The year 1929 is known for the Wall Street crash which ushered in the Great Depression and the first public demonstration of colour television. 

But 1929 was also the year a Suffolk-based Dennis bus, known as 'Ermintrude,' first entered service and the vehicle – reputed to be the oldest working bus in the UK – is still going strong nearly 100 years later. 

The bus, owned by Buckland Buses of Woodbridge, has now been put up for online auction by Clarke and Simpson Auctions of Framlingham, with an expected bidding price of £40,000. 

Tony Buckland, who co-directs Buckland Buses with his partner Jenny, is retiring and decided to auction the bus, rather than gifting the vintage motor to a museum. 

East Anglian Daily Times:

Passengers on the Aldeburgh to Thorpeness route became well acquainted with the historic transport, which operated regularly between the two places. 

But the popular attraction was also available for tourist hire and once carried members of the wealthy Tata family, who own the well-known Tata Group of companies in Mumbai, India. 

Mr Buckland said: “It is the oldest bus still licensed for hire. There are older buses in museums, but it is the oldest bus that can be used for running a service and being available for hire by groups and being able to take people places and so on. 

“We used to operate a regular service between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness and everyone enjoyed riding on the bus. A lot of the people who travelled on it were already in Aldeburgh and saw it riding up and down the road and thought, ‘I must have a ride on that'". 

The 29-seater, which has a 5.7L four-cylinder crank-start petrol engine, left the factory on April 6, 1929, and began service initially as the number 57 bus with Accrington Corporation in the northwest of England. 

The corporation’s fleet was painted in the regimental colours of the Accrington Battalion- red and blue with gold lining – which the Dennis bus has retained to this day. 

However, the vehicle, which has a top speed of 30mph, was sold in 1945 and found derelict in woods in the 1960s before becoming an exhibit at Stoke nightclub Strikes. 

It was here that Mr Buckland found the bus as he ran a firm in the city which did printing for small businesses and knew the nightclub owner, who sold him the bus. 

He then had the bus restored to working order for use in the Stoke area, before he moved to his home county of Suffolk. 

James Durrant, director of Clarke and Simpson Auctions, said the bus was the oldest he had ever auctioned. 

“We sold an old London Routemaster from the 1960s a few years ago, but this is probably only the second bus we have offered for sale up here. It is certainly the oldest.” 

The online auction is due to end on November 2.

To see a YouTube video of Ermintrude in action, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzadVtF0DPs