FAMILIES in West Oxfordshire were offered a trip back in time when a bus service between Witney and Long Hanborough was restored for the day.

Four buses restored by Oxford Bus Museum made trips between the Long Hanborough centre and Witney on Bank Holiday Monday – recreating the service 53 which used to operate the route in the 1960s.

All the buses had a conductor aboard, dressed in period uniform and wearing a vintage ticket machine to issue passengers with authentic paper bus tickets.

Jonathan Radley, a director at the bus museum, said: “Amongst our many transport artefacts, we have lots of bus timetables and I was looking through one from 1965 recently and saw that route 53 linked Witney and Long Hanborough, so got the idea that we should re-create that route this bank holiday Monday.

“It was a great nostalgia trip for older generations, whilst for young children it was the chance to experience a rural bus service as it would have been when most families didn’t have a car and the weekly bus trip into their nearest market town was an adventure.”

The nostalgic journeys were held in a year the museum is celebrating a special anniversary.

Fifty years ago a group of transport enthusiasts came together and purchased an AEC Regal 1949, a vehicle which led to the creation of the Long Hanborough museum.

The Oxford Bus Museum now has a fleet of about 40 buses, as well as bikes and classic Morris cars, but its driving force remains the passionate and hard-working group of volunteers that often stay behind the scenes.

The team of people offering their time to the museum help hunt out old buses in scrapheaps and up for sale by companies or individuals, as well as working to restore what they find.

For more information about the event and the museum itself visit oxfordbusmuseum.org.uk