Days 3/3A: Chester to Hereford

In planning this stage of the trip I broke one of my own rules. Becuase I wanted to be in Hereford to sample the city's May Fair I left out a huge lump of England that lies west of Shrewsbury. At the time I thought that Ellesmere and Oswestry could only be visited by out-and-back buses from Shrewsbury and that therefore they could be omitted. However I'd overlooked the existence of not one, but two bus services between the two towns, which turned it into a loop route which therefore had to be included. I did this on my way back to Hereford to resume the trip on a day I've called "3A"

Day 3: Wednesday, 6th May 2015

My hotel in Chester had been specially chosen because it was handy for the bus station, but the first of today's buses didn't start from there! In a rare display of British transport integration it started from the railway station, which in typically British fashion is nowhere near the town centre. This meant a walk across the city to join Eastham Coaches' service 41A to Whitchurch. At least it left at 0935, allowing me full use of my bus pass for the day.

I don't know whether the "41A" was deliberately numbered so, but it follows the route of the A41 road although it does of course wander off to serve the villages on either side and crossed the Llangollen Canal at the bottom of the staircase locks at Grindley Brook.

Whitchurch's not-very-exciting bus station!

Whitchurch bus station has been relegated to just a couple of stands in Tesco's car park so I didn't spend much time there and instead enjoyed a brief walk around the town centre before getting Arriva's service 511 on to Shrewsbury, which followed another trunk road - this time the A49 but with the usual wanderings to serve places such as Wem, which lie off the main road. Last time I travelled on the 511 all the bus stops along the route were fitted with an impressive real-time information system but this now appears to have been switched off as the council can't afford to run it any longer.

Shrewsbury Market

The 511 got me to Shrewsbury in time for lunch and I headed over to the 1960s market hall, hoping to eat in the cafe, but it was very busy and I might not have got served in time (the perils of having to stick to a timetable) so I opted for what turned out to be a very good pork pie from one of the butchers' stalls to eat on the next bus instead.

At this point I deviated from the "edge" and missed out a great chunk of England that lies to the west of Shrewsbury! At the time I told myself this was justified as I needed wanted to get to Hereford that day, but later I relented and came back to Shrewsbury. I called this "Day 3A" and to maintain geographic -if not chronological - integrity that section of the trip follows below:

Day 3A  Friday, 4th September 2015

I was on my way to Hereford to witness the end of bus operation in the city by the "Midland Red" bus company and its successors after 95 years and on the way, stopped off in Shrewsbury to fill in the gap in the "around the edge" tour that I'd created in May.

I left Shrewsbury at 12.00 on service 501 on a "Bryn Melyn Motor Services" bus although my ticket said "GHA Coaches" who I think had recently taken over the Bryn Melyn operation.  For the first time my bus pass was rejected by the scanner that is fitted to bus ticket machines to check that such passes are valid and not reported lost or stolen. This happens occasionally as I travel round the country and indeed it happened on both the other buses I used today, but the drivers don't seem bothered and usually just shrug their shoulders and let you on.

The 501 doubles as a town service on the way out of Shrewsbury including a couple of round-the houses diversions through estates and at least half the already modest load was set down (another bus phrase meaning "got off") on this section. Once out of town we went through a series of pretty villages with names such as "Preston Gubbals" and "Myddle", but these were too posh to produce any custom. After that it was a fast, main road run to Ellesmere, where the bus runs right through the town centre without stopping (one passenger asked to be let off in town, but the driver "wasn't allowed to") and we eventually came to a halt on the very edge of town.

Ellesmere

I had a choice of 20 minutes or an hour in Ellesmere but my mind was made up for me on the way in when we passed a pub advertising Joule's Ales.

An hour later I left town on Arriva's service 53 to Oswestry although as it was the last of a line of three buses parked-up on the town's only bus stop I almost missed it! The 53 offered a pleasant run along very rural B-roads to Gobowen, and I was surprised when at one point we stopped outside a building that was "Ifton Miners' Welfare". Presumably an outlier of the North Wales coalfield centered on Wrexham.

On the approach to Oswestry the 53 passes the Bus Station (without stopping), makes a complete circuit of the town centre (principally to serve Sainsbury's), passes the bus station again, this time from the other side, goes round a roundabout and on the third approach finally finds its way in! By now I felt I'd seen everything Oswestry had to offer so I took my chance to get away two minutes later on the X70 back to Shrewsbury. Despite being advertised as "fast and direct" the X70 starts by making a tour of Oswestry's southern suburbs and then diverts to Whittington, which I'd already passed through on the previous bus. Only after a few more diversions does it live up to its promise and rushes along the A5 back to the county town.

I had now completed my "missing link" but I briefly considered an out-and-back run to Bishop's Castle, which lies very close to the Welsh border. There were two more buses out to the town, but although it was only 15.45 the last return bus had already left, so I got back on the train and carried on to Hereford.

Day 3 (Continued)

The 435 to ?

Minsterley Motors service 435 took me on to Ludlow. The service is a successor to the old Midland Red service that once ran through all the way to Hereford. Today's 435 runs only to Ludlow - a lengthy route even so - and I have to say that the bus was the first badly-presented vehicle encountered so far with no destination displayed and waiting on the wrong stand. (So how did I know it was the right bus? you ask.  "Experience" dear boy, experience!)

Ludlow

Ludlow could have presented a problem as Herefordshire Council cut-backs and Shropshire's refusal to subsidise buses that cross the county boundary have resulted in drastic reductions to what was once an hourly service. Fortunately I was in time to get one of the few remaining journeys. This bus had started at a local school, so I expected to have to share it with a full load of schoolchildren but, strangely, there were none!

Having lived in Herefordshire for 25 years I was on very familiar territory here so spending 45 minutes at Leominster waiting for the last bus of the day to Hereford at 17.05 was no problem. Both this and the previous bus were operated by Lugg Valley Travel. Lugg Valley doesn't bother with scanning bus passes and perhaps because of this their driver was the only one who noticed, and commented on, the fact that my bus pass was due to expire in a few days. (I already had another).

We picked up a small group of lads on the way to Hereford, no doubt heading for the May Fair which is held in the city centre for three days each May. They would have no way of getting home except of course by Dad's Taxi.  The traffic in Hereford hadn't got any better in the four years since I left and was no doubt made worse by the Fair. Eventually I baled out a couple of stops before the centre as it would be quicker to walk to my B&B, being unamused by the "Vote Tory" election poster in the front garden!

In the evening I had a walk around the Fair, which I used to enjoy when I lived in Hereford (just looking you understand, I wouldn't actually go on any of the rides!). Unfortunately it was a cool and damp evening, crowds were down and the fair seemed to have lost some of its magic - or am I just getting older?

Hereford May Fair

Hereford May Fair

   Day 2  Liverpool to  Chester                                   Day 4  Hereford to Kington and Back