Our duties for the rest of the day would take us away from Hertford and not bring us back. What is more, consulting the timetable I could not find any way that anyone who came out with us could get back to Hertford on timetabled CBR services. So I made sure that everyone on the bus knew that before we set off. Unfortunately, as we prepared to shut the doors and move off, two more folk scrambled aboard. One just wanted a lift to the end of the road, but the other was heading for Knebworth, having left a car in Hertford. By the time I had found this out and told him the bad news we had passed the traffic lights where I had intended to turn right to pass through the town centre. We bypassed the town centre, and dropped our passenger in the west end of Hertford. We pressed on past Hertford North Station.
A little way up the Stevenage Road we turned off onto Bramfield Road, and entered the tunnel of trees that took us to Bramfield, where we pulled up for photos in front of the picturesque Post Office.
Then we rumbled on through the Hertfordshire countryside, out along the lane to Bulls Green, where the shoppers' short workings terminated. We went straight on, down into Datchworth Green. At the crossroads there we turned left, to cross the long greenand head for Woolmer Green. There we joined the old Great North Road (now reduced in status to the B197) and rumbled north into Knebworth. We turned left in the village, to climb up under the low railway bridge to Knebworth Station.
We went on up the hill through the village, and crossed above the motorway towards Old Knebworth. We turned left through the village, and continued past the last of the houses to reach the isolated little terminus of Nup End.
We squeezed down the narrow lane beside the grounds of Knebworth House (Do they still own their own RF?). Deer were visible beyond the trees. Fortunately we met no traffic coming the other way before we reached Tower Lodge and the junction with the old Bedford road. We headed north, bowling along on the good road, down past Langley and Rush Green (with its bus graveyard). There were glimpses of Stevenage away to the right. The road from Whitwell, route of the 304 for a while, came in from the left. We rolled on down the hill past St.Ippolitts to the outskirts of Hitchin, and down the dark cutting to pass the old Hitchin garage to reach St.Mary's Square.
We headed for Hitchin station, dropping down the bank under the railway and down to cross the river. A right turn took us onto the Willian road, past the Purwell Estate. A glance down a side-road showed a bus-stop there, so presumably buses still serve the estate, as 383 short workings used to. We soon left the town behind, and glided across a mile of rolling Hertfordshire countryside to reach Willian. We passed the Fox Inn, and continued north-eastwards to reach the main road linking Letchworth with the A1(M). No right turn. A left turn, followed by a mile of suburban road, took us to a roundabout in Letchworth where we could turn, to make our way a mile back and on to the big roundabout above the motorway. We crossed over, onto the Baldock road, only to find that we could not turn right onto the Weston road. Another trip up the road to find a roundabout. But eventually we were on the lane to Weston, climbing sharply up from the B-road to Stevenage. Weston Mill was glimpsed briefly as we crossed the hills leading to the village. In Weston we found the turning triangle jammed up with parked cars, and had to reverse onto the bus-stop.
The return run to Hitchin was relatively straightforward, with no enforced diversions due to road layouts. Soon we were climbing up past Hitchin station and forking left along to St Mary's Square, where we were pleased to see both RF308 and United Counties National 587. They had been carrying the brunt of the Hitchin work during the day, RF308 working on the 364 between Hitchin and Breachwood Green and the National shuttling between Hitchin and Stevenage, ostensibly on the 386.
The National crew had agreed to run an extra back to Stevenage for anyone who wanted it, and RF308 had finished for the day. We still had a run through to Luton on the 364....
Photos by Ian Smith. Click on any of them for a larger picture.
Back to Ian's Bus-stop
Part Six
Part Eight: 364 to Luton.