Bus Graveyard

 

It was the end of a busy day when we rocked up at this alleged bus graveyard. The sun was just about to set, so we were short on natural light. And honestly, I wasn't really expecting a bus graveyard to win me over. We were in the area, but I definitely wouldn't travel out just for this. However, clambering around on these old wrecks was surprisingly fun, and full of school-era nostalgia. And with the wrecks long abandoned and being exposed to nature, there was an element of post-apocalypse to the vibe too. 

But best of all, with it being so wet and some parts of this place being an absolute bog, sometimes the only way to get to some of the buses was by climbing to them from other buses. Where the average human might see scrap, this three aliens in a human suit sees a playground.

Nevertheless, I'm not a skilled enough writer to carry forward my child-like glee via a blog about bus wrecks, so I'll try keep this quick.

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is a First Bus, a company operating out of Scotland. This one's found its way a little further south than usual. 

 

 

Slipping inside the first bus, I found that the upholstery had seen better days, but most of these seats just needed a little TLC.

 

 

Think how many pensioners have farted on this. 

 

As for how a collection of wrecked buses ended up here, I actually have conflicting sources of information. Initially the Urbex World placed ownership of the bus graveyard in the hands of two chaps, Martin and David, and their recycling company. Their property is described as a collection of non-hazardous waste, and it operated in this general area from 1982 to 2018. 

And because in the urbex world, "research" usually involves copying and pasting from the last person who copied and pasted from the person before that, stuff just gets regurgitated so often that it masquerades as fact when it completely lacks verification. In this case, nobody seems to have noticed that Martin and Davids collection of non-hazardous waste was actually about half a mile away.

Whoops. 

 

Yes, it seems that this is going to be one of those blogs where I mock other urban explorers for being terrible at research. Story of my life.

Gotta love the urban exploring community. It would be cute if it wasn't so shite.

 

This bus seems to be in slightly worse shape. 

 

So a few more eagle-eyed urban explorers have noticed that the bus graveyard is right next to a disused car show room and garage that closed in 2016 and has been subject to a few arson attacks since. It was run by a couple of reputable blokes called Neil and Lee who took over from another chap called Harold Brown. Harold had inherited the business from his dad, and had been running it since the 1950s. But there was a robbery, and Harold was badly assaulted, and said to never be the same after that. A few months after the incident he was found dead in his office following a cardiac arrest.

Harold Browns car show room is commonly believed to be connected to the bus graveyard, but I don't think they are. If one rewinds Streetview back to 2009, something I refuse to believe I'm the first to do, the bus graveyard suddenly vanishes and there's a big sign on it saying "H Taylor & Sons Ltd," advertising the servicing and repairs of commercial vehicles. 

 

Locals claim that vehicles were still arriving here as late as 2016, but now it's all heavily vandalised and clearly unloved. Urban explorers do talk about travelers using the land, and they warn of security and dogs, and various other tall tales that they can spew in order to make coming here seem more badass. But really there's no way to make this badass. You're not Indiana Jones because you can get on a broken down bus, sorry.   

 

Some of these buses have clearly been set on fire, but that kinda just adds to the atmosphere. I know arson is pretty shit, and as an urbexer I do generally loathe it, but if we're honest, all this is basically one massive fly-tip at this point. Burned out or not, it's all wrecked.

...Kinda relatable.

 

 

But I actually love this. I love seeing nature slowly growing on something that's so familiar and nostalgic. Somehow the decay has only made these vehicles more appealing. 

 

 

This one's even worse. 

 

I guess this was the arson epicenter. 

 

This one is pretty cool. 

 

 

I like that the upholstery is completely gone but some of the actual wooden seats remain. 

 

 

Moving on to the real stars of the show, the double deckers. 

 

 

They're kinda like the Tyrannosaurus Rex of the bus graveyard. Jurassic Park would have sucked without it. 

 

Something has taken a big old chunk out of the top of this double decker, although it probably wasn't a T-Rex.

 

 

This type of bus is quite nostalgic for me, although not necessarily in a fond way like traditional nostalgia tends to be. My old school bus was a double decker. They don't come through my current town very often, which is a bit of a shame. 

 

 

 

The upper deck has a greater seating capacity. I guess that's where the appeal is. 

 

And just because I haven't been treated enough, there's a second bus over here!

 

What's interesting, in a really bizarre and head scratching kinda way, is that the big chunk of metal in the middle is an engine. It's possible that it's the engine of this bus. What baffles me is that it must be fucking heavy, and getting it into the bus would take a hell of a lot of effort for seemingly no reason.

 

I just love that someone has defaced this sign to say that the bus has capacity for 915 passengers. That's exactly the kind of petty pointless vandalism that makes me smile.

 

And from this bus we have a view of a few more wrecks. Not all of them are as interesting as the buses, or even are buses, like Backdroptimus Prime over here.

 

The most shocking non-bus addition to the collection is the massive royal mail lorry.

 

What's this doing here? Surely this can be put back to use. Humans are fucking weird.

 

And that's about it. According to the mainstream media, this land is soon to become a supermarket. The article says "As well as the super market, which would feature chilled food storage, the scheme would feature a separate Starbucks."

Thank you for  clarifying what one might expect to find in a supermarket. 

But this was quite fun. It made for a good mooch before we crack on with some more local stuff. There's no real story to it, but sometimes there doesn't have to be.

 

In the meantime, if you like my blogs then as much as it makes me feel dirty to say it, social media is the best way to stay updated. I'm most active on Instagram, and Facebook. It's a sad reflection of the world that these are the big cheeses now, when Myspace was perfect and we all abandoned it. I'm also on the lesser social media things like Twitter, Threads, Vero and Reddit.

Thanks for reading!