Beeston Festival sees a Barton's Lego Bus on show

At yesterday's Beeston Festival a young bus lover named Ewan Cooper, aged 11, on The Beestonian stand, was one of the star attractions with his Lego model of an old Barton's Bridgemaster bus.

Ewan's Lego model came apart so that the viewer can see inside the bus, complete with seats and passengers!

What's more, Ewan has a whole page to himself in the July 2019 edition of The Beestonian, Beeston's free streetmag

By chance I have a photograph of the very bus in a copy of a book, Barton in colour — Return Journey, edited by Philip Lamb and published by Prebus Publishing in 2012 (the book appears to be currently out of print but there may secondhand copies about if you search the web). The book says the photograph was taken in 1967 by Derek Bailey

The AEC Bridgemaster was bought by Barton in 1958 and is part of the private Barton collection you can see at The Garage in Beeston.

If you can get along to this year's Heritage Open Day at Barton's Garage on Saturday 14 September you can see all the preserved buses on show as well as displays and stands relating to Beeston heritage in all in manifestations.

There are 64 years between Ewan and me but it's nice to know that there are still some up and coming bus enthusiasts out there despite The Tram's arrival in Beeston.

Finally a P.S.

The banner behind Ewan is one of mine, created for a pop-up shop in Beeston in Autumn 2018 (Click on the banner and all the pics to enlarge):