Day one hundred and three the distant No 165 which runs betwixt Romford and Rainham.

I caught the 1120 train from my local station then took the London Overground 1131 to Highbury and Islington. From Canada Water I took the Jubilee line arriving at 1215 at Stratford and then at 1218 caught one of the new Crossrail trains to Romford, where I arrived at 1238. After a search for the wife's Christmas present I then found out where the Brewery Leisure and shopping centre was located.

Brewery Romford bus terminus with Bluebird
of Dial a Ride service

The top of the flue with Brewery written thereupon

I boarded Stagecoach 37536 on the No 165, an AD E20D, less than a year old which left at 1318. At this point I realised that I didn't have a memory card in the camera, so had to utilise my mobile so therefore had missed taking a photograph of the bus approaching.

The Romford ring road passing the shopping
 centre and market area 

A bus I used many months ago the No 66

We headed around the ring road from west around the north and then followed down the east side of Romford market. From here the bus filtered through the back streets towards Romford station and at this point there was an announcement that the bus was on diversion. Initially the bus turned left into Victoria Road but as we passed the Victoria public house there was a No 165 coming up Albert Road but the bus I was on carried straight on instead until it reached the Drill roundabout.
At this point the bus headed down past Emerson Park station just after 1330 and was back on the usual route. After here the bus passed the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch as it ran into Hornchurch past a salon called 'the only tan is Essex'.

After turning left eastwards, subsequently the bus stopped and then did a loop around a gaggle of eating emporia and headed west down Hornchurch High Street until we reached Abb's Cross Lane at 1338.
Travelling down this route we ran into some roadworks just past Harrow Lodge Park which it was obvious the cars coming the other way had jumped the lights. Between Elm Park Avenue and Elm Parade we passed a road called Brian Close but this was quite well established so cannot have been named in honour of the Yorkshire and England batsman. Beyond Elm Park station it was apparent we were entering what was the ex RAF airfield of Hornchurch as the road we lingered on for quite a time was called Mungo Park Road. Whilst on this road we ran past Scargill's infant school which again had a strange Yorkshire connection! Once we had turned right into South End Road we reached the old A13 and turned east for a while until we reached a roundabout where we went right into Bridge Road and then very soon left into Rainham Tesco.

The gentleman the bus driver helped-almost only person on the bus after we had left Rainham Tesco

 At the next stop the bus driver was extremely patient and helpful to an infirm man who was trying to exit the bus at Brights Avenue with his walker. From here the bus recrossed the A13 now A1306 and passed through Rainham along Upminster Road. The bus the  wriggled its way through the Abbey Wood Estate to terminate next to a fields and extensive woodland at 1411.

Journeys end: a semi rural outpost of the TFL network

Stagecoach single decker No 37536 awaiting return to Romford

To get home I chose to take the other bus that terminates at this point the No 287 back to Rainham. Here I had a 15-20 minute wait for a C2C train to take me to West Ham and thence home the way I had come arriving home at 1615.

Almost ready to head back to the Brewery Romford