My first post here, but I have been browsing the site on several occasions and have enjoyed both the photos and the varied and detailed postings and comments immensely.
I've been studying the PSV Circle's Eastern National fleet history recently and it
contains several references to vehicles going out to and coming in from Tillings
Transport or Tillings Travel.
In the absence of any further info (as far as I can see PSVC haven't to date
published a Tillings Fleet History) I wondered if anybody could shed any light on
the various Tilling companies referenced and the connections between each other and
between them and ENOC.
As an example, vehicles were acquired by ENOC from Tillings Transport (BTC),
London in 1963 but then they also acquired similar vehicles from Tillings Transport,
Chelmsford in 1965.
Then later on in the 1960s, Tillings Travel (THC), Chelmsford is referenced (I
assume to reflect the take over by the Transport Holding company) and in 1969
further reference is made to Tillings Travel (NBC) to reflect the formation of the
National Bus Company, but in two locations - Chelsmford and Kelvedon...argh...
The only thing I am clear on is that Tillings Travel was eventually absorbed
by National Travel South East in 1974.....
Any help in clarifying this gratefully received.
Many thanks for your time.
Paul Soper
14/02/13 - 07:20
I can help with the history of Tillings but I don't think anybody knows the real
reason for all the vehicle swops.
The business was originally the private hire arm of Tilling's London
business. It was enlarged in 1932 by the acquisition of the London part of
National Omnibus & Transport when that company was divided to form Eastern/
Southern/ Western National.
After nationalization in 1948 it became Tillings Transport (BTC) Limited
and acquired the business of Pat Hearn Limited in June 1951. This included a
garage at Northdown Street near Kings Cross.
In the 1950s the offices were at Grays Inn Road and the fleet livery was
grey with maroon wings. New Bristols replaced old AECs, some of which were
rebodied.
In 1962 the business came under Eastern National control who moved the
office to Chelmsford and redeveloped the Northdown Street garage as
"Kings Cross Coach Station". The vehicles seem to have mostly moved
to the Prittlewell (Southend) garage of Eastern National and were repainted
cream and green. The official line was that "vehicles moved in and out of
the two fleets in accordance with operational requirements".
Following the formation of the NBC the business became Tillings
Transport (NBC) Limited. The businesses of Tillings, Samuelson and Timpson
were later joined to form National Travel (South East) Limited and the coaches
were moved to the former EN garage at Kelvedon (originally Moores Bros and now
Hedingham Omnibuses).
Nigel Turner
15/02/13 - 05:42
Having consulted the archives I can now list the many names of this operator-
Incorporated 10.04.45 as "Removals & Storage Limited".
Name changed on 13.01.49 to "Tillings Transport (BTC) Limited"
in order to acquire the London coach fleet of Thomas Tilling Ltd.
Name changed on 12.03.63 to Tillings Transport Ltd.
Name changed on 26.10.67 to Tillings Transport (THC) Ltd.
Name changed on 12.03.69 to Tillings Travel (NBC) Ltd.
Entire fleet transferred to Eastern National on 1.02.70 but returned on
1.01.71.
Company dormant from 1.01.74
Renamed National Travelworld Limited on 24.04.84.
Sold on 24.03.88 to Badgerline Holdings Limited
Renamed B.U.S. Limited on 27.04.89.
Company dissolved on 5.04.89.
Nigel Turner
15/02/13 - 05:46
So what exactly were Tillings Transport's operational requirements? Were they predominantly London private hire/charter? in which case moving some of the fleet out to Southend post-1962 doesn't make much sense - how were they occupied out there? I remember seeing a photograph of an LS/MW with boards for Thomas Cook - as Thomas Cook were also nationalised at that time then it seems reasonable that Tillings Transport might have provided coaches under contract to operate whatever UK coach tours Thomas Cook offered (perhaps aimed at overseas visitors?); and I once stumbled across an on-line listing of the routes from the first NATIONAL coach guide, in which Tillings was listed as operating a Southend-Liverpool service. Fleet strength obviously fluctuated - but does anybody have any ideas about its average(ish) figure? And finally, when did Northdown Street Coach Station Close, and what happened to the site?: a few years ago, when I'd a bit of time before my train back to Leeds, I had a potter round to see if I could locate anything, but I couldn't find any trace of where it might have "stood" [sic] - wasn't it partially underground?
