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Buses came from all parts of the country to replace missing local buses and they often had wooden seats. When you got on a bus you paid your fare to the bus conductor who kept the fare and gave any change required from his leather pouch. The tickets for the different stages of the journey were kept on the conductor's clip pad and a record of each journey had to be kept on a form clipped to a board. A bell told the driver what to do and the conductor would ring once to indicate that the bus was to stop at the next stop while two rings said it was safe to leave a bus stop. Midland Red buses, which ran from Leicester Street in Walsall to Birmingham along Birmingham Road, were red while Walsall Corporation buses were blue. Harper's buses were green. When I went to WaJsal1 on a bus I used to sit behind the driver in his cab at the front and watch the speedometer as the bus drove from Bosty Lane past the airfield. If the bus did not stop outside the airfield it sometimes reached the amazing speed of 30 miles per hour - a cause of great excitement! When I used the bus to go to school in the village the fare was 1 d return (in those days there were 240 d to the pound). I remember a boy jumping off the bus at The Elms before it stopped and breaking both his legs - and that was while I was at Wesley Hall. Every morning large numbers of men and women waited for the buses to take them to work in Walsall, Birmingham and beyond. Buses from Walsall to Aldridge used to turn round outside The Elms and so when I went to Cooper Jordan School! had to get off and walk. If I caught the Walsall to Sutton Bus it used to stop outside the Church and I had less to walk. In those days children were expected to stand and give up their seat to an adult if the bus was full. If you did not the conductor would give you a sharp reminder. Children were not taken to school, they had to find their own way and the buses were only used in bad weather, it was cheaper and often quicker to walk to school.

(This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Wyre Forest Volunteer Bureau on behalf of Paul Bailey and has been added to this site with his permission. Mr Bailey fully understand the site's terms and conditions.)

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