Amesbury to Redhill

23rd July 2025

My original plan had been to return to Devizes, then carry on to Trowbridge before making my way towards Hampshire. However, detailed examination of timetables showed that I wouldn't have been able to get to Winchester (Hampshire's county town) in one day.

I was taking advantage of a visit to a friend in Oxford to continue the trip, so I decided instead to return to Salisbury and pick up the route of this trip there instead. However, hat should have been an easy, two-bus journey turned into "one of those days"!

Things went awry from the start when the 09.55 Stagecoach S6 from Oxford to Swindon failed to appear at the Botley Road bus stop where I was waiting. Not only that, but it wasn't tracking on either the Stagecoach app or on Bus Times.org. This was a problem as I had only a 23 minute connection at Swindon into the Salisbury bus, which itself ran only every two hours.

I'd just about given up on the 09.55 and resigned myself to the following 10.15, which would give just a 3 minute connection, when it suddenly appeared, running 15 minutes late. Despite a spirited run by the driver, the tight timing of the service and further traffic holdups meant we didn't recoved much time and I got to Swindon with just seven minutes to spare.  The problem now was that I had been hoping to grab a coffee and a bite to eat in the bus station before the two-hour run to Salisbury on the Salisbury Reds X5. But Swindon bus station was due to close and be demolished in a few weeks' time and the surrounding shopping centre had already vanished, leaving no catering facilities of any kind within walking distance in the time available. Fortunately, the topless were still open.

But this was the end of my problems. The X5, a double decker the better to enjoy the views, followed a main road route due south from Swindon, but approaching the village of Ogborne St George we joined a long line of stationary traffic. It soon became obvious that the road ahead was blocked and that we were only making progress as cars in front did a u-turn to find another route.  The total delay was an hour and when we reached the site of the blockage there was nothing to be seen except a few police and paramedics having a break having presumably finished dealing with whatever had happened.

Marlborough market from the bus

The small town of Marlborough was next and itself very busy, causing further delay. We did our own (scheduled) u-turn in the wide high street next to the few stalls that now seem to comprise the town's once extensive street market. Despite now being over an hour late there were still passengers waiting for us along the road and then just out of town we had a driver changeover - cue more delay whilst our driver briefed his relief on what had happened.

By now I had been travelling for over four hours and still faced at least another hour before reaching Salisbury I felt the need for Plan B.  The next bus on the itinerary - the Salisbury to Andover "Activ8", intersected with the X5 at Amesbury and we would get there in time for me to grab a quick sandwich. The Co-op proved handy and I "enjoyed" a meal deal on a seat in the main street waiting for the bus.

The "Active8" is a rare example of a service operated jointly by two bus companies in co-operation rather than competition, with a co-ordinated timetable. My bus was from Salisbury Reds, although it was painted blue! We travelled past a number of army camps - Bulford, Tidworth and Luggershall, crossing into Hampshire between the first and second of those places,

HAMPSHIRE  County Town Winchester

A noticeably affluent county. The south includes the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, whilst the more rural north looks towards London. Interestingly, the county's flag includes the Tudor Red Rose usually associated with Lancashire.

At Andover, the bus station is located to the rear of a shopping centre, which itself is at the far end of the High Street. The large, pedestrianised main street does still manage to convey some of the atmosphere of its former role as a coaching town, but as with many town centres nowadays it was very quiet in mid afternoon.

The Guildhall, Winchester

After a short break I caught the last bus of the day, a double-decker on Stagecoach service 75 to Winchester which turned out to be a fast run along main roads including the dual-carriageway A303 that understandably produced little intermediate traffic.  Although the day had not gone as planned, I was only an hour later than expected at Winchester and at least all of the four buses I'd caught had been double-deckers.

24th July 2005

I didn't plan on seeing much of Hampshire. This project has taken far longer than originally planned and I had, in any case, seen much of the southern part during my "Around the Edge" tour a few years earlier. My Travelodge didn't do breakfast, so after a walk around the town looking for somewhere I opted for a take away coffee and bacon roll from Gregg's (I know how to live!). They were is the process of setting up a street market here, although most of the stalls were more of the craft or farmers' market type rather than traditional market ones.  I then had time for a quick visit to the outside of the cathedral, being unable to actually go in due to graduation ceremonies taking place, the second time this has happened on this trip after Durham.

My next bus, Stagecoach service 67 would take me almost to the county boundary at Petersfield.  The only feature of note of this service was the bus itself - an ageing Dennis Trident - one of the oldest buses I'd been on for a while on this journey.

