The Great North Road Bus Trip, Day 2: Bedford to Stamford

Day one saw me escaping the "unremitting suburbia" and "grot" of north London to arrive in Bedford

Day 2: Sunday, 17th March 1991

Hugh left me at Bedford as it was the most convenient setting-off point for his train journey home to Huddersfield, leaving me to continue alone. Although one of the self-imposed "rules" of the trip was "a minimum of pre-planning" I had allowed myself an exception for Sunday, given the reduced bus services likely to be operating and also because I needed to be sure I could get to Stamford, where I had been able to arrange an overnight stay.

The lack of early buses meant that I didn't leave Bedford until 11.40 on the United Counties X52 to Rushden. Despite it being an "X" service it observed all stops. I was also disappointed that it was operated by a 23-seat minibus. So disappointed in fact that I failed to get a photo of it. A fare of £1.50 bought me a 35-minute ride which in turn meant that I had almost two hours to wait in Rushden for a connection.

I have two memories of those two hours. One was of the rather pleasant ninety minutes or so that I spent at the Rushden Historical Society's museum at the town's old railway station. It was made even more pleasant by the discovery that the old refreshment room was being operated as a licensed bar. A prominent notice declared that said bar was only open to Society members, but I reckoned that I could probably pass for one, which proved to be the case. The bar sold Greene King IPA, Rayments Special, Hook Norton Best Bitter, Hanson's Mild, Hall & Woodhouse Tanglefoot and Fuller's London Pride, still a line-up I'd find preferable today over that offered by many so-called "craft ale" bars.  A second notice in the bar advertised the Society's campaign to stop the entire station site - including bar - from being demolished to make way for the Rushden by-pass, something that was ultimately successful as it is still in business today.

Bus 8: Rushden to Corby

The second memory was less pleasant when shortly before my bus was due to depart I realised I no longer had my wallet! I remembered that the last place I'd seen it was about 20 minutes earlier when I'd had to open it in a phone box to check the number I was calling. A quick dash back up the High Street ensued and, to my relief, it was still there!  Another episode I suppose that just wouldn't happen today.

Wallet recovered, I was able to leave Rushden on another X52, this time a coach rather than a minibus but still observing all bus stops on the way to Corby.

Bus 9. Corby to Peterborough

I can't recall exactly how I'd been able to plan today's route back in those pre-internet days but whatever I'd used must have been out-of-date because  I was surprised on arrival at Corby at 14.56 to find my onward bus loading and almost ready to depart, leaving no time for the planned comfort-stop and tea break!  What was even more surprising was the fare required for the 55 minute journey to Peterborough on Viscount Travel's X65 (the third "X" bus of the day!) a whopping £3.65 which was more than twice as much as any other so far paid. Viscount was a spin-off from Eastern Counties, another ex-NBC company and its management were attempting to promote it as an upmarket ("the Marks & Spencer of bus companies") operation, which presumably explained the upmarket prices.

Bus 10. Peterborough to Stamford

After Bedford, the countryside had become more rolling and open, with Northamptonshire stone appearing in the villages. I thought that Corby was "a mess" and "a failed new town" The X65 took me through more pleasant  Northamptonshire countryside via Oundle and on to Peterborough at the edge of the fens.  At Peterborough, I had the choice of continuing almost immediately via Spalding, but that turned out to be a 16 seater "bread van" minibus all-too-common in that era and run by the "Cavalier Coach Company" so I opted to spend an extra hour in the town and continue later on Viscount Travel's service 303 directly to Stamford. Here I was met by my friend Janet who took me back to her home village by car for a good home-cooked meal and a visit to the village local "The Oak" which sold Greene King IPA, Abbot and Marston's Pedigree. Those beers would be considered unexciting today, but at the time I was living in Hereford where three-quarters of the pubs were owned by Whitbread, all of which sold a beer called "Flowers Original", memorably described by CAMRA as "liquid toffee apples" and another called WCPA, of which the initials spoke for themselves.

Today's fares totalled £8.35 (of which £5.20 went to rip-off Viscount Travel) making a total for the trip so far of £16.75.  The route via Bedford had taken me a long way off the Great North Road and I remained far off it all day, missing out the chance to visit the village of Stilton, which gave its name to cheese brought there from Leicestershire farms to be sold to coach passengers in the village's inns. I didn't regain the route of the famous old road until Stamford.

I was "on the road" 6 hours and 6 minutes today of which the wheels were turning for 2h 57m, the rest of the time being spent eating, drinking, visiting railway museums and panicking over a lost wallet.

to be continued...