Trams: A, AP
Trolleybuses: 69, 71
Road Service Licence No’s: BH1/9, /10, /21, /22, /51, /61, /80, /109, /110, /111
Anlaby Road and Hessle Road have the distinction of seeing the first municipally operated public transport services in the city of Hull. This commenced in July 1899, when the Corporation opened the first electric tramway services over the former horse drawn routes along the two roads.
The Anlaby Road route commenced at St. Johns Street in the centre to a terminus situated at Wheeler Street, where the depot was situated. When route letters were introduced the Anlaby Road route became route A. The newly developed Queen Victoria Square, which opened in 1903, had a multi track tramway station built into it and the A route commenced from that point. The original terminus in St. Johns Street was only a short distance from the new point as the latter street was demolished to make way for Queen Victoria Square. By January 1923, the terminus was moved from Queen Victoria Square a few yards to the west into Waterworks Street.
1923 saw the introduction of the first motorbus service to run along Anlaby Road, commencing in October, it was a night service which ran after the end of the tram services. The city terminal was at Queen Victoria Square, but the outer terminal was extended from Wheeler Street to the junction of Anlaby Road with North Road and Calvert Lane. Under the provisions of the 1930 Road Traffic Act this service was subsequently granted licence no BH101/10, and carried route number 9.
Two years later in October 1925 the tramways tracks were extended from Wheeler Street to the junction of Pickering Road with Anlaby High Road. Most of the extension was built on a reserved track in the centre of the roadway. Route letters AP were given to cars operating the full length whilst ‘A’ cars terminated at Wheeler Street as before.
Motor buses were chosen for a new service to the northern end of Gipsyville estate, initially the terminus was on Boothferry Road at Fiveways, whilst the inner terminus was situated in Paragon Street, the extension westwards of Waterworks Street; the route was the same as the A trams, but continuing to run along Boothferry Road. Co-incident with this was also a night service and a Sunday morning service along the same route, all three commencing in December 1927. Under the 1930 Act the three services were all given route number 8 and were granted on BH101/9 (the normal service); BH101/21(?) (Night service) and BH101/22(?) (Sunday morning service). The latter services were extended, however, past Fiveways along Askew Avenue to a terminus situated at the junction of Norton Grove.
Co-ordination of services between the Corporation and East Yorkshire Motor Services Ltd, in July 1934, had manifold effects of both tramway and motorbus services operated by the Corporation and in this respect the Anlaby Road services were affected to a great extent. As far as the tramways were concerned, the immediate effect was the sudden demise of the AP service, all trams were now in the central ‘A’ zone and the outer tram terminus point was now back at Wheeler Street. The tram replacement was a motorbus service which commenced at Paragon Street and terminated in Anlaby Common at the EYMS works. Like the night service, this was also given the route number 9, but was granted on licence BH101/51. A year later the Corporation opened its Coach Station adjacent to the Railway Station, and most bus services were transferred to start and terminate there, both the 8 and 9 did so, at the same time the outer terminus of route 8 during the day was extended to Norton Grove, where the Sunday morning and night service already terminated.
To serve the new estate on Priory Road, a bus service commenced in March 1937 running from the coach station along Anlaby Road, Calvert Lane and Priory Road. It terminated at the Ledbury Road junction, in what was to be later known as the Setting Dyke estate Licence number BH101/80 was granted for it and it carried the route number 10.
Although being in the series of licences granted for co-ordination, licence number BH101/61 does not appear to have had any bus services running until July 1938, when an extended version of the 8 service commenced, this ran beyond Norton Grove to terminate at the Hessle High Road end of Askew Avenue, to distinguish it from the Norton Grove service it was given the route number 7.
No more development along the Anlaby Road corridor occurred prior to the declaration of the Second World War in September 1939, and at this time the following service were in operation:-
| Tram route A | to | Wheeler Street |
| Bus route 7 | to | Hessle Road |
| Bus route 8 | to | Norton Grove, including Sunday morning and night services |
| Bus route 9 | to | Anlaby Common, including night service to Calvert Lane |
| Bus Route 10 | to | Ledbury Road |
Due to wartime restrictions the Sunday morning and night services were suspended, but never recommenced, and the licences were subsequently surrendered. Also as a war-time measure, in order to ease traffic flow, the terminus of the A tram was extended westwards to Boothferry Road, actually terminating on the roundabout there!
