A CIRCUIT OF LINCOLNSHIRE (IN THE RAIN)
23 April 2023
ABOVE: Stagecoach East Midlands ADL Enviro400 19203 (NK57 DWJ) has just reached Skegness Interchange on the long run from Lincoln on route 56. All pictures in this article were taken on Tuesday 28th March 2023, except where stated.
Another day out on the buses, and another driver who has never heard of the ticket I want to buy...
I'm at the Skegness Interchange, in Lincolnshire, at the start of a planned circuit around the county. It feels ambitious, as I need to take five low-frequency buses, which will keep me busy for more than 10 hours, through an area I really don't know at all.
Skegness Interchange isn't a very welcoming place, to be honest. In fact I think it could be rather intimidating late at night if any of the 'wrong' types were to gather. It's just a covered row of five bus stands alongside the main line railway station. The stands do rather pen people in.
I'm at the Skegness Interchange, in Lincolnshire, at the start of a planned circuit around the county. It feels ambitious, as I need to take five low-frequency buses, which will keep me busy for more than 10 hours, through an area I really don't know at all.
Skegness Interchange isn't a very welcoming place, to be honest. In fact I think it could be rather intimidating late at night if any of the 'wrong' types were to gather. It's just a covered row of five bus stands alongside the main line railway station. The stands do rather pen people in.
Stagecoach East Midlands 24164 (PO59 MWX), a MAN 18.240LF ADL Enviro300, is about to load up for the busy 0900 departure from Skegness Interchange to Lincoln on route 56. If it's a busy as the ride I take on the same journey the next day (another story for another day), this single-decker will be wholly inadequate for the demand placed upon it.
The good news is that there are two colourful posters displaying bus departure points. The one below is halfway down the row of stops, and the other one is at the street entrance to the bus station. I don't consciously see a similar poster for those who enter from the railway station. Perhaps the assumption is that they already know where they're going?
The interchange provides just that; an interchange for bus and rail passengers. However, the toilets in the station building are marked for "rail ticket holders only", so the idea of 'interchange' as a convenience (no pun intended) only goes so far. And the toilets are locked anyway.
I am planning a big anti-clockwise ride around the county, starting with the 59 service to Mablethorpe. Like all the buses I will cover today, it's run by Stagecoach East Midlands.
A double-decker bus, labelled for route 2 (a town service) pulls in to my stop (the 2 stops further down), and turns itself into a 59.
But the driver has never heard of the East Midlands Day Out ticket. This £8.50 ticket is a bargain - even while the £2.00 single fare is in place. It covers the whole Stagecoach East Midlands operating area, as far away as Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham and Grantham.
I explain that I am travelling all over, and that the ticket costs £8.50. "I can give you a ticket like that for £5.00", he says.
Well no. The £5.00 ticket he is referring to is the Skegness DayRider. It's area of validity is decidedly more limited, covering the town of Skegness, and the near five-and-a-half miles north to Chapel St Leonards. Not quite as good! (Curiously, the map for this ticket does not reference the 59, which goes the same way.)
There are only three day tickets available in the Skegness area (based on information on the Stagecoach website), so I don't think it's unreasonable for local drivers to know the full range.
The driver does eventually find the East Midlands Day Out ticket on his machine, so all is well. And I would add that the whole episode is handled with professionalism, courtesy and humour by the driver. Indeed, I have a smile on my face as I clamber up the stairs and secure my preferred front seat.
The 0910 departure pulls out a couple of minutes late (some idiot has been trying to buy an obscure ticket, I hear) with a handful of passengers on board. It's a Scania Enviro400.
We head down Lumley Road, the main shopping street , heading for the seafront. On a Spring weekday morning there are few pedestrians around, but it really livens up on a summer's afternoon.
At the end of Lumley Road stands the Jubilee Clock Tower (for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee), Grade-II listed. One can see why, although the surroundings of fun fair rides and adventure golf facilities are a little paradoxical for this fine structure.
Taken on Monday 27th March 2023
We turn north into Grand Parade and pass the accommodation I had left about three-quarters of an hour earlier!
When Grand Parade comes to an end, we join the main road north, passing, appropriately perhaps, North Shore.
The next few miles seem dedicated to tourism. There are rows and rows of static caravans in holiday villages on both sides of the road. At Ingoldmells we come to the best-known holiday site in the region - the first-ever Butlin's holiday camp. Opened in 1936, it now trades as the Butlin's Skegness Resort. I stayed there in 1994 when it was known as Funcoast World.
