100 British Bus Routes: Route 81
Dover to Sandwich via Deal
4 September 2022
ABOVE: Two for the price of one: Stagecoach South East 15442 (KX08 KZN), on the left, a Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400, has just come in from Dover on route 81 and is now displaying “43 Canterbury” (you will have to take my word for it). Meanwhile 10066 (SN63 NCF), on the right, an all-ADL Enviro400, has just come from Canterbury as a 43 and is now moving on to “Deal for Dover” on route 81. This is a complicated operation! All pictures in this article were taken on Wednesday 31st August 2022.
Operator: Stagecoach South East
Runs: Daily (plus limited Monday to Saturday evening service)
Joint operation with route 80 (also Dover to Sandwich); most buses run onto / off route 43 (Sandwich to Canterbury)
Weekday frequency: Hourly (every 30 minutes on routes 80 / 81 combined)
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: Nine buses, including route 80 and the journeys onto and off route 43 (but see below)
Off-peak journey time: 83 minutes
Estimated route length: 14 miles
Runs: Daily (plus limited Monday to Saturday evening service)
Joint operation with route 80 (also Dover to Sandwich); most buses run onto / off route 43 (Sandwich to Canterbury)
Weekday frequency: Hourly (every 30 minutes on routes 80 / 81 combined)
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: Nine buses, including route 80 and the journeys onto and off route 43 (but see below)
Off-peak journey time: 83 minutes
Estimated route length: 14 miles
I’m in Pencester Road in Dover Town Centre, on a non-school Wednesday morning. The first thing that strikes me is how busy the incoming bus services are. Three consecutive single-decker arrivals have come in with virtually every seat taken. It’s either a healthy sign of a good, well-used local network, or that of an under-provisioned one. A conversation I overhear suggests the latter; “I didn’t want to wait for that one in case it was full”. Or that comment could just be a Covid-related concern.
This is the main street for bus departures and the various stops are well-labelled at flag level and contain appropriate timetable information below. At my stop a woman is chastising her children for playing too close to the river (the River Dour, which runs through here). She doesn’t seem to be concerned about the possibility of a serious accident; rather she is worried that she isn’t carrying any spare clothes for the children to change into if they fall in!
This is the start point of hourly route 81 to Sandwich. There’s a parking area for buses adjacent to the bus stop and my bus comes out from there, which is not what I am expecting (presumably the incoming service came in and terminated behind).
It’s an Enviro400 with a Scania engine underneath, and is specially liveried to celebrate the Royal British Legion. It looks very smart.
ABOVE: About an hour-and-a-half earlier than the title picture, this is 15442 (KX08 KZN) in Pencester Road, Dover, about to take up duty on route 81 to Sandwich.
We leave Pencester Road bang on schedule, at 10.15am, with about a dozen passengers on board. This includes a family with some rather noisy children who will be keeping me company for the first part of the journey.
We seem to keep turning right, and my initial impression is that we have gone round in a big circle. This is proven when we pass the top end of Pencester Road a few minutes later.
We are climbing at a rate and soon pass the entrance to Dover Castle, which stands way above the town.
ABOVE: Dover Castle
There’s a stunning view of the town to my left that I completely fail to spot in time to get a decent photo, so this one will have to do!
ABOVE: Looking down on Dover town from Dover Castle
The 81 is supported for much of the way by its sister route 80. Although the 81 is the longer route overall, it’s the 80 that takes the first detour, into St Margaret’s Bay. The 81 sticks to the main road.
We come to the town of Walmer, where we turn off the main road and penetrate deep into a residential area.
ABOVE: Dover Road in Walmer. We will turn left at the Town & Country Stores, into Station Road.
ABOVE: Court Road in Walmer
The main intermediate point on route 81 is Deal. It’s a lengthy double-run into the town centre. The most notable feature, for me, is The Sir Norman Wisdom, a Wetherspoon pub, complete with a decent image of the great man himself.
I once saw Norman Wisdom live in the Villa Marina in Douglas, Isle of Man. It wasn’t a formal show – he was guest of honour for an afternoon event and had been asked to draw the winning raffle tickets. We only stumbled across the event by chance, but watched him stretch drawing raffle tickets to about an hour’s worth of some of his best gags and routines! What a performer!
We pop briefly down to the seafront, but that is purely so that we can access the town square, where we stand for six minutes awaiting our scheduled departure time.
ABOVE: Seafront at Deal
With the run in, the wait, and the run out again, it’s taken the best part of 15 minutes on the double-run. It has been worth it, though; we have dropped off a number of passengers and picked up a few (smaller number of) new ones.
The 80 and 81 diverge at Sholden, New Road. Few buses on the main routes venture into Sholden Village itself; there seems to be a separate hourly service between Sholden Village and Deal (not accounted for in my estimated vehicle requirement above). The 80 takes a direct route to Sandwich via Worth, taking 25 minutes from Deal to Sandwich.
Our 81 is going to take 45 minutes to link the two towns, via a much more convoluted route.
So we turn west down Broad Lane, and very quickly into open countryside. There are few houses here, but we still pick up occasional passengers – presumably farm owners or their workers; maybe the odd rambler (it’s good rambling country).
ABOVE: Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400 15542 (GN59 EWR) on route 81 towards Dover. I can’t quite pinpoint the location here. Based on the timetables and the time stamp of the picture, it ought to be somewhere on or near Broad Lane in Betteshanger
A little further along, on a more north-westerly heading now, we come to the Ham Crossroads. Nothing of note here except that the words “Ham” and “Sandwich” are both on the road sign, albeit in different directions.
But, if you were to turn right here and continue for three-quarters of a mile or so, you could genuinely find a road sign for “Ham Sandwich”, as can be seen on Google Streetview. The same sign also points to “Finglesham Deal”, which sounds like some sort of 18th Century legal protocol.
Our bus does not turn towards Ham, but continues north to Eastry, where at last there are settlements, and therefore potential customers for the 81! Eastry was voted “Kent Village of the Year 2005” and, although that’s a while ago now, it’s easy to see why:
Incidentally, there’s an advert for a “Clairvoyant Evening” at The Five Bells pub, just out of shot on the right. One wonders why they need to advertise?
There seem to be two routes for the 81 from here, but the shorter route via Little Walton seems to be reserved for the occasional late night journeys. For the rest of the day, journeys go round the back streets of Eastney – some of which are very tight indeed.
There’s a tiny industrial estate on Foxborough Hill. According to the map, there’s also the home of the Woodnesborough Football Club hidden behind the trees somewhere, but you wouldn’t know it was there if you didn’t know, which I didn’t!
Sandwich is officially the terminus of the 81 (and the 80), and we arrive here about eight minutes ahead of schedule, at 11.30am, passing the “No Name Shop” on “No Name Street”!
Most buses on routes 80 & 81 continue into Canterbury as route 43, and buses from Canterbury turn into 80s or 81s here. That is exactly what has happened to enable me to get the picture that heads up this article.
Through fares are available and many people stay on the bus. Services are advertised on the timetable as doing this so I do wonder why they cannot continue as the 80 / 81.
There’s a third service each hour on the 43 that doesn’t connect into the 80 / 81, but runs instead to Discovery Park, which sounds like a family attraction but is actually a business park just north of Sandwich town centre. I haven’t included these journeys (one extra bus) in my “estimated vehicle requirement” either! All very complicated.
But, as far as I am concerned, I have reached journey’s end for route 81 at the Guildhall in Sandwich. Any suggestions as to what I should have for lunch?
ABOVE: Part of the Guildhall building in Sandwich, taken from much too close an angle, due to buses on the two stops immediately behind me (see the picture at the top of this article)!