Friends of King Alfred Buses chairman JAMES FREEMAN recalls the midnight oil that was burnt so a troublesome Atlantean could take part in the second Winchester running day in 1984
I like buses and everything about them, especially the people. I have been interested in them since I was a small boy, as long as I can remember, in fact. I started reading this magazine, then entitled Buses Illustrated, when I was eight and my second copy, for March 1965, had a King Alfred bus from Winchester on the cover. I have been reading the magazine every month ever since.
I was brought up in Bath, where I now live again. In my childhood, all the buses were uniform Bristol ECWs in simple Tilling green livery. Every year my parents would take me to Winchester. They were bound for places elsewhere, but I would be left with two very indulgent maiden aunts (the Misses Freeman) who lived on a main road in a house which was passed regularly by the buses of King Alfred Motor Services.
These buses were quite different from what I knew at home, being AECs and Leylands, with the impressive statue of King Alfred on the sides. It was to be my rising acquaintance with the intricacies of the King Alfred operation that guided me int…