Just beyond Butlin's is Fantasy Island, with some frankly scary-looking rollercoasters:
Things start to look less touristy once we have worked our way into the town centre of Ingoldmells.
High Street Ingoldmells, with the Church of St Peter & St Paul hidden behind the trees
And onwards to Chapel St Leonard's, where the UK's first purpose-built marine observatory, the North Sea Observatory, opened in 2018. We lose the local Skegness services here, and are far more on our own going forward.
Stagecoach East Midlands 24205 (FX10 AEU), also a MAN 18.240LF ADL Enviro300, is seen in South Road, Chapel St Leonards, adjacent to the Vine Hotel. It is working route 1 (Chapel St Leonards to Skegness)
There's some very interesting scenery here, as the roads work their way around the River Orby, which splits into two distinct routes next to St Leonard's Drive, Chapel St Leonard's:
Note the dwelling in the middle, between the two branches of the river. To reach it, one has to drive down towards the bridge (just visible in the distance), then turn left over the bridge, and left again, to approach from the other end. But what a lovely cottage!
It's also around here that we have the first rain shower of the day. Just a light one on this occasion, but they will get heavier and more prolonged as the day continues.
St Thomas of Canterbury, Mumby
There's clearly a lot of exchanging of vehicles between routes in this region throughout the day, so it's no surprise to see a single-decker forming a 59 service the other way.
Another Stagecoach EM vehicle; 21256 (YJ09 FWD) is a Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse Urban. It is seen on the road between Huttoft and Sandilands.
In no time at all (well, an hour or so after leaving Skegness), we're passing through Sutton-on-Sea and venturing into the outskirts of Mablethorpe.
MFZ 9363, an Iveco Daily minibus of Hunt's Coaches of Alford, is seen in Trusthorpe Road, Sutton-on-Sea, working route 96A (Mablethorpe to Spilsby via Alford). If you're wondering how the destination display is so clear, it's because it's stuck on! The "G" does not seem to be part of the route number, so no idea what that means.
Mablethorpe is bracing. We're right on the North Sea coast here, with its biting wind - and it's starting to rain again. It's a nice little place, though - a mix of normal town centre features and those that come with being a holiday seaside destination.
Sounds like people have been living here for a very long time. A horde of Roman treasure was found here in the 1980s, as well as a brooch and pottery. It gained a market town charter in 1253. It's the destination for the Morel family's first holiday in the D. H. Lawrence novel, Sons and Lovers. And it was visited regularly by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 19th-century Poet Laureate.
Coastal erosion is also a problem here. Some of the town was "lost to the sea" in the 1540s, and the 1953 North Sea Flood breached the seawall and took 42 lives.
Stagecoach EM 19297 (AE07 KYX), an ADL Enviro400, is in High Street, Mablethorpe, at Alexandra Road, on an incoming trip on route 50 from Lincoln.
Today is calm, if starting to feel rather damp. My main concern now is that I don't miss my next bus, on route 50 towards Louth. It's due at 11.06 and only runs every two hours. If I miss it, there won't be enough time to cover the ground that I want to cover.
But where does the bus go from? It starts a mile or so up the coast at the Ferryboat Inn / North End Car Park. It allegedly stops "opp The Beck PH" on Quebec Road, on the seafront. But when I get to The Beck, there's no sign of a bus stop, on either side of the road.
Quebec Road, Mablethorpe, but where does the bus stop? "Opposite" the Beck means somewhere on the double yellow lines in the centre of the photo, but there are no signs and no markings. The blue sign is for the Seaview Car Park, and the thing underneath it that looks vaguely like a timetable panel from here is nothing of the kind!
