Bus, Trolleybus and Tram Routes of Kingston upon Hull Corporation
Predecessors and Successors. 1899 to 1986

Chapter Nine

Stoneferry Road

Road Service Licence No’s: BH101/30,/31,/37,/129,/130,/131,/137,/139,/143,/144,/157.

The village of Stoneferry was the northernmost outpost of the town boundary at the turn of the century, as Sutton-in-Holderness had not yet been incorporated into the town. The Corporation had applied for Parliamentary Authority to build a tramway along Cleveland Street and Stoneferry Road, and indeed a short length of double track was actually laid at the southern end of Stoneferry Road. Interestingly there were also standard gauge slots in the end plates of the Ferry Lane Bridge across the river Hull, but there is no evidence that a tramway across the bridge was ever applied for. In the event, the tramway was never built, and consequently the first municipal public transport to Stoneferry commenced using motor buses in July, 1909. The service ran between North Bridge and Stoneferry via Cleveland Street and Stoneferry Road using second-hand Saurer buses which had been acquired by the Corporation from the Mersey Railway Company.

This was the first motor bus service to be operated by the Corporation. However, due to the rural nature of the roads and the lack of knowledge in maintaining the motor buses, their life was relatively short, and the service had to be discontinued in April 1913 after only three and a half years. Nothing further was done and it may well have been during this period that the tramway system was mooted, however the first World War intervened, and it was not until 1921 that Stoneferry was to regain a public transport service. Again this was a motor bus service and up to date vehicles were used this time. The city terminal was now situated in Bond Street and its route was via Charles Street, Liddel Street, St Paul’s Street, Cannon Street, Lockwood Street, Barmston Street, Cumberland Street and Swann Street, crossing the river Hull by Sculcoates Bridge where it joined Stoneferry Road, terminating at the Green. The reasoning behind such a route may seem vague today, but it must be borne in mind that in the twenties there were still thriving wharves and small industries situated along the western bank of the river and Wincolmlee.

There was also the passenger terminus of the Hull and Barnsley Railway situated at Cannon Street. Two years later the city terminus was extended to Paragon Street, which was adjacent to the North Eastern Railway’s terminus, Paragon Station, thus there was now a bus link between the two termini, however the H & B trains were diverted to Paragon Street the following year and Cannon Street became a goods only station.

In March, 1929, a second service to Stoneferry commenced, with a city terminus at Paragon Square it duplicated the 1909 service from North Bridge to Stoneferry Green.

It will be recalled that in 1931 and 1932 the Corporation had purchased services to Sutton Village from East Yorkshire Motor Services and the Corporation also started a third service to Sutton at this time which travelled via Stoneferry. The Corporation could now attain Sutton via Cleveland Street and Stoneferry via Dansom Lane and Garden Village and via Holderness Road and Ings Road.

At the passing of the 1930 Road Traffic Act the Corporation was running three motor bus services along Stoneferry Road and as a consequence of the Act Road Service Licences and route numbers were as follows:

The latter licence was to become the basis of one of the major bus service developments within the city, but in 1932 this was still a long way off.

Changes to the three services in the inter-war period were minimal, the 30 had a minor alteration of route in the Cannon Street area, but the actual date is not known. The route from Charles Street to Cannon Street was amended to Reform Street and Caroline Street. Upon the opening of the Ferensway bus stands in 1933 all three services had their city termini transferred there. The co-ordination agreement had virtually no effect on Stoneferry Road as East Yorkshire did not operate any services in the area. However, a variant of the 32 was started which served the Sutton Branch Hospital on Saltshouse Road under the service number 37. In October, 1936, with the opening of the Coach Station adjacent to the LNER’s Paragon Railway Station, all four services were transferred to it. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War the 31 service which ran via Stoneferry Road was discontinued, but the other three continued, albeit on a reduced frequency during hostilities. It was not until April 1954 that the service re-commenced, but was now on licence BH101/37 as the original licence had been surrendered. It was not given times in the timetables and was classed as an “extra journey” only.

The timetable for October 1966 saw the commencement of a school service on BH101/37. This was numbered 832, and it ran between Stoneferry and Sutton. This service was withdrawn in April 1967, but of more significance was one of three new services on the licence. This was given route number 32A and it travelled the normal route to Leads Road, from where it travelled along Wawne Road and into the newly developing Bransholme estate, where it ran along almost the full length of Bude Road to terminate at Dulverton Close. From this point, another new service, 89, ran to the Sir Henry Cooper High School on Orchard Park. The third new service was 87, which ran through to Wawne Village. This licence was the basis of which many of the Bransholme and Sutton Park services were to be derived. The licence was also in focus in the October 1967 timetable where the 37 to Sutton Annexe was now extended through to Holderness Road.

