RECORDS of Oxford United’s roller- coaster past are being wrapped in polythene to preserve them for posterity.

Club sponsor Polythene UK, of Witney, has donated thousands of polythene bags to store old programmes, newspapers, and minute books dating back to the 1950s.

The memorabilia, kept under the South Stand of the Kassam Stadium, are now being packed. The club’s communications officer, Chris Williams, said: “Some of the programmes are very old and we needed a method of keeping them in as good condition as possible.

“Polythene UK heard about this and have come up with a great way of storing everything. Now we will work to bag things up and complete the collection.”

James Woollard, managing director of Polythene UK, said: “When we heard of the clubs issues around protecting the archive, I knew we could easily help them out by donating storage bags from our extensive stock. I look forward to spending some time in the future looking through the archive. I might even find some pictures of when I trained at the club’s school of excellence.”