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Thursday, 23 July 2015

#TBT Grey Green JRK622K

Many of my lunch time breaks from work often found me at either Eastern Counties Wellington Road or at Beach Coach Station. Or sometimes both!

On 22nd July 1982 my photo album records that I took this picture on the rear coach park at Wellington Road. It unusually shows Grey Green Leyland Leopard/Plaxton Elite II JRK622K laying over there. That is probably unusual as I believe their coaches normally used to park up at Beach Coach Station

The coach was new to the company in April 1972 and was re-bodied ten years later with a Duple Dominant body and re-registered TMU 847Y. It left the company towards the end of 1976

Grey Grey was part of the Ewer Group which previously terminated their London services at their own Apsley Road Coach Station in Great Yarmouth. The site was situated behind the current Tower Building and is now used for housing. My old friend from across the pond, Mick Capon tells me that the original Grey Green garage in the town was located on St Nicholas Road

Grey Green subsequently became part of the Cowie Group which morphed into Arriva

Roy
at

5 comments:

  1. suffolkraider23 July 2015 at 21:34

    The tower was up when I was a kid lste 60's 70's I lived on apsley in the summer am trying to place the garage

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  2. NorfolkBoy25 July 2015 at 14:16

    Immediately behind what was Styles Secondary School, at the Apsley Rd/Rodney Rd intersection. It had a booking office, left luggage room and even a cafe.

    The original George Ewer garage fronted St. Nicholas Road (where Wilco/Fast Fit now stands) and the entrance was on Manby Road (it was "L" shaped, a bit like ECOC's Wellington Rd depot, but much smaller. In fact where the Fast Fit parking lot now stands there were a couple of houses, hence the "L" shaped garage. Hope this helps. It does seem a long time ago. I remember traveling on the London service many times, if I remember correctly it took five hours, via the A12 and the only part of that dualled then was a short stretch between Chelmsford and Brentwood. The London terminus was Kings Cross and their were "refreshment" stops at the "Three Tuns", Pettistree, Suffolk and one nearer Chelmsford whose name escapes me.

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    Replies
    1. Rod James15 August 2016 at 17:33

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Unknown24 May 2017 at 18:53

      We used to travel on the East Anglian Express service when it was operated by Orange / Grey Green, and the stops were, as the other poster says, The Duke at Hatfield Peverel, and we also used to stop at Darsham, at the pub next to the rail station. We used to board the coaches at, first of all, Louisville Road, Tooting, and later, after we moved, at the very beginning of the route at The Rose, Rosehill, Morden. That was a very long journey from South London to Yarmouth, especially as Orange ran Bedfords in the early days. My parents loved Caister Holiday Camp, and we went nearly every year from the mid 50`s to the early 70`s. Now aged 70, I can remember those journeys so well.

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  3. suffolkraider28 July 2015 at 23:51

    Aha I see now yes I can remember Styles which is now new(ish) houses One of my "uncles" had his garage on Rodney Rd errm Claude...can't remember last name. Because way back the "family" had Central garage there which they ran the chara's out of and way back kept the black mariah's and hanson's there too. Styles was originally Gt yarmouth High school for girls because mother and me aunty Pat went there, The garage on Manby rd was way before me I think I can remember the Garibaldi opposite. I will always remember Wellington Rd as it was last stop lol The stops were Regent, Regal or garage for us boys!

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