MARGARET Wellspring from Crossways got in touch in response to the feature on the history of bus shelters in Looking Back last week.

We looked at Michael Wood's fascinating book Dorset's Legacy in Rural Bus Shelters, which features Osmington bus shelter.

The attractive bus shelter on the A353 stands as a reminder of the Second World War and was built in memory of Lt. David Parry Jones, of the 1st Battalion of The Rifle Brigade who was killed in France, fighting the Germans, on August 3 1944.

His father was a well known dentist in Weymouth who lived in Osmington and funded the construction of the shelter.

Margaret got in touch to tell us her own memories of this particular shelter.

She said: "I lived with my family, for the first 20 years of my life beside that shelter, in East Farm farmhouse, which is opposite the Sunray Hotel.

"We always knew the bus shelter was built by Mr and Mrs Parry Jones in memory of their son David, but if my memory serves me right, the plaque on the outside of the shelter was not put there until the 1970s at the earliest.

"I remember the Parry Jones' well, they were a very nice couple who lived in a cottage in Chapel Lane."

Margaret said her mother, Gladys Osborne, was paid a few shillings a year to sweep out the shelter and keep it tidy.

Unfortunately the shelter wasn't very practical in windy weather, she said!

"Most people waiting for a bus only ever stood inside when it was raining, because the wind used to whip through the open windows on the sides and it was always colder inside than out.

"The shelter was also a favourite meeting place for the young people of Osmington and I'm sure a few romances started there."

Margaret says she has many memories of the bus shelter, from catching the bus there with her mother on her first shopping trips to Weymouth to her first day at work catching the bus into Weymouth.

She added: "We had a double decker bus every hour, one came just to the village and the next one went to Osmington Mills.

"There was also a single decker bus that went to Lulworth Cove once a day, with the addition of the Webb's bus from East Chaldon every Thursday that went to Weymouth. "The school bus never stopped there, we had to get on at Shortlake Corner.

"This is all a far cry from the bus service today."

*If you have any memories of local bus shelters, get in touch with Looking Back on 01305 830973 or send an email to joanna.davis@dorsetecho.co.uk