We began to talk and pray about the possibility of getting a full size bus. At that time, although we had heard that many churches in North America had their own buses we did not know of any church in London or England that had one. We had no idea how much one would cost. I had not driven anything larger than the 12 seat Bedford and then, of course, there was the question of how much it would cost to run and also, where we would keep it. I am not sure whether it was in the spirit human foolhardiness or childlike faith but I began writing to bus and coach companies asking them if they had any buses they no longer had use for that they would be willing to sell to us. I explained something about the work that we were doing and why we needed it. I received courteous replies but in almost every case the news was that they had no suitable buses available. There were two replies, however, informing us that they had a bus available. One was from a bus company in Bristol who offered us a bus, but the price was way beyond what we could afford. I am sure it was worth the asking price but it was out of our reach. Then a letter arrived from the East Kent Bus Company telling us they had a bus that they would be happy to sell to us. It was a 45 passenger Dennis Lancet 3 country bus and it would be ours for £60 should we be interested. The price was better than we could have hoped for and as I looked at the letter I was holding in my hand the peace of the Lord descended on me with the certainty that this was His answer to our prayers. Immediately I sent a letter saying that we were definitely interested. I followed that up with a telephone call to Mr. York, a senior manager at East Kent, who had written to me. He assured me that the bus would be fully serviced and checked and be in excellent running order when we received it. There was much more to this story that we would hear in time that would confirm in the most remarkable way that God had gone before us, providing this particular vehicle for us and His work among precious young people.
I had to arrange insurance coverage and 25th March 1964 was set as the day Grace and I would go to Herne Bay on the Kent coast to complete the transaction, take possession of the bus and bring it home to Chiswick. Now that we had reached this stage in the proceedings reality set in and I began to get nervous. This was a big undertaking. Further, I had no experience driving a vehicle of that size. The prospect of it all certainly raised my prayer life a notch. Finally the morning of 25th March arrived and I prayed for God’s help and protection, and courage to face the events of the day that lay ahead. I turned to a time honoured book named, Daily Light. It is a book of daily devotional readings consisting of verses from the Bible put together in topical themes. It has been used by Christian believers since its publication in 1875 and was compiled by a man named Jonathan Bagster. I had told the Lord I needed a lot of His help if I was to get to Herne Bay and bring that big bus back safely. My eyes widened as I read what Daily Light had to say for 25th March. Here it is, in the Authorized (King James) Version in which I read it that morning
March 25th
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
“So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.–Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
I could hardly believe what I was reading. Many believers at different times and varying circumstances have experienced reading something from the Word of God that speaks clearly to their situation. This is exactly what happened to me that morning. As far as I was concerned God was promising a successful day.
We travelled by train to Herne Bay and then walked the short distance to the East Kent bus depot. We met Mr. York who introduced us to our bus and to the chief mechanic at Herne Bay, whose name I believe was Ernie, who had prepared the bus for delivery to us. When I looked at the bus it seemed huge. Its licence plate number was CFN 121.
Mr. York told us that they had had a fleet of 60 Dennis Lancet 3 buses which they bought new in 1947. These buses had given them excellent service on the country roads of Kent but a decision was taken finally to replace them with a more modern fleet. Fifty nine of the buses had already been sold and ours was the last one left. He said that might lead us to believe that it was the one nobody else wanted because it was the worst in the fleet. In fact the very opposite was the truth. When the fleet was pulled out of service one of the Directors of East Kent, who was involved in charitable work with children, had telephoned Mr. York saying that his organization would like to buy one of the buses. He requested that the chief mechanic go through the whole fleet to find the best one and set it aside. Ernie did this and set aside CFN 121. The rest of the buses were sold and then Mr. York received another telephone call from the East Kent Director with the news that the charity he worked with had decided to have, instead, two smaller minibuses and therefore CFN 121 could be released for sale. Mr. York then said to me, “The day after that telephone call, your letter arrived on my desk!” He went on to say that he was impressed by the work we were doing and arranged with the company to sell it to us at the lowest possible price. East Kent virtually gave us the bus; they needed a modest figure to show in their accounts for the sale. God is so incredibly good. Many weeks before I began writing letters to bus companies, He was busy choosing and setting aside a vehicle that He wanted us to have and use in His service.
