Classic prams proving they stand test of time

But it has clearly proved difficult for proud owners to let go of their magnificent Mary Poppins-style prams, despite them no longer being of any practical use.

Ada and Jeffrey Growcott remember buying their Pedigree baby carriage from Woodwards department store, next to the old Kings cinema, in New Road, Stourbridge.

Ada, now 75, put down a deposit on the green and cream painted pram before only daughter Beverley was born in 1964, paying off the remainder in weekly instalments.

When the family moved from Brockmoor to Blackwater Close, Pensnett, seven years later the pram went with them. That was more than 40 years ago.

Beverley is now 49, with two grown-up children of her own – Rachel, 24, and Ryan 20 – and the pram has become a family heirloom.

Last year Ada, an A & E supervisor at Russells Hall Hospital for 18 years, rescued the carriage from the attic and cleaned it up. The pram still has the original canopy, hood and mattress, and the maker's logo Lines Bros Ltd of London on the side.

"I was very proud of it when I bought it," she said. "It's still got a good spring in it. It's also got a back support for when they start sitting. I think children are bent up too much in the modern prams, there's not much room in them."

New parents Amy and Simon Pritchard from Great Wyrley were so keen to get their 1978 Silver Cross Balmoral – known as the Rollys Royce of prams – off ebay that family members were instructed to bid for it while they were on honeymoon.

The couple were texted in South Africa with the happy news that their £300 bid had been accepted. To have bought a new one would have set them back £1,500.

It also doubles as a Moses basket for eight-month-old son Harry who sleeps in it in the kitchen of the family's Warwell Lane home.

Teacher Amy, aged 32, said: "I'd always wanted one even though people said they were disgusting because they were second-hand. This one was in excellent condition and had been used by two generations of the family we bought it from, which was nice to know.

"It's amazing to push, and it's got the best suspension and I can stand up straight when I push it. The leather straps were gone on it but mum and dad have got a friend in the saddlery business and he made some replacements.

"When we've taken it out, people have stopped their cars and pulled over saying they love it, or they've got one just like it in the loft. Apparently Kate Middleton wants one so we're in good company."

Wolverhampton grandmother June Biesty bought her Marmet High coach-built pram for £44 from Lindy Lou's in Victoria Street in 1960.

"It's silly I know but I haven't been able to part with it," she said. "Both my children were pushed around in luxury in it, lying under the canopy like little princes," says the 72-year-old retired wages clerk, of Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses. "It was fabulous, there's no comparison with today's buggies. I know the modern ones are a lot more convenient but these were classy."

Her sons – David, now 50, and Christian, 39 – were not the only babies to have been carried in the cream and black Marmet with its 21-inch wheels. Grandson Connor was also wheeled around in it on visits.

Since then the pram has been lovingly restored. And June says: "I've come to the point where I might let it go for the right price."