A Brief History

The company was first founded on the 17th of March 1916 by the late Mr William W Graham, who joined up with the British Electric Traction Company and officially registered  "Bournemouth & District Motor Services Limited".
The new company started operations with private hire and local tours using a fleet of four 'Straker' vehicles. These were garaged in the Bournemouth West Cliff Livery Stables in St Michael's Road.
Because of the war, after about six months these services had to stop, however on the 1st of August 1918 the company started up again with a service between Bournemouth (County Gates) and Sandbanks.

By 1919 the company held the following licences: 6 for chars-a-banc, 5 for the Bournemouth to Sandbanks service, and 12 for other services. By December of this year the company obtained a further 36 licences for operations in the Southampton area.

Also in 1919 the company changed it's registered office from Wilts & Dorset Bank Chambers, Albert Road, Bournemouth, to the Royal Mews, Norwich Avenue.

In January 1920 a representative of Thomas Tilling joined the board, with the British Automobile Traction Company holding a controlling  interest in the company.

On the 27th of January 1920 the company changed it's name to "Hants and Dorset Motor Services Limited"

In 1929 half the share capital was acquired by the Southern Railway.

During the 1920's the company started to acquire other companies in the area, building up it's main 'trunk' routes in the  Bournemouth, Poole and Southampton areas.

Bus stations were opened in Bournemouth (8th March) and Fareham in 1931, with Southampton following in 1933 at a cost of £38,000.
The bus station in Bournemouth was one of the most advanced in the country, being two floors high, the lower used by "Royal Blue Coaches" and the upper by "Hants & Dorset". This building replaced two garages in St Michaels Road and Norwich Avenue.

On the 1st of January 1969, under the new 1968 transport act, the National Bus Company was formed, by the amalgamation of the British Electric Traction Group and the Tilling Association Limited. This took in sixty five bus companies across the country, including Hants & Dorset, Wilts & Dorset and Shamrock & Rambler.

In 1971 the entire fleets of Hants & Dorset and Wilts & Dorset were re-numbered.

Overnight on July 24th/25th 1976, a large fire destroyed the unique bus and coach station in the centre of Bournemouth. The fire, believed to have started in a tyre store, destroyed 16 coaches on the lower level, however, about 80 buses above were driven to safety.
The building was so badly damaged, it had to be demolished. Buses had to use make-shift bus stops around the Square and Triangle areas, later the Triangle was adopted as the new 'Bus Station', although it simply consisted of scattered rows of bus stops!
The Buses were temporarily garaged in the old Royal Mews garage in Norwich Avenue until being moved to Poole in 1980.

In 1983 the company was split into three separate companies, Shamrock & Rambler Coaches Ltd, Hants & Dorset Engineering Ltd, and Hants & Dorset Motor Services Ltd.
The later was the holding company for all the other companies that were formed, these were later privatised and the company went into voluntary liquidation in March 1988.

Wilts & Dorset Bus Company Ltd took over the running of the old services and the company still survives today.

To be continued......