All aboard for a free day out at Hucknall heritage vehicle centre this weekend

The Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity, based at the Old Bus Depot on Portland Road, will be open tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday, October 24, from 10am to 4pm each day with free entry throughout the weekend.

Several old buses and coaches will be on display and visitors can enjoy free vintage bus rides, books and models for sale, a tombolla, and model railway layouts in operation, as well as a full selection of hot and cold drinks along with sandwiches and cakes.

This will be the second time in the last month the centre has held an open weekend and volunteers are hoping for another bumper weekend like the last one.

Simon Lowings, one the volunteers there, said: “The one we did last month went really well, we had about 1,200 people over the weekend, so we’re having this one now and then another one before Christmas.

“We’ll three or four vehicles out doing bus rides and we’re hoping to have a couple of guest vehicles there too.”

Volunteers at the centre used the recent lockdown periods to get plenty of essential work done at the venue, including essential maintenance, re-wiring the electrics, installing modern heating and refurbishing the front of the building on what is one of the few surviving Art Deco bus garages in the country.

Simon continued: “We’ve been able to get a bit more work done since then and get a few more display items on show.

"We were delighted with how the last one went, I think the fact that it’s free entry helped, although we do hope that people will give us a donation on the day.

"It was great to see a lot of local people coming out though and supporting us at the last event and we hope people will do so again.

“There’s not a great deal museum-wise around the area so it’s good to see local people coming to this.”

The centre is also still looking for more people want to volunteer to join the team and help keep the venue holding more successful weekends for the public.

For more details, visit www.facebook.com/nottinghamheritagevehiclescharity.