1941-1969 Pioneer House – Pioneer Motor Services
Next to the church in St. Mary Bourne stands Pioneer House which today is a private home. This article looks at the period between 1941 and 1969 when the building was the garage of Pioneer Motor Services and continues the story of Henry & Reg Tibble.
It was in 1941 that Reg took over the running of his father’s company St Mary Bourne Motor Services (Tibble & son). When he did he changed the name of the company to Pioneer Motor Services.
The Buses
During the Second World War Reg Tibble bought three new buses all with Bedford Wartime OWB chassis with 32 seats . These were austere buses, built in wartime with no thought for comfort it was a vehicle just to get people from ‘A’ to ‘B’. Photos of two of the buses survive.
- December 1942 – EHO 334
- June 1943 – EHO 745
- May 1944 – EOR 350
Wartime Utility buses purchased were reg EHO 334 ( 1942)/ EHO 745 ( 1943) / EOR 350 (1944) During WW2 a new bus could only be allowed with Government permission. Reg Tibble being an engineer had an excellent maintenance record and his first Wartime utility (334) came courtesy of him being granted a contract for a shuttle service between Stockbridge Army Pay Corp camp and London. The bus (for this service was a 28 seater fitted with red comfortable soft seats that had come from a London Tour coach that had been sequestrated for conversion to a hospital / Ambulance for the blitz. The other 2 seated 31 and had the basic wood slat seats. These 2 were his main service buses with the prewar 20 seaters providing school bus service to the new Whitchurch Secondary School and week end runs from Stockbridge Camp to London. – Fred N
Wartime OWB – The Bedford OWB chassis was produced during the war to the same basic design as the OB, but replacing valuable metals, like aluminium, with cast iron, and fitted with austere bodywork and interior featuring 32 seats with no upholstery, just wooden slats like a park bench. Bodies were designed and built by Duple Coachbuilders and bodies to Duple drawings were also built by Charles H. Roe in Leeds, Mulliners in Birmingham and Scottish Motor Traction in Edinburgh. Total OWB production was 3,398, finishing in late 1945, the majority of the utility bodies were by Duple, a trend that would continue post-war. – Bedford OB Wikipedia
SMF 961 built on a Bedford OB chassis with 29 seats and was originally bought by Morden Super, N9 in August 1947 . Later sold by them or another company to Pioneer Motors. Three photos survive during it’s time with Pioneer Motors allowing us to see both sides as well as front & back of the bus. It’s clear from these photos that not only were the buses used for regular bus services but for day trips too. One of these photos of SMF 961 shows it at a Model Village possible Southsea or Wimborne whose towns both had model village’s in the 1950s when these photos date from.
EDL 642 also built on a Bedford OB chassis with 29 seats and was originally bought by Southern Vectis in June 1948 . Later sold by them or another company to Pioneer Motors.
EDL 642 had the dubious distinction of working the last ever trip back to St Mary Bourne when the service closed in 19691.
EJB 628 again built on a Bedford OB chassis with 29 seats was bought new by Reg Tibble in May 1948. No known photos of this bus!
JXP 525 is another bus from the fleet was a 27 seater built on a Bedford OB chassis. This bus was bought new by Keith & Boyle, EC2 in March 1949. Later sold by them or another company to Pioneer Motors.
The last known bus to have been owned by Pioneer Motors is FMO 92 another built on a Bedford OB chassis with 29 seats. This was bought new by Reg Tibble in December 1949. No known photos of this bus!
The Memories
First up is a quote from Kathleen Innes in her book “Life in a Hampshire Village”.
The village takes a proprietary interest in them still, for they are privately owned and have resisted attempts to purchase by the big concerns which cover this and neighbouring counties. We might have a more frequent service; the buses might be larger and more luxurious if the owner sold, but they would not be “our” buses, in which the driver, as a rule, knows every passenger and every passenger knows each other.
On market day, those who go in for shopping know who just will come out, by which bus; and if one is not there to time, the driver waits at the starting-point whilst a passenger runs across to where she was last seen to tell her she will “miss the bus if she don’t hurry,” and laughter and chaff greet her last-minute panting arrival.
From the St Mary Bourne History Facebook group
“For 1st 7 years his most popular, by far, was the evening bus to Basingstoke for people to go to silent movies. The bus was said to carry over 50 people as far as Overton with 20 on the roof! No health and Safety!!” – Fred N
“Bus conductresses were Blanche Owens (nee Piper) and Peggy Davis (sister of Peter David one of the drivers)” – Maggie W
“Ah…memories of Saturday mornings, boarding Tibbles bus for our highlight of the week…shopping in Andover!!!” – Trish H
“I used to go to the Grammer school on those buses with drivers Sonner, Dave and Les. They were brilliant. I also went to Whitchurch Young Farmers Club with Judy Tibble. Oh, those were the days.” – Peter G
“So many memories of Tibbles buses they use to take us to school at Whitchurch and when it raining once and the bus was full it was standing room only the last one on had to stand by the door and this day the bus decided to spring a leak and poor Carol got rather wet that day we didn’t mean to laugh but couldn’t help it another memory we used to go to Newbury on Thursdays in the school holidays or we would go to my great aunt lils at Woodcutt a lot of fond things to remember about Tibbles buses.” – Trish M
“I was able to catch the weekday ones home to Binley after school from Newbury and I’m sure I’ve told this story before on here. We were travelling along towards Crux Easton and a trailer had been left on the road with no room to drive round it so the driver just went over it. I think one or two people were thrown about a bit and my schoolfriend, Esme, also from a farming family in Binley, was thrown to the floor. Have to say it was a brilliant piece of driving. I was fascinated by the different coloured tickets they used back in those days.” – Wendy A
1969 the end of an era
Reg was retiring, what was going to happen?
In 1969 Pioneer Motors ceased to exist after Reg Tibble retired and the building and buses were sold. We have one further photo of EDL 642 with some extra info about it.
The photo depicts David Titchener about to leave Newbury Wharf on Thursday January 30th 1969 with the very last departure to St. Mary Bourne. A market day service that had been operated by Reg Tibble since March 1920. Reg had started as a Thursdays only service to Newbury but by 1931 he increased the service to 2 buses a day each way on 3 days a week. This was upon purchase of a Chevrolet 20 seater registration starting OU. He continued that 3 days per week service throughout WW2 but was forced economically to revert to the one market day service at the time of The Suez Crisis. (1956 Fuel rationing and escalation of fuel costs) It is fitting that the Thursday bus from 1956 was almost always driven by David Titchener, as prior to Reg Tibble commencing in 1920, The horse drawn carrier service to Newbury had been operated by David ‘s Father Philip Edward Titchener. In Feb 1969, at the age of 73. Reg Tibble had decided, with the unprofitability of the service to’ call it a day’ – Fred N
There is lots of detail about how the villagers felt about the closure of the service and how they said goodbye to the staff in the collection of undated newspaper articles above. Finally, we’ll end with a photo of Reg and one of his drivers Mr North.
Additional information
Photos, tickets and newspaper clippings curtesy of Clive Wedge & Fred North
Information about the individual buses from Bus Lists on the Web.
- Newsletter – December 2020, Solent Omnibus Club, https://solentomnibusclub.weebly.com/ ↩︎