A FAIRY godmother managed to save a magical trip for preschool children from disaster.

Youngsters at Happy Turtles nursery, in Bayfield Gardens, Dymock, were excitedly waiting for a bus to take them to Ledbury to see the fairy doors.

But 40 minutes later they were still stood waiting for it to arrive as, unbeknown to them, it was held up in traffic caused by a crash on the Newent to Gloucester road.

Rather than cancel Tuesday's trip, Frances Jupp, the nursery's managing director, put in a last minute call to Rachel Freestone, business manager at Ann Cam CofE Primary School, who agreed to take them in the school's minibus.

Mrs Jupp, whose nursery school is on the school's grounds, said: "The children had really been looking forward to the trip but after a 40 minute wait they were beginning to get irritable.

"I'm quite determined and when we have got to go somewhere we are going to get there.

"So it was a case of "right, what else can we do?"

"We are so very grateful to Mrs Freestone and the school for stepping in and helping us.

"By the time we had it all organised and had headed back up to the school they all piled into the minibus and were very excited.

"We had a lovely time."

Mrs Freestone said: “Happy Turtles are a really important part of our school and we are here to help each other whenever we can.

"It was my pleasure and I’m glad they still enjoyed their trip!”

The children, aged two to four, enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches, fruit and veggies with dips and cake in The Market House Café.

They also spent a little while looking at their very own Happy Turtles Fairy Door which can be found at the café.

"We didn’t have as much time as planned because of the issues with the bus but we did still manage to see two other fairy doors, one in Raft Clothing and one in Handley Organics.

"We caught a big red double decker bus back to Dymock and had the whole top floor to ourselves."