EXTRAORDINARY Bus Queues, proclaimed the front page of the Gazette 60 years ago.

The Whitsuntide holiday, coming hard on the heels of VE day, seemed to have prompted many hundreds of Birmingham residents to visit the Malverns.

The trouble arose when all the Brummies wanted to go home. "At Great Malvern at six o'clock the queue numbered around 200 people, and there they stood in the sun with very little chance of travelling at all, for every bus coming in from Malvern Wells was chock full.

"Further back at the Malvern Wells terminus there was the oddest scene. A queue of from 80 to 100 seemed undiminished by the buses which came and went three times as often as laid down in the timetable.

"Although we were sending out a bus every two or three minutes and using everything we had, we could make no impression on that queue at all," said a harassed Midland Red official.