Across North Lincolnshire, in search of "The Hood"
15 November 2025
ABOVE: Hornbys Bus & Coach SD 19 (NH18 BUS), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, has had to move out of the way of the bus coming the opposite way whilst working along East Lound Road, Owston Ferry on route 399 in North Lincolnshire. All photos in this article were taken on Wednesday 20 August 2025.
As my regular reader knows, even when I have a plan, I'm likely to deviate from it if something "better" comes along. I've just arrived into Scunthorpe Bus Station from Lincoln, and am now planning to catch route 4 over to Brigg, as a possible step towards Immingham, north of Grimsby on the banks of the Humber, and maybe even onwards to Kingston-upon-Hull.
Certain people might recognise Scunthorpe Bus Station even if they have never been there. The computer simulator game OMSI 2 lets you 'drive' a bus from the comfort of your own home, and one of the OMSI 2 'maps' is modelled on Scunthorpe.
I don't have the game, but there are videos on YouTube where others have played the game and recorded it at the same time. I'll leave you to decide what it says about me that I have seen some of these videos, and immediately recognise Scunthorpe Bus Station from having done so.
ABOVE: Stagecoach East Midlands 27761 (FX61 HGG), an ADL/TransBus Enviro300, is one of four Stagecoach buses in this view of Scunthorpe Bus Station. It is about to set out on local route 1 to nearby Ashby. Also, just visible in the centre, is a green bus. This is Hornsbys SD20 (YX69 NRF), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, about to set off on route 6 (also to Ashby). This bus has been acquired from Nottingham City Transport and remains in its former owner's "Green Line" colours.
I have a little time in hand in Scunthorpe, and have a quick wander to see what other services are on offer. In addition to the local ones and the ones I know about already, there's a route 399 to Doncaster which I have had no previous inkling of. A check on my phone confirms that it does mean the Doncaster, the city in South Yorkshire, and not some other Doncaser village in the suburbs of Scunthorpe, so I decide to catch the 1100 service across, taking me in completely the opposite direction to where I was previously planning to go!
The 399 is operated by Hornsbys Bus & Coach, a Scunthorpe-based company with 17 local routes and 23 buses (according to BusTimes.org). The service runs every two hours and the full journey will take about an hour-and-three quarters.
It's a nice surprise when a double-decker pulls up:
ABOVE: Hornsbys DD07 (SN09 CFD), an ADL Enviro400, is to be my steed for the journey to Doncaster. It is still carrying its former fleet number, 33590, from its time with First Essex. It was new to First CentreWest in West London.
Although a few people have joined the queue, they don't want this bus, and we leave very lightly-loaded. I take my traditional seat at the front upstairs and settle in as we work our way out of Scunthorpe.
The third most populous settlement in Lincolnshire, Scunthorpe is located close to an outcrop of high-lime-content ironstone, from a seam of the Lias Group strata which dates from the Early Jurassic period and runs north–south through Lincolnshire. Scunthorpe's existence as a town was due to the exploitation of this ironstone, which began in 1859. Ironstone was mined by open cast methods from the 1850s onwards, and by underground mining from the late 1930s.
ABOVE: We are following Stagecoach East Midlands 37193 (YY64 GUJ) as we reach the Berkeley Roundabout, on the edge of town. The building on the opposite side is the Grade-II listed Berkeley Hotel, an art deco building built in 1940.
We pull into the grounds of the local Tesco Extra store, part of a wider retail park, where I notice that the stop has a real-time information display in its timetable case. The presence of the buttons at the bottom suggests an interactive facility, although this may not be apparent to the locals as there don't seem to be any labels...
We're about to cross the River Trent into Althorpe, and we're doing so via the Keadby Bridge. More formally known as the King George V Bridge, this is a Scherzer rolling lift bridge, built between 1912 and 1916 by the Great Central Railway to replace an earlier structure. Its 163 foot electrically-powered bascule (lifting span) was one of the first of its type in Britain, although it hasn't been raised since 1956 and is now fixed in position.
Trains on the Scunthorpe to Donacaster line use this bridge, and Althorpe station is just the other side of the bridge.
ABOVE: The TransPennine Express train crossing Keady Bridge just ahead of us is likely to be the 1026 from Cleethorpes to Liverpool Lime Street.
We will be clinging to the banks of the river for the next couple of miles, as far as West Butterwick.
We are now well into the countryside. Although the M180 is close by, when one can't actually see it, one can imagine being in a very rural area - which I think is probably right.
We turn away from the river and into the hamlet of Beltoft. The Methodist Chapel is the only public building in the area, built in 1903 on the site of an earlier chapel dating from 1833:
This area is part of the Isle of Axholme. Prior to the area being drained by the Dutchman Cornelius Vermuyden in the 17th century, each town or village here was built on areas of dry, raised ground in the surrounding marshland. The name Axholme means "island by Haxey"; we will come to Haxey soon.
