Route History

[Bevan Price]

RE: Route History
St. Helens Corporation, 1932 - 1934.
I don't have any complete timetables, just a few "alterations" notices. One feature that looks strange to modern eyes, is that some services were less frequent on Tuesdays to Thursdays than they were on Mondays & Fridays. Also, Sunday services could be quite frequent, although some of them only started in the late morning or early afternoon. Early morning services (before 09:00) could also be infrequent. I can only speculate on the reasons, but it could be related to the financial depression that lasted for much of the 1930s - high unemployment, not much money for shopping or evening entertainment, for example. Thursday was "early closing day" for St. Helens shops, but maybe some people saved money by shopping locally rather than go to the town centre.

No route numbers are shown on the early notices.

1. "Commencing on Wednesday 4th May 1932, the buses running between St. Helens and Burtonwood on the Sutton route will cease to run via Broad Lane Corner, and will run via Rosehill instead." St. Helens was the sole operator at that time.
St. Helens departures: (Mon. - Thurs.) 13:45, 17:45, 22:00
(FSSuO): Every 2 hours, 12:55 to 22:55.

There was also a service to Earlestown via Sutton, Bold Colliery & Collins Green:
St, Helens dep. (FSSu) 13:45 and hourly to 21:45.
Plus (MTuWThO) some short workings to Bold Colliery at 12:30, 15:45, 18:30 & 19:45.
Fare, St. Helens to Earlestown was 7d. (almost 3p), or one shilling (5p) return.

The absence of morning services is a mystery to me, but maybe LUT or some other operator also ran services not mentioned in St. Helens Corporation publicity.

2. By now joint with LUT. "Commencing on Monday, May 1st 1933, the service hitherto operated between St. Helens (Victoria Square) and Earlestown via Sutton will be withdrawn and the following service via Parr will be operated in its place". The route was basically the same as the current 329 as far as Broad Lane Corner, then via Collins Green, Penkford Lane, Common Road, Crow Lane & Market St.
St. Helens depart every 2 hours from 09:00(SuX) or 13:00(Su) until 21:00,
but with additional departures on (FSSuO) at 15:10, 17:10, 19:10, 21:10 and 22:40.
(Friday is Earlestown Market Day)
And also a FSSuO service between Burtonwood & Earlestown, running every 30 mins from 13:45 until 22:45, with connections to/from St.Helens via the Rosehill route (above)

The nearest current equivalent route is the 141.

3. "Motor omnibus service, Sutton Manor & Sutton Leach routes, revised timetable 4th May 1932" :
St. Helens (Market St.) departures to Sutton Manor (Forest Road).
Weekdays: 06:00, 07:00, 07:10, 08:15, 08:35, then mostly :
(MFO) Every 20 mins until 13:20, every 10 mins until 21:30 , then every 15 mins until 23:30
(TuWThO) Every 40 mins until 12:00, then every 20 mins.
(SO): Same as MFO until 17:00, then every 8 mins until 23:16
(SuO) 10:30, 11:10, 12:05, 13:05, 13:40 then every 20 mins until 23:00.

Certain buses ran via Sutton Leach to Gorsey Lane, rather than to Sutton Manor. (Generally one morning bus, then every 2 hours after 14:00)