Copyright R N Forsythe edition: 27.4.97.
UPDATE: The service 888, centrepiece to this feature, lost patronage through 2006-2009. There were several threats to close. The last run after assorted reprieves was scheduled May 1st 2009.
I have a liking for the surviving bus services that make their way over the moors and high places of Britain. Nowadays many of these are 'leisure bus operations'. No matter how much they may tax the vehicle and its driver, the cachet of history rarely applies to these. A few exceptions from the dawn of the industry do survive and one such with a number of notable claims is the subject of this article.
Ever since 1930, Wright Brothers (Coaches) Ltd have provided a Newcastle to Keswick Trans-Pennine route via Hexham, Alston and Penrith. In recent years the core of the route has been their exclusive territory, although in earlier days Northern and Ribble worked services, both in competition and after 1963 in conjunction with Wright's.
The company's ancestry goes back to 1919 and home has always been a garage in Nenthead. A structure built for a lead mine forms the depot sited some 1500 feet above sea level. This Cumbrian settlement a few miles east of Alston is one of England's highest villages and surely the depot must be the highest headquarters of any British bus company? Wrights had operated from Alston to Nenthead from 1924, and by May 1928 ran twice a day from Hexham to Penrith. The actual Newcastle-Keswick service came through their purchase of Haltwhistle based E Reilly. These dates differ from often quoted dates (including earlier versions of this text) and come from a letter by David Grisenthwaite in the August 2002 Omnibus Magazine.
Public transport in such a desolate area has a surprisingly early ancestry. Because of the mining interests the mainroad that the Wright Newcastle to Keswick service uses was of interest to turnpike promoters. A Hexham to Alston road was promoted in 1778. Subsequently this was much improved in the 1820s as part of the Alston Moor turnpike project which involved the talents of one MacAdam. So satisfactory was the result that a Hexham to Penrith post coach started running as long ago as 1828.
An opportunity to use a Wright's service is always appealing. In addition to the main service, local routes from Alston to Haltwhistle, Nenthead and Garrigill operate daily. A Tuesday only market service links Alston with Allendale and Hexham. Some school services operate in Allendale too. These and the market run cross a summit on a minor road at 1999 feet above sea level near the hamlet of Coalcleugh.
The succession of hills and vales that the routes encounter, allied to the distinctive pearl grey, black and ivory livery help to make Wright's so special. Having first encountered the company back in 1979, I realised that I had yet to find an excuse to travel the Newcastle-Keswick route in its entirety. Strikebound British Railways kindly obliged. One August 1994 weekend I needed to reach Portmadoc for a 6am special on the Festiniog Railway (weddings have their uses). This meant a Friday journey to a friend in Preston for an 'afterwork' lift.
With the rail service down I turned to the bus timetable. It was some comfort to discover three choices. The equally traditional and long lived Primrose service was the rational solution. The Bisset family from Ryton started running from Newcastle to Blackpool via Stainmore in 1927. The family owned firm still maintains its tradition. The yellow liveried coaches are now the last occupants of the once extensive Marlborough Crescent terminus in Newcastle. Every day in the season (and at weekends in winter) vehicles depart for the Lancashire coast at 9am. They would have had me in Preston far too early at 1.20pm.
Then I turned to the 'Stagecoach' solution. A Cumberland Explorer ticket at £4.99 promised an all in one bargain journey. By leaving Newcastle on the first CMS working of the 685 service to Carlisle (at 8.45am), and changing at Carlisle and Lancaster, I could reach Preston at 6.45pm. The core of the journey would have used the 555 Lakeland link route for a mammoth trip going via Wigton and Keswick before joining at Lancaster a sister Ribble vehicle. This seemed like too much of a good thing.
So Wright's service offered a middle ground solution between economy and time. Here was the opportunity to travel the entire route. £6.50 is a fair price for an 82 mile Newcastle-Keswick single. A 9.15 departure would reach Keswick at 12.35pm. This allowed a decent 50 minute lunch break before investing in the Explorer ticket which would take me to Lancaster using the southern element of the CMS 555 route, and then onto the Ribble service arriving at Preston at 5.45pm.
