Sixteen beautifully restored coaches visited Liskeard’s Westbourne car park briefly on Saturday morning, June 17.

All of them were privately owned and many were original Royal Blue coaches that used to bring holidaymakers down to Cornwall and Devon in the 1950s and 60s.

They were taking part in the Royal Blue run, which has been established over recent years to give the old coaches a chance to relive the routes of their coaching heyday. This year’s run started on Friday in Salisbury and the coaches travelled down for their overnight stop in Liskeard via Seaton, Exeter and Dartmoor.

On Saturday morning, they headed off for a loop around Cornwall from Liskeard to Penzance, Falmouth, Newquay and finishing at Wadebridge.

Many heads were turned as these old ladies appeared in convoy on the Cornish roads, recreating the experience of bygone travel.

On the final day of this three-day marathon, the fleet returned from Wadebridge to Salisbury, via Hatherleigh, Exeter, Yeovil and Shaftesbury.

Organiser Colin Billington said: “The run reminded everyone of the days when coach loads of eager holidaymakers travelled down to the stunning scenery of Cornwall for their week in the sun.

“The big difference nowadays is all the extra traffic.”

As the coaches are all privately owned, it was not possible to offer public rides along the way.