War-time conditions had put a halt to the Corporations tramway replacement programme the Beverley Road, Chanterlands Avenue and Newland Avenue trams had already been replaced by trolleybuses before the war, and the Holderness Road route had been converted by special permission in 1940, as most of the necessary equipment was already ordered or on hand. Due to the deteriorating nature of the remaining tramway equipment on Anlaby Road, permission was obtained to convert this route also and in September of 1942 trolley buses replaced the A trams. No vehicles were specially obtained for this as the reduction in services freed trolleybuses, but the route was numbered 69, in the trolleybus series of route numbers.
After the war had ended and life had begun to return to some semblance or normality a new trolley bus service commenced along Anlaby Road. Numbered 71, it was a short working of the 69 which terminated at the Boulevard, and ran on days when Hull Rugby League Football Club played home matches at their Airlie Street ground. The wires were subsequently extended along the Boulevard to a reverser situated at Malm Street, the wires never reached as for as Airlie Street. This reverser was destined to be the only one on the whole of the trolleybus system. From its commencement the 69 had terminated at Boothferry Road, but with increasing traffic in post war years, this location was inconvenient and caused problems for other traffic. To combat this, in March 1947, the wires were extended along Anlaby High Road to the Meadowbank Road junction where the service now both terminated and commenced.
From 1947 until 1960 the routes along the Anlaby Road corridor remained virtually unaltered and it was not until the appearance of the timetable for October of 1960 that any new services appeared and even then there was only one newcomer. The new service, numbered 6, ran between the Coach Station and a new estate being developed off Anlaby Park Road North, where it terminated at the junction of the road with Rokeby Avenue. The same licence as the 9 was used as it was deemed to be a variant of the 9. Late in 1961, East Yorkshire inaugurated a service which ran via Anlaby Road, Boothferry Road, Anlaby Park Road South and Bethune Avenue. As most of the route was in the A and B zones, the corporation held a joint licence, BH101/109, for the route. According to the Corporation it was route number 5 but East Yorkshire used the internal route number 6, but as East Yorkshire buses did not, at that time, display route numbers, the difference was not important, but it was to become so later.
Implementation of the trolleybus replacement programme, which had commenced in 1960, saw the replacement of the Anlaby Road trolleybus services by motorbuses in February 1962. A provisional licence BH101/110 was granted for the operation of motor bus service 69 between the same terminal points. The provisional licence was soon followed by a substantive licence BH101/111, which had the following services on it: 69 directly replacing the trolleybus route; 169, a short working to St Georges Road and 269, an extended version of the 71, but now terminating at the junction of Airlie Street, for Hull RLFC matches. Of these three the 169 was a peak duplicate known as an extra journey and no timings were given in the public timetables.
As stated earlier, East Yorkshire’s buses did not display route numbers, but in the early 1960s new buses were being delivered with route number blinds. As some of East Yorkshires route numbers duplicated those of the Corporation, and in some cases numbers used were different for the same joint routes, it was decided that the Corporation would re-number some of its services to avoid any confusion. Mot of the duplication concerned route numbers 1 to 12, this being doubly confusing as East Yorkshires lower route numbers operated to the west of the city. The Corporations Anlaby Road services were numbered 5 to 10 plus the 69 group. It was therefore decided that the above services had to be numbered into a 6x series thus 5 to 10 became 6, 66, 67, 68, 65 and 60 respectively. It should be noted that the joint service to Bethune Avenue took the East Yorkshire service number 6. These changes were shown in the timetable dated September 1963.
From the start of the 1965/6 school year the Corporation started to provide school transport and two services were provided along the Anlaby Road corridor namely the 866 and 868 services. The initial number 8 was a numerical prefix to a route number which denoted a schools service and they were based on the 66 and 68 services respectively. The 866, on BH101/51, naturally as the 66 was on this licence, ran between the junction of Anlaby Road and Belgrave Drive and the 66 terminus at Rokeby Avenue, whilst the 868, on BH101/61 ran between Paragon Street and the Kingston High School in Pickering Road. It may be recalled that service 68, originally 8, was held on licence BH101/9 but by this time it had been transferred to BH101/61, the licence which held the 67 (7) service. The 866 ran only for the 1965/6 school year as it did not recommence the following September. However the October timetable shows a peak-hour variant of the 66, which ran inwards only, from Rokeby Avenue and it terminated in Alfred Gelder Street, adjacent to the Guildhall, this was given the prefix 3 which denoted peak hour journeys. The timetable dated April 1967, however gave a further school service on the 66 licence, which served the new St. Thomas More school in Sibelius Road, this was just off Rokeby Avenue As numerical prefixes were now giving way to alphabetical suffices, the new route was numbered 66S the S suffix being self explanatory. Under the above scheme other services gained alphabetical suffices as follows 366 to 66D, 868 to 67S, 169 to 69F and 269 to 69B. The following October (1967) showed another peak hour service on BH101/51, which was 65D from the Guildhall to Anlaby Common.
