(Torquay) Grammar Snobs Thread

This shouldn't really belong exclusively to this thread but, as it's one that gets viewed by all sorts of people, it seems to be a good a place as any. Extracts from a street plan of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham which I recently bought on Ebay. The plan arrived from an address in Hartlepool on the day we played at Fleetwood.

I reckon it dates from the mid 1960s and may well have come from a borough council annual holiday guide. Separate boundaries are shown for Torquay, Paignton and Brixham which suggests it pre-dates the county borough of 1968. Yet the inclusion of all three towns indicates a joint tourism marketing campaign in the run up to the launch of a Torbay identity.

What makes the map different to many others is the inclusion of bus routes. The bus routes that schoolchildren of a certain age would have taken to get to and from school. And, of course, many other people would have used to get around town.

The first map shows part of the route of the 28A. As a kid I was always interested in what happened to the 28 itself. Does anybody know? Note also the 118 which, I believe, was a single-decker. This, I suspected, was a posh bus for posh people who lived off Cadewell Lane:



To a kid living on the Barton/St Marychurch frontier, Chelston itself was a mysterious place to me let alone all those 32s, 32As, 32Bs and 33s. Routes had changed by 1980 but it was only then, when I had a summer as a Devon General conductor, that things started to slot into place in my mind. I fear it's more straightforward, but less exciting, in these Stagecoach times:



Now to a proper part of town where, for me, there was a choice of buses to town. The 31s from the Prince of Orange were frequent Leyland Atlanteans; the 34s/35s/36s invariably became entrapped in St Marychurch; the 13s were direct but occasional. Eventually, once I reached the age of twenty, I realised it was a pretty short walk down the Teignmouth Road anyway:



A fair chunk of Torquay was contained in the lands between the 50s and 55s. This was before they became a circular: 50s via Ellacombe; 55s via Wellswood. God knows what the provision is now. 32s going to St Marychurch? I don't understand the concept.

Note as well the legendary 30 route which would have been packed to the rafters in the 1960s with Torquay United supporters from Paignton heading to and from Plainmoor. Also the curious 111 and the Inner Circle 114s and 115s which I'm not sure the map does justice:



This extract is for Mr_W who I anticipate will be moved to tears by the sight of the old place being recorded on a map. The obscure 54 bus would have passed close by on its winding route between Shiphay and St Marychurch. No doubt this was something of a "Grammar Snobs" bus in its day. But not for myself. It was the 34s, 35s and 36s home from the coach station for me:



And, finally, a list of all the Torquay services. Maps and routes for Paignton and Brixham can be posted on request for members of such minority interest groups: