BEFORE THE BUSES

From a very young age, I had a fascination with buses. My earliest drawings were of buses, I made buses out of Lego, collected Dinky and Corgi bus models, I photographed them, bought magazines and books about them, and thoroughly enjoyed travelling on them. I even went so far as to make the fronts of buses out of cardboard and made destination blinds that I could roll around to my heart’s content! Ron Francis, my art teacher at the Rose Heyworth Comprehensive School, felt the need to make a comment on one of my school reports! He wrote: “Seems to have a mania for public transport.” Excuse me sir?? My maternal grandmother’s cousin, Jack Gould (1919–2008) who she thought very highly of, started out as a bus conductor, before spending many years driving buses for Collier’s and Henley’s.

Having lived with partial sight from birth, I knew my dream of becoming a bus driver was never going to come true. On completing my schooling, I spent a little while with Fred Day’s coach company, before washing buses and coaches for Henley’s. I also went on certain school runs to assist the driver with “keeping an eye” on the children, even if it was only a partial eye!

After losing my remaining sight over a period of about 2 years, my love of buses rapidly dwindled. I couldn’t look at or photograph them, couldn’t read about them, even travelling on them wasn’t as enjoyable as it had once been. Despite this, my long-time love of buses stayed with me to some degree.

Being able to use a computer with the aid of software known as a screen reader has made it possible for me to enjoy researching my own family history. It has also sparked my interest in buses again, as I have enjoyed learning about the development of the very first motor bus service to Cwmtillery. It’s also been fascinating to research the life stories of those from the Ebbw Fach valley and neighbouring towns who owned wagonettes and char-a-bancs, ran workmen’s buses, operated (and applied to operate) local bus services in the Abertillery area, and owned mini buses and coach hire companies. Some of the families I’ve researched are well-known, while many are much less familiar. If you can’t click on a name you’re interested in, it means that page of research has not yet been completed and uploaded. Please be patient, as this is an extensive project!

CREDITS

The AI generated image of a vintage bus and colliery at sunset was created at ChatGPT