A gardening club of nearly 50 pensioners from Buckinghamshire spent several hours out in the rain after their sightseeing bus got stuck on a notorious hairpin bend on Exmoor.

The Amersham Gardening Association, who are staying at hotels in Minehead, were on their way to Marwood Hill Gardens, near Barnstaple, when the coach grounded negotiating the sharp bend on the A39 near Hillsford Bridge on the road out of Lynmouth.

The incident happened at about 10.30am today (Saturday) and the club, on a five-day trip to see some of the most picturesque gardens in Somerset and Devon, were evacuated from the coach after the driver was unable to free it.

The stoic pensioners then huddled under umbrellas while recovery men from Horne Park garage in Ilfracombe were called to release the coach.

Richard Jones, who donned a yellow fluorescent jacket to take on traffic management duties, said: “There was a terrible grinding noise as the rear of the coach churned up the tarmac and everyone gave a sharp intake of breath.”

The driver of the Crusader Holidays coach said the vehicle was fitted with air suspension, but he said: “The road is newly tarmacked, and it was wet and I went out as far as I could to take the turn but once the front end has grounded there’s no recovery then.”

The 48 members of the gardening club were told to evacuate the coach. One of them, retired policeman Mike Hall swung into action and told oncoming vehicles to turn around and then went further up the hill to Barbrook to stop anymore coming down.

Club president Tim Hillier said: “It is disappointing, but I’m pleased to say nobody was hurt and the police have been very good to us.”

Sgt Nella Barker, of Devon and Cornwall police, said: “Our priority is the welfare of everybody here and getting the vehicle unstuck.

“They are the happiest, most upbeat group of people I have had to deal with and there’s a lot of them.”

Police helped get desperate pensioners ferried to the loo and also took one of the organisers to the nearby café at Watersmeet National Trust property to buy a hundred pounds worth of sandwiches.

The keen gardeners are used to all kinds of weather, but usually it’s for geraniums and garden peas.

Irene Glyn-Jones, one of the trip organisers, said: “We were all very calm and nobody was worried. But since then, we’ve been standing in the rain.”

Another trip organiser Felicity Vickery said: “I was very disappointed that the outing was cut short.”

The pensioners who have been staying in Minehead at The Northfield Hotel and Foxes Hotel, the training hotel for young people with learning disabilities, were told there were no alternative coaches available to take them back.

See more pictures of the dramatic day trip:

The coach was eventually freed at 2.30pm (after four hours) and following a short break in Lynmouth the gardeners were able to head back to their hotels in Minehead.

Tim Hillier said: “It was an adventure but one we would rather not repeat.”