Across the Midlands for a Play
Act Three
6 April 2024
ABOVE: Arriva Midlands 4571 (YX72 OEP), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, stands in Windsor Street, Melton Mowbray, between journeys on route 5A to and from Leicester. All photos in this article were taken on Thursday 1 February 2024.
THE STORY SO FAR: Your blogger is undertaking a three-day bus trip across the Midlands, all built around a trip to the theatre. It has started in Birmingham, with a reasonably direct journey to Derby (Act One), followed by a much-less direct onward trip to Nottingham (Act Two). Now, after a wonderful evening at the theatre, I am having one last 'fling' before I head for home...
ACT THREE
Nottingham City Centre, the following morning...
CURTAIN UP
It's a sunny morning as I step out of my hotel into Chapel Bar, Nottingham. My hilarious night out at the theatre is obviously at the forefront of my mind this morning, Plus, I've got another day on the buses ahead, and it's no longer January. Most months have 31 days, but January always seems to last a lot longer - but, for this year, it is no more!
It's only a couple of minutes' walk to the bus stop in Beastmarket Hill, which derives its name from being the site of the cattle market.
I'm heading out of town on Nottingham City Transport (NCT) route 1, which I am familiar with - in fact, it almost feels as though no trip to Nottingham would be complete without a ride on route 1! This is a delightful, and scenic trip, southwards to Loughborough.
The 0815 journey starts off quietly, as we are going 'against the flow'. NCT has an intriguing fares system for contactless cards, involving 'touch-in' only graduated fares. Charges are applied according to where you board, rather than where you travel to. So a journey out of Nottingham to Loughborough is likely to be cheaper than the reverse (it's all £2.00 at the moment, though).
There's no acknowledgement from the driver as I touch on, which is rather disappointing. The bus is a Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400, with audio "next stop" announcements. It's not the most comfortable, though - the legroom in the front seats is extremely tight for an Enviro400.
We benefit from the fact that we are heading out of town, as traffic in the opposite direction is heavy. We do see some school-bound passengers, but again it's the other direction that is seeing most of 'rush' in this rush hour. The normal service buses are accompanied by a flurry of additional school services.
ABOVE: SP57 JCZ, a Plaxton Centro Volvo B7RLE, is operated by Tiger European, a Nottingham-based coach company. It is seen in Wilford Lane in West Bridgford, where its location, and apparent lack of passengers, suggests that it might already have dropped off at Becket School (somewhere down the road to the left behind the bus), and might now be heading back to the depot. Originally registered T40 JLS, the bus was new to Leask & Silver of Shetland.
A bit of a shock for me after we pass Clifton South Tram Stop / Park & Ride, where an area that I remember previously as open fields is now anything but...
This is Fairham, the region’s "finest place to live, work and flourish", according to its website. It claims to be "one of the best connected locations in the UK", with "80% of the UK population within a four-hour drive". Unfortunately the website also suggests that Fairham will have direct links "to the future HS2 station at Toton", which was dropped in 2021 even when the HS2 line was still coming to the East Midlands, which it isn't now.
But the scenic views, that have been temporarily interrupted by the new development, come back as we progress towards the village of East Leake. The Treaty of Leake was signed in 1318. It was an agreement between the "Middle Party", including courtier adherents of Edward II of England, and the King's cousin, the Earl Thomas of Lancaster, and was meant to reconcile the King and his favourites with Lancaster and other baronial opponents.
ABOVE: Main Street, East Leake, with the Sheepwash Brook visible on the left.
We come into Loughborough, where the old Brush Electrical Engineering Company factory (originally the Falcon Engine Works, until Brush took it over) can be found next to the railway station. Brush has an important transport history. Amongst other things, it was a major coachbuilder, and made everything from horse buses and trams to aeroplanes. Brush also built railway coaches and, after ceasing coachbuilding in 1952, it began to concentrate on diesel locomotives, such as the British Rail Class 47s, of which 310 were constructed here.
The Brush company still exists, and it still has a presence here. It's now a multinational company, offering "innovative, integrated and sustainable engineered solutions that harness and safeguard the flow of electrical energy".
ABOVE: The Brush factory in Loughborough, next to the station (the footbridge of which can be seen on the right).