Also at this time, a new service introduced on BH101/31 was the 30W which ran to Leads Road via Sculcoates Bridge and was primarily a workers service, hence the ‘W’ suffix. The Stoneferry Road services were rationalised in June 1968 with the licence BH101/31 being surrendered and the two services 30 and 30W being transferred to licence BH101/37, notwithstanding the variation of the routes from the city (see note). There were two new services on the latter licence, 36F and 37A, whilst others were renumbered. Licence BH101/37 now comprised of the following services:

Two further services were added in March 1969, these being the 36D Bransholme (Dulverton Close) via Drypool and 36W Reckitt’s to Dulverton Close. In June an “extra journey” the 37E to Sutton via Sculcoates Bridge and the 30W was renumbered 37F. By this time the licence held the following services: 30, 31, 36, 36B, 36D, 36E, 36F, 36W, 37, 37A, 37E, 37F and 89, a total of thirteen services and two basic routes, via Sculcoates Bridge, 31, 37 or via North Bridge 30 and 36. Another Road Service Licence, BH101/129, was granted to the Corporation in order to rectify the situation, and the 30 and 36 group were transferred to it, leaving the 31, 37 group and 89 on BH101/37. At this point the 89 was extended to Danepark Road in Orchard Park and now served the Sir Leo Schultz High School there, and additionally another school service was introduced, the 87, this ran between Longhill Estate and the new Bransholme High School.

The Bransholme terminus was altered to the northern end of Bodmin Road, which was adjacent to Dulverton Close, but the route was now via Tiverton Road and Bodmin Road instead of Bude Road. This applied to the 89 on BH101/37 and the 36, 36D, and 36W on BH/101/129. This change was shown in the timetable for March 1970. BH101/129 also gained a school service between Bodmin Road and the Bransholme High School, which was numbered 36S, but the Wawne service 36B was discontinued. The following September the Leads Road 36F was discontinued and the Sutton 36E became an “extra journey”. On BH101/37 another school service commenced running between Sutton Park and the Ada Holmes Circle on Greenwood Avenue, for the 5th Avenue School. This was given the service number 89S.

September 1970 saw another issue of the timetable book and in it was shown a new Road Service Licence, BH101/130. It contained two services which were numbered 38 and 38B, both of them ran from the city via Cleveland Street, Stoneferry Road and Leads Road, the 38 terminated at Haydock Garth on Wawne Road and the 38B ran through to Wawne Village. The school service 89 was transferred from BH101/37 to BH101/129, while the new 89S was discontinued. There was, however, a new 89S on BH101/129 which covered a school service from Ings Road to the Sir Henry Cooper High School in Orchard Park. A little over a year later, in October 1971, the new timetable showed two further services on BH101/130, 38E denoted services between the city and Noddle Hill terminating at Abingdon Garth, while the 38S was a school service from Abingdon Garth to Midmere Avenue, for the Bransholme High School. Also at this point, BH101/129 ceased to show the 36E ‘extra journey’ to Sutton.

After 51 years the original Stoneferry service 30 was discontinued from Licence BH101/37, but the other Stoneferry service, the 31, on BH101/129 was renumbered 36F, and this licence also gained two new services which were numbered 31 and 32. The first was for a service from the city via the 36 route to Sutton Park, whilst the second was a workers service from Sutton Park to Bankside. These changes took place in March 1972, (while in September 1970 the 36S on BH101/129 was extended to commence from Compass Road, and the 36W commenced from Kent Street). September 1972 saw the renumbering of the 32 to 32A, the reasoning behind this is unclear as there was now no service 32!

NOTE: It is believed that the 37 was rerouted to run via Sculcoates Bridge instead of North Bridge at this time, certainly it was doing so by September 1969, when all of the remaining services on BH101/37 did so. This makes sense of renumbering the 30W to 37F as the 30/31 ran to Stoneferry whilst the 375 ran beyond.

The Bransholme terminus of the 38S on BH101/130 was amended from Abingdon Garth to Jason Garth at the same time. A year later, in September 1973, yet another new licence was granted for services along the Stoneferry Road corridor. This was Licence BH101/131 and two new services were operated on it, namely the 39 and 39E. These differed from others in that they travelled from Stoneferry via Holwell Road rather than Leads Road, the 39 terminated at Haydock Garth, as a temporary measure, as it was destined to serve the newly developing estate of North Bransholme. The 39E terminated at Sutton Fields at the Holwell Road/Sutton Road. In addition to these two, the 38B Wawne service was transferred from BH101/130 and renumbered 39A.

