Felix Bus Services: Caring Felix buses dropped dad at door

(Redirected from Felix bus services: Caring Felix buses dropped dad at door)

Can you ever imagine a bus service that would pick you up and drop you at your door because you had a broken leg? Well, that’s exactly what happened to Stan Parker, resident pianist at the Chaddesden Jubilee Club, in the early 1960s. Forty years on, his son, Geoff Parker, of Shelton Lock, is still astounded by the caring service offered by the Felix Bus Company – as he recounts here.

MY late father, Stan Parker, was resident pianist at the Chaddesden Jubilee Club in Chaddesden Lane for many years between the late 1950s and the early 1970s.

He was also actively involved in other activities and organisations associated with the club during that period.

On one occasion, while officiating at the annual horticultural show in the early 1960s, he slipped on the wet floor and broke his leg rather seriously.

He was housebound for quite a while until the time arose when he was determined to get back to his beloved club. So, one Saturday night, he managed, rather precariously, to get to the Locko Park Bridle Path bus stop on Morley Road to catch the 7.30pm Felix bus to the Jubilee Club.

Because he had lived on Morley Road since 1946, he was a well-known passenger to all the drivers and conductors and conductresses, and was on first-name terms with many of them.

The Felix bus duly arrived and, immediately realising the difficulty my father was having boarding the bus, both the driver and conductress assisted him into the front seat.

That is where a truly remarkable story begins. Instead of dropping my father off at the bus stop outside the Wilmot Arms, the driver carried on to the club, where he and the conductress helped him off the bus, across the road and into the club.

The driver also enquired whether he was catching the last bus home. When my father said “yes”, he was told to be ready outside the club at approximately 11.10pm when the driver of the last bus would stop outside the club to pick him up.

Once again, he was helped on to the bus and then dropped off at the bottom of the drive of his house.

This procedure became a ritual every Saturday and Sunday night for the duration of the period he had to wear a plaster cast and use crutches.

The Felix bus would stop outside my father’s house to collect him and drop him off at the club and then take him home again.

Another story my father used to tell me was about the severe winter of 1946 or 47, when traffic could not climb the steep hill out of Stanley, past the old quarry, due to the snow and ice on the road.

These hazardous conditions apparently did not deter the Felix bus service, which found that by reversing buses up the hill in low gear, they could reach the top.

I don’t know the logistics of where the bus was put into reverse as King’s Corner seems a long way to drive in reverse. Perhaps someone can elaborate?

I also have happy memories of the Felix bus service, having lived on Morley Road in my parents’ house for 26 years.

In all that time, having used the service on a regular basis, I have never known anything but a friendly and efficient bus service which treated its paying passengers more like friends and companions than customers.

They don’t run bus services like that any more. Long may the Felix bus service continue.

Pages linking here