Bus Day offers delightful opportunities to photograph the vehicles in spectacular coastal and countryside settings. Here, you get both, as former Western National 420 (270 KTA), David’s 1962 Bristol SUL4A coach, pauses between duties in the sunshine at Marazion. DAVID SHEPPARD
David Sheppard reports from somewhere between the Cornish hedges at England’s most westerly bus event, where a record number of free vintage bus rides were given on Easter Sunday
For those not familiar with the West Country, Penzance is not far from the end of the world. It’s certainly a lot further away than some expect. Many are the ‘grockles’ and ‘emmets’ who think they must be nearing pirate country once they’ve crossed the Avonmouth bridge, just outside Bristol, only to find there’s still another 200 miles to go…Yet, in the calendar, Penzance Vintage Bus Day never seems far away. Almost as soon as last year’s rally season has given way to calmer seas and winter has shivered your timbers, so the third Sunday in April appears on the horizon and sails reassuringly into port on a gentle breeze.
Its arrival is thanks to the good captains who organise the event each year and, of course, to the many swashbucklers who bring along their cherished vehicles for a proper Cornish adventure.
As always, I was among them this year, embroiled right up to my cutlass and beyond as a lifetime Trustee of the Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust (TV&GWOT) – a registered charity which gives more than 25,000 free vintage bus rides to the public every year and co-organises the Penzance event with the Cornwall Bus Preservation Society. I also own a few preserved buses and coaches of my own and they’re mostly of a size that perfectly suits the narrow country lanes and winding coastal roads of Cornwall.
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