Shearings services on 2nd December 1991.

Can anyone assist with the missing information or copies of the relevant timetables please?

Kind Regards

[Darryl Meades]

I'm guessing that the times for the 6 and the 225/228 would have been included in the relevant M&D publicity at the time, as they were still the main operator on these routes?

[Shearings Tiger]

That is possibly right Darryl because in the Shearings publication for service 148 it shows the Tuesdays only working of the 148 between Chatham and Maidstone Market operated then by M&D. The 6, 225 & 252 were 1 evening trip services only and the 228 a Saturday 1 trip service so that could possibly make sense? 

[Darryl Meades]

I think so, yes. I couldn't remember who ran the 252 about that time so I wasn't too sure about that one.

Darryl

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