TGM Buses Limited (trading as “Tellings-Golden Miller”) of Byfleet in Surrey was acquired by Midland Fox Limited as a subsidiary on Monday 4th June 1990. The company continued to operate with their own identity with vehicles painted in white livery with blue skirts, and a yellow stripe on some vehicles. The “T.G.M. Buses” logo was shown above the windows, and fleet numbers were issued in the sequence of the Midland Fox parent company.
On Tuesday 1st January 1991, TGM Buses Limited acquired the business and operations of V. & M. Hills of Stockingford, Nuneaton, and on the same day the business and operations of Coach Travel Centre of Cardiff. Both of these companies specialised in coaching holidays, and vehicles were operated in Tellings-Golden Miller white and blue livery, but still used their original trading name. The coach operations of Midland Fox subsidiary NWP Travel, Hinckley, were also fully absorbed by V. & M. Hills at Stockingford on this date, with the Hinckley garage being retained by Midland Fox to house minibuses under their Foxcub brand.
The business and operations of Sheenway Coaches, London, were acquired by TGM Buses Limited on Friday 1st March 1991, but these vehicles continued operated with their own identity with dark pink and lilac stripes on white livery.
The main area of operation for the company was coaching holidays, but under the control of Midland Fox bus operations were expanded at the Byfleet site with routes won under contract from London Transport. To operate these services a number of Leyland National single-deck buses were transferred from the parent company or other subsidiaries, such as Loughborough Coach & Bus Company Limited. The majority of these routes and the vehicles passed to London Country Bus (South West) Limited (trading as “London & Country”), Guildford, in January 1992.
Vehicles were moved between sites, but a typical allocation (taken from April 1992 official Midland Fox fleet list) saw 16 coaches and 5 buses at Byfleet, 10 coaches at Cardiff, and 9 coaches and one minibus at Stockingford. The Sheenways Coaches operations had 5 coaches and 4 minibuses, which were listed as being housed at the Byfleet site by the time of the fleet list.
In addition to the coach operations, the numbers above show that Tellings-Golden Miller and their subsidiaries also operated a small number of minibuses. These were ex-Foxcub vehicles cascaded from the parent company, and some of these were still with the company when Midland Fox Limited sold their interest in the company in c. April 1993. The V. & M. Hills subsidiary operations were not included in the sale, and the Stockingford site was closed at this time with vehicles and operations being absorbed by Midland Fox at the former NWP Travel garage in Hinckley.
Tellings-Golden Miller continues to operate to this day but as the connection with Midland Red was severed when sold by Midland Fox in 1993, it does not fall under the remit of this website from this time.