At this point the Corporation operated 13 services along Anlaby Road as under
| 6 | (BH101/109) | to | Bethune Avenue |
| 60 | (BH10/80) | to | Ledbury Road |
| 6065/65D | (BH101/51) | to | Anlaby Common |
| 66/66D | (BH101/51) | to | Rokeby Avenue |
| 66S | (BH101/51) | to | St Thomas More School |
| 67 | (BH101/61) | to | Hessle Road |
| 67S | (BH101/61) | to | Kingston High School |
| 68 | (BH101/61) | to | Norton Grove |
| 69/69F | (BH101/111) | to | Meadowbank Road or St Georges Road |
| 69B | (BH101/111) | to | Airlie Street |
This state of affairs was not to continue for long, however as June 1968 saw the commencement of another of the Corporations circular bus services.
The new circular linked Anlaby Road and Hessle Road via Rokeby estate and Boothferry estate. Services involved were the 66 and the 73, which ran via Hessle Road. The three 66 routes were accordingly transferred to the Hessle Road licence, BH101/56; at the same time they became 63, 63D and 63S. Subsequent development of the services will be continued in the Hessle Road chapter. Also transferred the same time were services 69 and 69B from BH101/111, which was surrendered, to BH101/61. The 69F variant was withdrawn upon transfer of the other two, and the 69B was now listed as an extra journey!
BH101/61, in addition to gaining the 69 services also gained a circular service, also linking Anlaby and Hessle Roads, which was achieved by extending the 67 service along Hessle Road to the city centre. Service numbers were 67C, via Anlaby Road, and 77C via Hessle Road. Two extra journeys also were shown on the licence 67B and 77, both terminating at Norton Grove, the 67B was of course the former 68 renumbered and reduced in status. Finally, on the licence, a workers service which travelled the 67 route, then via Hessle High Road to the Birds Eye factory commenced with service number 67W. The licence now held a total of nine services, namely 67, 67B, 67C, 67S, 67W, 77, 77C, 69 and 69B. Subsequent changes to the licence occurred in October 1968, with an extra journey 67D which commenced at Wilberforce Drive, which operated at peak hours only. The 67C/77C circular service was shown for the last time in the above timetable, as the next issue dated March 1969 did not list the service; however both the 67D and 77 had been altered to timed services from their previous extra journey status. In addition to this a peak hour service between Wilberforce Drive and Meadowbank Road, numbered 69D commenced operations. September saw the ending of the Birds Eye service, 67W, to Council Avenue.
There was only one change to the services along Anlaby Road during 1970, and this was on the joint licence BH101/109. A new school service commenced in March which ran between Wheeler Street and the Sydney Smith High School in First Lane, Anlaby. The service was numbered 6S. From the commencement of the new school year in September, the inner terminal was extended to the city centre to commence in Anne Street, off Ferensway. It then ran unchanged for the next ten years.
Licence BH101/61 lost two of the 69 variants, 69B and 69D, leaving only the 69 service in operation after October 1971. The new edition of the timetable which showed the loss of the 69B and 69D showed also a new variation of the 6O service. Numbered 60A, it ran to Cottingham Green, via the 60 route to Priory Road, Newgate Street and King Street in Cottingham village. The next edition of the timetable in March 1972 showed another 60 variant, 60B, which ran to Cottingham Parkway via Priory Road, Kingsway, Link Road, The Garth and Wake Avenue. The 60A was also amended to terminate the Parkway running via Priory Road, Newgate Street, South Street and Southwood Road, it returned to Hull as service 60B, whilst the 60B returned as 60A. Although listed in the Corporation timetable, in practice both the 60A and 60B were operated by East Yorkshire from the outset, and from September 1972 the Corporation ceased to list them in its timetables, although they were still shown on the route map for some time. Service 60 however continued to be jointly licensed and operated.
September 1972 also saw the start of three new services on BH101/61. 67F covered services between Hessle Road and the Coach Station rather than Paragon Street; it was listed only as an extra journey however. Another extra journey was 69B, which was identical to the service withdrawn the previous year. In addition, there was a service 69F, which like the 67F ran to the Coach Station. This service had timed journeys. Likewise in September 1973, a new 77F service from Norton Grove to the Coach Station, via Hessle Road commenced and also the 67F lost its extra journey status, but the 67D Guildhall service was discontinued. A year later the 69F service was reduced to extra journey status. The following May, 1975, saw the 67B achieve timed journeys and at the same time the outer terminus was extended from Norton Grove to the Hessle Road/North Road junction. In order to rationalise the BH101/61 licence which was an Anlaby Road licence services 77 and 77F were transferred to licence BH101/108 which held the 70 group, and was a Hessle Road licence.