As we reach Belton, a lone soldier is guarding the approach to the High Street, standing atop the War Memorial. My picture is a bit blurred - you can see a better one on Google Streetview.
We pass through a succession of villages before reaching Owston Ferry. We're back by the River Trent briefly here, although we don't quite reach sight of it. We take a double-run via the Market Place.
ABOVE: Owston Ferry Market Place
This is farming territory. Roads are narrow and the land is distinctly flat, as characterises parts of this region of England. Is that the other bus on this route that I can see in the distance?
ABOVE: On the East Lound Road, you might just pick put the other bus on route 399, a single-decker, in the distance (centre). A close-up view can be found at the head of the article.
We reach the town of Haxey, where a traditional game called the Haxey Hood takes place on 6th January each year (or the day before if the 6th is a Sunday). I've not really been "in search of it" before now, as I've never heard of it before!
The Haxey Hood consists of a game in which a large rugby scrum (the "sway") pushes a leather tube (the "hood") to one of four pubs in the town. The game ends when the Hood arrives at one of the pubs and is touched by the landlord from the front step (then declared the winner). It is held at the pub until the following year's game. It can take anything from under two hours to four hours-plus to complete the game. Sounds fun but exhausting!
The Parish Church of St. Nicholas is at the heart of the parish of Haxey, and is known locally as the "Cathedral of the Isle", being the largest church building in the Isle of Axholme.
Only a mile or so beyond Haxey is the village of Westwoodside. Just at the border is Haxey Water Tower:
A few minutes later we reach Westwoodside village pond:
There's another stretch of farmland, and very little else, for the next three miles. The road starts as Sanderson's Bank and turns into Bank End Road, but it could equally be called "Three Counties Road", as we pass from North Lincolnshire into Nottinghamshire and then, after just one-and-a-quarter miles, into South Yorkshire.
The Nottinghamshire bit is a surprise to me, as I had thought we were too far north! And maybe we were - there's a very deliberate expansion out of the northern edge of the main county boundary here, which takes in this stretch of road and a bit of the "Misson Bank Drain" (one of those inland water abstraction features) up to a mile further north.
I do manage to capture a brief shot of Nottinghamshire, as two farm vehicles turn into a layby on the road alongside Misson Bank itself. Also called Misson Bank, it's really just a dust track. Even the hamlet of Misson Springs, the northernmost settlement in Nottinghamshire, is south of here!
And so we cross into South Yorkshire, passing the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Branton. The roads are now getting busier, and the surroundings are far more built-up...
ABOVE: First South Yorkshire route 357 parallels route 399 out of Doncaster. Here is 36237 (BN12 WOU), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, in Cantley Lane, Cantley, east of Doncaster
We're on the final stretch into Doncaster itself. The Dome Leisure Centre on the outskirts offers an "ice skating rink, seven-pool water park with flumes and a fully equipped gym with sports courts". It also offers some bus-only roads to improve access to the site. There are more than a dozen bus routes now coming this way so good transport provision into the City Centre ought to be a given. There's still a huge car park, though, just in case.
There's one final architectural curiosity to be found on the approach to the terminus. The Old Doncaster High School for Girls was built in 1910. It merged with Doncaster Boys' Grammar School in 1971 but was mostly demolished in 2013. The façade was preserved, and has been saved in a new structure - the Danum Gallery, Library and Museum.
The building has been encased within a new glass structure, with the original façade visible behind it. The effect is distinctly odd - at first glance it looks like a reflection:
ABOVE: The façade of the old Girls' School is visible behind the glass frontage of the Danum Gallery, Library and Museum
After what feels like several minutes negotiating the busy streets of Doncaster, we finally reach the Frenchgate Interchange. I don't think I have described this Interchange before. It's dark. Very dark. The bus stands are located in an area beneath and alongside the Frenchgate Shopping Centre.
To be fair, the passenger circulation area is well lit and reasonably well signposted. But the buses themselves are left in the gloom beyond. Photography within is vitually impossible, and buses pop out of the darkened entrance like bees coming into the light from one of their 'hotels'.
ABOVE: A First South Yorkshire single-decker has just entered the Frenchgate Interchange, left.
This is journey's end. We have arrived, on time, at 1247. Photography is virtually impossible in the Interchange, unless you go into areas that you shouldn't. So there's no chance to get a final picture of the bus as I leave it.
You can, however, see a little bit of the railway station, which sits adjacent and outside the gloom, even if it looks like it's on the outside of a prison wall...
What a lovely drive this has turned out to be. Such a lot of delightful country scenes and pretty villages. I shall try this route again when I get the chance.
Buses on the route seem to be a mixture of single- and double-deckers. Especially if you're lucky enough to get one of the latter, the 399 is well worth a ride!
BELOW: An approximation of the route of the 399
