Stroud’s first motor buses LAST month Past and Present recorded Stroud’s horse buses.
This time we look at the arrival of the town’s first motor buses in January 1905.
These were Milnes Daimler vehicles, capable of carrying 22 passengers and 15 cwt of luggage.
A postcard by Stroud photographer William Lee shows one of them arriving on a railway wagon from The Lizard in Cornwall, where they had apparently been previously employed.
One local route the motor buses operated carried passengers to Chalford, while another ran through Painswick to Cheltenham.
At least one double-decker ran on the Chalford route.
Panels on the sides of them could be removed during warm weather and replaced in winter.
The 1905 picture, taken in the Great Western Railway yard, offers a marked contrast to the current bus station in Merrywalks.
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