Cherry Rogers recalls Towler’s buses in Brandon.
When I was growing up everybody used Towler’s buses. My first memory, or it could be what I have been told rather than being a memory, was being taken to Bury St. Edmunds to have my photo taken. I would have been coming up for two years old I should think, not sure. Apparently I played up for red water boots and I wore them all day apart from on the photo. They were prised off me with a lot of fuss. I waited until the bus was about to leave for Brandon and then said they hurt me so Mum had to leave me on the bus and run up to Quants to change them. I must have been a horrible child!
Half past three and half past four the last one, kew – Ada Towler
The buses went to King’s Lynn and Bury. There were also loads of excursions. They went to Bury on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Lynn on Saturdays and probably Tuesdays for the market. I used to go to Bury with my friends when I was still at school and later with Colin.
Ada Towler was the conductor on the Bury route and she did it for years. I am ashamed to say we asked her the times the buses returned every single time we went, because she said in a very sing song voice, “Half past three and half past four the last one, kew”. We loved to hear her say “kew”, she said it when she took your money or gave you your change or when you got on or off the bus.
All the Towler men drove buses and along with many others – Freddie Shinn, Derek Newell and Stan Burlingham to name a few. The office was in the front room of the house by the Methodist Chapel and Bob Smith was in the office. He was married to Madge Towler and they lived at the top of Towlers Lane. There was a parrot in the office, which shouted stuff like “Taxi Sir” and “Book tickets“, it made a ringing noise like the phone and if you knocked on the door to go to book excursions it hollered “Come in“.
We used to go on loads of excursions. In the year before we married, when we couldn’t afford a holiday, we went on an excursion every day for a week. I couldn’t do that now, I would be shattered. We went on a day trip to Heathrow Airport, to stand on the roof and view the planes. I think the terminal was only one small building. Can you imagine that now? It’s a place to get through as soon as possible. We also went on mystery tours on a Sunday evening.
Towlers was also used for the Sunday school outings. You had a savings card and paid in a few pence every week, saving all year for it. It was really looked forward to. The money was paid out the week before the outing so you had your spending money. The Methodist had two buses, one for the adults and one for the children. I had to fight to get on the one with the kids. Nana and mum used to like to know what I was doing. I loved it when I got on the kid’s bus, you had a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps and you could eat and drink them before you got to Thetford. There was always a comfort stop at Wymondham and all the kids who were travel sick before we got to Wymondham were cleaned up and returned to their mums on the adults bus. I used to ask Mum for a sandwich at Wymondham because I had eaten my Smiths crisps by that time. We used to fly about, jumping up and down, and generally keep raving, “Are we nearly there?” Oh, the excitement when someone shouted, “I CAN SEE THE SEA!” Everybody flew over to that side of the bus and climbed over each other to see.
When we got there, we had a walk on the beach and a paddle. Nana and mum had a deck chair and we sat eating egg sandwiches, which crunched with bits of sand in them. They were taken in an oxo tin with a rubber band round it. Everyone had an oxo tin for taking to work etc. Nana’s sandwiches were wrapped in a clean damp linen cloth inside the tin to keep the sandwiches moist. My mum’s were in a bit of greaseproof and hurled in the tin minutes before we left. I loved my mum, she was funny. After lunch, we had a go on the snails and the Noah’s Ark, then a walk along Regent Road, bought a stick of rock, had some fish and chips and came home tired and happy. Usually having a sing song on the way home. My mum once had a whelk and chewed it all the way home! She was as daft as a brush.
‘Tip outing was a mass exodus, about five buses and Colin said when he went with the Church there was once seven buses. It took ages to load all the buses and ages to drive home. Today we get there in just over an hour and we can go any time we want to.
Below – Bill and Gwen Rogers with the family at Yarmouth. Brian is pushing the pushchair, Ivan beside his dad, Colin beside mum and Alan in the pushchair. No idea where Jean was.
