For much of the C.20th our local area was served by a number of London Transport-operated bus routes. The formation of London Transport in 1933 was by the amalgamation of a host of minor operators to create a unified service. Its huge territory stretched from Hitchin (in the north) to Horsham (south) and from Aylesbury (west) to Gravesend (east). The operator’s remit even included Green Line Coach services that enabled one to travel, for instance, between Epping and Windsor without changing vehicles. London Transport bus services were divided into two operating divisions, Central Area (red) buses and Country Area (green) buses, and both types operated in the High-Country area. Consequent to a huge increase in private motoring after the war, few of these services remain.
Our pocket in the northeast segment contained few rural traffic objectives, resulting in a ring of routes on the periphery. In broad terms, these comprised green, country area buses on the north side (route 339, Ongar & Epping via North Weald) and red, central area buses on the other three sides (routes 250, Epping & Romford, and 123/175, Romford & Ongar) which between them served Ivy Chimneys, Theydon Bois, Abridge, Stapleford Aerodrome, Passingford Bridge, Stanford Rivers and Marden Ash. Route 381 (initially Epping & Toothill, with an offshoot to Coopersale) was the only enduring service to penetrate the scattered and sparsely populated rural interior.
Taking the peripheral, central area routes first, the Ongar – Romford service is best remembered as double-deck route 123, later renumbered 175, whilst the Epping service was single-deck route 250. A number of short-working turns were made over the years, usually early morning or late evening, together with an unusual works’ service turn at Stapleford Aerodrome(1941 to 1950; routes 123/175 and 250). Other turns that affected residents locally occurred at Abridge Blue Boar (route 250, from the Epping end), and at Passingford Bridge. The last departure from Ongar was typically around 9.20pm after the war, but in the ‘fifties a special late journey was added to the timetable, when the last northbound 123 turned short at Stanford Rivers White Bear around 11.30pm, a matter of consequence to local revellers.
Services peaked in 1950 but thereafter a decline set in as motor car ownership increased. Frequent tinkering with services occurred, starting in the late 1970s, as London Transport sought economies of operation but invariably with an incremental and sustained reduction in the levels of service operated. The decline was slow but terminal, with the Epping service ceasing to operate in July 1981 and the Ongar service following suit just 17 months later in December 1982. Subsequent provision dwindled to next to nothing.
Locally, two services were inaugurated by London Transport: route 250 (Romford and Epping) and 250A (Romford & Ongar). Both routes operated daily, including Sunday. Indeed, trade tended to be heavier on Sundays than on weekdays, since it was the day of the week for ‘going out’ or visiting family. The 250 varied little down the years, the biggest change occurring after thirty years’ operation when, on 18th November 1964, the route was converted to one-person operation having previously employed both driver and conductor. At the same time, these single-deck buses were fitted with doors and saloon heating. After more than forty years, starting 8th January 1977, the route number was changed to 247, but the Epping-Collier Row element of ‘new’ service was withdrawn by London Transport just 4½ years later on 25th July 1981.
The story of the Ongar service is much more convoluted. Previously route G6 (details of operation are unknown), route 250A (Ongar, Four Wantz & Romford, Rainham Road) was instigated on 3rd October 1934. It employed single-deckers, operating daily out of Hornchurch Garage.
It was relatively short-lived in this guise, being renumbered route 123 with effect from 9th December 1936 and converted to double-deck operation. It kept the 123 number for nearly 22 years. Although not much affecting the High Country area, the route saw changes in termini down the years, being extended to Shelley, Red Cow (from 13.12.39) in the north and to various destinations at the south end of the route. Trade increased steadily down the years. Service intervals on the 123 varied between hourly and two-hourly after the war, depending on the time of day and day of the week.
Also in early London Transport days, and by 3rd October 1934, a third route, number 175 operated locally, from the Romford direction to Stapleford Abbotts Royal Oak, with odd journeys extended to Shelley, Red Cow. More pertinent was a Monday-Saturdays wartime origin (23rd July 1941 until 12th July 1950) prolongation northwards from the Royal Oak to serve Stapleford Aerodrome, where buses terminated by reversing from Ongar Road into Church Lane, Lambourne. Perhaps to disguise the true purpose of these journeys, destination blinds showed ‘ONGAR RD. CHURCH LANE’. Later, post-war, this changed to ‘ONGAR ROAD FACTORY SITE’ and turns in later years actually terminated and turned on the aerodrome site. On 26th November 1958, route 175, previously Stapleford Abbotts Royal Oak & Dagenham Chequers (or Fords Factory weekday peaks) was projected to Shelley Red Cow to fully cover route 123 which was withdrawn. A final northwards extension from the Red Cow to Cripsey Avenue started on 9th October 1963, marking the maximum extent of the 175 through the district.
Starting on 18th July 1970, the Ongar part of the service was cut back to Passingford Bridge, resulting in a ‘new’ Ongar (Cripsey Avenue) & Romford Station route, the 175A. Sadly, for those reliant on the service, its new incarnation was accompanied by a significant reduction in service which comprised a mere six journeys each way, Monday to Friday, only five on Saturday and none on Sunday. The route was withdrawn fewer than 3½ years later when it was renumbered 247B starting 8th January 1977. It was converted from crew-operated double decker to one-man single deck operation at the same time, and the service reduced yet further. It ran Mondays to Saturdays only consisting four MF return journeys (the first of which turned at Passingford Bridge) and five on Saturdays (an afternoon journey of which turned at Passingford Bridge). Strangely, the route converted to one-man double deck operation on 31st January 1981 though six months later it was reduced to a Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays only service. It was a case of death-by-a-thousand-cuts, and the service finally ceased on 4th December 1982.
