Watch Out - There's A Clamper About!

We caught that a couple of times, but living in Burntwood, it was easier to get the number 19 at the Swan and either walk to the ground or catch the special from Bradford Place.
Thinking about getting back, the 19 left Walsall bus station at 5:20. If that was now, with the longer half-time interval and extra time for substitutes, I doubt whether we’d make it.

What year was that? I don’t remember a number 19. I remember the 394 and 395 that used to take what felt like an age to get to Walsall :wink:

A long time before! Late 60’s, into the 70’s :older_man:

The 19 was a Saturday only service and went from Burntwood Church to Walsall, via Chasetown, up Wharfe Lane across Brownhills Parade and then through Pelsall where Colin Harrison used to get on to cheers from us, then to Rushall. The 394 and 395 were originally the number 5 (Walsall to Hednesford, via Chase Terrace) and became the 84 (IIRC) and 85, then the 394 and 395. The new numbers I think coincided with WMPTE taking over the Corporation routes.
For midweek games, we had to use the 5 /85 and walk from Chasetown. They were good times, the bus journey was as much a part of the enjoyment as the match. Not so much now as the car journey has often become quite solitary.

Wot is your favrit number bus?

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  1. They don’t exist anymore. :cry:
    Also enjoyed the 30 and 51.

The No. 69.
I think it went somewhere near The Butt’s.

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As a small boy, after every home game, we used to get the 37 bus from Pleck to Walsall town centre. A quick walk to the Midland Red stop to catch the 118 to Birmingham. Then the train from Snow Hill or Moor Street to Olton and a half-mile walk home.

My mum always preferred to travel upstairs, where she could have a cigarette. I preferred to be downstairs in the front seat immediately behind the bus driver, and marvel at his strength as he steered round corners (no power steering in those days).

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Bet ya liked the whirring noise when the conductor was issuing you a ticket ay welshie :grin:

In the film Stan and Ollie, wasn’t there a scene when they posed in front of a blow-up of a trolley bus with," 15, Blakenall" on the front?

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As I only ever caught it to get to FP, it most certainly was. I counted the days until Saturday came.

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Got to be a bus number with a letter such as the 951a - marked a very slight divergence from the normal route but not so great that it warranted a whole new number!

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when I was at infant school I could catch the 51 to the top of our road for 1.5d, the No 6 west brom bus for 1d to the bottom of our road or the midland red 118 for 2d.
No contest really the No6 stopped right outside a sweet shop too. With 4 fruit salad chews for 1d.

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Saw the dvd about two years ago. My recollection was that it was an actual trolley bus (presumably loaned from the Black Country Museum) with Jeffcock Road as its destination. Seems an odd place to terminate a bus route, but perhaps people visited the cemetery more frequently in those days.

The film also used CGI to transform a street scene in the Museum into Newcastle.

You could be right. But my memory is playing tricks on me if you are,which is possible. I thought I even remembered rechecking the spelling of " Blakenall", but perhaps not.

Aha.

On Wednesday I went to see Stan & Ollie. I loved every minute. One small scene looked like it was set in Walsall, given the destination board on a bus in the background read ‘Blakenall - Bloxwich’. Their 1953 tour included dates in nearby Birmingham and Dudley, but I’m unable to find out if they visited Walsall to promote it at all.

Thanks for that. I can blame my memory failure on the heatwave. But it’s all the more bizarre that, out of all the road names in Wolverhampton, it was Jeffcock Road that lodged in my memory.

I wonder if Jeffcock Road was a terminus for the trolley buses? It does seem a strange place to have it, as you say, but maybe it makes sense, they could come from Wolvo town centre one way up Merridale Road, then round the cemetery (or round Bantock Park) and back to town the same way, or go a different way back to town down Penn Road.
Trolley buses ended when I was five years old, was turning them round a difficulty? They were very exciting, when they came off the wires and the conductor had to get the big stick and connect them back up, I loved it when that happened.

Anyhow, the cemetery at Jeffcock Road was in the news the other day, there has been a lot of thefts from graves, which seems an especially unpleasant crime to me.

You old git :wink:

I know. But at least I saw Alan Buckley play. :champagne: :laughing: :star_struck:

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What a come back that is! :joy: never saw that coming all I saw was a cheeky like to my rather cheeky comment….blew me away with that one, fair play.

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