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Golden Hind Drive, STOURPORT-ON-SEVERN, DY13 9RJ

The local firm of Whittle Coach & Bus Ltd was established in 1929. In 2004 it became part of the Hull based EYMS Group, who run East Yorkshire Motor Services and others. As well as running a coach business, Whittle also run some bus services in the Wyre Forest and adjoining areas. Unfortunately they have been running at a loss for some years, not helped perhaps because they ran some services in competition with First and then with Diamond buses. Here Whittles bus no. 169 (reg. W694 EOP) is seen on Route 15 in Discovery Road, on its way to Stourport's town centre. It is on the penultimate day of operation. The bus service is closing and the coaching side has been sold off. Fortunately route 15 and some others are being taken on by other operators. The bus dates from 2000 and is a low floor Dennis Dart SLF with a 29 seat Plaxton Mini Pointer body. It is probably the longest bus which can be used on this route, which is very long and circuitous, and involves reversing the bus in residential streets in at least two places.

Photographed from Resolution Way, when walking my dog, showing an attractive red sky over Golden Hind Way and nearby roads.

After a very heavy snowfall it was difficult to distinguish the pavements from the road. Not surprisingly there was very little traffic about. The device on the post on the left is a solar powered speed indicator. Despite this road having a 30 mph speed limit, probably because there are two sharp bends ahead, most motorists completely ignore this. When they do, a screen indicates the speed they are travelling in red. One day there is going to be a nasty accident when someone loses control of their vehicle and ploughs into pedestrians.

The extension to Discovery Road and the new bridge over the River Stour have now been built. When this photograph was taken at the beginning of July 2012, the road was open to pedestrians but not to road vehicles. The road will give access to the new Tesco supermarket. Although some preparatory work had been done, the actual building of the store had not commenced. Image

There is a kissing gate here, used by pedestrians, and on its right, a gate for authorised vehicles. This is presumably to facilitate maintenance on the new road bridge over the River Stour, which carries the new extension of Discovery Road across it. The field is adjacent to both the Rivers Severn and Stour. Although no right of way is marked on the OS map, in practice the field is used by walkers to get down to the footpath alongside the River Severn.

Discovery Road in this direction is heading for the town centre, passing a Tesco supermarket on its way.

There are two gates here which allow access between Discovery Road and the large field running down to the River Severn. The large gate on the left allows authorised vehicles onto a road (hidden by snow) which goes down to the river. The small kissing gate on the right, gives pedestrians access. When these yellow posts were put up (which can be lowered or removed by keyholders), a fourth post was planted immediately behind the kissing gate. This made it impossible for pedestrians to use it. As this is a very popular walk there must have been uproar as within a couple of days the offending post was removed!

The footpath gives access to and from Golden Hind Drive and the fields by the River Severn and the Severn Way long distance footpath. Looking in this direction, the footpath ends at a kissing gate which gives access to Golden Hind Drive. Image

Discovery Road ends at this point. If plans go ahead for the proposed new Tesco store, Discovery Road will be continued over this land to give access to the store, which is planned for land adjacent to Severn Road. The road would need to cross the River Stour, or maybe this would be culverted under it. There is a current legal dispute, but assuming that it is eventually resolved in favour of Tesco, it would still be quite some time before this road could be built. Image; Image The caution notice warns that "deep water present along perimeter of open space". How many young children living round here would fully understand what that phrase means is debatable. Hopefully their parents will fully warn them of the dangers. Image

The track runs from near the new bridge over the River Stour up to a gate onto Discovery Road. It enables authorised vehicles to gain access to the bridge and the river.