End of the Hulleys of Baslow era in Brimington

It’s a change-over that probably won’t have been noticed by many people, but on Friday 30 September 2022 Hulleys of Baslow ran their last bus through Brimington on the service 78. This brings to an end the short Hulley era in the village.

The service 78 runs from Chesterfield to the Hartington Industrial Estate area (and visa-versa). In doing so this service also provides the only stage-carriage bus on the western end of Station Road, Wheeldon Mill.

This route is financially supported by Derbyshire County. It runs six journeys (three out and three back) Monday to Fridays only – there being no Saturday or Sunday service. The route commenced (and still does) from Cavendish Street, Chesterfield town centre, onwards along Sheffield Road, calling at Tesco, then to Lidl, making its way up Station Road, Brimington, along Church Street, Ringwood Road, into Inkersall and Middlecroft, then to Staveley Market Street, ending at Hartington, Farndale Road. The first service commenced Hartington at 9.25 am and ended at Hartington at 1325 – so was very limited (there are only minor timetable changes with the new operator).

The financial support from the county council means that periodically the route is re-tendered.

The 78 first started in March 2011, as a result of withdrawal of a former ‘Orbital Link 33’ service, which, as the name implied, ran an orbital service taking in Station Road, Brimington village centre along with Chesterfield, Walton, Ashgate, Holme Hall, Newbold, Whittington Moor, Calow (including the hospital) and back to Chesterfield. At that time the 78 was operated by K&H Doyle Ltd., of Alfreton and ran from Hartington, through Brimington, Chesterfield and the hospital at Calow.

Hulleys took over the by then revised and reduced route 78 in October 2015, from DW Coaches of Clay Cross, who had previously taken over the route from Doyles.  The route then comprised a two-hourly frequency from Hartington, Market Street (Staveley), Inkersall, Calow, Royal Hospital, Piccadilly Road, Chesterfield railway station, Cavendish Street, Whittington Moor, Station Road, thence to Hall, Road.  

As we stated in our Miscellany 5 ‘all this is far cry from, for example, 1973. At this time Chesterfield Borough Council Transport Department’s service 36, which ran from Loundsley Green to Brimington, via Chesterfield managed a roughly hourly service, including Sundays.’ This route served Wheeldon Mill and Station Road.

The new operator is Derbyshire Community Transport (Trading) Ltd., who took over the 78 on and from Monday 3 October 2022.

The departure of Hulleys brings to an end (at least for now) the appearance of bus services in Brimington from this well-known and much-loved operator, who celebrated their centenary in 2021.

(There’s more about the orbital service 33 in our Miscellany 4; and about route 78 in Miscellany 5 and 8).