1) Where can you find this building in Chandler’s Ford? What are your memories about this area? Do you like the changes in this area?
Image credit: Stuart Roberts
2) More buses. Tell us something about these buses and your memories.
Do you recognise the locations in these photos?
Image credit: Bluestar
3) Tell us some stories around these shops. What did you buy in those days?
Image credit: Eastleigh and District Local History Society
Put your answers and thoughts in the comment below. Thank you.
#1 is the new sports building at The Hilt.
The first bus in #2 is at Eastleigh bus station. The colours, fashions, and child’s bicycle suggest that the bus is an older vintage than the photo. I wonder if the photo was taken in the mid 80’s, around the time of bus de-regulation, when the new bus companies leased all sorts of vehicles.
Safeway was taken over by Morrisons a few years ago and the Eastleigh store was subsequently sold to Sainsbury’s. I have recently seen the Safeway logo outside a village convenience store, so the company may still exist but in a different form. In the background we can see the green sign of the pharmacist on the corner of Leigh Road and Market Street. I forget the name of the store, but it was taken over by Boots – and still is a Boots.
I’m not sure where the second bus is, but the tree-lined street suggests Hiltingbury to me.
#3 is the row of shops opposite the Methodist Church. I don’t think many of them are the same today. The one at the far end sells fitted kitchens, then Domino’s Pizza. I think the store to the left of the estate agents is now another takeaway pizza store. The fish and chip shop is still there, and there may be a Chinese takeaway as well.
Second from the far end in this photo is Ritz Video rental. For younger readers, “video” was like a DVD but on magnetic tape and “rental” was like netflix but you had to collect and return it yourself.
Back in the day, this row of shops provided everything you needed for an evening in: beer from Unwins, dinner from the fish bar, and video from Ritz.
A lot of people have commented the Hiltingbury building resembles Minecraft. What’s your view of that?
I did wonder whether that green and black pattern on the side of the building is what it really looks like, or you had pixelated it because it had the name written there.
When I first saw Roger’s photos, I also thought he had pixelated the building. Oh no he didn’t!
I like your comparison: “video” was like a DVD but on magnetic tape and “rental” was like netflix but you had to collect and return it yourself.” I know you’re trying your best and I must say what you said does make sense!
Amongstthe row of shops at Fryern there was a Blockbuster store. We hired films from them before. A while back I found a Blockbuster membership card at home! Do you recall the stress of having to return videotapes on time?
I think the Ritz video store became Blockbuster.
The bus outside Safeway in Eastleigh:
According to Bluestar:
“One of the more unusual buses to have been operated – albeit briefly – in the Solent Blue Line fleet was AEC Swift EGN 441J. This bus had started life with London Transport, but had passed to Hants & Sussex at Bishop’s Waltham in May 1987. Solent Blue Line acquired the Bishop’s Waltham based operations of Hants & Sussex in October 1987, and EGN 441J was one of the vehicles that came into the Solent Blue Line fleet as part of this transaction.
It is seen at Eastleigh bus station in the late autumn of 1987 operating on route 41 and having received Solent Blue Line fleet names, but this vehicle was repainted into the Company’s livery and by February 1988 it had passed to White Heather Travel in Portsmouth.”
I too thought the ’87’ bus was in Hiltingbury Road, but from the era of the vehicle itself, the only bus to travel Hiltingbury Road at that time was the 47A, so, as happened a lot, the indicator board on the front of the bus was incorrect (In those days, the destination and route numbers were changed by the driver from outside the bus by turning handles, and it has been known for little boys to cause passenger confusion) … (Incidentally, I cannot find any record of a route 87 operating out of Eastleigh or Southampton) … also, in my day, Unwins was in fact J.A. Wendler, a lovely Polish husband and wife grocery business, and the fish and chip shop was called “King’s Court Fisheries, one of only 2 F & C shops in the village, the other being ‘Jones’ on the corner of Park and Hursley Roads, next to Monk’s Brook and McMahon Newsagents
The 87 bus was the Southampton to/from Hursley service.
It was an H & D replacement for one originally run by Harry Jones (Hursley Coaches), which enabled Hursley residents, plus Chandlers-Ford Hursley Road residents as well, have a direct link with So,ton.
When Hursley Coaches folded, Hants & Dorset took over that particular service.
It ran from Hursley, on Hursley Road to C/Ford Station, then via Bournemouth Rd., & on into town.
I think it ran about six times a day, & I remember catching it in the morning, when I started work in So’ton. I think it called at ‘our’ stop on Hursley Rd., (Just north of where Drapers is now), at about 8.40am., but I may be wrong on the time !