Traditionally Wright's, like Primrose, used the Marlborough Crescent stances for their Newcastle departures. With their rundown, 1992 saw Wright's move the Keswick workings into Gallowgate coach station and the Alston shorts into Eldon Square bus station. Wright's exclusively use coaches yet the route to Alston and Keswick is historically a stage route and is allocated an 888 service number. It will observe all bus stops.
The 9.15am Keswick service runs from Gallowgate and so, after all the anticipation of preparation, I found myself thronging its small concourse with a lot of other people. Many were probably there due to the rail strike, although how many of those were using the Wright's service as a solution to their travel problems was a moot point. Historically the route flourished precisely because there was no effective rail competition. Changing at Haltwhistle for Alston, and Carlisle (and sometimes Penrith as well) for Keswick gave the coaches an edge. Since the 1970s those options have simply not existed.
When it came to boarding, the company would have had cause for pleasure. A healthy loading of some 40-45 people got on board. Walkers (young and not so young) were apparent. Elderly relatives and workers in Lakeland's seasonal industries seemed to help add to the composition. Wright's vehicles are smartly turned out and JAO 400V was no exception. It says something for standards of care that this gruelling route is habitually serviced by this vehicle and its sisters. This is a 14 year old 'lightweight' Bedford YMT and by no means the oldest vehicle in the fleet. More modern coaches do exist but rarely frequent this route. Wright's are also active players in the continental tour market and have been for over a decade. The fleet a couple of years back listed four sleeper coaches.
The bustle at Gallowgate delayed departure by seven minutes but the half hour comfort stop at Alston handles this sort of eventuality. Despite the road improvements it is surprising how today's journey is not so much quicker than 40 odd years ago. Not only are substantial sections of the upgraded A69 and A66 now traversed by the route, but even in the fastnesses of the Pennines, road improvements have eliminated this or that little bridge or sharp bend. The basic rigour remains however. This 9.15am departure is a tradition. It ran in 1952 and arrival then at Keswick for 1.20pm was only 45 minutes slower than today. Truly the driver of 1952 must have worked very hard.
Seemingly a taste of what is to come is heralded by the outset of the journey. This starts in Corporation Street, the climb to the Big Lamp junction between the cavernous walls of a brewery suggests the gorges that lie ahead. At Big Lamp a right turn gains the dead straight Westgate Road which leads out of town. The straightness is no accident for the historic pedigree of route 888 is impeccable.
The next few miles of route use the Roman Hadrian's Wall as a foundation. This is followed to Heddon (the temptation to take the new A69 at West Denton is ignored). So it is the traditional route out of Newcastle, where the Wright's bus is just one amongst many. It jostles with the big yellow Busways's deckers and at Throckley passes the former Newcastle Corporation tram and trolley terminals. By then the countryside is at hand and the bus spotter will have been kept busy. Blue Bus Services 20 year old Bristol RELLs share the road to the next village of Heddon and their presence may blind the enthusiast to the actual remnants of the Roman Wall, that the coach rolls past in Denton and Heddon.
Between Denton and Throckley, the first fields appear and beside the waving corn a hundred yards or so from the main road can be espied a plain looking shed. This is Wright's Walbottle depot tacked onto the edge of what was once a small coal mining community. The 'eastern' base has been part of the company's operations since World War Two. Wright's have not been averse to deregulation innovation and the Walbottle depot enables a tendered local service minibus operation to be undertaken. In 1994 this operated in Western Gateshead as the 615 service taken over in 1991. 11 weekday journeys were operated to form the Rowlands Gill local service. In the vicinity of the depot the road crosses the routes of several early colliery waggonways some having George Stephenson association's.
Heddon marks the first of several 'watersheds' on the route. Some are literal, others figurative. Some feature in the poetry of W H Auden. Here Tyneside becomes Tynedale. The Roman Wall takes off on its own and ceases to be a key bus route. The old A69 is now high above the valley and the views into the heart of the Pennines are panoramic. Solid stone farms border the road and rock outcrops in the fields. Suddenly the country has really arrived. Wright's vehicle can now grow in stature; for much of the way to Haydon Bridge twenty odd miles to the west it is only the 685 route which also services the area. Before deregulation that was a United/Ribble joint route. Nowadays, Ribble far from penetrating to Newcastle, and giving Wright's a good run for their money even in their Alston homeground, have retreated well to the south west. Instead Northumbria and Cumberland take the honours. Our journey proved the point with two passengers making local journeys in this vicinity.