It feels too risky. I head back into town, where the bus allegedly picks up on Seacroft Road. However, this doesn't feel right, as I've seen the incoming bus and Seacroft Road does not seem to be on the logical route out of town. I check Google Maps, which doesn't show much promise either:
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It's intriguing that this stop is opposite somewhere called the "Mablethorpe Bus Station", which would be a logical focal point for buses in the town, seems to have been completely abandoned. But with "no upcoming departures", I think I am better off heading back to the stop I got off the 59 at, a little further west on the High Street, near Alexandra Road. Information at this stop isn't exactly promising either. There's a list of routes serving the stop. But, despite having got off a number 59 here, from Skegness, the stop indicates that this is where one catches the 59 to Skegness. I'm pretty sure there isn't a circular operation running here, so this feels wrong. It also indicates that this is where the 50 stops on the way into Mablethorpe. But I saw one heading in on the other side when I first arrived. |
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There are no timetables, because "services can be subject to frequent changes due to COVID-19". That might have washed two years ago, or even 12 months ago, but I'm afraid it doesn't in Spring 2023. There is, below the list of routes, a QR code with which those with Smart Phones can check current bus departure times on a 'virtual departure board'. Said 'virtual departure board' takes me to a page which correlates the services "from this stop" that are listed on the timetable panel: 
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No mention of my 50 to Louth. But then, very slowly, like a counter on Tipping Point, the penny drops. The panel on display is not the correct one for this stop. The panel is labelled "Mablethorpe Sports & Leisure Centre", but the bus stop flag says it's Alexandra Road.
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The clues are all there - the code for the bus stop on the flag is different to the code on the panel. The "Next Bus" information I have gleaned from the QR code says that we are "adjacent" to Alexandra Road, but we're opposite. This panel belongs on the other side of the road.
Then my bus appears - and disappears again, turning left down a road ahead of me and out of sight. |
I've worked it out by now. The 50 turns onto Seacroft Road to serve the 'main' town centre stop. It then does four sides of a square before coming my way and heading out of town. I'm in the right place, and now I'm on my way. It's another Enviro400 (ADL not Scania chassis this time).
Unfortunately this is when the heavens really open, and I don't get the chance to take any pictures along the way. It's mainly open countryside, and it's a quiet run.
It takes about 37 minutes to get to Louth, my next calling point. The bus will continue to Lincoln, getting there in another 65 minutes. I'm due there later, but I have a longer route to undertake.
Louth Bus Station is busy with three Stagecoach buses in this late morning view. From left, 19147 (NK07 HBG) is an ADL Enviro400 heading for Mablethorpe on route 50; 19297 (AE07 KYX, which I have just got off) is heading the other way to Lincoln, whilst 27201 (SL64 HYO) is the ADL/TransBus Enviro300 that is about to take me to Grimsby on route 51.
My route now involves catching the 1200 departure on route 51 to Grimsby. This is to be my only single-decker of the day. It's an ADL Enviro300 and is already on the stand. The driver is having a stretch break outside the bus, but she's quite happy to wave people on board from there, and has no problem getting back into the cab for those who need tickets issuing. Drivers are entitled to stretch breaks between trips, and often forego them because of tight schedules, so this is above and beyond.
We leave Louth on time, with about 12 passengers on board. This is a busy service, with around 20 people on at the end of the run 67 minutes later. There is some churn, even though this is another very countrified route.
It's raining heavily by the time we get to Grimsby, and I seek cover in the nearby shopping centre. We have briefly crossed the border from Lincolnshire into the separately-administered North East Lincolnshire.
I have an hour-and-a-half to pass here before my next bus. With hindsight, I should have had a look around Louth and taken the next 51 an hour later. I could - just - get to Cleethorpes and back, but it's borderline, and my next connection is not one I want to miss. Plus the weather is literally putting a bit of a damper on ideas like that.
There isn't a bus station in Grimsby, but there are roads where buses can park up in close proximity, which works well.
Not déjà vu; just another scene of buses photographed from behind, this time at the Riverhead Exchange in Grimsby. Visible are, from left, 37201 (YY64 GVD), an Enviro200 on route 4 (Bradley to Cleethorpes; and similar 37203 (YY64 GVF) on route 3 (Bradley to Cleethorpes). An Enviro400 on route 5 (Immingham to Grimsby) and what looks like an Enviro200MMC on route 10 (Waltham to Cleethorpes) complete the line-up.
I'm heading out on the 53A to Lincoln. Departing at 1440, it will take a full two hours and 16 minutes to get there. I've been going broadly north / north-west since leaving Skegness (I'm now 33 miles north-west of where I started), but now turn south-west.
A double-decker (another ADL Enviro400), which again comes in as a completely different route! It's here in good time, though to enable an on-time departure.
