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A CLIPPIE IN WARTIME
At the beginning of 1941, women without family ties were encouraged to take a job which was essential to the wa' effort. I was working. As an assistant in a fruit and flower shop. I did not want to leave the home my husband had set up in the autumn of 1939, so the forces or the land army did not hold much attraction. I would have liked to join the police force but was too young at twenty one. 'How things have altered'. One of my friends said “How about being a bus conductress?'. 'I arranged to have an interview at our local bus depot , Stoke-on-Trent. On a dismal March morning I entered the traffic manager's office. He was an elderly gentleman, with a bushy moustache and a broad pottery accent. After the usual preliminaries he told me the duties of a bus conductress. I would be in complete charge of all time keeping, collect the fares, fill in a bill of fares taken at every stopping stage, ensure the safety of passengers at all times. Even the driver had to do what I told him. I was a bit apprehensive, but the pay was good and the work classed as essential so I accepted. As I was leaving the office the traffic manager said to me in his broad pottery accent “Now thay mustna think when your'e on early turns, thay canst catch the first bus, thay mate be the first bus''. No transport was provided for staff at that time. I would have to take half an hours walk from my home to the depot on early turns, some time as early as three thirty in the morning.
I was given a thorough medical examination which I passed, measured for a uniform, provided with a cap and a public service badge number 16520, for which I had to pay two shillings which was returnable at the end of my service with the company. A large leather bag was provided to hold the cash in, and we were loaned two shillings petty cash.A ticket rack had to be bought by myself. I bought a strong wooden one with two rows of clips on either side, which would hold up to 48 bundles of tickets. Spare tickets were kept in a large black tin box, which I was told to keep locked and safe at all times. If any tickets were lost or unaccounted for, the cash would be taken from my pay. For the first two weeks I was on duty on a short route, fares no higher that threepence, and I had one relief journey to Trentham Gardens. There was a special return fare on this route of sixpence return, and as there were very few cars used for plearure trips this route was always very busy at weekend. As I was about to go off duty on my last week, looking forward to going home and enjoying a meal, an inspector came up to me and asked if I would conduct a double decker bus to Stafford and back. There was a large queue of anxious people waiting at the bus stop on the opposite side of .the road, so how could I refuse? l did not know the fares or the stops, especially in the black out. The inspector filled my ticket rack with tickets up to two shillings, and told me to consult the fare book if needed. There was only a glimmer of light in the bus, but somehow I managed, most of the passengers were regular and knew the fares and stops they needed. Except for one poor chap, he got off at the wrong stop, and on our return journey we saw him trudging up the road to his correct destination.
It was the practice when we came off duty to count up our cash on a large wooden board, pass it in to the cashier and make sure the amount corresponded with the amount of tickets sold. Imagine the shock when I cashed up and found that in the dim light I had issued one shilling tickets which were pale blue, in place of penry ones which were white. There were fifty tickets in a bundle so this was quite a loss. There was still an inspector on duty and when I explained what had happened he said he would arrange for the deduction from my pay to be cancelled. What a relief! The next week it was decided that I should be put on the long distance rota. This meant that my journeys would be in the radiusof around 45 miles, from the depot. The towns covered were Stafford, Cannock, Derby and Buxton.There were 57 stages on the Derby and Canrock routes, this meant that with single, return and intermediate stops , there were about two thousand fares to remember. On the same rota some of the journeys were to outlying districts around Leek and Buxton. On market days we would go to small villages to pick up the farmers and their wives to bring them to the town of Leek. Sometimes these trips were quite adventureous, when it snowed it was advisable to take a spade. The farmers were very plucky and we often had to wait while they trudged over the fields as we were unable to get the bus to them. On one occasion it was impossible for us to do the return journey, most of the farmers made their way home on foot, others stayed in town until the snow had been cleared. On the road from Leek to Hanley there is a very steep hill, called Ladderidge. Many frosty mornings the bus would turn right round on the icy road.
