Bus exhibition is not to be missed

Here's a forthcoming exhibition Shropshire folk will want to catch - as it features the county's buses, along with other aspects of local transport heritage.

A bus operated by R.W. Carpenter Motor Services in Union Street, Bishop's Castle. David Morris says the young lady is Mr Carpenter's daughter, who married John Roberts, landlord and owner of the town's Three Tuns pub. He assumes the gentleman is her father.

Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust is staging the display, being run jointly with the County of Salop Steam Engine Society, and which is themed on Shropshire haulage firms and bus companies.

It is being held at the trust's base at Abbey Foregate station and its adjoining car park in Shrewsbury on August 5 from 10am to 3pm.

It will feature many familiar names from the county's past and present bus heritage, like Valley Motors, Whittles, Browns, Elcocks, and W.E. Lewis, together with some less familiar ones.

"There's Hailstone's, a company we had not heard of before, and nobody we've spoken to seems to have heard of them either," said David Morris, of the trust, who joked that perhaps they should try ringing their number written on the buses - Churchstoke 219.

At least one of Hailstone's buses must have been a tight squeeze for passengers, as it was specially built to a width of just 6ft 6ins so that it could negotiate narrow country roads more easily.

"There will be working traction engines, vintage buses and lorries, and vintage cars and motorcycles, while inside the building there is an exhibition of photographs. From over 300,000 photographs we have selected those which we think are the most interesting, showing old Shropshire haulage and bus companies, of which there were many."

One photograph shows a distinctive bus which has so far defied the best efforts of experts to identify it.

"We don't know what bus it is. We have a local expert, Roger Pickering, who thinks it's one of five buses built for airport use, but we are still trying to verify that."

Some of the photographs and display boards have been loaned by the South West Shropshire Archaeological Society.

David said it was the first such show they had staged.

"It started with one of our members saying that the retired Midland Red drivers of Shrewsbury wanted to do a display."

They followed up the suggestion and, although a Midland Red display did not come off, it did plant the idea in their minds and led to the moves to stage a more widely-based display.

It resulted in them trawling through photos from as many private collections of lorries and buses as they could.

"We have gone through 300,000 photos."