Philip Rushworth
16/02/13 - 07:04
Thanks for your comprehensive answers Nigel - that's cleared up my confusion greatly. Very much appreciated.
Paul Soper
16/02/13 - 14:49
Having delved even further in to the archives, I can now give a potted history of
Tillings Transport.
Although much of it's bus activities were by subsidiaries, Thomas
Tilling Limited directly owned it's London bus, Brighton bus and London coach
operations. The London bus business was transferred to London Transport in
1933 and Brighton went to the newly formed Brighton, Hove & District Omnibus
Co. Ltd. on November 26th 1935, leaving just the London coach business.
As Tillings was retaining the rest of it's business after
nationalisation of it's buses in 1948, the London coaches had to be
transferred to a separate company. As it was (and is) cheaper to rename an
existing company rather than form a new one, "Removals & Storage
Limited" was renamed Tillings Transport (THC) Limited. At this point the
coaches were being operated from Searles Road, New Kent Road.
Following the acquisition of Pat Hearn Limited in 1951, operations were
from their garage at Northdown Street, King Cross with offices at Gray's Inn
Road. The offices moved to 9, Euston Square on December 29th 1958 would would
have been close to the Euston Square Coach Station used by various Tilling
Group companies including Eastern National.
Once Eastern National had assumed control in 1962, they transferred
admin to their head office at Chelmsford and vehicle servicing took place at
the Central Works, also in Chelmsford. Vehicles were repainted cream and
green, new coaches henceforth being registered in Essex. They then decided to
rebuild the Northdown Street garage as "Kings Cross Coach Station"
which resulted in most of the fleet being dispersed to EN garages.
As Philip Rushworth suggests, much of Tilling's work was on extended
tours for Thomas Cook and similar organisations. EN had inherited this sort of
activity from Westcliff and it would appears that it was all combined, but
licenses were still held separately.
The early fleet of Tillings included Tilling-Stevens which were replaced
by AEC Regals with Tilling built bodies. Early post war coaches were Bedford
OB/ Duple followed by Strachan bodied Regals.
38 coaches of Leylands, AEC, Commer and Bedford manufacture cam from Pat
Hearn in 1951. ECW bodies on Regal IV chassis (similar to LTs RFW class) came
in 1951 and were then followed the the usual Bristol/ ECW combinations - LL6G,
LS6B, MW6G and RELH6G with a few Bedford SB in the early 1960s.
One Tillings vehicle that has survived is MXB 733, a 1938 AEC Regal with a 1952 ECW
body which I photographed at a Southend Bus Rally circa 1997.
I will come back to Philip's question about the location of Kings Cross
Coach Station in due course - it has only been redeveloped in quite recent
times.
Nigel Turner
21/02/13 - 07:09
Philip Rushworth asked about the Tillings Transport garage at Kings Cross which
became the Eastern National Coach Station. Before getting into the details of
this, it is first necessary to explain that there at least fourteen different
sites around the Kings Cross area which were used as coach termini over the
years so there is much scope for confusion. Luckily, Alan Osborne (who worked
in the vicinity in the 1960s) has made a detailed study of these, the results
of which were published in the London Historical Research Group Bulletin of
the Omnibus Society in 2005.
I have found very little information about the business of Pat Hearn who
used the area as a coach garage before being taken over by Tillings in 1951
although a map dated circa 1922 suggests that the building were present by
then. Following the takeover, Tillings initially continued to use it as a
garage. At this time Eastern National and other operators were using a
"temporary" coach station on the corner of Judd Street and Cromer
Street. This closed on December 31st 1953 and the Tilling Group opened a new
one at Euston Square on British Railways land. Judging by the photos I have,
the facilities there were on a par with Judd Street, i.e. nil.
