Hi all,
This is a good one. I am not a bus entusiast, as a lorry driver we don't really like things that keep stopping, but the 'Oracle' really caught me with this one..............
Sometime around 1922 the Measday Brothers brought a second hand Straker-Squire bus. The started possibly the first service in the Sittingbourne area. It ran from Newington Station through Key Street, Sittingbourne High Street, Bapchild, Green Street finally terminating at Teynham Station. This did very well all the time the bus would run, it was not the most reliable machine in the world. The other thing that went against the machine was the noise. It was on solid tyres and with a chain drive I should imagine that it was not the quietest machine ever built, the Grand 'Oracle' had been heard to say it could be heard a country mile away. In the end it was sold to Standens the hauliers who had a depot in Cresent Street, the rumor was that the Measday Brothers paid Standens to take it! Standens then started to operate busses of dubious vintage and pedigree and were pleased to have the Straker-Squire. Mysteriously it burned out on Keycole Hill within the year...............
Right now over to you guys to fill in the blanks. Are there any pics? Is there anyone left who remembers it? I do not know how long the Measday gents had it so there are some gaps to fill. Regards and happy hunting, Sentinel S4.