A Hampshire coach firm is to close with the loss of 15 jobs including 12 drivers.

The decision by Taylors Coaches, of Sutton Scotney, near Winchester, to cease trading marks the end of a transport era spanning nearly a century in Hampshire.

On Christmas Eve, the vehicles, many now for sale on the company's website, will leave the Oxford Road yard for the last time.

Maxim Taylor, whose great-grandfather, Walter Charles, founded the company in 1916, said the decision was a difficult one.

The 33-year-old managing director, whose father and grandfather ran the business before him, said: "There is almost inevitably pressure to continue because we have been going so long.

"But a realistic and commonsense decision had to be made. It is a 24-hour, seven-day a week operation which does not give us a chance to switch off.

"I would like to thank our drivers and admin staff for all their help and support over the yearsand not forgetting all our customers."

The Taylor family have lived in the parish of Wonston since the 17th century. But the business dates back to Walter Charles, who started out as a wagon builder and wheelwright.

At the turn of the 20th century, he became landlord of the nearby Coach and Horses and ran a livery business from there with horse-drawn coaches and traps for hire.

Walter quickly saw the potential of the new "horseless carriage", or motor car. He owned his first car in 1906 and built up a small fleet of taxis.

With his son, Frederick, he opened their first garage, in Whitchurch, in 1912, moving to their present site in Sutton Scotney, in 1916.

There was a garage for repairs, petrol pumps, a shop, taxi service and private cars for hire.

In the mid 1920s, the first purpose-built coach on a Ford chassis carried 12-14 people, but the firm had more lorries than coaches during the 1930s and 1940s.

It was not until the 1950s that this became a major arm of the company, then run by Maxim's grandfather, Fred, and his brother, Horace.

More recently, the 15-strong fleet has been employed on school runs, private hire excursions, UK and Continental tours and holidays.

But Maxim Taylor says the business is now barely profitable. He has worked for the family firm since 1994, becoming MD after his father, Basil, died in 1996. His mother, Alexandra, is still a director.

"The coach holiday market has declined, largely due to the fact that many people have their own cars and also the budget airlines going to our traditional destinations at very good rates."

Other problems include increasing red tape and the cost of vehicles.

No deal had yet been made to sell the bus station, and part of the site would continue to be rented by an MoT garage, while Taylor's offices were let. But the two-acre site, in the centre of the village, could quickly be snapped up by a property developer for new homes.

Maxim, who has five sisters, is a retained firefighter, maintaining a family tradition as his grandfather was the first leading fireman when the Sutton Scotney station opened in 1935.

He pledged: "It's not the end of the Taylor's in Sutton Scotney. We are still keeping a presence here."