There's an unexpected detour on the final approach into Loughborough, due to a road closure. This makes our arrival eight minutes late, at 0932.
What was expected to be a comfortable 13-minute connection is now a rather tight five-minute one. I'm aiming for the Centrebus route 8 to Melton Mowbray. My information is that the bus departs from stop BA at Baxter Gate, but, with less than five minutes to departure time, there's no sign of the bus, which starts here, and no sign of any intending passengers. Worse still, there's no evidence of route 8 serving this bus stop.
I just have time to check BusTimes.org, which confirms stop BA. (The Centrebus website just shows "Loughborough Baxter Gate" without specifying a stop.)
ABOVE: Timetable information for route 1 in stop BA, but no sign of anything else. INSET: A screenshot from BusTimes.org.
Just then, the number 8 turns up, and drives straight past, stopping at stop BC down the road, where a handful of people have been waiting. This would appear to be the official stop. On this occasion, BusTimes has been wrong - a rare occurrence, but worth noting that BusTimes' data comes from the operator, so the source data must also have been wrong...? (Curiously, traveline shows the correct stop, but suggests that the service should be numbered 8A, rather than 8. I'm confused...)
Never mind, I'm on the bus, where the driver is friendly and the fare is £2.00, rather than the £4.40 that is implied by the fares chart on the Centrebus website:
ABOVE: The Fares chart on the Centrebus website at https://www.centrebus.info/media/3770/ft-8-071122.pdf does not reference the £2.00 single fare. At the time of writing this fare chart is still online.
Someone is about to close the Loughborough Road in the village of Burton on the Wolds; the driver is seemingly unaware of the planned roadworks that are going to last all day until he chats to one of the people putting the bollards in place. Fortunately there is another way to access the village, but it will increase the journey, for later services, by about three-quarters of a mile.
This route runs through miles and miles of open countryside, with fields and farms but few dwellings, and therefore limited scope for growing the customer base. There aren't even many bus stops over the next few miles - probably no use for them!
We reach the village of Asfordby, where we gain two additional passengers for the last stretch into Melton Mowbray. This last bit is far more built up.
We arrive into Melton Mowbray on time at 1020. The bus will turn to the north-east now to continue its journey to Grantham, and I think I should join it on its endeavour one day.
ABOVE: Centrebus North 779 (YJ10 EZE), an Optare Tempo, pauses in St Mary's Way, Melton Mowbray, roughly halfway through its run from Loughborough to Grantham
Melton Mowbray is the home of the Melton Mowbray pork pie. In April 2008, the European Union awarded the Melton Mowbray pork pie "Protected Geographical Indication" status; only pies made in a designated zone round Melton, using uncured pork, may bear the Melton Mowbray name.
Melton Mowbray is also the location of one of six licensed makers of Stilton cheese. According to Wikipedia, Stilton cheese originated as a commercial venture developed to manufacture cheese for sale in the village of Stilton in Cambridgeshire, which has led to claims that the cheese itself originated outside that village. Stilton is still made in Melton Mowbray, at the Tuxford & Tebbutt creamery. Curiously, makers in Cambridgeshire cannot call their cheese Stilton, even if it is made there.
Why do I suddenly feel hungry?
ABOVE: Just off the main shopping street is King Street. The outside café tables may be a tad optimistic on a February morning, even if the sun is out.
It's a lovely spot to pass a bit of time, though.
ABOVE: St Mary's Church makes a striking sight for Burton Street, in the centre of Melton Mowbray
The bus departure arrangements in Melton Mowbray are straight-forward. Buses leave from one of two streets, St Mary's Way or Windsor Street. The two roads are less than a hundred yards apart and posters are displayed in stops on both streets to help wayfinding.
My next bus is an irregular service, with the next departures at 1215 and 1325, and it's not even 1030 yet! But that's deliberate, as I'm allowing time for a detour to the town of Syston, courtesy of route 100.
ABOVE: Centrebus North 323 (YJ11 EKE), an Optare Solo, stands in Windsor Street, Melton Mowbray, prior to setting out for Syston on route 100.
This is another irregular service, with just three through trips and one half trip each day. The service is also provided by Centrebus North, using an Optare Solo.
