The
Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd. began bus services on 22nd
March 1911. On Saturday 9th
April 2011 – 100 years since its formation a gathering of M&D buses and
coaches, ancient and modern took place on the Kent Showground at Detling, near Maidstone,
Kent. Our programme starts in the
morning as the vehicles take up their positions on the showground and in the
newly completed Cornwallis Exhibition Hall.
Bus services then began running around the showground.
Mostly
made up of M&D buses and coaches,
such as an Albion Nimbus, AEC Reliance, an open top AEC Regal I, a
Metrobus and a Bristol
VRT. These were joined by a Bedford from
Malta, an open top Routemaster, a Portsmouth TD4
open topper, a Thamesway Leyland National and
even a former Crosville Bristol RE! (Crosville being no stranger to
M&D, as a number of Leyland Nationals were loaned to them in the
1980’s),
just to mention a few! At 15.30 the
Cavalcade of former M&D buses and coaches paraded around the
showground. This started with the oldest – a Hallford open
staircase double
decker with solid tyres –
going through the ages to the present day.
We then recorded the exhibits, both M&D and guest vehicles leaving
the ground.
To conclude this part we
have a short sequence from the 2010 Herne Bay rally of Bristol K (HKE 867) in
service. The bonus disc has archive
footage from the video camera of Malcolm King of AEC Regal (HKL 836) operating
the Cotswold Tour from Stratford-upon-Avon in 1990. We also feature a few shots of M&D buses
and coaches from the early 1990s. We
hope you enjoy the celebration with us!