Videos of our Running Days

Captured and edited by Andrew Pennycook and Bob Hodges-

A few words from Andrew

"Growing up in Winchester in the 1950s and '60s I travelled on King Alfred buses on many occasions. We lived in the 'New' Stanmore Estate, built after World War II, and the route we used most often was the 4A which passed our house. However, we could also catch route 4 (still operating via Battery Hill then) or the 6 or 16 from a stop by the old Stanmore Hotel on the corner of Stanmore Lane and what is now Lower Oliver's Battery Road (but then was just Oliver's Battery Road and a through route to Oliver's Battery itself before the construction of the road to Badgers Farm cut it in two).

One of my earliest memories is of waiting for the bus at the stop on the corner of Fox Lane and Minden Way, and wondering if it would be one 'with a door at the front' (an Albion Valkyrie – see the photo on the History of King Alfred' page) or one 'with a door at the back' (a Leyland Tiger), which was how I described the two models of vehicle which regularly served that route around 1950.

At that time King Alfred operated only thirteen routes (numbered 1 to 11 and including 3A and 4A). Many of them went to what to me were mysterious sounding places shown on the destination blinds of buses waiting in the Broadway: Nether Wallop, Hockley, Flowerdown, Stoke Charity, Owslebury – so much more exotic and interesting than the very prosaic 'Romsey Road', 'County Hospital' or 'Cromwell Road' which appeared on the buses we regularly used.

I was also fascinated by the 'Ultimate' ticket machines ('Google' it to see one!) which held rolls of different coloured tickets with the price already pre-printed. I remember the child's fare from Stanmore into the city was a penny ha'penny (1½d) – a green ticket. The price later increased to tuppence (2d) for which we received a white ticket. Each ticket had a number printed across the top and we used to add the digits together to see if they totalled 21, which for some reason was supposed to be lucky!"