Ernie affectionately patted the bus and said, “She’s a good old girl, look after her and she will run forever.” I told him that I had never driven a vehicle this large before and would there be a chance that he could give me a lesson? He nodded and directed me to get into the driver’s seat. I climbed up into the cab, looked down and thought a parachute might not be a bad idea in case of an emergency. I turned around and looked at the rows of passenger seats which seemed to disappear into the distance. I remember thinking, “Everywhere I go, all that has to follow.” Ernie then systematically pointed out to me the various controls and switches. He told me the gearbox was a standard (manual) shift “crash gearbox.” Had I ever used one? No, I had not. He told me changing gears was more complicated than the modern synchro-mesh gearbox. He then carefully explained to me the art of “double de-clutching” and went on to state that one had to wait during a gear change until the “engine revs” were right and then, “You just pop it (the gear shift lever) in.” He also told me to allow plenty of space when turning corners to avoid the rear of the bus hitting something, and then said, “Is there anything else you want to know?” At that moment I realized that my lesson was over. My hopes that he might go out with me for a mile or two for hands on instruction were not going to be realized.
Some pictures were taken of the official handing over and it was time to leave. I climbed into the cab again and started the big diesel engine. Grace was standing behind me. I looked out and saw that a crowd of people had gathered. It seemed as though the whole staff of the Herne Bay bus depot had come out into the yard to bid farewell to the last of their Dennis Lancet 3 buses. Even the ladies from the office were there, waving their handkerchiefs. I gingerly eased the gear change lever into first gear and started to release the clutch. The bus began to move forward and I could hear the waving well-wishers shouting, “Good luck – safe journey.” The bus passed through the gate and I allowed plenty of room as I turned into the short street leading to the main road through Herne Bay. The rest of the bus obediently followed without any arguments with walls or parked cars.
As it was a very short distance to the junction with the High Street and I did not attempt to change gear. When it was clear I moved into the main road, made a left turn and accelerated. I needed to change to second gear so I disengaged from first gear and waited until I thought it was the moment that I should push the gear lever into second. As I did so there was a terrible noise of grinding and protest, and a second attempt produced the same result – I could not get into second gear. I had no choice but to stop, go back into first gear and try again – with no improvement. After the third attempt I decided I would have to stay in first gear for the time being and drove that way out of the town centre! What was Grace doing while this going on? Praying, “Lord please drive this bus because he obviously can’t.” Having driven to the outskirts of town and away from traffic that I was holding up and people who stared, I settled down and tried gear changing again. I managed to get into second, third and then fourth gears by which time I was gratified and relieved that I actually seemed to be getting the hang of it. Soon we were on the A2 main road to London and I tried a little more experimenting, improving with each change. Feeling more confident I increased speed and changed into overdrive. We settled down for our journey home, during which I reminded myself a number of times of the promise I had received from the Word of God that morning. By the time we reached Blackheath I was settled down and relaxed. We negotiated our way across London to Chiswick by which time the evening rush hour was getting underway. When I parked outside our house there was a small reception committee of youngsters waiting to welcome the bus, and us, home.
It was decided our bus needed to have a name. Grace’s suggestion of “Blodwen,” a Welsh word meaning white flower was finally settled on, not because the bus looked like a white flower but because the named sounded just right. Blodwen made so much possible for us. As spring and summer came we began to go out together on Saturdays to places of historical interest, both in and out of London, places of beauty where we could have picnics and fun together, to the south coast where we could enjoy the beach and the sea. We were able to interact socially as we went to different places together. As a result, the Grange Fellowship became more than a group of young people who met once a week in our home for Bible study and fellowship. We became a group with a close identity and a sense of belonging to each other. One could say that, in a way, we became like a family. This fact was underlined to us many years later when a boy who had been invited to come with us on a trip to Brighton telephoned us and recalled that day saying, “There was so much love in that bus.” This impression upon him was an influential factor in his own commitment to Christ. The young people knew Blodwen was their bus and they treated her with respect and there were always those who were ready for cleaning detail when needed.
While I did most of the driving initially there were others who also drove Blodwen. Peter Haughey, Barry Whittington and Mike Benge were on the roster. Barry, some years later actually became a professional bus driver in Hampshire.
I shall be mentioning more about Blodwen in later chapters. For now I will say that we looked after her and Ernie’s promise proved to be true. For eight years Blodwen served us flawlessly. God’s promise to be with us and protect us was proven in that we never had an accident or a breakdown. No person ever suffered any harm as a result of travelling in Blodwen. In 1972 we sold her to a group of young men interested in bus preservation. Blodwen has had, and continues to this day to have a long and useful life. Currently, at 62 years of age, she belongs to a company in Mattersey, Nottingham who use her to convey people on special occasions such as weddings. She is in immaculate and sparkling condition which is of great credit to her present owners. She has a pride of place on the Internet on websites devoted to the preservation of public passenger buses where she is described as “a survivor.” Just “Google” CFN 121 and you can see for yourself. Blodwen was replaced for us by a much more modern London Transport Greenline bus that we named, “The Lone Granger.”
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