Stagecoach 19061 (MF56 FSN) is an Enviro400 that will shortly take me all the way to Lincoln. A new driver has just taken over at the Riverhead Exchange stop in Grimsby, and the destination display - sadly lost to the photo - says something like "Driver Changeover - Please be patient". Note also the 'school bus' symbol at the extreme bottom right of the bus. Several buses in this region carry these on flaps that can be folded up when not needed (see the Enviro300 in Skegness near the top of this article). This service will be serving a school so the use of the symbol is probably right.
A family boards this bus. They're going all the way to Lincoln, and the parents seem to be managing something that sounds like a housing matter. I get the impression that they're heading for the Housing Office in Lincoln. It also sounds like said office closes at 1700, which could be tricky as this bus is due into Lincoln at 1656.
They're quite noisy - the parents in this case, not the children. They're both making calls at times, and 'Dad' is soon out of battery life. There is talk of swapping the sim into one of the children's phones, which still has battery available!
The halfway point on this service is the town of Market Rasen, just after which we make a detour from the normal route to call into De Aston School. There are lots of children around, but they don't all want this service, so we're in and out reasonably quickly.
What isn't quite so quick is the traffic on Willingham Road, as we retrace our steps back into Market Rasen. And it's raining heavily by this time as well.
We then take what is, for me, an unexpected turn, into a narrow country lane (referred to on Wikipedia as the "minor" B1202 road). This enables us to serve the village of Linwood, which only has one bus a day in each direction on the 53A (plus two in each direction on PC Coaches route 23 from Market Rasen to Lincoln). The territory here is remarkably countrified and it feels very odd to be passing through on a double-decker bus.
After the villages of Faldingworth and Dunholme, the rain has eased off enough for me to take a picture of the village centre of Welton:
Welton Village Centre, with the Black Bull pub on the left and Saint Mary's Church on the right.
One thing that becomes noticeable on a very wet day like this one is that buses are still not 100% waterproof, and there never seems to be an improvement with a new generation of vehicles. After incessant showers since lunchtime, this bus is becoming very leaky:
We finally arrive into Lincoln, on schedule, at 1656. A long run (I estimate 44-48 miles), and a busy one, but very scenic.
It's the start of rush hour, and Lincoln Bus Station is extremely busy. I see three separate drivers on the concourse calling for their customers, because their buses are on the wrong stands. There are lots of people milling about!
There seems to be a convention here that buses park a couple of feet back from the boarding point until they are ready to pull forward and board their passengers. I see several buses moving to and fro in this way.
Lincoln bus station, taken from the top deck of a bus on Wednesday 29th March 2023, shows how buses park slightly back from their stands until they are ready to board passengers. This is demonstrated by 18048 (MX53 FMU), nearest the camera, a Dennis Trident Plaxton President.
So my finishing point will be where I started - in Skegness. The bus to take me there is route 56. The bus is due out at 1720, but is already on the stand at 1705. It starts loading at 1710 - just as well, as there is a significant crowd waiting for it. It's another ADL Enviro400, and leaves, on time, with 50-60 passengers on board. We pick up a few more in the suburbs too.
It's far too wet for photography, but I am able to enjoy this ride through the countryside. It's nearly as long as the previous one (scheduled for two hours), and almost as far (I estimate 42-45 miles).
The first significant off-loading is in Horncastle, from where I am able to secure a front seat (for what it's worth in these conditions). It's another very rural ride and, in order to finish the circuit, I am now going broadly east.
There are only really two trunk roads into Skegness - the one from Boston, which is covered by route 57 (I discussed this route in a recent article), and the one from Lincoln, which we are on now. This road skirts the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The website describes "some of the most beautiful, unspoilt scenery in the East Midlands ... rolling hills and hidden valleys, gentle streams and nestling villages". One can't really disagree on the basis of the views from the top deck of the 56.
All too soon (and I mean that - we're 10 minutes early), we reach Skegness Interchange at 1910, and the journey is at an end.
Shame about the weather, but I have circumnavigated the county in exactly 10 hours. Every bus has turned up on time, and the travel has been effortless. Four of the five buses have been double-deckers, which is at least two more than I was expecting (I did see a double-decker on the 51 as well, so maybe I could have scored a full house).
I reckon I have covered about 150 miles on this trip, at a cost of £8.50. Bargain!
Now I fancy doing the same loop again on a dry day in the future - perhaps in reverse, and starting from a different point. And maybe I'll pop over to Cleethorpes!
The full circuit