Horse Drawn Buses

Early Letchworth Transport

The first horse-drawn omnibus in Station Place c1911

There used to be a horse bus service in Letchworth in the earlier days. It started at Letchworth Corner down Baldock Road, and Norton Way up to the town and then down Station Road and up to Norton and changed round and back again.

The First Garden City Limited had stables. You know the Ambassador Hotel, the building just beyond, they had stables there and the company kept their horses there. They used to take the horses up to Letchworth Corner to change them. Give them a rest and then put another pair of horses on. They had an open wagon. They did have a horse bus, I think it was bought from London and the last time I saw it was when I went to school at Stevenage. I went to the Alleyne’s School and I used to cycle from Letchworth and this bus stood up on the fields at the left hand side. I wondered what it was doing there. Just rotting away I suppose.

With the open top buses you whipped up the circular stairs to the top deck, and when we got a little bit further through into Walsworth, the conductor would shout upstairs ‘heads down’ because the railway bridge was low and you could have been decapitated if you weren’t behaving yourselves.

extract from “Letchworth Recollections” – memories of Letchworth 1903 to 1939

This page was added on 23/05/2010.

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