Harry Jones used to run another service, from C/Ford upto Standon, where one could walk the three or four miles to Farley Mount !!!
I think he also ran excusion trips, etc.
He also ran a football coach to/from So’ton for all home games on a Saturday afternoon. Wives accompanied their husbands, & could walk from the ground into So’ton to endulge in shopping, as long as they got back by the time the match finished !
There was another coach firm not far from Hursley, based where the garage still is, by Pitt roundabout.
That was Doug Jones Coaches.
Hursley Coaches were Cream & Red,
Doug Jones Coaches were Cream & Blue.
According to Bluestar:
“In the late 1960s the Hants & Dorset 87 route ran relatively infrequently, with most journeys running from Southampton via Chandler’s Ford to terminate at Hocombe Road, although a few journeys were extended to and from Hursley.
Seen operating the route in the summer of 1969, KEL 724 was a Bristol KS6B carrying an 8 feet wide 55 seat lowbridge body by Eastern Coach Works and was new to Hants & Dorset in February 1951; it was in service with the Company for over 21 years, being withdrawn in 1972.”
Martin, intrigued to hear your recollections of Hursley Coaches and Doug Jones coaches at Pitt. I remember them both well. As a family we had days out to Bournemouth or Swanage or Weymouth with Hursley coaches. Harry Jones also ran the ‘shopping service’ to Southampton in the ‘fifties. Among the vehicles was a beautiful Daimler half-cab reg. number JLJ 3, formerly owned by Excelsior coaches of Bournemouth. I loved travelling in it as it had the most wonderful purring engine, particularly when ‘ticking-over’. As a pupil at Hursley school, recall us being ferried to Romsey baths for swimming lessons in a Seddon coach (HOU 37). It’s crazy how this stuff sticks in the memory!
We were also taken to Billy Smart’s circus on Southampton common, circa.1960 in one of Doug Jones’s blue coaches. It, too, was a Daimler and its reg. was FDL 66 – an Isle of Wight registration, as it was originally owned by Shotter’s of Brighstone.
I would dearly love to know the fate of these vehicles and discover any photos, as they were a prominent part of my childhood landscape and evoke strong and happy memories.
Incidentally, I also remember the H and D route 87 and caught it many times from the stop near Hiltingbury road. The other service from that stop was the 46 to Eastleigh.
John,
Wow, all those facts about Harry Jones coaches!
I remember the Daimler half-cab – My parents, an Aunt & I, went to Farley Mount one afternoon, & That coach took us to Standon, after which it was a long walk to F.M.
I remember the Seddon too, as that was used for Saturday afternoon trips to watch Saints at The Dell.
Doug Jones coaches were, in my day, all Bedford Duples, in light blue & cream, with the “butterfly wing” radiator grills.
I remember travelling on trips with our Sunday School outings to Sandbanks & to Swanage in those.
It was when Harry Jones Hursley/Southampton service was “taken over” by Hants & Dorset that H&D 87 started.
That must have been in the late 1950’s/very eary 60’s I think, as when I started work in 1963 it was how I travelled to work in “town”.
Harry Jones, who was a friend of my fathers, lived in the rather grand house in Hursley (with pink walls now), between the post-office/shop & the blacksmiths (Now hair salon).
Martin, how pleasing to find someone else who recalls the Jones’s coaches. I never took the trip to Standon followed by that trek up to the Mount, quite an outing!
Harry Jones used to advertise his seaside outings on a chalkboard at Mac Mahons shop on the corner of Hursley road and Park road, which was how we learnt of them. The coach would pick us up and drop us at the top of Beechwood Crescent. A refreshment stop was generally made at Cadnam (White Hart or Sir John Barleycorn) or Ringwood on the homeward journey followed by a ‘whip round’ for the driver – usually Alan Page.
Harry Jones also had a sister, or possibly sister-in-law believe, who lived near us. We knew her as Mrs Hooper. I cannot be certain of the relationship.
Incidentally, I think the number 87 bus pictured is seen between Hocombe road and Hiltingbury road – rather nearer the former.
Thanks for the information of Harry Jones’s house
I remember Kings Court Fisheries: the Farrendon family used to own 2 sons – Colin and Chris worked in it when not at school. Chris the older (and thinner one) and Colin who was at school with me, later had a motor bike when we were all cafe racers – believe he had a Triumph thunderbird.
Alan Page passed away a couple of years ago, sadly.
He had worked for Southern Water at Otterbourne after working for Harry.
I Knew him, Rosemary his wife, and his daughter, as my Dad was Secretary of the Hursley Foresters fredndly society branch.
I used to deliver paper for MacMahon in my teens, until 1963, on Hursley Rd between Valley Rd and Hiltonbury Farm.