ORIGINAL plans in the mid 19th Century to have a railway service in Caistor serviced by a station at Nettleton and a cutting through to Grimsby via Laceby, were abandoned because the railway was already heavily overspent on its capital account.
In the second half of the century, Caistor had to make do with a station at Moortown, which seriously affected its credibility as a centre of local trade, with local carriers taking passengers and goods into and from Grimsby.
Of course, the town's retail trade was still thriving compared to today, with two schools taking in boarders, two main banks, four chemists, four cornmillers, 11 innkeepers, ten milliners, three saddlers, three surgeons, six tailors and two tobacconists.
By the beginning of the 20th century demand was growing for a bus service to Grimsby to supplement the slow service provided by the carriers, Coulson and Quickfall.
The Mail Motor Bus Company was formed with 1,083 £1 shares and the initial capital being brought up to £1,250 although an additional £200 was needed by the directors to get the company going.
A single bus appears to have been used from 1904 with a service to Grimsby at 7.30am, 12.30pm and 6pm and a return at 9.30am, 2.30pm and 8pm.
The original route through Cabourne was abandoned because of problems getting up Cabourne Hill and a new route was started which went through Keelby and Brocklesby.
Shareholders were informed tyre wear getting up the hill added an additional 10 shillings to the cost of a journey.
For Caistor it was a break in the isolation it had been experiencing after losing out on the railways and in the early 19th Century, the turnpikes, which had enabled Market Rasen, Brigg and Louth to overtake Caistor in terms of importance as a village supply centre.
Of course, the development of the motor car as the 20th century progressed, meant less reliance on public transport.
Even in 1914, one of the local carriers – George Clarke from Grasby, who came weekly into Caistor with his horse-drawn cart – said Caistor was 'nothing like what it had been' when he was a lad and had gone 'down and down.'
It seems somewhat ironic that today – with so many cars on the road – the government is trying once again to promote buses, for exactly the opposite reason they were started in the first place 100 years ago.