The first inter-district service on licence BH101/61 appeared in May 1977, commencing at Hessle Road it ran via the 67 route to the city, then via Ferensway, Jameson Street, George Street, Witham and Holderness Road. The terminus was at the Astoria stop and the service ran for first team matches of Hull Kingston Rovers Rugby League at Craven Park. The return was via the above route reversed to George Street, Savile Street, Carr Lane, Anne Street, Osborne Street, Ferensway and Anlaby Road to the Hessle Road terminus. Route number 68 was carried. A year later in May 1978, the 69B City - Airlie Street was given timed journey status. The North Road service, 67B had ceased operation in September 1979.
Bus services in Hull were re-organised on a major scale in June 1980, and at this time there were only three licences in use for Anlaby Road services, namely BH101/61, BH101/8O and BH101/109, the latter being a joint one with East Yorkshire. The effects of the re-organisation on these three licences were, however, minimal. BH101/61 saw both the 69 and 69B, become extra journeys but on the other hand the Coach Station to Meadowbank Road service 69F became timed journeys ex extra journey status. The only other change concerned BH101/109 where the school service 6S was renumbered to 93.
Back on BH101/61, In January 1981, the service 67B, which had been withdrawn in 1979 was now re-instated as an extra journey. In May of that year the link with the first tram route was finally severed after 82 years, as the 69 and 69F services were finally withdrawn. The Hull RLFC service continued albeit transferred to BH101/56 and renumbered from 69B to 63F. These changes were necessary as route number 69 was required for another service. Also at this time the 60 (BH101/80) and 6/93 (BH/101/109) were transferred to East Yorkshire and the licences concerned were surrendered. From this time the only licence in operation along the Anlaby Road corridor was BH101/61, in addition, of course to the BH101/56 which is dealt with in the Hessle Road chapter. At this time BH101/61 contained the following services: 67 (Hessle Road), 67B (North Road extra journey), 67F (Coach Station-Hessle Road), 67S (Kingston High School) and 68 (Hessle Road-Craven Park).
It was not until April 1984 that any changes occurred on the licence, when a tourist service numbered 67X commenced serving the old town and marina. It was marketed as the Heritage Service, but by June, the route had been amended and the route number changed to 50. At the same time three new variants of the 67 were introduced, 67A covered journeys which were extended westwards along Hessle High Road to serve the Sainsbury’s store in Priory Way, whilst 67D covered services from Anlaby Park Road South or Sainsbury’s to the Guildhall, both of these journeys ran inwards only, so no confusion arose as to where they were going. In addition to this the main 67 was also extended westwards to commence from Anlaby Park Road South, and the Coach Station. Hessle Road service 67F ceased operating.
Yet further changes occurred in July 1985, the Anlaby Park Road South terminus was no longer used as all journeys now ran to Sainsbury’s, which accordingly changed from 67A to 67, whilst the 67D which had commenced from Anlaby Park Road South now commenced from Meadowbank Road, the old 69 terminus. Transferred to the licence from BH101/101 was a school service from Willerby Road to the Kingston High School. It had started life in 1972 as service 60S, being renumbered 90 in 1974 and on BH101/61 it became route number 77.
In preparation for the impending de-regulation of bus services Hull City Council completely revised its operations and most services were altered or renumbered or both. The new network was put into operation in July 1986, some three months early, therefore existing road service licences were used along with twenty specially granted for special services. Licence BH101/61, accordingly lost 67B, both 67Ds 67S 50 and 77. The remaining 67 was renumbered 15 and was linked with a service running to Noddle Hill and reverse the latter half was on a separate licence however. At deregulation the licence was surrendered and operations passed to Kingston upon Hull City Transport Limited, thus ending 87 years of municipal operations in the city.
Before ending the chapter on Anlaby Road it is worth noting the numerous changes in the city centre termini which were used by the services in the 67/69/70/77 groups.
From July 1968 the 67 group was moved from the Coach Station to Paragon Street, north of the City Hall, at this time the 69-71 group were situated there, this being from trolley-bus days. From September 1973 the services moved to stands adjacent to the Guildhall on Guildhall Road, facing west. All services remained there until July 1976 (67-77 groups) or May 1978 (69-71 groups). The 67/77 group moved to Nelson Street (Corporation Pier) remaining there until June 1980. The 69-71 groups moved to Wilberforce Drive outside the college of Technology, also remaining there until June 1980. From their respective termini both groups moved to Castle Street at that time.
Keith Easton
12/2011
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