This has now been replaced by a bus, but not any old bus. This is a 1951 Leyland Tiger. On Thursday we were so tired after walking over eight miles that we just had to get this bus.
There was a small discount for people with bus passes. It was £1.80 rather than £2. They didn't take the vintage thing too far though because you had to pay by card and there were no vintage tickets. Actually over a very short distance there wasn't time for all that.
I wouldn't say the ride was quick but it was nostalgic and the bus was an open top charabang. My grandmother always used the word charabang for her outings. It's a glorious word from a bygone day. It used to get shortened to chara.
It was a bit of a bone shaking ride. We told the money collector who looked about 18 that the bus was the same age as us.
He laughed: "You didn't have to tell me that, " he said.
"Why not," I thought to myself.
The driver looked to be more of a vintage age.
I wonder what the passengers of 1951 would have thought about the bus still taking passengers over 70 years later and what would they have thought about our cashless society?
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I do enjoy the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are but there seems to be subtle changes to its presentation. The subject seems to be taking a much bigger role than in the past and the programme seems to be focussing on specific ancestors and stories rather than a general family tree. I suspect this maybe due to a lack of interesting ancestor subjects.
Last night we had comedian, actor and disability rights campaigner Liz Carr whose 4x great grandfather may have been the leader of an assassination attempt on an Irish landowner over a rent dispute. The programme failed to prove his involvement. Last week Richard Osman found an ancestor who had been a witness to a murder. These are scarcely earth shattering finds. In the past the programme has had some jaw dropping moments and finds, now it's more a case of watching and thinking "is that it?"
I have to say my own family research has thrown up more interesting people. My 12x great grandfather was the brother of Robert Kett of Kett' Rebellion and I have already spoken about my 2x great aunt who married the adopted son of the brother of the Duke of Wellington and a famous (at the time) French actress. Their sons started and ran a famous Australian shipping line.
Then there's my path through them to the present king. There's plenty of other interesting ancestors as well like the superintendent of the first non denominational cemetery in the UK and the Freeman and London pub owner who went from humble beginnings to work for the famous Rothschild family and ended up a rich man and a leading freemason.
I'm always available if the BBC come knocking.
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Mike Liggins is leaving the BBC. Who I hear you ask? Those of you who don't watch our local BBC channel will have no idea what I'm talking about.
Liggins has been part of the reporting team for what has seemed like Ron's. He is often given the more off the wall and ideosyncratic assignments where a modicum of fun has to be injected.
Now he's following others in leaving. Something tells me that all is not well on Good Ship Look East. Perhaps it involves an unhappiness with being told that Northampton is in the east (see yesterday's blog).
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Finally today pictures of our visit to Wells and Holkham. There are a couple of the chara. They were difficult to take as there were so many people milling around.
I couldn't help thinking what a nice little earner this is during the summer months.. Each bus must have taken 30 people and that's the best part of £60 a one way journey. It must have made three return journeys an hour which would be an income of £360 an hour. In an eight hour day that would be almost £2900 or over £20,000 a week. Mind you keeping it running will probably take plenty of money.