In 1935 Brighton, Hove & District Omnibus Company was formed. Their first acquisition
was an 18-seater Dennis, which was purchased specifically for the Mile Oak run. This
route terminated in Chrisdory Road. When it first started running, the bus would
travel up Sefton Road into Stanley Avenue and then turn down Chrisdory Road. It
would stop at the top to let off any passengers and then drive to the bottom, where
it would wait until it was the scheduled time to leave. The drivers were regular
to this route and they were well known. In fact they would sometimes pick up shopping
from Portslade for people and drop off passengers outside their own front doors should
the bus be passing that way.
Eventually they knocked down the bridge over the High Street and double-decker buses
reached even Mile Oak! When the double-deckers started being used the bus would
go straight along Mile Oak Road to the bottom of Chrisdory Road, where it would back
up and wait at the bottom until it was time to depart. Some of the early double-deckers
had outside staircases.
Mile Oak was still an isolated community at this time and often, as the bus went
down into Mile Oak, the conductors would call out “Indian country coming up-mind
the arrows!” The buses found the climb from Portslade Old Village into Mile Oak
Road a strain. They would frequently come to a halt, gears crunching, whilst the
conductor would call for everyone to lean forward to take the weight off the back
of the bus. The children would sit at the back laughing at all the old ladies leaning
forward as requested! In the winter, when it snowed, the buses would not even attempt
the hill and the route would terminate at the Old Village. As children we loved
this, as it meant that we either could not go to school until the buses started running
again, or we had to walk to school, only to be sent home again because the toilets
(being outside) had frozen. Even after Valley Road was built the buses still had
to stop at the Village during snowy weather, as they could not turn across the hill
into Valley Road.
As the community grew routes were changed and the No. 9 was replaced by the 15b.
After the construction of Valley Road we had a further bus, the No. 15, which traversed
Valley Road to terminate at the Girls School in Chalky Road. The 15b continued to
use the old route along Mile Oak Road
These days the bus goes all the way from Mile Oak to Whitehawk, several times an
hour; and - although these days we rarely have snow - they do find it much easier
to get up the hill.
The journey to Mile Oak in the 1920’s would have been a rural one, rather than the
suburban trip we are used to making today. At this time the old bridge still spanned
the High Street and therefore the journey could only be undertaken by a single decker
bus. In the early ‘20’s you would reach Mile Oak (probably sporadically) by the
9a, but in 1928 the No. 9 Route was designated. This would be the route - from Portslade
Station to Mile Oak - that I am sure we can all remember until the late 1940’s.
