A coach operator has ceased trading after 76 years due to rising costs and a shortage of drivers.

Family-run Heyfordian Travel, which operates in High Wycombe, was founded in 1947 and specialises in luxury group travel around the UK from its depots in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

In a statement on its website headlined "sad news", it said: "It is with the utmost regret that I am writing to inform you that Heyfordian Travel Limited will be ceasing trading as of today.

"We are so sorry after 76 years of trading that unfortunately it has come to this. 

"We just faced too many headwinds with inflation, rising costs, driver shortages and having massive interest charges on our bounce back loans that it has become impossible to continue."

Buckinghamshire bus company Cararousel buses expressed their sadness of the news.

They said: "We’re saddened by the news that local coach operator Heyfordian has announced that they will cease trading from today.

"We understand this is a challenging time for employees, their families, and other stakeholders, and we would like to extend our support.

"At Carousel Buses, we have a variety of bus driver positions available and would like to invite those looking for new roles to apply.

"We would also like to welcome any prospective drivers to our Bus Driver Recruitment Day on Sunday, 6th August, at our High Wycombe Depot.

For more information on careers at Carousel Buses, visit: www.carouselbuses.co.uk/careers"

The Heyfordian company was founded by James Thomas Smith, known as Jim, in the 1940s after the Second World War and he led its expansion over the next three decades.

He was born in Cambridgeshire and grew up in Surrey, where his father owned a haulage firm E&J Smith.

At the outbreak of the Second World War the government commandeered their fleet of lorries and sent the family to Oxfordshire.

As the war drew to a close Mr Smith was based at former Royal Air Force station Upper Heyford.

While waiting to be discharged, he reassembled a number of engines from components left in the corner of a warehouse.

promise to take other servicemen to the railway station for weekend leave.

It was that bus which formed the beginnings of what became Heyfordian Travel.

The firm’s trade was boosted in the 1950s with the arrival of US forces at the Oxfordshire aerodrome and it then expanded to offer daily services to Oxford and Northampton.