A coach operator has closed after 76 years due to factors including rising costs and a shortage of drivers.

Family-run Heyfordian Travel, which is based in Bicester, was founded in 1947 and specialises in luxury group travel around the UK.

It also had offices in High Wycombe and Aylesbury, operating 75 coaches.

In a statement on its website, it said it had ceased trading today "with the utmost regret".

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

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"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."

As part of its coach rental services, Heyfordian Travel covered several school routes in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

It was due to operate 13 school transport contracts for Oxfordshire County Council from September.

The county council said it has already advised the schools who will be impacted.

A spokesperson said: "We will be working hard over the school summer break to find alternative transport providers in readiness for the new term. But it is too early to give further details at this stage."

It has not been confirmed how many jobs are at risk at this stage.

The 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.

One belonged to a bus and he bought it from the station commander, with a 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.

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Mr Smith’s four sons joined the business in the 1960s and 1970s when further expansion through acquisitions took place.

Didcot-based bus operator Thames Travel said that it was "saddened by the news".

It said during this "challenging time" it wanted to invite any staff members looking for new roles to apply to join its team.