ISLE OF WIGHT BUSES: THE EARLY YEARS OF ISLAND BUSES UNTIL THE START OF SOUTHERN VECTIS

In our 3rd edition of Isle of Wight buses, Island Echo examines the background and formation of Southern Vectis. Buses came late to the Isle of Wight compared with the rest of the nation – but they say we are 20 years behind the mainland… In 1920, the Ward Lock guide had written:

“The Isle of Wight is one of the few places where the horsed coach and the char-a-banc not only survived the advent of the railways but long continued to flourish in spite of them.”

Horse-drawn coaches operated from the Isle of Wight from the early 19th century. For example, a service called the ‘Rocket’ made its way between Ryde and Newport twice a day. A further service – called the ‘Felicity’ – operated between Ryde and Brading, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor.

The villages would have been served on an irregular basis by independent carriers. Railways came to the Island in 1862 with the construction of the line between Cowes and Newport. By 1900, a 55-and-a-half-mile network had been completed, connecting all the major towns and even extending as far as rural West Wight. However, the railway system left much to be desired. Many stations were located far from the villages they supposedly served. The railways faced competition in 1905, when the Isle of Wight Express Motor Syndicate was set up. The company – based in Union Street, Ryde – began with a circular service from Ryde via Sandown and Shanklin to Newport, using 7 open-top Milnes-Daimler double-deckers. The service only lasted until 1907 as the solid-tyred vehicles were unsuited to the poor condition of Island road surfaces.

The history of Southern Vectis begins in the Summer of 1921 when Frank Dodson – the son of a London bus builder – holidayed on the Isle of Wight with his family. When he went to Osborne House, he was dismayed to find it was a 2-mile walk from the nearest station: Whippingham. He was put through a similar experience when he attempted visit Alum Bay (nearest station Freshwater). The thought occurred to him that what this Island needed was a bus service… Not a man to let the grass grow under his feet, Frank set up the Dodson & Campbell Vectis Bus Co., running 3 Daimler buses built by his father’s company in Willsden. The official commencement of the bus service was 24th October 1921. The company was based at Somerton Garage, and the inaugural routes were Newport to East Cowes, Newport to Cowes and Cowes to Gurnard.

By 1922, services had expanded to cover Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin and Carisbrooke. Later that year, Frank Dodson moved down from London to an address in Watergate Road, Newport. He was joined by his brother Leonard and the firm became Dodson Bros Ltd., trading under the name of the Vectis Bus Service, with an office in St James’ Square Newport. Frank Dodson was praised by the press for “developing services which had revolutionised local travel, particularly for rural residents who previously had to rely on the crawling carrier’s van in districts not served by the railways”. The Vectis Bus Service soon attracted competitors. In October 1922, I.O.W. Motor Services started operating from Fountain Arcade, Cowes under the name Fowler’s Royal Blue Coaches. Other companies soon followed such as Enterprise, Barnes of Niton and Morris Motor Bus Service (among others). However, the Vectis Bus Service boasted of being the best.

In a 1925 visitor’s guidebook, it was written:

“The Vectis Bus Service are large roomy vehicles comfortably upholstered and soundly built. The engine is of the well-known Daimler type, which has proved eminently suitable for the hilly ground some of the vehicles cover. “The drivers are experienced men, mostly Island-born, who have a first-hand acquaintance with Island roads.”

For the remainder of the 20s, there was fierce competition between bus services on Island roads, with the rival bus companies ‘chasing’ each other for passengers. The competitive Frank Dodson was said to have fired drivers for arriving in St James’ Square with an empty bus if he had seen a competitor arrive fully laden (although he was also said to have usually reinstated the drivers).

Inevitably, there were accidents. An Enterprise vehicle overturned while descending Union Street in Ryde; a Vectis bus overturned while overtaking in Chessell. Ryde Council made allegations of dangerous speeding against Vectis buses, claiming they were being driven at 35mph along Queens Road in Ryde (the speed limit was 12mph) to overtake rival bus company vehicles. The Vectis Bus Service came into its own in 1926 when the General Strike closed the railways, and they put on extra services. Buses increased in popularity with a 1928 traffic census revealing that a total of 449 buses per day had crossed the Ryde Town boundary. By 1928, the Vectis Bus Service was carrying 2,250,000 passengers a year.

Southern Vectis began on 1st March 1929, when Southern Railways purchased an interest in the 423-bus Vectis Bus Company business, changing its name to The Southern Vectis Omnibus Company – amalgamating the names of the bus and railway services. The railway company hoped to coordinate bus and train services. It then became possible to travel to Blackgang Chine via Ventnor Station, to Carisbrooke Castle via Newport Station and to Seaview via Ryde Esplanade. In 1932, the Dodson brothers sold their interest in Southern Vectis for £27,700 (nearly £1,600,000 in today’s values). In the next edition of Isle of Wight Buses, we shall look at the progress of Southern Vectis up until the start of World War II…