Local History
From Bicycles to Buses
- by Susan Booth, volunteer at Whittlesey Museum In 1922 John Robert Morley, a cycle maker in Whitmore Street, identified a need for public transport to take people to Peterborough on market day. With £12 of hard-earned cash, he bought a fourteen-seater bus. He developed his business by offering further transport to workers in the brickyards and in the farming and horticultural industries, and thus started a successful family business which continued for eighty-three years. At first trading under the name of West End Garage Bus Service (W.B.S), the red and grey livery became a familiar sight in Whittlesey and the surrounding district. His first regular service to Peterborough was via Stanground and Fletton. The fleet of buses grew to sixteen, ranging from fifteen-seater minibuses to double-deckers. Mr. Morley handed on the business to his son, also John Robert. After his death in 1986, the business passed on to his daughter Penny Wright, her husband William and her brother John Robert Morley. As well as their regular service, Morley’s also had contracts to transport pupils to and from schools and were available for private hire. In 1996, the business carried 293,721 passengers on its regular service routes, the mixed fleet covering approximately 78,000 miles. The business was finally sold in November 2005. Competition to Mr. John Robert Morley’s business was established by Tom Canham, who also began trading in 1922 as a local carting and passenger transport service for Whittlesey
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residents. Tom’s company soon became mechanised with the purchase of its first motor vehicle, a fourteen seater Ford T – the first of a fleet which went on to include over one hundred and thirty vehicles over a period of more than six decades. In the 1930s, afternoon outings by coach to Wicksteed Park were offered at a cost of five shillings and sixpence. A return ticket for a day trip to Hunstanton would cost eight shillings and sixpence. Canhams also offered high class saloons for weddings from their offices at 1 Scaldgate. The company ceased trading in 1983, ending Canhams’ sixty-one year history of public service work in the Cambridgeshire fens.
Whittlesea
Morley and Canham are not the only names associated with public transport in Whittlesey; Bluebell, Emblings, Cavalier, Alec Head and Stagecoach have also been familiar names to local bus passengers over the years, with their varied and colourful liveries becoming well recognised in Whittlesey and the surrounding towns and villages. Whittlesey Museum will be staging an exhibition of ‘Bus Companies through Time’ on Sunday 21st May 2017 from 10.00am to 4.30pm. Come and visit the museum to view photographs, histories and memorabilia. We would love to record your personal memories of local bus travel in our Memory Books, and there will be fun activities for children of all ages. Whittlesey Museum Opening hours: Friday 2.30-4.30pm Saturday 10am-12 noon Sunday 2.30-4.30pm £1 Adults/50p Children
MAY 2017