Away from Heddon and for the run up the Tyne valley to Haydon Bridge, the pace increases somewhat. The old road is empty through Horsley and after that it is time for a bit of dual carriageway for the run down to Corbridge. Corbridge is a bustling and historic community. A toll cottage and an ancient Pele tower are passed before two more passengers flagged us down outside the ivy covered coaching inn known as The Angel. The village's Roman remains and Saxon church are not passed by the 888, but the seven arch single track bridge of 1674 is used to cross the Tyne proper.
The 888 is a creature of the River Tyne's catchment all the way to Hartside Summit. Despite this, only one crossing of the river in Northumberland is made and this is it. By contrast the valley railway seems to be continually criss crossing the river. Around Corbridge and Hexham, the Tyne Valley is relatively lush by comparison to the surrounding wastes. One can sense why the Roman's stopped here, and the 888's appearances are supplemented by the 'valley route' 602 service in addition to the more direct 685 service.
Hexham itself is a positive mecca of bus operations especially on Tuesday market days. The little bus station has a French feel to its architecture and at 10am it is busy. Wright's vehicle fights shy of taking a stance and simply pulls over off the road outside. Rochester and Marshall (sadly closed since this was first penned), Tyne Valley and Northumbria are all in evidence. At other times of day and week still other companies like Armstrong's, OK and Snaith's are scheduled to appear. To the student of the travelogue the bus station has a further association. For it was from here one autumn day in 1979 that Elizabeth Gundrey set out to travel to London by bus; a move that led to the England by Bus book and the NBC Explorer ticket initiative.
Leaving Hexham is to say goodbye to the bustle of a market town until Penrith is reached on this route. For whilst Alston has its claim to England's highest market town it does not quite convey the aura of activity that the other two possess. This is certainly the case if the criterion of 'can it support a town bus service' be used. The Tyne Valley is wide around Hexham yet steep sided; this point is evident as the coach passes the Allendale road junction. In time the 888 will reach Allendale but not in such a fashion as to compete with Northumbria's own 688 service. This still runs six times a day to Allenheads and is the haunt of Bristol VRs reminding one of the long history of that route going back to United's arrival in these parts.
Instead the 888 foregoes climbing the valley side for the moment and sticks with the A69's western trajectory to the next settlement of Haydon Bridge. Then at the last moment before a crossing of the eponymous Tyne bridge would be inevitable, the vehicle turns left. A passenger halt is made in the small square before a complete change of gear literally and metaphorically is made. Beyond Haydon Bridge lies miles of '888 territory'. Setting off, an S bend between close set houses is passed and suddenly the road soars upwards. The first of a series of three truly grinding hill climbs has started.
The first summit is only about 800 feet up and is simply to access Allendale. That you can get to Alston by road without doing what the railway used to do and travelling via Haltwhistle depends on Allendale. This is a tributary of the Tyne which points due south for some 20 miles into the Pennines. Its first few miles occupy a gorge which no road or railway would have found feasible to traverse. The only way to enjoy Allendale's potential as a route into the Pennines is to climb the shoulders of moor that flank it from Hexham or Haydon Bridge.
That such routes exist is largely down to the lead mining that had once brought prosperity in the 18th and early 19th century. Partly to ship the ore away and partly to enable the resultingly wealthy landowners to develop their estates, a series of relatively well laid out roads appeared in the North Pennines. One of these forms the core of the A686 from Haydon Bridge through the Allen valleys, onto Alston, over Hartside and down to Penrith. This the 888 route uses in its entirety and its presence is the route's justification.
A couple of minutes from Haydon Bridge and a small tributary of the Tyne called the Langley Burn is reached. The road starts to twist and turn and a very narrow rock sided wooded gorge becomes the means by which the climb is continued. Ahead huge towers of a fairy tale castle are visible through the trees. This is Langley Castle which the coach passes. Today it is an upmarket hotel, its appearance results from a 19th century restoration of the medieval original by the intriguingly named Cadwallader Bates.