As well as regular London express services, Eastern National was
developing a number of Coach/ Air services between London and Southend
Airport. This and the redevelopment of Euston Station seems to have prompted
them to decided to turn the Tillings Garage in to a Coach Station. This opened
in May 1963 and a small brochure was issued to show off it's facilities. This
helpfully included a plan which shows a narrow pedestrian entrance next to
242, Pentonville Street, a coach entrance/ exit in Northdown Street and an
unmarked entrance off Caledonian Road through Omega Place. This was/ is very
narrow and was probably not used by EN. I first went to the Coach Station in
1972 when I took an Eastern Counties excursion from Norwich. This offered a
choice of destinations - Kings Cross or London Zoo. Since I was the only
passenger for Kings Cross, I doubt that the driver was amused. My objective,
by the way, was the Bus of Yesteryear Rally at Somers Town Goods Yard. To be
honest, I can't remember a lot about the interior of the coach station other
than it was dark and gloomy. This probably explains why I can find only three
photos of the place on the internet.
In 1973 the premises were renamed the "National Coach Station"
and later some other operators moved in. Britannia Airways acquired the lease
in October 1976 and Eastern Nation moved their 400 (previously X10) service
out. Exactly when it was last used as a coach station I'm not sure of, but the
premises were still largely unchanged in 2004.
The Almeida Theatre in Islington moved there in 2001 while it's own
premises were being refurbished. More recently the Northdown Street entrance
has been replaced by terraced buildings (No. 25?). However the "All
Visual Arts" private collection is now housed in part of the premises,
"in a newly refurbished 5000 sq ft former bus garage, previously home to
the Almeida Theatre". This is accessed from Omega Place which
incidentally was called Alpha Place prior to 1938 - a knowledge of classical
Greek is required to understand the logic of that. The entrance at the side of
242, Pentonville Road is now an alleyway. Sadly I don't have any photos of the
interior to offer, but I'm sure the webmaster will publish any that others may
have.
Nigel Turner
23/02/13 - 11:55
To add to the details there is more information at www.sct61.org.uk. The Tilling
fleet over the years has an interesting gallery which can be accessed from the
home page.
At www.sct61.org.uk/ there is an internal shot of
the Kings Cross depot area and www.sct61.org.uk/ shows a
vehicle leaving the site.
During its coach station days it was entered from Omega Place and
vehicles left up the ramp into Northdown Street where the second picture is
taken. The Omega Street entrance still exists and can be seen at www.google.co.uk/maps (patience
required for this one to load)
Mention has been made of a grey and
maroon trim livery but its use was relatively short lived between the cream
and black era depicted by MXB733 and the adoption of ENOC colours.
Even before ENOC took control in 1962, that company was used for major
engineering work on Tilling vehicles and their coaches would often be seen at
Chelmsford Central Works and at winter storage locations such as Prittlewell.
The full adoption of Prittlewell as a replacement site for Kings Cross
depot was not until 1971 by which time the nature of the Tillings business had
changed. Euston Square could boast a booking office and minimal other
passenger services so represented a slight improvement over the previously
used bomb sites.
Mike Grant
25/02/13 - 17:29
Thank you to everybody who was able to reply to my queries: now that I know what I'm looking for I'll have a nosey round the Northdown Street area again next time I'm "in town"; and am I right in gaining the impression that since there was a lot of over-lap between between Tilling/s [sic] business and the coaching side of ENOC, on whom they relied for engineering support, that it was seen as expedient to merge the two? And has anybody noticed how the fleetname was "Tilling" but the registered name "Tillings" - which, anyway, should be "Tilling's . . . " or "Tillings' . . . " dependant on how many Tillings were being referred to.
Philip Rushworth
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