Midland Red Hereford

[Rich82]

Some Nostalgic pictures seen on Facebook to which I thought needed Sharing here

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Picture of Hereford Garage at Black Lion Depot Bridge St Hereford sometime in 1922

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This picture is in the 1920's of Ledbury High St with Midland Red Buses lining up the Streets from the Market House and along the Homend

[ANDREW]

Thanks for sharing. 100+ years ago - headware seemed to be compulsory in those days !

[DD12]

Superb !

Thanks v.much Rich82.

[AdamH]

The allocation at Black Lion went from 3 buses when it opened in 1920, to 7 buses by the time it closed in 1925. That photo at the depot probably shows half the entire fleet at the time!

[TimBrown]

Thanks for posting these very interesting photographs.

The Ledbury shot is I believe taken in the early 1930s as the bus in foreground, HA4932 was new mid 1929 and the little car on the left of picture looks to be a Morris Minor of 1929 vintage or a bit later. Just why were all those buses crowding the Ledbury thoroughfare, there must be at least 20 or even more in the picture. I have looked on the web and on 13 June 1934 the Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George VI and Elizabeth the Queen Mother visited the town, but I don't see any flags and reckon the streets would be cleared of all vehicles if it was that occasion.

Interestingly, whilst studying Tilley's Almanack online there is an entry for 13 April 1930 which stated 'A Midland Red coach containing 30 Worcester and Malvern passengers overturned on a hill between Ledbury and British Camp. Several of the party received injuries and the bus was badly damaged'. There used to be a horrible 1 in 8 steep hill with a 90 degree turn at the bottom called Chances Pitch, before the present by-pass road was constructed, which may have been the scene of the accident.

[AdamH]

Interestingly, whilst studying Tilley's Almanack online there is an entry for 13 April 1930 which stated 'A Midland Red coach containing 30 Worcester and Malvern passengers overturned on a hill between Ledbury and British Camp. Several of the party received injuries and the bus was badly damaged'. There used to be a horrible 1 in 8 steep hill with a 90 degree turn at the bottom called Chances Pitch, before the present by-pass road was constructed, which may have been the scene of the accident.

Even with the modern road layout, that can be a risky spot. Pulling out of the junction in a slow bus on the 676 or rail-replacement can be a bit of a leap of faith.

The X91 from Leicester was only extended to Ledbury and Hereford in February 1930 (previously only running between Leicester and Great Malvern). Could the accident have been an early full-length X91 journey? There was only one return each day and it was worked with a crew from Leicester so maybe they didn't know the road very well being so far from their home depot.

[MattW]

I agree, it's still a bit of a dodgy junction.
The realigned piece of road is still known as Chance's Pitch - always a good test of whatever car I had as a spotty yoof! If I could overtake a line of traffic going up the hill it was a good one!