PAUL CHANCELLOR uses photographs from the Colour-Rail photograph collection to compare recent developments in north-west Norfolk with how it looked in the early 1980s
ALL CHANGE
The rural nature of the area surrounding the north Norfolk town of King’s Lynn helped make it something of a stronghold of independent operators over the years, supplementing the long distance and town routes provided for many by Tilling and later National Bus Company-owned Eastern Counties. Physically, the town centre has changed little in recent years and other than the modernising of the stands, the bus station remains much as it has been for at least the past 40 years.
Eastern Counties was split into smaller units in 1984, with the name retained for bus operations in Norfolk and Suffolk. Like many NBC subsidiaries, it Eastern Counties received many minibuses in the 1980s. It was sold to its management in February 1987 and taken over by the GRT Bus Group in July 1994. GRT and Badgerline merged the following year to create First Bus.
While the earlier generation of independent operators gradually disappeared — Eastern Counties acquired Rosemary Coaches of Terrington St Clements — a new operator began to dominate the scene. Al…
