Book charts bus company’s rise and fall
We touched on the history of buses in Maidstone (Memories, November 4) with mention of Maidstone Corporation Transport and its competition with Maidstone and District.
For those seeking a fuller understanding of M&D, a delightful new book has just been published which charts the company’s rise and fall from earliest beginnings as the Maidstone, Chatham, Gravesend and District Motor Omnibus Company, founded in 1910 by Walter French, and that of the firm’s many competitors.
Along the way, M&D absorbed Reliance Motor Services, operated out of Sutton Valence by E. Neve, British Electric Traction, Red Roadcars of Lenham and Bucks of Maidstone.
How many readers remember the other companies to be swallowed up by the expanding giant? There was Standen of Sittingbourne, Enterprise Motor Services of Sheerness, Orange Coaches of Gillingham and Sands of Wouldham.
The book, Good Old M&D has been written and illustrated with wonderful paintings by David Molyneux.
Mr Molyneux, 76, now of Great Bookham in Surrey but born in St Leonards near Hastings, has had a life-long interest with buses ever since his older brother gave him a model bus garage as a Christmas present as a child.
He recalls standing in awe at his garden gate watching the M&D buses pass by.
He said: “One of my happiest childhood memories was travelling with my mother to visit Maidstone Zoo. Changing buses on the return trip at M&D’s Palace Yard Bus Station, getting a top deck, front seat, on a fairly new Bristol utility double-decker and a wonderful sunset as we travelled home to Hastings.”
Mr Molyneux’s book contains 81 hand-painted illustrations and 93 photographs of buses, badges, tickets and memorabilia. The images are all of real vehicles that were in the M&D fleet. The book includes several illustrations from Maidstone, but also M&D services in Cranbrook, Hawkhurst, Tunbridge Wells, St Leonards and many other places. It details how the firm’s charabancs, used for works’ outings during the day in the early 20th century, could be quickly converted at night to double as flatbed lorries taking loads of Kentish hops to London. Other interesting snippets relate to how the early buses were fitted with three headlights, one centrally positioned above the driver, so that M&D vehicles would easily be able to recognise one of their own coming the other way.
Most employees have fond memories of working for M&D, but it seems the company was not a push-over. Mr Molyneux’s book contains testimony from Maidstone man Len Attwood, who was an apprentice mechanic at the Armstrong Road depot in 1934. He recalled how the supervisor, Major Miles, clocked workers in and out of the toilet. They were allowed 10 minutes a day. If they exceeded 60 minutes in a week, their pay was docked accordingly!
Copies can be obtained by sending a cheque for £15 (includes postage) made out to David Molyneux at 42 Keswick Road, Great Bookham, Leatherhead, KT23 4BH.