The climb continues past the castle with acute bends fringed by rock faces. Knowing the beauty of the uplands to come, it is easy to be reminded of the phrases in the last of the Narnia novels by CS Lewis. The Last Battle's "further up and further in" might not at first sight seem immediately appropriate to a bus route but then the 888 is no ordinary bus route.
Some little cottages and a sawmill herald the end of the initial effort. This is Langley, the hamlet Catherine Cookson chose to retire to. However 150 years ago, it was not the rural backwater it seems today. The bus has just passed a former lead smelt mill, poisonous fumes and lines of pack ponies would have been the villager's lot around 1800. It takes an eagle eye to spot the remains today. Rather more obvious to the bus traveller are the remains of a railway which the coach now parallels for a mile or so across the moor between Langley and Staward, passing between the two the suggestively named and entirely isolated Cart's Bog public house.
The railway lasted from 1867 to 1950 (passengers from 1869-1930) and was making its way from Hexham to Catton Road in Allendale. The advent of buses and motor lorries certainly undid its rationale. Langley and Staward both had stations which the observant can spot from Wright's coach. As the moor is crossed to Staward a huge view unfolds. The hills that form the Whin Sill along which the Hadrian's Wall runs dominate the northern skyline. Nearer and below, the wooded gorge of the Allen approaches from the north. To the south, more hills roll away to the 2000 feet plus summits of the North Pennines.
To progress the route must cross the 1500 foot summit of Whitfield Moor before the (now) South Tyne valley and Alston can be reached. But before this can happen, the Allen has to be crossed and at Staward it is about 400 feet beneath the coach. The A686 accomplishes this by perhaps the most memorable mile of the route. A visitor from the Himalayas would probably not feel out of home here as the road twists down to Cupola Bridge across the Allen, using three hairpin bends in the process.
In only a few minutes, the open moor is exchanged for wooded banks and a tree arcaded road. The river's limestone bed is glimpsed as the bridge of 1778 is crossed. Rivers in the north east do a complicated splitting act. Just west of Hexham the Tyne becomes the North and South Tyne. Just south of the Cupola Bridge, the Allen becomes the East and West Allen.
It is the valley of the West Allen that the A road follows. For several miles, the valley floor is followed to Whitfield, a small estate village. Beyond the grounds of Whitfield Hall, climbing to that 1500 foot summit starts again in earnest. The turnpike builders back in the late 1770's knew their stuff; despite the rigour of the country, both the ascent and descent that take us to Alston should not defeat a cyclist and required very little in the way of second gear from the 888's driver.
Whitfield Moor in a gale is bleak, very bleak, but we were rewarded simply with mist. The sun had been shining in Newcastle, the view fine in Tynedale. Now as the high core of the North Pennines was reached, the cloudbanks met the hills. Somewhere up there we passed out of Northumberland and into Cumbria. Although this boundary predates 1974 and many of the fingerposts proclaim their allegiance to Cumberland, this is still primarily an administrative matter. In terms of local sentiment as measured by the local newspaper and the geography of the watershed, we are in the north-east until Hartside. It is the South Tyne that flows past Alston and which the 888 crosses there. Not however until coffee has been consumed.
A break from such a journey even on what was now a dank and gloomy day was welcome. The resting spot is outside 'Henderson's Garage', the centre point of Wright's movements in the little town. This obviates the passage of the 1 in 7 grade stone flagged market square. To enjoy that pleasure you need to use Wright's Nenthead service or one of the recently introduced leisure bus routes.
Whilst Wright's have consistently been Alston's bus company since the appearance of motor vehicles in these parts, the monopoly has never been 100%. Ribble and Northern had at times to be tolerated on the main Trans-Pennine route. For many years, United worked into the town on a daily service from the north west. In 1951 that meant five return 22 workings on a Carlisle, Brampton and Alston route (and there was a railway then). Those went in 1969 to Ribble who subsequently became Cumberland. The remnants of these services are now known as the 95 and do not get anywhere near Alston. Instead they peter out on the flanks of the fell between Brampton and the Tyne Valley in decaying ex coal mining settlements like Hallbankgate.
