Historically Service 364 was operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) between Great Malvern, Upton-upon-Severn and Tewkesbury. This service can be traced back to the First World War, and finally came to an end in 1976 when Malvern depot closed.
On Saturday 11th February 1928, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) renumbered their entire network, and at this time Service 268 became Service 364.
Before May 1926, Service 268 had operated between Great Malvern, Upton-upon-Severn, and Tewkesbury, with certain journeys continuing to Bredon and Overbury. The service can be traced back to the First World War when, on Saturday 30th October 1915, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) introduced Service 50, which was renumbered to Service 268 in 1925.
With the renumbering to Service 364 in 1928, the timetable and route remained unchanged with buses running between Great Malvern, Upton-upon-Severn and Tewkesbury, with three journeys on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and two journeys on Sundays. There was no service on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. By the end of 1930, the Monday journeys had been withdrawn.
On Sunday 20th October 1929, Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company Limited introduced their Service 170, running between Great Malvern, Guarlford, Upton-upon-Severn, Tewkesbury, and Cheltenham Spa. This provided three return journeys (starting from Cheltenham Spa) on weekdays and two on Sundays, covering much of the same route as the BMMO service between Upton-upon-Severn and Great Malvern. The presence of this service, plus railway links provided by the Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway (part of LMS by this time), is most likely why BMMO chose to only provide Market Day journeys on their Service 364.
Almost immediately after the outbreak of the Second World War the government introduced fuel rationing, and a large number of “non-essential” bus services were withdrawn or cut-back, with Service 364 being withdrawn on Saturday 23rd September 1939.
Throughout the wartime period, Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company Limited continued to operate Service 170 between Great Malvern, Upton-upon-Severn, Tewkesbury, and Cheltenham Spa, although this was at a reduced “emergency†timetable.
1 Certain journeys connect at Long Green with “Bristol” bus to and from Gloucester.
| 3 | 6 | 4 |
| December | 1930 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn ↔ Tewkesbury | |
| April | 1933 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn ↔ Tewkesbury | |
| January | 1935 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn ↔ Tewkesbury | |
| May | 1938 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn ↔ Tewkesbury |
Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Service 364 was scheduled to be reinstated on Saturday 7th July 1945, but due to a strike by BMMO staff operations did not restart until Wednesday 1st August 1945. Initially the route was the same as that used before the war, and three return journeys ran on Wednesdays and Saturdays, plus an additional short-working on Saturdays, and two return journeys ran on Sundays.
Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company Limited continued to operate their Service 170 (renumbered to Service 546 on Sunday 25th June 1967) during this period, with BMMO's Service 364 running along the same route between Great Malvern and Upton-upon-Severn. In addition to this, until the closure of the line in August 1961, London Midland and Scottish Railway operated train services between Tewkesbury, Ripple, and Upton-upon-Severn (continuing to Great Malvern until December 1952). Because of these competing services, BMMO's Service 364 was never destined to become a major route, but it did offer additional capacity during Market Days and on Sundays, plus links to Longdon, which was not served by Service 170.
On Saturday 18th September 1948, the Service 364 route changed to run via Queenhill between Upton-upon-Severn and Longdon, and later the bus also ran around the Great Malvern Railway Station loop, but otherwise remained unchanged from the pre-war route.
On Saturday 1st July 1950, local Malvern Service M44 was introduced between Great Malvern, Guarlford, Blackmore Park (No.2 Camp) and Hanley Swan. This was an extension to Service M34 and like that service followed the same route between Great Malvern and Guarlford as Service 364, so was often shown with Service 364 and Service M34 as a combined timetable.
Until 1954, all journeys on Service 364 were operated from Worcester depot, but on Friday 10th September 1954, Malvern depot was opened. Most journeys on Service 364 transferred to Malvern depot at this time, but certain journeys such as the Wednesday afternoon full return journey between Great Malvern and Tewkesbury continued to be run from Worcester depot.
By the end of 1955, Service 364 ran between two and four return journeys, seven days a week, but most journeys ran only between Great Malvern and Upton-upon-Severn. Three journeys on Wednesdays and Saturdays only, plus two journeys on Sundays, continued past Upton-upon-Severn to Twekesbury. By 1966, the timetable had been reduced further to just two journeys a day during the week between Great Malvern and Upton-upon-Severn with one additional journey to Tewkesbury on Wednesdays. Two full journeys to Tewkesbury continued to run on Saturdays and Sundays, but at different times.
On Saturday 6th January 1968, cutbacks saw almost all Sunday services operated from Malvern depot, including Sunday journeys of Service 364, withdrawn. At the same time the Upton-upon-Severn to Tewkesbury section of the Service 364 route was withdrawn and replaced in part by a new Service 374 operated on Wednesdays only by Worcester depot. These cuts also saw the withdrawal of all Service M44 journeys, except on Thursdays.
There were further cuts to the timetable on Saturday 3rd April 1971, when a large number of rural services were withdrawn, with Service 364 loosing most journeys to the point where by March 1972, only one morning return journey on week days remained. The remains of Service 364 were finally withdrawn with the closure of Malvern depot on Friday 1st October 1976.
| 3 | 6 | 4 |
| May | 1948 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn ↔ Tewkesbury | |
| September | 1948 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn ↔ Tewkesbury | |
| October | 1955 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn | |
| June | 1957 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn | |
| January | 1968 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn | |
| April | 1971 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn | |
| March | 1972 | Great Malvern ↔ Upton-upon-Severn | Withdrawn Oct 1976 |