The northern peripheral route, nominally Epping & Ongar and, at times, to Brentwood and Warley has operated in two main guises. Under London Transport auspices the extremities of route 339 were once Epping & Warley, but in 1963 it was extended from Epping to Harlow. Short working journeys were quite numerous; Tyler’s Green Talbot and Ongar Two Brewers at the western end, and Pilgrims Hatch Rose & Crown, Coxtie Green White Horse and Ongar Station at the eastern end of the route. This arrangement pertained until at least 1975. A peculiarity meant that route 339, operationally, was deemed by reasons of geography to be a special case, and fares were actually set by the Eastern National Omnibus Company which operated competing route 260 in the Brentwood area. Later operation of the eastern section of route was transferred to Eastern National (whose former garage site in Brentwood is now occupied by the Sainsbury superstore), and thereafter Ongar Two Brewers formed the eastern limit of the 339.
Until the late C.20th, all routes were operated as commercial services, with no outside financial support. As a result, passenger reductions (lost to car ownership) led to service reductions and the virtual loss of all routes except along the Epping-North Weald-Ongar corridor.
Starting 4th January 1982, the former 339 route became the 201 (Ongar & Buckhurst Hill, via Epping). This was in association with the decimation of the Epping-Ongar tube line that was reduced to a peak hours only service, and railway season tickets were valid on the Epping-Ongar section of bus route. This arrangement only lasted about 3½ years, until 24 May 1986, when, as part of the Essex County Council tendering process, the route was takeover by West’s Coaches. In modern times, the Harlow & Ongar Two Brewers via Epping route has been operated as route 420 by Trustybus with generally alternate buses operating a truncated Harlow & Tyler’s Green Talbot service, route 420A
A remarkable service, double-deck route 392, once operated between Epping & Theydon Mount. The route ran from Epping Garage, along High Street to Epping Green, thence via Stonard’s Hill and Fiddlers Hamlet to serve Hill Hall. Its Theydon Mount terminus is presently unknown; it may have terminated at North Lodge, leaving passengers a footslog of over half a mile to reach Hill Hall, or the service may indeed have traversed the estate’s private road to deposit its passengers on the doorstep. The service was established to suit war needs, though the dates of introduction and cessation are not known.
Finally, route 381 – the only bus route to truly penetrate the rural hinterland, had a chequered existence in its twenty-odd year period of operation. On Tuesday, 30th August 1950 (the previous day being a Bank Holiday), following several years’ lobbying by Theydon Mount parish council and perhaps others, London Transport established a single-deck bus route running between Epping Garage and Toothill, via Mount End. Monday – Saturday, five return journeys were operated, two in the morning for schools and shoppers, one around midday (shoppers) and two in the afternoon (shoppers and schools). The bus used was a 20-seater single-decker in red livery. The bus was repainted green in May 1953 but in October the same year it was replaced by a bus of larger, 26-seat capacity. From this time (if not before) no conductor was carried, it being the driver who was responsible for collecting fares and issuing tickets. Bus stops were notable by their absence, at least between Epping and Toothill. Intending passengers simply hailed the driver anywhere along the route. The 381 route was well patronised in its late ’fifties heyday with full loads and standing passengers. This justified, for a while, the type of bus used later still, in the ’sixties, which had even greater capacity, and it was this type which saw service to the end.
A companion service was an offshoot of the Toothill route, diverting at Fiddler’s Hamlet to Coopersale Street, where it terminated at the Theydon Oak, being later extended to Coopersale Common Garnon Bushes. This original ran as a 399,(Coopersale Street & Hertford) later briefly re-routed and renumbered 372, (Coopersale Common & Welwyn Garden City) before being integrated with route 381 (or 381A; there were permutations in its later years). Coopersale patrons enjoyed a reasonably good level of service; the last bus arrived after 10pm (in 1959) and there were even a handful of Sunday journeys.
In an attempt to maintain viability in an era of declining patronage, the operator experimented with route variations down the years. This resulted in the Toothill and Coopersale routes being extended beyond Epping variously to Roydon, St Margaret’s and Harlow. A remarkable experiment took place in the winter of 1957/58 (October to January) when on Saturdays, two journeys were extended from Toothill via Stanford Rivers, Little End to Ongar Station. Sadly, it was not a success, and the experiment ceased after only fourteen Saturdays.
In its final years, patronage dwindled to virtually nothing, with the Toothill bus, especially, trundling around the country lanes almost always empty. It was no surprise, then, when the last London Transport-operated 381 ran on Friday, 7th August 1971. Thereafter, the 381 led a fitful existence with a number of different companies operating various permutations of services. The last Toothill service ran in 2018, when the 381 which operated between Harlow and Toothill via Coopersale and Blake Hall was cut back to operate between Harlow and Coopersale Piazza. This service is operated by Ugobus at time of writing, and it is heartening to note the level of service is not far short of London Transport levels of fifty years ago (though there is no service on Sundays).
Also, in modern times, some small semblance of former route 381 has been resurrected as part of a heritage bus service associated with and complementary to the Epping-Ongar preserved railway. When operating, usually at weekends, this route now embraces North Weald and Blake Hall before joining its former line of route at Toothill. It operates via Banks Lane instead of Mount End, this being the only deviation from the original route.
