This community was at war – with a bus company.

Worried mothers at Kennington, near Oxford, were preparing to form a human chain across a road to stop school buses being driven along their street. They claimed four school buses a day used Poplar Grove, putting their children at risk as the vehicles weaved between rows of parked cars.

Their fears had been reinforced when a two-year-old girl suffered a fractured pelvis when she was struck by a lorry a few weeks earlier.

The picture, taken in 1976, showed the strength of feeling among families, who had already organised a petition demanding immediate action.

The campaigners said the school buses should keep to Kennington Road, the main road, and pick up children along it at pre-arranged spots to take them to Matthew Arnold School in Cumnor.

One mother, Renee Zarecky, said at the time that buses originally ran in Kennington Road, but two years earlier had switched to Poplar Grove. “We are very worried about the children’s safety,” she said. Another mother, Anita Smith, said: “We will have a human chain right across the road if necessary. This must stop.”

Parish council chairman Henrietta Perkins said only two of the four school buses should go down Poplar Grove.

She said: “The parish council arranged this so that children did not have to cross the main road, but the buses seem to go where the children tell them.”

The parish council appeared to be caught in the middle of a dispute between two sets of villagers.

While mothers complained of buses using Poplar Grove, residents on the main road were annoyed too – by crowds of schoolchildren milling about at bus stops near their homes.

It was not the first time that families in Poplar Grove had criticised the bus company – similar complaints had been made about buses in their street in 1974.

Oxford South Midland Bus Company spokesman Clifford Fletcher said he thought the buses had to go along Poplar Grove to get on the right side of the road to pick up the pupils.

Did the mothers form their human chain? And did they win the battle? Write and let me know.