The driver checks that I know we're going the long way round to Syston (it will take 51 minutes). There are four of us leaving town on this service, but two leave relatively quickly, and the third one in the village of Great Dalby. Then it's just the driver and me for a little while, as we twist through a variety of small Leicestershire villages, and enjoy the scenery in between.
After a lengthy drive with just me on board, another passenger joins us in South Croxton, and one more in Barkby, and we're soon into Syston, home of the Syston White Plum (yellow, oval in shape and thin-skinned), and of the HQ of Pukka Pies. The bus will do a loop of the town before heading back to Melton Mowbray.
Roger French, the Bus and Train User, is doing a series this year on "Every route 100", so he will at some point visit this one. I'll be interested to see what he has to say about it when he does.
ABOVE: Syston Town Centre
I'm now heading back to Melton Mowbray by the quick route, which is Arriva Midlands route 5A. The service originates in Leicester City Centre, and we are almost exactly half-way along the route, in terms of journey time, although we're only one third of the distance from Leicester to Melton Mowbray, which says a lot about traffic speeds in the city.
There's a smart, clear real-time display for the main Town Centre stop, outside the Syston Health Centre:
My bus is clearly experiencing delays. It's already four minutes later than the half-hourly frequency implies it should be, and it seems to get stuck at eight or nine minutes away for at least five minutes.
When it arrives, nine minutes behind schedule, it's a presentable ADL Enviro400 MMC - a 72-reg so just a year-or-so old (and still not the newest bus I will use today). It has a TV screen behind the stairs, which really restricts the forward view for the whole right-hand side of the bus - and it isn't working.
The journey back into Melton Mowbray takes 32 minutes, and I revisit Ashfordby, which I passed on route 8 earlier. There's a broken-down Centrebus vehicle parked up in the village.
Back to the main journey, then, and I'm in Windsor Street for the 1325 departure on route R1 to Corby. The R1 was previously the RF1 - the "Rutland Flyer". Two "Rutland Flyer" services were launched in the early 2000s to serve the county of Rutland and the surrounding areas. The RF1 became the R1 in summer 2022, when Rutland independent Bland's took over the service. I have no idea what became of the RF2.
The Bland's bus parked up in Windsor Street, that will form the 1325 service, is a 23-reg Volvo B8RLE MCV eVoRa - smart and modern, with large windows that will enable decent views of the Rutland countryside. The driver arrives in good time to load up and enable an on-time departure. The £5.70 fare is a bit of a shock, though!
Seven of us leave Melton Mowbray on this service, and three more join just out of town. There's a fair amount of churn as we work across the countryside towards Corby. This service, which has six journeys per day in each direction at rather irregular intervals, seems to be doing OK.
We cross into the county of Rutland itself and reach the market town of Oakham. Wikipedia tells us that, for over 500 years, members of royalty and peers of the realm who visited or passed through the town have had to pay a forfeit in the form of a horseshoe. This now only happens on special occasions (such as royal visits), when an outsize ceremonial horseshoe, specially made and decorated, is hung in the great hall of Oakham Castle.
There are now over 200 of these commemorative shoes on its walls. The horseshoes hang with the ends pointing down; while this is generally held to be unlucky, in Rutland this was thought to stop the Devil from "sitting in the hollow".
ABOVE: Oakham railway station, from the level crossing on Barleythorpe Road
The R1 is another route through sparsely-populated rural areas. Several of the villages require us to undertake double-runs to access the respective centres. And there are some very pretty places along this route. There's not a huge amount to tell, though - it's a lovely, smooth drive on a decent, well-designed bus.
We cross into North Northamptonshire and pass through the tiny village of Cottingham (population 906 at the time of the 2011 Census).
ABOVE: Cottingham village
After an hour and 23 minutes travelling through the countryside, we reach Corby, on time, where a smart bus interchange can be found in George Street, right next to the shops.
ABOVE: Journey's end for Bland's XX23 BLA, a Volvo B8RLE MCV eVoRa, seen in George Street, Corby preparing for the next run on route R1 to Melton Mowbray
I've never been to Corby before. The areas I see suggest recent regeneration, but this is an old settlement - Mesolithic and Neolithic artefacts have been found in the area surrounding Corby, alongside human remains dating back to the Bronze Age.
