A MUCH-LOVED collection of 7,000 drama costumes run by volunteers has been saved from closure.

Oxfordshire Drama Wardrobe has been offered a new home for its unique archive of robes, accessories and props with a rent they can afford.

The wardrobe, used by drama groups, Oxford colleges and schools since 1968, was forced to find a new home because volunteers had been unable to pay the £890 monthly rent at their aircraft hangar home for several years and were spiralling into debt.

Now the landlord at the storage facility in Hanney Road, Steventon, has offered them another unit on the same site, but half the size and half the rent.

In order to squeeze into the new warehouse, the volunteers have been forced to sell off about half of the collection.

Emma O’Driscoll, acting honorary chairwoman of the group, said she was just glad the wardrobe had been saved from closure.

Miss O’Driscoll, who was given her voluntary role in her capacity as Didcot Asda community champion, said: “It will put everyone’s mind at rest that the wardrobe is alive and thriving, no longer in danger of closure and a valuable resource for the whole community to make use of.”

“It’s so nice to have a story with a happy ending.”

She and the other volunteers have decided to sell off costumes from the 1960s onwards. They have already held one sale and will hold their next at the old warehouse next Saturday.

Alex Graham, 88, inherited the collection from Quaker costume fanatic Beatrice Saxon Shell, of Henley, in the 1960s.

Mrs Shell began making costumes for one of her own productions, and other drama groups were so impressed they asked to rent them from her. She recruited Mrs Graham as an assistant for the growing business.

The collection has been at Steventon since 2006.

It includes valuable antiques which are not rented, such as an immaculate 1870s Victorian silk wedding dress.

When the group was told they were being evicted last year, they appealed in the Oxford Mail to find a new location.

Their landlord MEPC, which runs Milton Park business park, gave them a six-month extension to find a new place, but they came up empty-handed.

The group said they are happily looking forward to the future.