Warminster Museum column: When a double-decker motor bus came to town

Did you see that double-decker motor bus?

This photograph was, almost certainly, taken by Fred Futcher, whose shop, studio and workspace were next door to Corden’s in the High Street.

He must have had prior knowledge that this bus would be coming to Warminster because he has had time to set up his camera.

The date of the photograph will be sometime between 1902 and 1908. On almost every photograph of a street scene at this time, people in the street stop what they are doing and look at the camera to make sure that they are in the picture. This picture is quite different.

Everybody, including the dog, is looking at the bus. It is probably the first time that they have ever seen such a vehicle. They may also be interested in how it copes with the hill and it is quite possible that the bus has stopped briefly to give the driver the opportunity to engage the lowest gear.

The passengers are very well dressed and are clearly not short of spare cash. Most people wore a hat at that time and there was little chance that a gentleman on the top deck, wearing a high hat, would lose it in the slipstream of the moving bus. Top speed on a flat surface was something like 10mph.

But the horse is not looking at the bus. The horse seems very dejected. It is almost as though he sees this new-fangled contraption as a future when he and his trade will no longer be the preferred means of transport.

Eric, Warminster Museum