Wanted ... a caring home for a double decker bus

Keith Kitching, from Scarborough, has stored his precious 1950s vehicle at a friend’s farm for the past 10 years.

But after the farmer decided to sell the land, Mr Kitching now faces the challenge of finding a new home for his 20ft-long coach. In the 1980s the coach, named Maid Marion, was featured in an episode of the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small and has also appeared in TV’s Heartbeat.

Mr Kitching is now asking people if they can help or he might have to make the heart-breaking decision to sell it.

He explained: “For the last 10 years the coach has been kept under cover at a friend’s farm with a combine harvester for company. However, the farmer is retiring and selling his farm so I need to find alternative accommodation for it.

“The coach is only 20ft long by 6ft 8ins wide and about 9ft 6ins high. I need secure, under-cover storage where I can occasionally carry out cleaning and basic maintenance to the vehicle.

“It is not used commercially and is only taken out for a few vintage vehicle eyents each year or for the occasional family outing.”

Mr Kitching added that the nearer the location is to Scarborough the better, but he would be happy with anything in a 15-mile radius and would of course be prepared to pay rent for storage.

He said: “It’s got to be out by June. If I cant find anywhere the only alternative would be to sell it, which I really dont want to do.

“It’s a big part of my life and it means a lot to me. I want to keep it for as long as I can.”

In 2005, 53 years after it left Plaxton’s in Scarborough, the coach returned to the town where it was built after it was bought by Mr Kitching and his wife Chris.

Only six of the coaches are thought to have been built. Since then it has appeared at various local classic vehicle shows.

He drove coaches for Scott’s Greys of Darlington in the 1970s. He also worked as a bus driver for United and did a season with Wallace Arnold. He says he always had a soft spot for Scott’s Greys, which went out of business

in January 1992.

He and his wife now own the company on paper and have given their Plaxton’s coach the name Maid Marion, after its first owner, Marion Hunter.

Her family took over the Scott’s Greys business in 1952 after company founder Fred Scott died and his family decided to sell the company.