Petersfield was a name I remembered from my brief time at Southdown Motor Services in the 1970s, it being one of the farthest-flung spots on the Brighton-based company's network, although I never got there. I'll remember it most on this trip for confusing the service number of my next bus - the "54", with the departure time - "47" minutes past 11, which resulted in the bus arriving seven minutes earlier than I expected.  Fortunately I was already at the stop and there were other people waiting. In my defence, the online information had been complicated due to the number of stops in the town and the different routes followed by buses coupled with the fact that I'd been unable to do a final check as the 54 timetable was missing from the display at the stop.

When it did come, the 54 was an Optare Solo, bringing to an end an unbroken run of five double deckers since Salisbury. It was more than adequate for the traffic offering on a long, winding and very rural route to Chichester. Soon after leaving the town we crossed the boundary into Sussex

SUSSEX County Town Chichester

Administratively divided into East and West Sussex since county councils were established in 1889 and similarly divided for "ceremonial" purposes since 1974, a combined mayoral authority for "Sussex" has now been approved.  Tourism is a large element of the economy but Gatwick Airport is a major employer and there is significant commuting into London.

I spent even less time in Sussex than I did in Hampshire, but again I had covered the coastal areas on the Around the Edge trip. I also had limited time available which allowed only for a brief foray into the county for the sake of completeness.

For similar reasons I spent only 20 minutes in the county town. I had, after all, spent a night here during the previous project. Therefore I was soon on my way to Midhurst on Stagecoach service 60, although not before a degree of confusion over which stand the bus would leave from, the one allocated being occupied by an out-of-service vehicle, as were several others. The journey was notable only for the presence of a passenger travelling with a very large suitcase on her way to a "wedding-venue" somewhere along the route.  Not the usual sort of person you see on the bus she had to struggle when we arrived there as there was no hardstanding at the stop and she had to struggle with her suitcase over some rough ground to reach the road, not helped by her high-heels!

On arrival at Midhurst I realised I had been there before - at the end of a leg of the Around the Edge tour in 2016 when I returned home from Chichester by bus to Guildford and then trains home - the buses being the same two I would catch today. 

I had quite a while to wait, although there was more confusion, with all the online information showing that the 71 to Guildford left at 14.20 but the timetable at the stop saying 14.00. The latter time came and went without a bus, but by then there wasn't really an time to wander far from the bus station anyway.  The 71 was another single decker on yet another unremarkable largely main-road route along the A286.

Just south of Haslemere we crossed another county boundary, this time into Surrey, before continuing to Guildford, the county town.

SURREY County town Guildford

An extremely affluent county bordering London, where many inhabitants work. The large rural areas contain much heath land and woodland as well as many prosperous villages.

25th July 2025

I had two options for the half-day available to me before heading home by train. The simplest would be to get Compass Bus service 32 straight to Redhill, possibly alighting at either Dorking or Reigate for an hour en-roue, or to go via Horsham and Crawley. In the event I did neither, opting instead at the last minute to set off on Falcon Bus service 479 to Leatherhead, which turned out to be a route via the affluent Surrey suburbia, largely on main roads but with two lengthy diversions to Shere Green and Bookham station, neither of which produced many passengers. The journey was enlivened though by a discussion between two locals on football - one was a Liverpool fan and the other - a Bristolian - supported Manchester United. Are there no London teams?

A red "London" bus at Leatherhead

The bus stops in Leatherhead came as a surprise - they were standard Transport for London design, as the town is now within the TfL area. The 465 on to Dorking was also a TfL bus and despite being on the very edge of "London" we got the full TfL treatment - real time infor at the stops, "next stop" announcements on board and of course two doors, even on a small single decker, and an Oyster Card reader that doesn't read ENCTS cards.  

The route to Dorking was mainly down the A24, diverting in places to follow the old road through the villages. Approaching the town we passed both Dorking railway stations, neither of which is anywhere near the town centre.  The town itself came as a disappointment - it seemed to consist of just one wide main street - and the 30 minutes or so I had there was long enough. Then I joined the Compass 32 bus that I could have taken from Guildford and rode through Reigate all the way to Redhill. Fifty years ago I had been offered a job at the bus company then based in Reigate and I'm very glad I turned it down - I would not have enjoyed living round here!

Redhill street market

Redhill slightly made up for things by having a street market, that wasn't all craft stalls and artisan food, and it did have a half-decent pub where I enjoyed a lunch before getting the train home via London.

Dorchester to Devizes