A fitting farewell to former Melton bus company manager Roger

Roger Cronin, who has died aged 80, spent all his working life with bus company Barton’s in Melton, and it was with one of the company’s distinctive former vehicles that he was given a fitting send-off.

Mr Cronin’s coffin was on the front seats of the vintage single-decker for the journey from the site of Melton’s old bus station in Wilton Road to Grantham Crematorium on Tuesday last week.

Also on board were Mr Cronin’s widow Linda, and sons Michael and Ross and their wives.

Mrs Cronin, Of Tennyson Way, Melton, said her engineer husband would have loved taking a last journey on one of the buses he worked on at the company’s depot in Wilton Road, where he was foreman.

She said: “He started there in 1958 and originally it was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks.

“He had just completed national service and was asked to help out temporarily by his father, who was depot supervisor.

“Roger was an old-style, hands-on engineer. If something was broken, he just got on and fixed it.”

Mrs Cronin said the journey last week was a fitting occasion. She said: “To have one more ride on a Barton bus was very emotional.”

l The 1973 Leyland Leopard bus was based at the Melton depot and had the Barton fleet number 1235.

It was driven on Tuesday by its private owner, Len Carpenter.