Licences BH101/129-131 all saw alterations during 1974. On the first the alterations were renumbering; as the 31, 32A and 36S became 1, 2A and 86 respectively. In addition, the 36F was discontinued. New to the licence was 30D from the city to Abingdon Garth via Drypool Bridge. On the second licence the 38E was discontinued and the 38S renumbered to 88 in the schools’ series and on the third licence the 39 was withdrawn. The 39E was reduced to “extra journey” status. All the foregoing were shown in the May 1974 timetable, while the September issue showed that the 39E was now discontinued on BH101/31, but a limited stop service, 39X, had been introduced between the city and Bodmin Road.

By May 1975, the licence BH101/129 had become extremely diverse and no less than five new licences were granted to tidy up the routes which it contained. The new Road Service Licence numbers concerned were BH101/137-139, /147 and /144. To take them in order, the BH101/137 received the city - Abingdon Garth Service 30D, while the 1 city - Sutton Park service went to BH101/138 and the Sutton Park - Bankside service 2A went to BH101/139. School service 86 between Compass Road and Bransholme High School went to BH101/43 and the 89/89S Orchard Park Schools services went to BH101/144. After the transfers BH101/129 retained the 36, 36D, 36W sand 36X and indeed all except the 36X had come from BH101/37!

Also at this point, BH101/131, which held only the 39A Wawne service since the previous September gained two services, 39 and 39D, both of which terminated at Holwell Road north, the latter travelled of course via Drypool Bridge. The earlier 39E to Sutton Fields was re-introduced also. The unusual terminus of the 39/39D was, of course, the beginning of the extension to North Bransholme mentioned earlier. The services entered the new estate in July 1976, when the terminus was altered to Ladyside Close in the new estate. There was a second service, 39, introduced at that point on the licence which covered a works service between Ladyside Close and the Bird’s Eye factory at Council Avenue. This reflected the movement of fish workers from the Hessle Road area to the outlying estates. The service ran via the city centre and Hessle Road.

Other changes in July 1976 were the renumbering of the Longhill-Bransholme High School Service 87 to 37S, and a new 87 serving the same school now commenced from Diadem Grove in Bilton Grange, these were on Licence BH101/37. The 37F Sutton Fields service was discontinued, this had originated as 30W. The 2A (BH101/139) dropped the ‘A’ becoming plain 2. There were revisions to the 89 series on BH101/144. The 89S was renumbered 89A and both it, and the 89, was amended to commence from Abingdon Garth, whilst a new 89S now ran between Abingdon Garth and Bricknell Avenue. By September 1976, the ‘extra journey’ to Sutton was discontinued from Licence BH101/37.

May of 1977 saw the end of the 39E yet again, and the 30D drop its ‘D’ suffix. These were on Licences BH101/131 and /137 respectively. Extensions of routes occurred on all licences BH101/139 and /144. On the former, 2 now commenced from Bodmin Road instead of Sutton Park and on the latter, the 89/89A/89S were all extended from Abingdon Garth to Ladyside Close on North Bransholme. A variant of the 39 commenced in September, on Licence BH101/129 but it commenced from Bodmin Road instead of North Bransholme. Commencing at Council Avenue it ran via Hessle Road to the city and then via the 36 route to Bransholme. Another Bransholme High School service commenced, starting at Honiton Road, it was renumbered 88B and was on Licence BH101/130. BH101/137 had a second service added to the 30, ex 30D. This was numbered 30A and it terminated at Bodmin Road.

By May 1978, the Bilton Grange to Bransholme High School service number 87 was transferred to a new licence, BH101/157, although the transfer may have taken place before this time, it was not recorded as such until May. The following September saw the Council Avenue to North Bransholme service 39 transferred from BH101/131 to a separate licence BH101/161 and was renumbered 79 at the same time. BH101/130 saw the 88 extended to commence from Upavon Garth instead of Jason Garth. As development was proceeding in North Bransholme a number of services had their termini extended from Ladyside Close to the western end of Cumbrian Way (Snowdon Way). Routes affected were 39, 39D (BH101/131), 79 (BH101/161) and 89,89A,89S (BH101/144). The latter licence also gained the 89C, a Sunday morning only service from Cumbrian Way to St Oswald’s Roman Catholic Church, surely a novelty in the 1980’s! Licence BH101/130 also gained a peak service to Haydock Garth via Drypool Bridge in the form of the new 38D.

