Bus, Trolleybus and Tram Routes of Kingston upon Hull Corporation
Predecessors and Successors. 1899 to 1986

Chapter Ten

Sutton (Via Holderness Road)

Road Service Licence No’s: BH101/29, /36, /45, /46, /57, /132, /133, /142.

Sutton-in-Holderness was a village some few miles north east of the centre of Hull and due to it being situated outside the city boundary; it was not served by vehicles of the Corporation. Consequently, the first bus service between the village and Hull were commenced by a private operator. The operator was Noel Thompson, who was based in the village. From July 1921, Thompson operated a bus service from Sutton to Sculcoates via Stoneferry. In due course, the route was extended to Bond Street in the centre of Hull. By 1923 he was operating a second service to Hull, this time via Sutton Ings and Holderness Road. In October 1926 his business, including the two services above, was purchased by the newly-formed East Yorkshire Motor Services, who continued to operate them. By 1930, Sutton had been incorporated into the City of Hull by the extension of the city boundaries around the village. The Corporation began negotiations with the company and in May 1930, the Ings Road service was purchased, commencing operations on the 5th of that month. Under the 1930 Road Traffic Act, this was duly granted on Road Service Licence Number BH101/36 and was given service number 34. In November 1931, a service to Wawne via Sutton was also purchased by the Corporation. This would be granted on BH101/29 and was numbered 38. Both routes ran via George Street, North Bridge, Witham and Holderness Road, but the 38 ran via Summergangs Road sand Gillshill Road instead of Ings Road. The city termini of these services were altered from Paragon Square (34) or Ferensway (38) to the bus stands which had been provided north of the Electricity Showrooms in Ferensway. These commenced usage in 1933.

Upon the co-ordination agreement with East Yorkshire in July 1934, the original Sutton service 34 was rerouted from Ings Road to Summergangs Road; the original licence BH101/36 was surrendered and replaced by a new licence BH101/57 for the new route. A new feature for the period was that the route was extended at infrequent intervals along Saltshouse Road to the Sutton Branch Hospital which was situated there. Although it was also on licence BH101/57 these journeys carried route number 36. Night and Sunday morning services were also instituted on route 34 running between Queen Victoria Square and Sutton; Road Service Licences are thought to have been BH101/45 and /46. Upon the opening of the Coach Station in October 1936 the three services 34, 35 and 38 were transferred there, but the night and Sunday morning services remained at Queen Victoria Square. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 these two services were discontinued and never recommenced; their licences being eventually surrendered.

There were no further developments to these services during the course of the war, with the exception of the curtailment of services as directed by the hostilities and the availability of petrol. To summarise the position at the end of the war there were three services in this group:

All three travelled via George Street, North Bridge, Witham, Holderness Road, Summergangs Road and Gillshill Road.

In February 1951, the Wawne service 38 was renumbered 85, and at the same time another Wawne service, numbered 87, commenced but ran via North Bridge, Cleveland Street, Stoneferry Road and Leads Road to Sutton. In spite of it having a completely different route it was also granted on licence BH101/29. In fact it ran by the same route as the 31 on BH101/37, which used a different route to others on that licence also! However, the two services remained on BH101/29 alone until 1955, when two short workings were introduced to the RAF Camp at West Carr Lane; these were numbered 76 and 77, the last figure denoting the main service to which it was linked. Around this period, the 7X series started to be used for short workings as in October 1956, the 74 was added to BH101/57 and was a short working of the 34 which terminated at Tweendykes Road. It was discontinued by October 1960. In April 1961, a variant of the 34, numbered 36 commenced. Running between the city and the Sutton Branch Hospital this seems to have duplicated the 36 as there were no recorded changes to that route until 1966. Meanwhile, the two RAF short workings on BH101/29 ceased operation in October 1963.

Licence BH101/57 gained two school services for the new school year in 1965. These were first listed in the October timetable. Both served the schools in Cavendish Road. The first, number 834 commenced at the Holderness Road garage and ran via Summergangs Road, while the other, numbered 835 commenced at the Holderness Road and Saltshouse Road junction and ran via Sutton. A year later the 35 is recorded as terminating at the Holderness Road/Saltshouse Road junction in place of the Sutton Branch Hospital. This extension may have been made considerably earlier as the 36 of April 1961 ran to the Hospital by exactly the same route.

