Picture shows men grabbed their seats quickly before bus set out from the Carpenter's Arms

Wearing their best hats, these smartly-dressed folk were preparing to leave Oxford for a day’s outing.

Regulars at the Carpenter’s Arms pub in West Way, Botley, and their families were heading to Reading for a tour of the Huntley & Palmer biscuit factory.

The picture, which dates from 1933, comes from Richard Barley. His mother, Maud Barley, who lived at Cumnor and later in Poplar Road, Botley, is fifth from the right and her mother, Charlotte Scopes, is sixth from the right. She lived in Eynsham Road, Botley.

Mr Barley, of Yarnells Road, North Hinksey, writes: “I wonder if Memory Lane readers can help with any other names.”

While most of the party posed outside the bus, it appears that some crafty passengers, all men, had already bagged their seats!

Perhaps, however, we are doing them an injustice – they are so strategically placed at the windows of the bus, possibly that is what the photographer requested.

The Carpenters Arms served Botley as a pub for at least 160 years before being turned into a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant in 2001.

In 1842, the owner was John Parker, whose various occupations probably suggest how the pub got its name – he ran a wheelwright’s shop and a timber yard.

For many years, a row of cottages and gardens separated the pub from Botley Road – possibly those in the picture above.

Like many houses in the area, the pub was prone to floods, one of the worst occurring in 1955 when Ellis Wren was the landlord.

The character of the pub changed when Morrells, the well-known Oxford brewery, leased it to Beafeater Inns and it became more a steak house than a pub.

Further significant changes were to come when McDonald’s announced it planned to take over the pub.

Opponents were aghast when they were told that the fast-food chain did not need planning permission.

A pressure group, No Spin, launched a campaign entitled ‘MacNo’, and won support from Dr Evan Harris, then MP for Oxford West and Abingdon.

He said at the time: "The traffic implications of this proposed new fast-food restaurant are significant, particularly at such a busy junction.

"It is wrong that our planning law does not make a distinction between the serving of cooked meals at tables in the restaurant area of a family pub, and the production of rapid turnover, high footfall, fast-food outlets."

Dr Harris wrote to the Minister for Planning calling for a change in the law so that future conversions needed to go through the planning process.

Can anyone name more of the biscuit factory day trippers in the picture above? Write and let me know.

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