c. Mike Hallett .. Posted 10/08/2009 on Windows Live Bath Tech Web Site.

Like the Windmill, Bath Tramways 53/54 buses from Warminster never failed, in that wretched winter of 62/63. They ploughed their way along single lane furrows in 10-foot snowdrifts. Frequently sliding into impossible angles across packed snow sometimes over a foot deep. Occasionally a bus would breakdown that in the absence of the driver (gone to phone for help) would give us the opportunity (if only school kids were on board) of bouncing the said vehicle so that it would gently angle itself across the road completely blocking all traffic. We would greet the driver on his return with innocent concern at the inconvenience occasioned by ice and gravity working in concert-what little b…..s we were!

Later that winter with the flash floods caused by a rapid thaw came devastation on a major scale. Water engulfed the lower part of the city. Green Park was under feet of water, Stall Street awash, flood-water coming out of drain covers well beyond the old M&S building and the Old Bridge by then terminally damaged. We country boys arriving in Bath on the wrong side of the river had no way of crossing to the Brougham Hayes side apart from an enterprising soul who offered us lads a perilous rowing boat trip to the other side for the cost of a week’s dinner money each. Balancing our educational needs against personal survival and saving five bob – we caught the next bus home.