At the end of May, Friends of King Alfred Buses (FoKAB) celebrated the 40th anniversary of its formation in 1985 with a pop-up display of its fleet of 15 vintage coaches and buses at Winchester’s former Cattle Market. A shuttle service provided free rides around the city, using the Friends’ 1967 Leyland Atlantean open-top bus. Thankfully, sunny weather prevailed.
Winchester Mayor Sudhakar Achwal and Mayoress Vivian Achwal formally opened the event with a short speech, before enjoying a special ride around the city centre on board FoKAB’s oldest bus, a 1929 Lion single-decker, accompanied by FoKAB’s President Richard Chisnell, grandson of the founder of the King Alfred Motor Services, and his wife Maureen. The event was covered by Winchester Radio and by Meridian TV in Southampton, the TV report being broadcast four times on Meridian’s local news programmes on Monday 2 June. Other future events from FoKAB include free bus services from Winchester city centre to destinations around the city
as part of the Heritage Open Days programme on Sunday 14 September, and in 2026 a New Year running day on Thursday 1 January, followed by another running day on the Monday 4 May bank holiday.
FoKAB used its birthday event to launch its Olympic Appeal to raise funds towards the £500,000 needed to restore Leyland Olympic JAA 708 which was damaged by fire.
The bus had already been fully restored and relaunched in 2012 but was very badly damaged in a fire at the organisation’s storage premises in late 2023. It arrived in April at the Scottish Bus Museum at Lathalmond in Fife, and restoration has now commenced under the expert care of vehicle specialist Andrew Crockett thanks to private funding commitments totalling over £250,000.
