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Sheffield To Holmesfield Bus Service


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Guest holmesfield-boy

am contributing a brief article for the Holmesfield Parish Newsletter regarding the end of Holmesfield's direct bus service to Sheffield with the introduction of the new timetables next month (October 2012).

Does anyone know when the first proper corporation bus service from Sheffield to Holmesfield first commenced please ?

I expect it would be in the 1930s but it would be useful to have some accurate information regarding this.

The route was No.22 in the 1960s and No.286 in the 1970s, 80s & 90s. It is currently the No.89

Any other Holmesfield anecdotes and memoirs would also be of interest.

Thanks in advance

Nick

Holmesfield Village Society

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There were omnibuses running between Sheffield and Holmesfield in the 1850's. I cannot find any information on when the Sheffield Corporation starting running public transport.

However these newspaper cuttings concerning pre-Corporation transport may be of interest:

Billy Thwaites rode the Holmesfield Omnibus in 1853:

Rival omnibus operators in 1858:

Argy-bargy with the toll-collector:

Broomhead Omnibus selling up in 1870:

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Sheffield Corporation took over from the Sheffield Tramways Company in 1896 (44 tramcars, 310 horses, 4 omnibuses). During 1913 the Corporation bought ten buses mostly to serve outlying districts (beyond the tram routes). The Corporation built its first bus in 1915, a 27 seater built at the Queens Road depot. 21 buses were working in 1916, 37 by 1920. In 1929 the Joint Omnibus Committee was set up to co-ordinate bus and train routes. 247 buses were working in 1936 (compared with 426 tramcars)

(information taken from A Popular History of Sheffield by J.Edward Vickers)

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A quick perusal of "Sheffield Transport" by Chas C Hall suggests the following:

The first motor bus service I can see mention of to Holmesfield was started by an operator called Newsome on 28th September 1922, running from Millhouses Tram Terminus. By 1926 three operators (Newsome, Evans and Johnson) were operating this route and a fourth, Glossop, was operating from Woodseats to Holmesfield.

Sheffield Corporation took over Newsome's operation on 29th July 1926 and Glossop's the following month. The other two operators both gave up before the end of 1926.

I shall have to search out my timetables to get more details, but there were two routes to Holmesfield for a time, the 22 via Bradway and the 86 via Dronfield Woodhouse. The latter survived and was renumbered 286 when South Yorkshire PTE took over in 1974.

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Between June 1985 and October 1987 I contributed a ten part article to M&T News covering Dronfield bus services in the SYPTE era (1974-1986). These contain a fair bit of detail about Holmesfield-Sheffield bus services in that era. Its quite incredible that back in 1974 for much of the day two buses an hour were running and in the Autumn of 1986 the route had become one of the first competitive battlegrounds of the de-regulated era. Incidently, although I promised a part eleven it never appeared - the de-regulated mayhem was just too much to comprehend!

To quickly comment on what has been said so far:-

The route was No.22 in the 1960s and No.286 in the 1970s, 80s & 90s. It is currently the No.89

22 via Bradway, 86 via Dronfield in the 1960s. These became 292 and 286 respectively in 1974. 292 withdrawn after operation on Saturday 2nd August 1980 as a result of major re-organisation of Dronfield routes which took effect the following day. 286 re-routed from 03/08/80 and continued into the 1990's.

My earliest memories of bus travel are being taken into Sheffield from Stubley (Dronfield Woodhouse in modern language) on the 86 with back loaders. The 22 and 86 were though early conversions to OPO and consequently its the rear engined buses of the 1970' and 1980's I remember most. Incredibly two of the regular buses on the route from that era are preserved, 657 BWB - the rebodied Atlantean which as a result was adapted for OPO unlike most of its sisters and WWJ 754M - the last bus to enter service with Sheffield Corporation which lacked videmat equipment for many years so was often used for Holmesfield services.

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Guest holmesfield-boy

Thanks for the top gen, Peter.

Have you any suggestions for the top 10 diesel loco workings through Dronfield?

:-)

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Thanks for the top gen, Peter.

Have you any suggestions for the top 10 diesel loco workings through Dronfield?

:-)

Quite simple, take 8209 out of the 'Top Ten Diesel Workings Through Dore', it was in position four, move everything up a place and split the tie for position ten and you have it.

Incidently, I have at last sourced a picture of the all time number one at Sheffield and this can be seen at http://www.rcts.org.uk/branches/sheffield/index.htm I am aware of it being photographed at Chesterfield but I doubt any picture exists of it at Dore or Dronfield.

