Willhire AEL 176B in Barton Mills – 11 Jun 1999 (416-16)

Friday 11 June 1999 – Willhire Vehicle Rentals AEL 176B, a Weymann bodied Leyland Atlantean PDR1/1, seen in Barton Mills. Used for hospitality and advertising purposes the vehicle had been new to Bournemouth Corporation Transport in November 1964 as one of a batch of ten normal covered top vehicles numbered 170-179. This had been number 176.

Willhire had kindly loaned the bus for use during the Barton Mills Village Scarecrow Festival and I had the opportunity to take it for a spin and deliver it to and from the village green.

The Atlantean was the height of modernity when introduced in the late 1950s and was a model which captured my schoolboy imagination but, as far as I can recall, this was the only such example I ever got to drive.

The ladies at Willhire had created a number of scarecrows which had been seated on the top deck. After my breezy drive along the A11 I had a fair amount of re-construction work to do on the characters!!

The villagers were very imaginative with their scarecrow creations one of which can be seen hanging from the window of the house on the left.