Willhire AEL 176B in Barton Mills – 11 Jun 1999 (416-05)

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. I am at the wheel in this photograph.

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!!