Elsewhere on the web site you will find bus timetables for 1917 and 1921. At the time that I was given the 1917 timetable I believed it to be the earliest known timetable for bus services to Stock. Whilst doing research in the National Archives I recently came across an earlier in the back of the timetables of the Great Eastern Railway dated July 1914.

Elsewhere on the web site you will find bus timetables for 1917 and 1921. At the time that I was given the 1917 timetable I believed it to be the earliest known timetable for bus services to Stock. Whilst doing research in the National Archives I recently came across an earlier in the back of the timetables of the Great Eastern Railway dated July 1914.

The origin of the route through I believe goes back to 1905 when the Great Eastern Railway, which starting operating motor bus services in Essex from Chelmsford to Danbury, Writtle (Oxney Green) and Great Waltham. It is known that in that year there was a proposal to operate motor buses to Stock, but whilst the rector and the parish council were in favour of it the squire Richard Ellis was against it and put a stop to it. Having examined all the alternatives it is my belief that the Great Eastern Railway intended a fourth route - to Stock. If you like the original intention was to have bus services running from Chelmsford to the west - Writtle (Oxney Green), north - Great Waltham, east - Danbury and south - Stock.

In 1912 the Great Eastern's bus routes operating from Chelmsford were taken over by a local company the National Steam Car Company which was the ancestor of the Eastern National Omnibus Company and it is recorded that in that year a route was started to Galleywood and in 1913 a route was extended to Stock. In 1914 it was extended to Billericay. There is now a little bit of confusion as the first edition of the Great Eastern's timetable to show the route to Galleywood is April 1914. Since Kelly's Post Office Directory for 1914 mentions a motor bus route from Chelmsford to Stock I think we can take it that either the National Steam Car Company didn't send the Great Eastern Railway the bus timetables as quickly as one would have expected or the Great Eastern Railway was very worried as to their accuracy. Indeed the Great Eastern's timetables for 1906 do not include its omnibus services advise travellers to look for handbills showing their times.

Now the timetable from July 1914 which I believe shows the route as it was from 1913 to when it was extended to Billericay some time in 1914, which may or may not have been after the start of the first world war Like the previous timetable the service ran only weekdays only.

You will note that the service to Stock was not daily as has been suggested by some sources.

Also the buses were steam driven using an oil fuel rather like steam cars and not like traction engines and steam wagons. Nor was the boiler the same sort as used in traction engines and railway engines. In appearance the buses were similar to famous London B Type, which is in the Museum of London Transport. That is they were double deckers which had open top decks and open rear platforms and the driver's cab did not have windscreen.

And finally, because the service from Chelmsford to Billericay would be perceived by the Great Eastern Railway as being in competition with it - even if it was only two buses on three days a week compared with a service of several trains a day albeit with a change at Shenfield the full route was not shown in the timetables only that as far as Stock. The earliest timetable that I have found is for April 1915.