Photograph of the Bus Station, 161-162 High Street, Winchester
Taken 29th October 1949
Originally a Bournemouth based company, Hants and Dorset Motor Services Ltd acquired its name in 1920, reflecting the extension of its interests eastwards. By 1928 the company owned over one hundred vehicles serving forty routes, and despite a general economic downturn nationally it continued to expand. In the early '30s it invested in a number of bus stations - at Bournemouth, Fareham, Southampton (West Marlands) and at Winchester, where the new building was opened by the Mayor in 1935.
This brought together the company's bus operations in the city; a parcels office and waiting room had been opened in the Broadway in the early '20s, with premises rented at Station Hill; garaging and an office were subsequently built in Stockbridge Road, but by 1930 this site was too small. By this time people could travel by bus from Winchester to Romsey, Fareham, Gosport, Southampton, Petersfield, Andover and Lyndhurst.
The company continued to strengthen its position in an era when few households owned a family car, although by the time of this photograph it had lost its independence, having recently been nationalised by the Labour Government.
The photograph was taken by Winchester photographer F B Heathcote Wride.
