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Service 371: Service History

Service 371 (1928–1935)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

From 1922, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) had operated omnibus services between Great Malvern and Wyche Cutting. Initially these operated as Service 48, which was the route number used for all local Malvern services. During the summer season, some of these journeys were extended along Jubilee Drive to British Camp.

With the introduction of new route numbers in 1925, the Wyche Cutting and British Camp route became Service 271. The route was again renumbered on Saturday 11^th February 1928, with the Wyche Cutting route becoming Service 367 at this time. When the extension to British Camp was reintroduced for the summer season on Wednesday 30^th May 1928, it was given a unique route number to distinguish it from the short-working route and became new Service 371.

Service 371 operated each summer season between Great Malvern, Wyche Cutting and British Camp. The route was inter-worked with Service 370 which ran between Great Malvern, Malvern Wells and British Camp. Some years a limited number of journeys on one or both of these routes would also be operated during the winter season, normally only on one day a week, which was usually a Sunday.

By the mid-1930s, the BMMO network was expanding rapidly and the company were starting to run out of available service numbers. To free up numbers for new services, local area networks were renumbered with a prefix letter to represent the area when the network operated, so thus on Monday 7^th January 1935 all local Malvern area services were renumbered in the range M10–M30 (with service number M13 being omitted ). At this time the British Camp routes, Service 370 and Service 371, were renumbered to Service M20 and Service M21.

Route Summary

Service 371 (1937–1939)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

On Thursday 1^st July 1937, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) acquired the business and operations of H.F. Taylor of Suckley (trading as “Acton Beuchamp Transport”). BMMO took over operation of the services, introducing Service 371 to replace the Thursday only Cradley to Bromyard market day service. The service was run from Worcester depot and was extended to start in Worcester, running via Great Malvern to Cradley.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War the government introduced fuel rationing and BMMO were forced to withdraw a large number or routes. Service 371 was withdrawn before the end of September 1939.

Route Summary

¹  Service 371 runs on Thursdays only.

Service 371 (1946–1971)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

Service 371 was reinstated after the Second World War on Thursday 21^st March 1946, but did not run over the pre-war route, with the Worcester, Great Malvern and Cradley section of the route being omitted so the service only ran between Cradley and Bromyard. Some of the remaining route was also changed with the service running via Linley Green, not Stanford Bridge. Like the pre-war version of this service, the post-war Service 371 only ran on Thursdays which was Bromyard market day.

From Thursday 9^th September 1954, the route was always operated using a vehicle from Malvern depot. This vehicle arrived at Cradley School in the morning as a school service, and would then run all Service 371 journeys during the mid-day off-peak period, finishing at the school in time for the afternoon school service home. Crews would take their break in Bromyard with the bus often being parked near the railway station. On other days of the week, the vacant vehicle in Cradley would be used to operate other services such as Service 376, Service 377 and Service 419.

From Saturday 12^th March 1955, the route for Service 371 was changed to run via Bishops Frome, and Linley Green was no longer served. The service remained unchanged until early 1971 when it was converted to one-man operation, but this was short-lived as it was withdrawn by BMMO as part of a general cut in rural services on Saturday 3^rd April 1971. From this time the route was operated by independent operators, using the same route number, until it was finally withdrawn on Thursday 30^th December 1993. The operator at the time was DRM (Bromyard) Limited (“DRM bus”) who diverted certain Service 469 journeys as a partial replacement.

Route Summary

¹  One short-working return journey starts and finishes at Ridgeway Cross.

Service 371 (1972–1981)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

Limited Stop Service 371 was introduced on Saturday 1^st January 1972 to partly replace withdrawn Service X74, running between Worcester and Cheltenham Spa via Pershore, Eckington, Bredon and Tewkesbury. Service X74 had run to and from Birmingham, so Service 371 was advertised as connecting with Motorway Express Service X43 or Service X44 in Worcester Bus Station to maintain the link.

In c. December 1978, as part of revisions to the “Wayfarer” VNP scheme, Service 371 was reduced with the Worcester to Pershore and Tewkesbury to Cheltenham sections of the route being withdraw, leaving the service running only between Pershore, Eckington, Bredon and Tewkesbury. From the same time, only one return journey was operated on Saturdays only, and the route was now operated using Shortened Ford R192/R1014 27-seat buses, as part of the “Wayfarer Midibus” network.

Route Summary