Supplied by Peter Ellingworth
Peter Ellingworth… The last trolley bus photo is in Beaufort Road Silverhill, coming into the depot. Photo by Lyndon Rowe.
Jim Breeds… RIP Cliff. He was the Man from the Pru for my parents insurance policies when I was young.
Peter Ellingworth… This was taken around noon-early afternoon on Monday 1st June 1959, after the ceremonial last run along with ‘Happy Harold’ for the great and the good of Hastings Council, M&D, and invited others. I think ‘H H’ returned either shortly before or afterwards. The last public service t- bus was I believe a no.8 from Bexhill which turned from Beaufort Rd. into the depot around 11pm the night before. Shortly after the photo was taken the power was switched off, and so ended a much liked by the locals and highly regarded within the bus industry undertaking. M&D having taken complete control of the system in Sept-Oct 1957 wanted rid of the t-buses by Oct 1958 latest, but issues with the then novel Atlantean diesel bus replacements gave a stay of execution until May 31st 1959. The former single decker trolleybus seen in use as a ticket office by the Town Hall needs no further introduction! Hastings HGS educated Cliff Mewett’s book which Alan took a photo of is an excellent and well researched read.
Nigel Livermore… I remember going to the depot to take a photo of them before they were scrapped, and being asked if I wanted to buy one (jokingly, as I was 14, and didn’t think that my pocket money would stretch far enough……)
Peter Ellingworth… Nigel, I well remember as a small kid tearfully walking past the yard at Silverhill, seeing all the redundant t-buses stacked up either for disposal (1940 batch), or to be sold on for service (1946 batch) with other undertakings (Maidstone, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Bradford ) where they gave excellent service until those systems closed between 1967-72. No 34 in the photo, now superbly restored to running order at the East Anglia Transport Museum near Lowestoft, ran in Maidstone until 1967. Interesting to speculate given different circumstances how long the Hastings system would have gone on for : certainly until the mid to mid sixties I would have thought, although some re routing such as one way working in the likes of the High St. or the then soon to be made Bourne would have been done.
This was taken around noon-early afternoon on Monday 1st June 1959, after the ceremonial last run along with ‘Happy Harold’ for the great and the good of Hastings Council, M&D, and invited others. I think ‘H H’ returned either shortly before or afterwards.
The last public service t- bus was I believe a no.8 from Bexhill which turned from Beaufort Rd. into the depot around 11pm the night before.
Shortly after the photo was taken the power was switched off, and so ended a much liked by the locals and highly regarded within the bus industry undertaking.
M&D having taken complete control of the system in Sept-Oct 1957 wanted rid of the t-buses by Oct 1958 latest, but issues with the then novel Atlantean diesel bus replacements gave a stay of execution until May 31st 1959.
The former single decker trolleybus seen in use as a ticket office by the Town Hall needs no further introduction!
Hastings HGS educated Cliff Mewett’s book which Alan took a photo of is an excellent and well researched read.
I remember going to the depot to take a photo of them before they were scrapped, and being asked if I wanted to buy one (jokingly, as I was 14, and didn’t think that my pocket money would stretch far enough……)
I well remember as a small kid tearfully walking past the yard at Silverhill, seeing all the redundant t-buses stacked up either for disposal (1940 batch), or to be sold on for service (1946 batch) with other undertakings (Maidstone, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Bradford ) where they gave excellent service until those systems closed between 1967-72.
No 34 in the photo, now superbly restored to running order at the East Anglia Transport Museum near Lowestoft, ran in Maidstone until 1967.
Interesting to speculate given different circumstances how long the Hastings system would have gone on for : certainly until the mid to mid sixties I would have thought, although some re routing such as one way working in the likes of the High St. or the then soon to be made Bourne would have been done.