In the timetable for September 1979, changes were shown affecting several of the licences under review. On BH101/37 the existing 37A became 37B and a new service 37A commenced operating between the city and Longhill Estate via Stoneferry and Sutton. Licence BH101/129 lost the 36W, whilst BH101/157 was surrendered, as its only service, 87, was discontinued. BH101/131 saw the commencement for a third time, of the 39E Sutton Fields Service. In addition to this, a limited stop service to North Bransholme commenced with the service number 39X. Finally, at this time, BH101/137 received the 30B service to Littondale. In December of the same year, BH101/130 lost the Drypool Bridge variant 38D and on licence BH101/131 the 39, 39D and 39X were altered to terminate and commence from Gifford Close instead of Snowdon Way.

As has been stated earlier, due to the Bransholme services having been introduced in a ransom manner, it was decided to rationalise services to the area to improve services and utilise vehicles more effectively. At the same time, to aid identification of services, all Bransholme area services were given route numbers in the 30’s. The new services took effect in June of 1980 and those services using the Stoneferry Road corridor were affected in a great way. On licence BH101/37 two new routes were instituted 37C to Saltshouse Road/Holderness Road and 37E to Bellfield Avenue/Mitcham Avenue in the Ings estate. The former service travelled via a differing route to the remainder of the 37 group. On licence BH101/129, in order to bring it within the 30’s the 76 was renumbered 36W. Licence BH101/130 was surrendered, the 38E was discontinued and the school’s 88/88B services were transferred to BH101/137. The Bransholme North terminus of the 39, 39D and 39X was re-extended to Snowdon Way, and the 39E was discontinued, the licence being, of course, BH101/131, the 79 was transferred back to this licence as 39W and its licence BH101/161 was also surrendered. Also on BH101/131, appeared a school service, numbered 94, which ran between Cumbrian Way and the St Oswald’s and St Anne’s Primary Schools on Sutton Park. BH101/137 gained the 88/88B as mentioned above, and in addition were two services numbered 38 and 38E, both of which terminated at Abingdon Garth and the 30 group were all discontinued with the exception of the 30 which was renumbered 38D. BH101/139 was another licence to be surrendered as its only service, the Sutton Park - Bankside route number 2 was transferred to BH101/140 as route number 33B. Finally, on licence on BH101/144 the 89S route was renumbered 87 and a service between North Bransholme and the Boulevard commenced operation as number 89F, it was, of course, run when Hull RLFC played their home matches at the Boulevard Stadium. In September 1980 three school services had been discontinued for the new school term, these being 37S (BH101/37) and 88/88B (BH101/137).

Licence number BH101/37 was revised in May 1981, when the 37, 37A and 37B services were renumbered 41B, 41A and 41 respectively whilst the 37C was renumbered 37 and the 37E retained its number. At the same time, the 37 and 37E were rerouted to operate via Cleveland Street rather than Barmston Street, which was, in fact, the original route of 1934! The 41 group was not rerouted at all as the new numbers served to distinguish the two routes. BH101/137 lost the 38 service, which was discontinued, but the 86 on licence BH101/143 was extended, as the service now commenced from Downfield Avenue on the new Ings Bridge estate on Beverley High Road and served its original terminus at Compass Road on the journey. Return journeys, however, still terminated at Compass Road, having run via Downfield Avenue first. The next issue of the timetable in September saw the demise of the 37E ‘extra journey’ to Sutton, but a new service was 41W to Chapman Street/Cleveland Street for Reckitt & Colman’s workers, the licence was, of course, BH101/37. The latter service was extended in June 1984 to run through Longhill estate.

In December 1984, the Sunday morning service to St Oswald’s Church was discontinued, the licence being BH101/144 and the route number 89C. In May 1985, the Longhill service 41W was also discontinued. Only one further service commenced prior to the pre-deregulation network and this was the limited stop service 99X to North Bransholme. This was on licence BH101/131.

Prior to the deregulation network there were six Road Service Licences in use along the Stoneferry Road corridor, these being: BH101/37, /129, /131, /137, /143 and /144. Of these, two licences had their services discontinued and were surrendered. These were: BH101/137 (38D and 38E) and BH101/143 (86). Of the other four, the following services were withdrawn: 37, 41, 41B (BH101/37); 36, 36D, 36W and 36X (BH101/129); 94, 99X (BH101/131) and 87, 89, 89A (BH101/144). On this latter licence only service 89F alone remained, but the deregulation services on the three remaining licences were as follow:

The 73 was in the special workers series, while the 55 was now an early morning only service in the “Earlybird” series. All these continued to run between July and October, 1986 until deregulation took effect, and the four licences were finally surrendered.

Keith Easton
01/2012

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