The Great North Road Bus Trip Day 6: Morpeth to Dunbar

Day 5 saw me regain the Great North Road at Durham but came to an unpleasant end at Morpeth.

Thursday, 21st March 1991

I've no idea what breakfast in "the hotel" at Morpeth was like, although based on my experience with the rest of the establishment I probably didn't bother to find out. At least it had kept me out of the heavy overnight rain that was sufficiently "heavy" for me to record it in the diary. (Perhaps it was coming through the roof!)

I said goodbye to Morpeth on Northumbria Motor Services service X18 (a "Leyland Leopard" single-decker) at 09.20 heading for Alnwick, Northumberland's county town (although the seat of local government is back in Morpeth). We followed the indirect, coastal route via Amble and Alnmouth during which the weather brightened considerably, making for a very pleasant 75-minute  ride.  "Explorer" tickets were still valid this far north, although it seems that today mine cost me 25p more than yesterday's bought in Middlesbrough.

Bus 24: Alnwick to Berwick-upon-Tweed

After a hour or so in Alnwick I continued northwards on another "Northunbria" bus, this time service 515 and yet another Leyland Leopard. When I came this way in 2017 on my way "Around the Edge of England" I was pleased to find that the equivalent services northwards from Newcastle and all the way to Berwick-on-Tweed were operated by double-deckers, so presumably buses were busier then than 25 years earlier.  The 515 was the more direct of the two available routes northwards from Alnwick and lengthy stretches followed the A1 and therefore the Great North Road.  Arriving in Berwick at 12.45 I had the option of continuing northwards on a through bus to Edinburgh almost immediately or waiting almost three hours for the next one. I'd not been to Berwick before, so thought I'd take the chance to have a look round, although I pretty soon regretted it.

Berwick, from the old bridge

Berwick was smaller than I had anticipated and my notes record that "there was not much to see". Having been back several times since I can now see I was doing the town a grave injustice and it's now one of my favourite English towns!  In 1991 I did manage a walk along the town ramparts and over the old bridge and back, but the Good Beer Guide pub, the "Free Trade Inn" that I'd hoped to visit, was shut.  I've been back there too and realised that I'd missed a treat.

Berwick Bus Station and Garage

One thing I did notice in Berwick was the bus  garage. Most unusually, this was shared between two bus companies:  Northumbria Motor Services, which operated buses to the south and Lowland Scottish Omnibuses, which ran to the north. Whist this made sense during the long, regulated and competition-free era of bus travel, when both companies were publicly-owned, it became increasingly anomalous during the de-regulated era. Firece competition broke out between the two companies on local services, which eventually saw Northumbria emerge as victor and, with historical parallels, the Scots retreating north with their tails between their legs.  When I returned in 2017 the depot and bus station had completely disappeared and been replaced by shops. Northumbria Motor Services and Lowland Scottish Omnibuses were also history.

It was a "Lowland Scottish" service 104 bus that took me away from Berwick at 15.30.  NBC's equivalent in Scotland was the Scottish Bus Group and a similar process of privatisation and deregulation applied north of the border. "Lowland Scottish" was created out of the larger "Eastern Scottish Omnibus Co" and eventually wound up in the hands of First Bus, having started life as a management buy-out in 1990.

Explorer tickets were not valid north of Berwick, so I had to pay another £2.90 to complete the journey to Dunbar. Once again, this was largely along the A1. At Burnmouth wwe turned off to follow the route via Eyemouth and Coldingham Moor. Some sources say that this was the original route taken by travellers between England and Scotland and that the more inland route followed by what became the Great North Road came later.  It was certainly a more scenic route and included a double-run down to the coast at St. Abb's.  The two routes come together again at Cockburnspath and continue to Dunbar, which we reached at 17.00.  It would have been possible to complete the journey by continuing to Edinburgh, altbhough it would have meant a late arrival in a big city, so as I was able to find accommodation relatively easily I opted to spend the night in Dunbar.  I was, of course, very much aware that the town was the home of Bellhaven Brewery, at that time held in very high regard by real-ale drinkers as one of a very small number of independent Scottish breweries producing decent beer.  I don't think I ever came across the brewery during my stay, although I did find a pub selling the beer.  The brewery is still in business, albeit now owned by the large brewing and pub-owning group  Greene King, which means that its beers are no longer of much interest to real ale fanatics, although no doubt the locals still enjoy them.

According to my notes, today was a short day  with only 3h 47m travelling spread over a 7h 40m period, with much of the balance spent in Berwick.  Fares came to £6.65 and brought the total for the journey so far to £43.15.  Apart from a few diversions around Amble, Alnmouth and St. Abbs Head I had followed the Great North Road reasonably faithfully all the way.

to be continued