This morning it was another early start in the Little Wheels van

The route today was on one of my favourite roads, the A40 where it runs along a ridge in the centre of the Cotswolds from Witney through Burford to Birdlip Hill.

My first pick-up was in Gloucestershire, in the small town of Mitcheldean. I'd agreed to buy a lifetime collection of 1:76 scale buses from a retired bus driver. He's not able to display them any more so was reluctantly moving them on. They are all EFE and Corgi OOC and there are nearly 500 of them, so look out for these in the web store in the coming weeks. 1:76 scale buses are always popular and I'm always on the look-out for more.

 Mitcheldean

From Gloucestershire I headed a little north and west to Herefordshire, to the village of Madley where I had an appointment with the Vicar, a charming man with a beautiful and ancient church, which, as I was a little early, I took time to look around and was delighted to find some Tudor and even earlier features. The Vicar told me that parts of the building are 11th Century.

The items I bought from the Vicar could not be more different from the buses, they were old Dinky Toys collected by his late father and uncle. The earliest of which are immediately post-War, stretching through the 1950s and into the 1960s. None with boxes, some repainted and some with a lot of playwear, but among them are some gems in lovely condition. Where value is hard to assess - usually the tattier ones, they will go into Ebay auctions, but a good proportion of them will find their way, over coming weeks, into the Little Wheels shop.

Loading complete at Madley with the magnificent church in the background. Only one box contains Dinky Toys, all the rest are full of buses.

Back at base....

Dinky Toys from Herefordshire, watch the video on TikTok by clicking the photo

and the bus collection is being prepared to go on sale soon..