A TRANSPORT museum in Oxford will be giving free bus rides over the Easter bank holiday.

Next weekend, visitors to the Oxford Bus Museum on Easter Sunday and Monday will be allowed to travel on the buses for free.

The museum, which is run entirely by volunteers, will also host its popular festive ‘chick hunt’.

The museum also tells the story of how the mail coach came and went with its preview of the new ‘Mail Coach’ exhibition.

Next to the model of an 1820s coach, the museum explains the history of the coach which first ran on August 2, 1784.

It explains that the coach left Bristol at 4pm, and travelled to Bath via London – where it arrived exactly on time at 8am.

Before then, the journey had taken 38 hours, but now it took just 16.

That’s when the system started spreading throughout England.

However within 60 years, people had moved on to getting the train.

The museum claims that during the 60-year reign, public distance coaches became the sign of glamour and wonder.

Other exhibitors include horse-drawn carriages, and a selection of artefacts like bus stops, ticket machines, timetables and staff uniforms.

In 2004, the Oxford Bus Museum merged with the Morris Motors Museum which charts the history of how the classic cars were produced in Cowley and in the city.

The museum has free parking and a cafe.