A COACH that has been used as a period prop in Hollywood blockbusters such as The End of the Affair and Enigma was one of the star attractions at last month's Noggin, Nosh and Natter in Longbridge Deverill.

Purchased for Maiden Bradley firm Leathers Coaches in 1951, the Bedford OB 29 owned by Sylvia and Len Cooper is believed to be the only one in the UK still owned by its original family.

Leathers Coaches was founded by Basil Charles Leather after the First World War. He started off with a horse and cart before expanding with the help of Mrs Cooper’s father, Don Newbury.

In 1962 Mr Newbury took over the company before Mrs Cooper and her husband became joint owners in 1974, running it until 1998.

Mrs Cooper said: “Mr Leather used to lodge with my father’s mother and that’s how he got to know him.

“He was probably only 11 or 12 years old and there was just a cart and pony but being a young boy he was fascinated with it and worked for the company his whole life.

“Since we retired in 1998 we’ve been using the coach for rallies and we just take the family along with it.

“It was always the one that my dad used to drive and when we retired and sold the other buses we couldn’t part with it.

“We’ve had to refurbish the outside of it but we’ve never had anything done to the inside, it’s exactly as it was when it was bought.

“People always seem to be pleased when they see it and they usually say something like ‘oh we used to go to school on a bus like that’.”

The coach was in regular service during its time with the company – clocking up more than 500,000 miles – before it was retired in 1982 and stored away for eight years.

Since being given a mechanical overhaul in 1990 the coach has been used in a variety of roles, including appearing on the BBC1 programme Lion Country at Longleat and the Safari Park with Lord Bath.

It’s also starred alongside Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore in The End of the Affair and with Kate Winslet in Enigma.

It is a regular visit to the annual Noggin, Nosh and Natter car rally in Longbridge Deverill.