LINE of motor coaches three-quarters of a mile long will be employed on Saturday for the largest road outing ever organised from Rushden.

It will convey 2,049 people—one in nine of the Rushden and Higham Ferrers population—to the British Industries Fair in London.

The whole personnel of the John White boot factories will take part in this super-trip and each employee has had the opportunity to take a relative or friend.

A pair of shoes on a velvet cushion is the Mecca of the pilgrimage. It is part of an exhibit at the Pair, and represents the 27 millionth pair produced by the firm since its establishment in 1919. The employees are to see it at the firm's expense, and will then celebrate with a meal and a theatre visit—also as guests of the directors.

Months of planning have preceded the arrangements now announced for Saturday.

Sixty-six coaches are required. They have been ordered from the United Counties Company, who have borrowed vehicles from places as far distant as London and Leicester.

At seven o'clock on Saturday morning the picking up of passengers at 56 points in the district will start. Many of the employees live out of Rushden and Higham, and for these buses will call at Thrapston. Raunds, Chelveston, Bozeat, Yelden, Kettering, Irthlingborough, Wellingborough. Finedon and other places.

All should be moving towards London by 7.30. Each will have a John White number and exhibit the firm's trade mark. Minerals will be carried on every bus, and each traveller will receive a small box containing sandwiches, fruit and cake — a "snack" for the outward journey.

By arrangement with the traffic authorities, two routes will be used. One-third of the vehicles will travel by the A5 road via Bozeat, Lavendon, Hockcliffe and Dunstable, where a break for coffee will be made. Two-thirds are to take the A6 road through Bedford and Luton, breaking the run near Hendon.

On every sixth bus an ambulance man or nurse will travel. Information centres will be operated first at Rushden, then Dunstable, and finally at the B.I.F.

A wallet handed to each traveller will contain a programme for the day, an admission ticket to the Earls Court annexe of the Fair, a re-admission ticket to the Olympia section, tickets for lunch and a show, and a Tube map of London.

All buses will converge at Earls Court, where the employees and friends will pass through a special entrance in Richmond-road. They should arrive by 10.30.

Three Sittings

From their arrival at the Fair, the visitors will be free to carry out their own ideas but lunch will await them at the Coventry-street Corner House of Messrs. Lyons—in sittings at 1-30, 2 and 2-30 p.m.

In the evening, according to their luck in a ballot which has already been made, the visitors will see either the Cochran show, "Bless the Bride," at the Adelphi, or "Romany love" at His Majesty's. A small proportion have been accommodated at the Victoria Palace, where the Crazy Gang appears in "Together Again."

Mr. John White will be in attendance at the B.I.F., where he is spending the week, and with other directors and friends will see the Adelphi show.

At 10 in the evening, the buses will be lined up on Victoria Embankment for the return run. No. 1 will be near Temple Bar station, and No. 66 will probably be at the rear of Charing Cross Station

For employees and their wives or husbands, Messrs. John White will bear the full cost of the items mentioned. In other cases a charge of 25s. will be made.

Rushden Sees the Sights of London
'White' Outing A Day To Remember
By Mister Cobbler

THIS story of the John White outing will show, among other things, that even in London 2,049 Rushden people will go a long way, in more senses than one.

Up—and down—before six a.m., fully breakfasted by 6-20 and shaving hard by 6.30, I felt that the day's first triumph had gone to the Press. There was a knock at the door; the photographer presented himself, half an hour before the appointed time, and one could no longer doubt that this would be a day of records.

Along the street we sniffed the fresh air and felt good. The sense of virtue cooled down, however, when door after door opened and out walked boot workers in the 1947 version of their Sunday best.

At the end of the street we were but two specks in a flock of early

birds. More birds hopped round corner in family pairs and neighbourly groups.

Perhaps half a dozen coaches, labelled "J. W." and numbered, were drawn up near our corner. Some were already well filled. Other coaches—empty and on their way to other starting points—were going north, south and west. There was no east from our corner.

Conductor's Welcome

We wanted J.W.17. It wasn't there, but the voluntary conductor was on the scene and welcomed us cordially—a man who had sensed his responsibility and meant to do the job in the true J.W. spirit.

Some full coaches moved off into Rushden High-street and away to London Our J.W.17 arrived—a London vehicle with a London driver. A crowd of us got in, were checked up, and moved off with the feeling that of the 66 J.Ws starting from 56 points in 24 towns and villages, probably 61 were ahead of us.

This was an illusion, for as we went through Rushden other J.W.s came down every street and turned into our wake.

Of those ahead, quite a few pulled into Wymington-road and headed for the A.5 route, wherever that is. We stuck to the A6 and thought highly of it when at a junction a few miles out we took aboard two large cartons which rattled well. A transport van stood near the junction and the J.W. Transport Organiser stood between the van and the cartons it had disgorged. He was checking on a list, and we realised that Method was and would be doing all that Method could.

Along the run we received small cartons out of the large ones. Pears and sandwiches. Again we heard the rattle. Minerals.

Coaches Everywhere

On hills ahead we saw coaches. On the road-ribbon behind there were coaches. The only competition for road space seemed to be from lorry loads of German prisoners and land-girls—separate consignments of course.

Nearing Hendon, we were surprised to see a J.W. shoot out of a parallel road. Inside the town we became hemmed in among them—all slowing down and looking for a certain cafe. Our driver, being a Londoner, could find anything, and we stole ahead to contact the early arrivals and build up what became an enormous queue of stationary coaches.

The cafe was a free house to everybody from the J.W. convoy. A roomy place, it was soon full and overflowing. You ate anything you saw, and drank the coffee that flowed at record speed. If you had emptied your travelling carton—a bad tactical error—and could not look food in the face, you gazed around on the Cheerful company and marvelled to see so many familiar figures.

Attracted by the photographer's flashlight, the proprietor came over and told me that with eight assistants he had been up all night preparing the food. He had expected the party to arrive in relays, but instead of relays he got an avalanche. Still, it didn't matter if everybody was happy

Leaving a slightly stunned Hendon, J.W.17 went briskly into London and gained rapidly on many of its innocent companions by cutting through side streets and performing every traffic trick known to a London driver.

[The story continues with lots of pictures]