Taken 10/07/16 at the Hants and Dorset Centenary event at Poole Quay; Just as No. 1020 was repainted last year for the Wilts and Dorset centenary, so No. 1412 was repainted this year for the 100th anniversary of Hants and Dorset. A brief history of H&D:
1916; The British Automobile Traction Company and others formed the Bournemouth & District Motor Services Limited.
1920; Following the purchase of Trade Cars of Southampton the Hants & Dorset name was adopted. In that same year, the Tilling Group bought an interest in the company and from that year till 1929 Hants & Dorset grow rapidly.
1929; The Southern Railway took up its option to buy shares, under the terms of the Road & Rail Transport Act 1928, when the four railway companies were able to invest in bus operators.By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the network of Hants & Dorset bus services was largely complete. Hants & Dorset operated buses in Bournemouth, Poole, Southampton, Lymington, Fareham and Winchester.
1934; Hants & Dorset replaced the trams operated by Poole Corporation.
1948; The Southern Railway's half-share in Hants & Dorset passed to the government-owned Transport Holding Company (THC) when the railway company was nationalised in 1948. British Automobile Traction had sold its shares to the Tilling Group in 1942, who in turn sold out to British Associated Transport in 1949, and thus Hants & Dorset became 100% government owned.
1964; The THC's successor inspired a reorganisation that saw Hants & Dorset and northern neighbour Wilts & Dorset fall under common management, at Hants & Dorset’s head office in Bournemouth.
1969; Upon both Hants & Dorset and Wilts & Dorset passing to the National Bus Company (NBC) on 1 January 1969, as a result of the Transport Act 1968, the operators merged in 1972 under the Hants & Dorset name and management. Rather than Hants & Dorset's green, the enlarged operation adopted a fleet livery of National poppy red, similar to Wilts & Dorset's. The new operation covered routes from Pewsey in the north, Poole to Fareham in the south, Basingstoke in the east, and Shaftesbury and Warminster in the west.
1983; Hants & Dorset Motor Services was divided into three operating companies: Wilts & Dorset, Provincial and Hampshire Bus. Effectively this was the end of the Hants and Dorset fleet name and the re-emergence of the name Wilts & Dorset, albeit with a significantly different operating area than the old company.
Mainly taken from Wikipedia
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