A HEREFORDSHIRE motor company was once a big part of people’s lives as they used its buses to get around the county.

A picture has stirred some memories for members on our Facebook group We Grew Up in Hereford.

It shows a black and white photo of a group of people outside the old Wye Valley Motors building, in Hereford, with an array of dogs in front of them, and vintage buses and Shell pumps next to them.

Wye Valley Motors was founded in Pontrilas by William (Bill) Morgan in 1926.

By 1931, Mr Morgan had established a purpose-built garage at St Martins Street in Hereford and the company finished in 1974.

Some of the buses were bought by people when it closed – a vintage Wye Valley Motors bus was part of the funeral procession of long-serving county police constable Paul Mason in 2017.

Mr Mason bought it in 1976 and, after working on the vehicle, sold it to Boultons of Shropshire who brought it to the funeral.

We Grew Up in Hereford member Martin Perry shared a photo of the garage on the page last year.

It was a picture that he took of the now long-demolished Wye Valley Motors booking office and garage in Hereford bus station in 1974, where Walter Green and his staff would take bookings “off the board” for Longleat or Barry Island, Borth and other areas, he said.

Mr Perry said remembered a special trip on one of the company’s buses on Friday August 9 and reminisced on how cheap everything once was.

“A half-day tour of the Black Mountains cost 35p, on Saturday you could take a day trip to Birmingham with a 9am departure for 60p, and on Sunday another 9am start to Aberystwyth or Borth for 78p.”

Other members of the group recognised people in the photo.

Geraldine Charity said in front of the bus stood Mr and Mrs Southhorn who were holding their spaniel, while her grandad Gordon Price stood next to the Shell pump.

Meanwhile, Janet Price believes her ex-mother-in-law Lavinia Woodward stood second from the right with her Norfolk terriers.