In last week’s The Whisperer a statement says that this is the first use of a bus as a church.
Back in the mid 1990s, I spent an enjoyable couple of weeks teaching members of the Old Independent Church in Haverhill how to drive an 11.3 metre long Leyland National, as they had converted it to a church to tour the local Suffolk villages and provide church services.
I was introduced to the bus when I performed some consultancy services for Paul Cooper while he was the Managing Director of Burtons of Haverhill. They arranged for a Leyland National to be converted to a mobile nursery school to work for Barnadiston Hall School near Bury St Edmunds, and I was engaged to train the drivers.
It was then sold onto the Old Independent Church in Haverhill as a mobile church and again I trained the minister, a charming lady who enjoyed every minute of the training, and a few senior members of the church to drive the bus. When they qualified I lost contact with them, but I remain with some very happy memories of my time training some unlikely people in the delights of PSV driving.
Alan Whittington
Senior Partner
Professional Transport Services
Cambridgeshire