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Working in a New Town, by Ted Mile=
s
=
In
1961 I was living and working in Hackney, East Lon=
don. The housing situation even then =
was
very difficult. With this i=
n mind
I went to Hackney Town Hall where I was given sponsorship forms=
to
work in Basildon. The question I was faced with th=
en was
where to work in Basildon. Always having been a 'bus nut' I
decided to go to the Eastern National office in <=
st1:address
w:st=3D"on">Bull Road, Vange, and apply to be=
a
conductor.
=
![](3D"Miles-1_files/image001.jpg")
This is where Ted came to be
interviewed - Lodekka 32ENO, en route for Romford on service 2, calls to =
pick
up passengers outside Eastern National's temporary depot in Vange on May =
24th,
1959.
Copyright Frank Church, Eas=
tern
National Enthusiasts Group collection
=
=
=
After
a few days I was invited to be interviewed and fortunately my application=
was
accepted. Between my interv=
iew
and starting training with Eastern National they had moved into a new dep=
ot
facility at Cherrydown in Basildon,
very close to the town centre and bus station. [The new depot opened at Easter
1961]. Despite this matter =
they
forgot to tell me they had moved, as such I arrived at Pitsea Station nice
and early. It's a good job =
I did
as I walked down Bull Ro=
ad,
mystified, wondering where I was going wrong, =
where
was that depot? Informed of the move, I then carried on the walk, quite a
long walk, from Pitsea to Basildon, on=
what
was quickly becoming a very hot day.
=
=
So,
how well were we trained? V=
ery
well actually, by conductor George Byford, who never understood just why I
could do up a 'waybill' so easily.
I never told him the conductors at Walton had let me do this when I
was a teenage boy. During
training there were various forms to fill in, and after a short time if y=
ou
were satisfactory Eastern National sponsored you for a house with 'Basild=
on
Development Corporation' as a necessary local worker. After 7 months I was offered a 2=
bedroom
house which I quickly accepted.
=
=
The
training in the school at Basildon was=
5
days long, there were 8 of us in the class and I was amazed how high the
standard of applicant was. =
This
was no doubt because of the chance of a house. I was at =
Basildon
depot for a total of 6 years and as such with so many of the new recruits,
having got their home, leaving the company, there was always a staff
shortage. This meant, of co=
urse,
plenty of overtime if you wanted it.
=
=
The
second week of training involved being on the road with a senior conducto=
r,
in my case Harry Millest, a very good man. His driver though, Harry Risbridger, had very heavy boots which made life ve=
ry
interesting! I will tell yo=
u all
about being out on the road and my time on the X10, amongst other routes,=
in
a future issue. =
=
=
The
only thing I will say at this point is if you had the 244's, Pitsea ̵=
1;
Laindon, via Whitmore Wa=
y
and Basildon town centre on a Saturday=
, 4 or
5 hours was more than enough. It was
a regular occurrence in the 1960's to do over a thousand tickets a shift =
on Basildon town services. All short fares meant it was qui=
te a
game keeping up with bagging your coinage up, however this was compensated
with the country routes which were relatively easy.
=
=
![](3D"Miles-1_files/image002.jpg")
A KSW loads in Basildon Bus Stat=
ion on
the 244, much as Ted remembers it.
From a commercial postcard.
=
To be continued<=
/span>
=
Reproduced
with thanks from Grapevine, t=
he
magazine of the Friends of Eastern
National/ Eastern National Vehicle Owners Club.
=
See http://www.envoc.org.uk/<=
/a>
for more information.
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