Wright's gained out of all this (and the Alston railway's closure), and it is Wright's who put in appearances at Haltwhistle so providing Alston's other all year public transport link to the wider world. Come summer and times change. Recent initiatives (in the main with County Durham sponsorship) have provided the occasion for Weardale, Eden and OK vehicles to be scheduled into Alston. In so doing it has again become possible to reach Alston from both Weardale and Teesdale, but only as a 'high day and holiday' phenomenon. The re-use of the old railway station by the little South Tynedale narrow gauge line has helped to focus this, and certain services terminate there.
For the 888 however, Keswick is still an hour and ten minutes on from the 11.20am departure. The passengers were happy to regain the bus and away we went across the river. From the east, the climb to Hartside is simply a long winding ascent across a moor. In our case, the visibility fell so dramatically that the headlights were on and 50 foot formed the sightline by the time Hartside Cafe was passed.
In the circumstances it was hard to appreciate the inherent drama of the moment. Often for weeks at a time in winter, no vehicle can come this way. The summit of the road is 1903 feet above sea level. The height alone would suggest winter difficulties but these are exacerbated by the sheer isolation. No other road crosses the Pennine scarp north or south for at least 15 miles. This and not Whitfield Fell is the true boundary. On a clear day, Hartside is truly the gateway to Eden (whose valley it fronts). It is on the watershed of Britain and featured much in the life of the youthful W H Auden. In the best weather, the Galloway mountains beyond Dumfries are visible, whilst the Lake District ranges can be studied in detail. In a very real sense, journey's end for the 888 heaves into view.
On this run, the cloudbase was about 1700 foot and below that and further west an increasingly bright day once again existed. Getting down Hartside from the east is something of an adventure. The Eden Valley is so far below that the descent is a continual and very sharply curved transit of the hillside down to the village of Melmerby some five miles away. It takes about 15 minutes to do going down. Coming up it is a fearsome grind and represents the worst ascent the route faces.
Safely down in Eden's vale, rich red sandstone replaced the mountain limestone. We passed Melmerby's village green with its bakery and went on to Langwathby. Herds of fattening Limousin cows filled the pasture to contrast with the peat hags and grouse of only a few minutes previously. We hurried past the Settle to Carlisle line station. The spot is billed as a bus/rail interchange but there were no takers. The second single track bridge of the day gets the 888 across the Eden. Penrith was now no distance away. Midday at Penrith and people were beginning to be set down. Despite the rail strike, an HST was rolling through Penrith station as we passed, although the bus's visit to the station forecourt was in vain.
Out of Penrith and the road to Greystoke was taken. This estate village has Tarzan associations (yes!). Nothing untoward was evident although the architecture of the estate farms did suggest past eccentricity. Beyond Greystoke another derelict railway is encountered, the one time busy Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith. Today it is the upgraded A66 that carries the traffic. As Skiddaw comes into view and the stone turns to slate, real mountains and not mere moors became the agenda.
Somehow (at least for this traveller from the east) the undeniable drama of the Lake District failed to move me. After four hours in a coach, the final rush down the A66 became a very welcome appointment with Keswick's loos and coffeeshops. I was in almost such a hurry that I nearly forgot to note the changes that have turned Cumberland's once major depot and bus station for the area into a Stagecoach property development. Keswick's bus station now seems like a supermarket foyer, which as the trolley attendant will tell you is just what it is.
If you wish to travel with Wright's, enquires can be addressed to Central Garage, Nenthead, Alston, Cumbria, CA9 3NP. Wright's have not published their own timetables for years. Information in 1997 was available in three publications. The North Pennines Tourism Partnership publish a glossy folder 'Bus and Train Services to and through the North Pennines'. This provided compehensive coverage of Wright's operations. Most services also feature in the Northumberland County Council timetable book. Tyne and Wear PTE's Long Distance Services Local folder contains the 888 workings. In Winter from November to April the 888 service does not go beyond Alston.
By 2004, all those three publications were past history. Instead Cumberland Country Council published a route leaflet and a county timetable book. The service was also in the Tynedale Transport Guide.
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