Bristol Country Buses

The Bristol Tramways Company started operating buses in 1906 to feed traffic into their tram services from beyond Bristol’s city boundaries. In 1910, a branch of the company was opened in Weston-super-Mare, and the company would go on to open its first bus station on the seafront there in the 1930s. Following the Second World War, other bus stations would be built at Wells and Bath. Following the war, the Bristol Omnibus Company, as it was re-named, was under state control and it became part of the National Bus Company on 1 January 1969. In April 1985, Bristol operations outside the city of Bristol itself became known as Badgerline, extending as far as Chippenham, Calne, Gloucester, Salisbury, Taunton and Yeovil. In 1995, Badgerline became part of FirstGroup. In this profusely illustrated book, Mike Walker, author of Bristol City Buses, tells the story of the Bristol country services.