OXFORD buses transported not only thousands of passengers to all parts of the county, but provided an efficient parcel delivery service as well.

Anyone needing a parcel to be delivered on a bus route could drop it off at Gloucester Green – and it would be on its way in minutes.

The service was run by City of Oxford Motor Services, now Oxford Bus Company, for 66 years.

We were reminded of it by a brief mention in our Looking Back column (Memory Lane, September 13).

In 1980, the Oxford Mail reported that the firm “is axing its parcel delivery service, started in 1914, because it is no longer viable”.

One reader with memories of the service is Ron Shewry, of Pearce Court, Thame.

He writes: “Each town or village along the routes had an agent where you could collect or take your parcels for delivery.

“Our family had moved from Buckland to Thame and during the war when food was scarce, my father’s family would send us rabbits.

“These would be taken to the village store in Buckland, where they would be collected by the conductor of the No 67 Faringdon-Oxford service.

“They would be taken to the main office at Gloucester Green to await collection by the conductor of the No 82 Oxford-Aylesbury bus, who would drop them off at the agent in Thame, where we would collect them.

“We would take the rabbits home and wait for our father to skin them.

“We would take the skins to the local tanyard and would be given a few pence for them.”

Another regular user of the service was the Oxford Mail. Newspapers would be put on buses at Gloucester Green and taken to various parts of the county.

Newsagents would often meet the bus and have copies on sale in their shops within minutes.