The anomaly of the differing routes held on licence BH101/29 was resolved in April 1967 when the Summergangs Road service, number 88, was transferred to licence BH101/57 and the Stoneferry Road service 87 was transferred to BH101/37, the original licence then being surrendered. There were other changes on licence BH101/57 at this point. The 835 was withdrawn and the 834 was renumbered 34S, but there was an interesting new service 34A, which ran through Sutton and Wawne Road to terminate at Bude Road on the new embryonic housing estate of Bransholme, which was destined to become the largest housing estate in the country. The terminal was at the same point as the 32A. The importance of the new route was emphasised in June 1968 when the route numbers were amended as under

In October a peak working to Bransholme via Drypool Bridge commenced with route number 34D but this was an “extra journey” until June 1969. In March of 1969 the 59 was discontinued as was the 35B in June, but a new 35 service commenced to Haydock Garth via Wawne Road and the 34B Wawne service was renumbered 35B. The old 74 service was also re-introduced as an ‘extra journey’ to Tweendykes Road, but was now numbered 34F.

Along with the 32 group the 34/34D terminus was amended to Bodmin Road in March 1970. New on the licence was a school service 35S which ran between Haydock Garth and Bodmin Road. September saw the demise of the 34E introduced some eighteen months previously. October 1971 saw the commencement of 35A which ran between the city and Abingdon Garth via Wawne Road and Noddle Hill Way. Yet another school service in March 1972 was the 35E between Biggin Avenue and Gillshill Primary School. A novel addition to the licence was a circular service linking the city with Sutton Park and Bransholme, this was numbered 30. At this point, the licence BH101/57 held ten services as under:-

Six months later, in September 1972, The Haydock Garth-Bodmin Road service was discontinued but another 35S covered a service between Dansom Lane and the St Oswald’s and St Anne’s Primary Schools in Sutton Park, also withdrawn was the 35 city to Haydock Garth service. Further withdrawals in May 1973 were the 30 circular and 35E school service. In May 1974 the remaining 35 group services were transferred from BH101/57 to BH101/132, these being 35A to Abingdon Garth and 35B to Wawne. The 36S was renumbered 85 and remained on BH101/57 for the time being. This was to enable the 34 and 35 groups to be separated, as they travelled to Bransholme by differing routes. Another Road Service Licence, BH101/133 was granted for two new services to the area, these being 32, city to Holwell Road and 32A to Wawne. The former was to be later extended to North Bransholme. September 1974 saw the 35B Wawne service cease and due to the fact that it was the only 35 group service left the 35A dropped its ‘A’ suffix.

Another new licence was granted in May 1975 when BH101/142 took the 85 school service from BH101/57. There were now four licences covering deviations of the original Sutton services, these being: BH101/57, 34 groups; BH101/132 35; BH101/133 32 group and BH101/142, 85.

The anticipated extensions of the 32 into North Bransholme occurred in May 1977 when the terminus was extended from Holwell Road to Ladyside Close, and by the following September it had been extended to Gifford Close on Lothian Way. Two variants introduced at this point were the 32B to Pennine Way and the 32D to Cumbrian Way via Drypool Bridge. Two years later the timetable showed the 32 terminating at Cumbrian Way, but both the 32B and 32D were discontinued. This issue also showed the demise of the 34E ‘extra journey’ to Sutton. This was, of course, the original route of 1934 and the licence was BH101/57.

In the course of the Bransholme revisions of June 1980, BH101/57 lost the entire 34 group, with the exception of 345, which was renumbered 80 and two new routes were the 35 and 35D to the Bransholme District Centre, but it travelled by a differing route to either the old 34 or 35 groups. Licence BH101/132 was surrendered as its only route, 35, was discontinued, whilst BH101/133 gained another 32B which was a short working to Haydock Garth. January saw a peak variant of the 32B which was the 32D and it travelled, of course, via Drypool Bridge.

In May 1988, the 32B was extended from Haydock Garth to a new development to the west of North Bransholme which would later become Kingswood. The terminus was situated at Kesteven Way, also added to the licence BH101/133 was a shoppers service between Cumbrian Way and the Bransholme Centre, which was numbered 32X. The 32D was discontinued in May 1986.

The introduction of the deregulation network in July 1986 saw the final changes to the licences being dealt with. On licence BH101/57 the 36D was discontinued, the 80 was extended to Buckingham Street from Cavendish Road and the 35 was extended to Abingdon Garth and re-numbered 15. This was linked to the former 67 on BH101/61 and through journeys between Gipsyville and Bransholme was operated.

Now on the licence was service 12 between the city and the Bransholme Centre. Licences BH101/133 and /142 had all the remaining services discontinued (32, 32A, 32B 32X and 85), both of the licences being surrendered at that point. The three remaining services on BH101/57 operated until 25th October 1986 when deregulation took effect and that licence, too, was surrendered.

Keith Easton
01/2012

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