Barton Transport on TV's 'Inside Out' Nottingham Old Market Square and Chilwell Depot October 2008.

Historic Barton Transport buses gathered at Nottingham's Old Market Square in October 2008 for the 100th anniversary of the running of the first Long Eaton to Nottingham 'Goose Fair' bus route operated by the fledgling company. At it's peak Barton Transport was Britain's largest independent bus and coach operator. Filming took place in the Old Market Square and at the one time main headquarters, Chilwell Depot.

[@lizstratton9689]

My bus route to school was the Barton's bus along this original route - happy memories. When I started work at 19 at the Chilwell Army Depot Bartons was still running a bus to the base for the workers.

[@carlwalker1843]

I do remember Barton Buses briefly in Nottingham and Leicester back in the early and mid 1990s

[@rx6180]

By the early to mid ‘90s they were still branded Barton’s Buses, but by this time they were really TrentBarton owned by the Wellgrade Group, as they still are today, with all the Indigo or Skylink routes and other services with similar names they operate. Before the buyout by Wellgrade in 1988, the company was independent, family run, and called Barton Transport. For most of its existence they used to run a fleet of trucks too. Basically deregulation of bus services in the 1980s, with smaller companies springing up, cherry picking, running a few buses on the busiest routes, picking up passengers and undercutting on price, killed off Barton Transport’s ability to compete and run the less profitable services. That’s why even now you sometimes still hear of cases of bus services being withdrawn from unprofitable rural routes with not many passengers, yet the people who do use the bus depend on it. I can remember after deregulation, walking in Nottingham and seeing Nottingham City Transport double deckers and another ‘newbie’ company running repainted older double deckers (I can’t remember the fleet name but they were blue and cream) competing and trying to be first to a bus stop, with drivers getting angry and horns being blasted. I remember hearing or reading about two rival buses colliding at a bus stop because of this practice. It was chaos for a time, until the weaker companies withdrew or wound up. Prior to deregulation, local authorities issued permits for what areas particular companies could pick up fares in. After deregulation, in the political era of utility sell-offs, competition, and the free market, it was a bit of a free-for-all on the buses until the smaller companies bit the dust, and the bigger players either took over or services were abandoned. It’s all part of the grand service industry we’re so good at providing in this country.

[@peterhunt2723]

Lived at Stanton on the Wolds 1943 to 1967 rode Barton’s no 6 and no 12 countless times. Happy das!

[@dodgeboy9052]

Hi from Surfers Paradise Australia ... in the 60s i worked at Stanton and Stavely... concrete pipe. moulding ...

[@peterhunt2723]

@@dodgeboy9052 hello there, guess you’re retired now!

[@peterhunt2723]

Or even happy days!!

[@rx6180]

😆

[@peterhunt2723]

@@rx6180 a further note, during the fuel crisis I remember Barton’s buses towing Producer Gas trailers which I found as 5 year old most fascinating!

[@rx6180]

@@peterhunt2723 I've got a few books about the company and I think there are some photos of that setup in at least one of the books. When I was a kid in the 60s and early 70s, my mum's uncle drove for Barton (he worked for the company either side of WW2, initially as an electrician I believe) and there was also a couple of family friends, my parent's age of course, who were Barton drivers. My mum also recalls that T.H. lived next door to her grandmother in Beeston, for a time at least.

[@peterhunt2723]

@@rx6180 the no 6 took me to school and back at Edwalton from 1948 to 1954 when I went to boarding school and then to Nottingham when I became an apprentice in 1958. Bought my first car 1962. Ford prefect £10.00!

[@dodgeboy9052]

As a Kid We. use to. have a Joke ... whats long red and Hairy (airy) a Bartons bus with all. the windows open...

[@peterhunt2723]

Missed that, still worth a chuckle!

[@dodgeboy9052]

cheers good to hear. ... we use to catch the bus on Hyson Green outside Shipstones brewery ..the Star Brewery , to go see. my aunty in Mutton. coal fields ... hi from Surfers Paradise in Queensland Australia... @@peterhunt2723