“When I was quite young I remember there was a ‘bus that left The Green at Glemsford every Friday for the journey to Bury St. Edmunds. It also made a return trip in the afternoon.” said Mr. Livingstone when I met him at his Long Melford home. “Most of the very rural services at that time were operated with small Bedford OB/Duple 29 seaters but this one one had an old Bristol K/ECW double decker with the old rear entrance. There was however no conductor on board. At every stopping place the driver turned round and peered through his window to check all had boarded the vehicle.

“Then just on the outskirts of Bury he stopped outside a house and sounded his horn. A woman equipped with ticket machine and cash bag came running down her path and took all the fares on the last mile of the journey. Of course in those days you often paid when you alighted from the vehicle.

“Another route I really liked was the Ipswich Corporation route 3 to Foxhall. From the terminus at a roundabout you could walk across the heath to the speedway stadium. The interesting thing about all Ipswich Corporation routes was that the route number was equated to the destination, so was changed for the return journey, in this case to 7”, he went on.

In fact he went on and on for the next two and a half hours but I dozed off so I haven’t any further notes. Mr. Livingstone is a Chartered Accountant and works in Sudbury.