Another time I had a rather old fashioned bus with a door at the back for emergency exit. My passengers were miners going off duty, the hilly road was very icy, the bus could not make the top. I had a spade and on looking back it was really comical, I dug clods from the grass verge and put them under the wheels of the bus. The bus moved all right but I was behind the bus, however the rear door was released and I managed to jump in. Some of the stopping places we were asked to stop were a bit puzzling at first. One farmer asked me to to stop at the hole in the wall, another at the green gate. They had to go across the fields to their home. One unusual request was 'Stop where you see the blind dog'. This was a small farnhouse, we were asked to have a quick cup of tea and given a round of homemade bread with fresh farm butter and cheese. A real luxury at that time. Sometimes we were able to purchase six new laid eggs, which were a great help to the food ration.
There were some humourus moments, I often wonder what became of a small child we saw on one trip. The mother had just had a baby; his brother of about two years old was requiring a bottle. Grandma called to the mother, ''How much milk shall I give him?'' Whereupon the mother called back, “Up to the G on the bottle'' The bottle was in fact a Guinness bottle. The little one lay contented on the floor tapping his feet.
The drivers on these long distance runs were the older more experienced drivers. One was nicknamed Boss, so called because he always called his conductors Boss. He always seemed to be wearing layers of pullovers and jackets. When I had been working with him for some time, I found he was a very intelligent well travelled man. Another one was called 'Chuck'; he always had a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. He was not too good at reversing the bus in tight corners, I always had to watch he did not hit anything. Then there was 'Bigtime M'; he worked many hours, sometimes as many as one hundred hours a week. He gave me the nickname of 'Dandy'; he said I walked like a Yank. He was rather brusque in manner and inclined to swear. I said jokingly to him once, ''even if you can't be a gentleman, do try to behave like one.” There was Nock, and Bill, Sam and George. Travelling up the road to the village of Cellerhead one foggy night, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. I had had my head out of the bus doorway for most of the journey from Derby to Hanley telling telling the driver how close or far off he was from the kerbs, I could dimly see leisurely trotting up the road the back ends of two donkeys which had strayed from a field.
Cellerhead was a dangerous spot. Another time we were approaching the cross roads, we had the right of way. Fortunately my driver was driving cautiously. Two large American Army trucks came across the other way so fast that our bus shook. Among the fleet of buses on the Derby route were two large Daimlers, which had been manufactured for South Africa. Because of the war they had not been sent out there. They were extra wide and normally would not be suitable for our roadways. They were very smooth r running and had thirty nine seats which for a single decker at that time was unusual. There were always a lot of passengers on the Derby route, and I always tried not to leave anyone behind. There was a rule with the overlapping Trent bus service that we should only have twelve standing passengers. Sometimes to overcome this I used to tell the passengers to take a threepenny ride out of Derby and I would pick them up there. I often carried as many as a hundred passengers on these buses.
Some of our early morning turns were to collieries. One we often did was the now closed 'Chatterly Whitfield' It would be pitch dark, I would guide my driver with great diificulty, to his parking place. Then we would go into the miner's canteen to wait for the night shift to come off and have their bath. The air in the canteen was thick with smoke from the twist smoked by the miners as they came from the pit, and steam from the nearby hot baths. I would fight my way to the counter and the man in charge always used to save me a fresh cream puff and a cup of Horlicks.On the double decker buses we used on these routes there were side seats and if there were a lot of standing passengers the steel toe caps of the miners boots would bruise my ankles as I pushed past. Returning to the town I used to have a wash and brush up before continuing my duty. One morning I could not have my usual wash and went right away on a market trip to a small village. I asked the lady at our first pickup if she could supply me with some water to wash. She called her son ''Charlie, fetch this young lady some hot water.'' Charlie returned a few minutes later with hot water in a ladle, I think he had been down to the cow shed to get it. I was so grateful to him.

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