This is the home of the Corby Pole Fair. This unique tradition has taken place here every 20 years since 1862 (except that the 1942 event was postponed until 1947 due to the Second World War), attracting large crowds that enjoy outdoor attractions, entertainment and the reading of the Royal Charter. Sadly the next Fair isn't due until 2042!
I'll come back to the town's other major claim to fame shortly.
ABOVE: A view of George Street, Corby from the opposite end to the previous picture. In addition to the Bland's vehicle is Stagecoach Midlands 36844 (CN13 AYX), an Enviro200, on a local town service; one of six routes (according to bustimes.org) operated by Stagecoach Midlands across its operations that uses the route number 1.
My final journey of this epic trip is on Stagecoach Midlands service X4 to Peterborough. Real-time information in the bus stop confirms that the bus is on its way, which is just as well as there's no printed timetable in the stop.
While I'm waiting, two taxis pull into the bus stop, despite what looks like a dedicated taxi rank a few yards further down the road.
Buses on the X4 are in the Stagecoach Gold 'premium' brand. There's a broadly half-hourly service between Northampton (19 miles to the south-west) and Corby, but only an hourly service beyond this point towards Peterborough. And I say broadly, as the next bus after the 1513 that I want to catch isn't until 1630.
The 1513 departure is due to arrive into Corby at 1501, and to stand for 12 minutes, but it's just on departure time that the bus actually appears.
ABOVE: Stagecoach Midlands 11137 (SK68 LVJ), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, arrives in George Street, Corby, part-way through its journey from Northampton to Peterborough.
Loading takes a few minutes, and the driver takes a comfort break as well (quite understandable on a route that is almost three hours end-to-end), so it's 1520 by the time we leave.
There are many interesting features along this half of the X4, and I'm sure the same applies to the other half, which I have yet to do. I'm going to save a detailed examination of this route for another occasion, as I think it merits more words than I can devote to it here.
For this article, I will just pick out a couple of highlights. The first is what I believe to be part of the Tata Steel Factory, on the edge of Corby. Steel production has always been a big thing here. An ironstone industry was developed here in the 19th century, and an integrated ironstone and steelworks was developed in the 1930s. The first steel was produced here in 1935.
Today, according to Tata, the Corby Works manufactures approximately 250,000 tonnes per year of thin-wall welded tube from steel strip, for use in construction, engineering, and energy infrastructure.
ABOVE: I "think" that the striking building in the background is part of the Tata Steel Factory. In the foreground is one of the sites of another major industrial company - MPB Structures Limited, a Civil Engineering business.
Further along, about 12 miles south-west of Peterborough, is the attractive market town of Oundle. This is another long-established settlement, due to discoveries of prehistoric and Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman materials.
There has been a grammar school in Oundle since at least 1465, at which Sir William Laxton (Lord Mayor of London) was educated. In his will he left a legacy to found Laxton Grammar School in 1556. This is now known as Oundle School and is administered by the Worshipful Company of Grocers.
ABOVE: The War Memorial at the junction of Market Place and New Street in Oundle.
The light is starting to fade now (another reason why I need to revisit this route). We cross the boundary into Cambridgeshire and reach the village of Elton. Peterborough is now just seven miles away as the crow flies, although we still make a couple of detours (worthwhile as we have a last-minute surge of customers) before we reach Peterborough bus station, four minutes later than scheduled at 1635.
My journey ends with a drag up a broken escalator into the shopping centre (perhaps I should have used the lift). Then it's over to the railway station for an uneventful train journey home.
The whole journey across the Midlands has gone really well, but Birmingham now feels like a lifetime away.
It's been lovely to cover some new ground. Most people living in London would probably not journey to Nottingham just to go to the theatre, and I suspect anyone who might do so would be unlikely to have used the route I did!
THE END
CURTAIN DOWN (TO DELIGHTED AND RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE, AND MULTIPLE CURTAIN CALLS?)
CURTAIN DOWN (TO DELIGHTED AND RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE, AND MULTIPLE CURTAIN CALLS?)
The journey described in this article has been broadly as below:
