It was a big red letter day for the Keighley Bus Museum as one of its oldest buses was given a massive stamp of approval.

The museum's popular 1934 AEC Regent 1 double decker was one of 16 buses from across the country to be chosen as the latest face on Britain's stamps.

Graham Mitchell, a director of Keighley Bus Museum Trust, said: "It's absolutely wonderful that they chose one of our buses.

"We were totally unaware of the fact that they had chosen it. It shows Keighley's road transport fleet in high regard and we should be proud of this."

The 16 public transport vehicles will be appearing on the new stamps, featuring buses from across the ages, dating from 1908 to 1999.

Keighley's star model is the only bus to be chosen from Yorkshire and is the oldest bus still to be running. The former 1930s Leeds Transport bus, now resting in Keighley, was chosen by internationally-renowned British artist Michael English, who photographed it and then painted it.

He also took photographs of the routes the buses took so that he could put reflections of the views into the bus windscreens. Each painting took him two weeks to complete in A3 size.

The Keighley attraction was first brought to his attention when its close cousin, the AEC Regent RT from London, was voted second best in an international readers' poll by Classic Bus magazine.

Classic Bus editor Gavin Booth said: "That type of bus is very popular, it is a close relative of the London bus in our poll, a predecessor of ten years in fact.

"People like them because they are well designed, well built and they like the look and sound of them."

Visitors to Haworth this weekend will get the opportunity to view the famous bus when it makes an appearance at the Forties Weekend.