Bus operations across Hampshire, England's eighth largest county, are covered in this book, with the bus scene in each district, town and city in the county being fully described and illustrated. Major companies Aldershot & District, Hants & Dorset, Southdown, Southern National, Thames Valley, Western National and Wilts & Dorset are all featured. Municipal operations at Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton, including trolleybuses at Portsmouth until 1963 and Bournemouth until 1969, are well represented. Large independents King Alfred at Winchester and Provincial at Gosport, which added such variety to the county's bus operations, are included as is commentary and pictures covering smaller independents which mainly provided rural bus routes. Royal Blue Express Services, which threaded coach links across Hampshire and beyond, are well illustrated. Hampshire born and bred author Philip Wallis recalls a bygone but not so distant era and some bus companies that would disappear under National Bus Company rationalization.
Hampshire Buses in the 1960s and Early 1970s