1. A number of New Forest ponies gather around a bus shelter near to the village of Burley in September 1986. Passing this location recently, the shelter was still there but the ponies were not.

2. A Wilts & Dorset MetroRider gently eased itself around stubborn locals as they slowly went at their own leisurely pace along the road leading into Burley in July 1993. The ponies might have probably gone, but regrettably the bus service has definitely gone, the X1 service between Bournemouth and Southampton now withdrawn.

3. High up on Dartmoor one of the locals posed for the camera as it leant against a rather unusual bus stop in June 2002. One could certainly not accuse the local authorities of visual vandalism by erecting this instead of some metal pole with a bus stop flag attached.

4. To the East Coast now and the outskirts of Scarborough and their Park & Ride site in July 1996. Here one of the dedicated Optare Prismas for the service waited patiently for custom around 10 o’clock in the morning as the donkeys were led passed from their overnight accommodation to take up their duties down on the beach.

5. By the time the donkeys were down on the promenade the sun had already encouraged many tourists onto the beach along with others that had taken advantage of the sea front bus services, such as this Daimler Fleetline operated by Applebys.

6. Inland in August 1979 and a service bus found its progress halted at Goathland within the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, as some of the local residents took umbrage over the attention they received from a hound. This West Yorkshire Road Car Company Bristol RE had probably journeyed over from the Leeds area, long before the advent of the now handsome fleet of blue and cream liveried double-deckers operated by Yorkshire Coastliner. Bound for Whitby on route 291, today’s equivalent is the five times a day X40.

7. Now you are probably wondering what the connection here is with animals or the suchlike. Still in the North Yorks Moors but further inland lay the area known as Sutton Bank, from where there were and still are splendid views across the hills and dales of Yorkshire. Regrettably September 2001 was at the height of the last major outbreak of the Foot & Mouth Disease, which decimated parts of our animal kingdom. In order to prevent further spread, people and vehicles were strictly monitored in most areas of the countryside, and measures were taken by the authorities to ensure vehicles were disinfected at certain points. A Wright bodied Volvo from the Yorkshire based Reliance bus and coach company received just such attention as it rested between duties on one of the Summer Sunday services within the Moorsbus Network.

8. From one National Park to another, this time the Peak District and high above Hathersage a Mainline Metrobus powered along the open road bound for Castleton in June 1994 on the 272 route out of Sheffield. The ruminant on the side of the road so used to this sort of event, took no notice of the bus or the photographer as it continued to take on board more grass.

9. Mainline became part of the FirstGroup empire and some nine years later one of the company’s Optare Solos on another service out of Sheffield, the 181 as it passed through a far different part of the National Park. This time it was much more to the south near to the village of Hartington, once famous for its cheese, but regrettably again, another cottage business that has since closed down.

10. So what is the animal (or other connection) here then? It is the registration 670 COD that has caught my eye. Fishing for a reason I realised that this Bristol SU (not sure if is an L or an S type), was found here back in 1978 on a Park-&-Ride service at Falmouth, a Cornish port, thus the fishing connection.

11. Similarly another pair of Bristols was found by me in the Thames Valley town of Marlow. 495 on the left also bore a similar COD registration, whilst 499 on the right bore the letters THY in the registration. Perhaps it would be crass of me to mention those letters in the presence of the young lady about to board the bus on the left, so I won’t! Back to buses, and route 18 from here to Marlow was restricted to smaller vehicles owing a weight limit on the bridge over the River Thames which the vehicles had to traverse back then. However, since then a new bridge and by-pass have allowed the operation of larger vehicles.

12. Into London now, and whilst animals might not be prolific, birds of a feather certainly are well in evidence. Here Routemaster RM311 was seen in April 1999 pulling out of the bus station on the forecourt of Victoria Station and attempting to miss a flock of pigeons on the ground. And if I recall correctly there were no casualties of the feathered variety on this occasion.

13. May 1997 and a mini bus war was in progress in the not so peaceful Cornish seaside location of Polperro as they vied for custom between the main car park and the centre of the village. Whilst one set of the protagonists utilised converted milk floats, the other side used a more conventional form of transport in the shape of a horse bus. Here the latter illustrated the process of ‘turning on sixpence’ at the lower end of the service.

14. The once a week seasonal service 569 between Hawes and Kirkby Stephen was held up by a slow moving pony and trap near to the Moorcock Inn halfway along Garsdale at the western end of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Cumbria Classic Coaches’ topless Bristol Lodekka was reduced to a snail’s or was it a pony’s pace, for a short while until the bus turned off to travel north up the Mallerstang, much to the amusement of the passengers on board.

15. And finally, a rather novel way of rounding up sheep perhaps. Only in Cumbria some might say. But actually this is often the case in rural areas, when ruminants and the suchlike make a bid for freedom and find themselves in the way of traffic down some narrow thoroughfare.