The Aldershot & District Interest Group

The Aldershot & District Interest Group
ADBIG is born - The Early Days

ADBIG was originally a spin-off from the Aldershot & District Bus Owners Group, ADBOG, (later "The Dennis Society"), which had been formed two years earlier in 1992, when the bus preservation movement was still in its early stages.
In 1992 a number of independent bus enthusiasts who owned preserved ex Aldershot & District buses held a meeting in Alton, when they decided to get together and form an exclusive mutual help society with the aim of sharing expertise between members and to provide easier access to spare parts to help them keep their elderly buses up and running. This group was initially named the Aldershot & District Bus Owners Group, ADBOG.
ADBOG soon extended its remit to organise preserved bus running days locally in the Aldershot area using members preserved A&D buses.
In 1994, in an effort to increase membership, ADBOG decided to change its name to "The Dennis Society" and extended its remit to encompass not only Dennis buses, but all the other types of vehicles and machinery built by Dennis Bros over the years, from fire engines to pick-up trucks and lawn mowers. At the same time it amended its remit to cover only Dennis manufactured buses, rather than all preserved A&D buses whatever their manufacturer.

1994 - Aldershot & District Bus Interest Group (ADBIG) is formed.

By early 1994 an enormous amount of local public interest had been triggered by the sight of the much loved two-tone green and cream liveried Aldershot & District buses once again trundling around the area, twenty two years after most people thought that they had disappeared for ever. So, in May 1994, at a packed meeting in St Peter's Church Hall, Ash, the Aldershot & District Bus Interest Group, (ADBIG), was formed to provide an outlet for the many people who had an interest in the varied aspects of the Aldershot & District Traction Co Ltd, but who were not preserved bus owners.
At first ADBIG and The Dennis Society worked closely together, but the two groups gradually drifted apart. The Dennis Society eventually became an online organisation and it still exists in this online form today.
Following the split ADBIG's constitution remained much in its original form encompassing all aspects of the old Aldershot & District Company's operations.
For many years the group specialised in organising annual bus running days in the Aldershot, Guildford, Woking and Farnham areas, with the help of South West Trains who generously permitted their railway station car parks to be used as central departure points for the free bus journeys.
These ADBIG running days soon gained a reputation for authenticity, with genuine A&D buses running over historic A&D routes, sometimes even crewed by ex A&D staff, many wearing authentic A&D uniforms, who had worked on these same routes in the 1960s.