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Guest holmesfield-boy

Thank-you Peter.

D8209 must have been a whopper of a working down the Hope Valley - what was the back story, please ?

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Raken from the original darft.

4. 8209 14/07/1970 0955 Tinsley Yard-Peak Forest freight

1357 Peak Forest-Tinsley Yard freight

The only freight working to make the charts is this one from 1970 headed by a Class 15. Readers are no doubt aware that the first ten Class 15's D8200-9 were constructed by the Yorkshire Engine Company at Meadowhall. Several, if not all, of these had test runs from Meadowhall to Chinley in 1957-8, those confirmed being D8200 on 23rd October 1957, D8201 on 15th January 1958, D8202 on 16th January 1958 and D8203 on 13th February 1958, in addition I have an undated report that D8209 was also so tested. For many years this seemed certain to be the only occasion that these distinctive locomotives would be seen through Dore.. However in 1970, Stratford dispatched several Class 15's, including 8209, to Tinsley for mechanical attention and load bank testing. Following completion of the work it is believed all but one, which was actually condemned at Tinsley, were given test runs on local freights. Fortunately 8209 was allocated to the daily trip freight to Peak Forest and return for its test run, thus appearing through Dore in a much more remarkable way than had been the appearances on commissioning test runs.

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Holmesfield brings back some very happy memories for me when I was a boy in the 1950's. We lived in Sheffield (Heeley Bank Road) and my mum and grandad took the bus to Holmesfield on a Saturday taking me with them. They went mostly to the Rutland Arms where there was always a good singsong with piano accompaniement. I played out the back with the local kids and we had lemonade and crisps (brandy snaps if we were lucky). We also went to The Horns Inn.

After closing time at the Rutland Arms we caught the bus back to Sheffield and there was inevitably a singsong on the bus. I was usually stood at the front upstairs "leading" the singing. I can't remember all the songs we sang but a short one sticks in my mind. I do not know all the words so if someone can fill them in I would be grateful.

It goes like this :-

Oh give me a nail and a hammer

and a picture to hang on the wall

give me a pair of step ladders in case that I should fall

Give me a ........................

and a barrel of old scotch ale

I'll bet you I'll hang up that picture

if someone will drive in the na a a ail

if someone will drive in the nail

My Grandad eventually had a caravan down in Cordwell Valley and I would bring the cows in for milking. We also went blackberry picking there.

Those were the days.

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Holmesfield brings back some very happy memories for me when I was a boy in the 1950's. We lived in Sheffield (Heeley Bank Road) and my mum and grandad took the bus to Holmesfield on a Saturday taking me with them. They went mostly to the Rutland Arms where there was always a good singsong with piano accompaniement. I played out the back with the local kids and we had lemonade and crisps (brandy snaps if we were lucky). We also went to The Horns Inn.

After closing time at the Rutland Arms we caught the bus back to Sheffield and there was inevitably a singsong on the bus. I was usually stood at the front upstairs "leading" the singing.

Those were the days.

My parents have told me similar about the public houses of Holmesfield and how popular and boistrous the last bus back to Sheffield was on a Saturday night. Understand the popularity last into the 1980's.

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Guest holmesfield-boy

Thanks Peter (Hall) for the Class 15 gen and Peter (France) for the pub singalong gen - very interesting indeed.

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Guest holmesfield-boy

One of Tansy Lee's drinking songs...

Now give me a nail and a hammer,

And a picture to hang on the wall,
Give me a pair of stepladders,
In case that I should fall,
Give me a couple of waiters,
And a dozen bottles of ale,
And I'll bet you I'll hang up that picture,
If somebody drives in the nail!
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Three years late, but only just spotted this page. 

In the 1950, my mum and a favourite aunt took me every springtime to Holmsfield by bus to see the Bluebell spectacle on the long walk through the woods down to Totley terminus at the Cross Scythes pub on Baslow Road for the bus home. This was usually on a pleasant Sunday with the distant sound of the church bells and the birds singing adding to the sight and fragrance of the Bluebells, pure heaven ! Just before coming out onto Baslow Road, there were some pigs which we fed. In Holmsfield at the time you would see signs in house windows and painted on gable ends by the bus stop offering 'Hot water' or 'Teas', as many people took their own tea leaves, milk and sugar on such outings in order to have a drink when on the walks, and maybe a bottle of 'Tizer' ( with the internal screw top with orange rubber band sealer ). Not been back for years, and couldn't do the walk now at my age, but I'd be interested to know if the walk is still as it was, along with any other 50's memories people have.

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