sb3000 in salisbury in july 2009 in the current blue livery parent go south coast part of the go ahead group headquarters poole service type bus & coach services alliance wilts & dorset fleet 10 operator bell s coaches kingston coaches lever s coaches tourist coaches chief executive andrew wickham website www.touristcoaches.co.uk lever s van hool alizee bodied daf mb230 in salisbury in july 2009 tourist group is a coach charter company in dorset and wiltshire england . it operates coaches under the bell s coaches kingston coaches lever s coaches and tourist coaches brands . it is a subsidiary of go south coast within the go ahead group . contents 1 history 1.1 bell s coaches 1.2 kingston coaches 1.3 tourist coaches 2 depots 3 references 4 external links history edit in the 1990s tourist coaches 1 was purchased by wilts & dorset . bell s coaches kingston coaches 2 and lever s coaches 3 were purchased shortly after . all at first retained their separate liveries but have since received a common blue livery with individual trading names . in august 2003 tourist group was included in the sale of wilts & dorset to the go ahead group . 4 bell s coaches edit bell s coaches logo bell s coaches jonckheere bodied volvo b7r in salisbury in july 2009 bell s coaches was established in 1921 when reg bell formed winterslow & pitton motor services . always trading as bell s coaches the company built up strong reputation quality coach hire and it remained in the ownership of the bell family until 1999 . 5 kingston coaches edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message the beginnings of the firm of kingston coaches are not documented but it is known that as early as 1924 a gentleman by the name of edward charles h grant of middle winterslow provided a service to salisbury for his fellow villagers four days a week . a photograph exists of a little 1928 chevrolet reg no mw2583 which was with grant s kingston coaches some years before he sold his stage bus operations to wilts & dorset in february 1939 . it is not known if separate coaching contracts were retained but what is known is that a firm called kingston coaches was set up shortly after ww2 by mr and mrs alf tedd in middle winterslow . rumour has it that they purchased their first coach from a firm in the london area and just started using it in its original livery and markings including fleetname however it is more likely that the new company was resurrected from grant s business . both tedd sons gordon and phil were involved in the running of the firm and phil went on eventually to buy and operate the nearby amport & district coach firm . although over the years kingston operated vehicles of different makes they favoured fords with duple bodywork . the fleet livery was red and sand . main contracts were with the military for movement of troops stationed on nearby salisbury plain schools and local private hire work together with a heavy commitment to third party wholesale tour business . they also provided duplicate coaches for associated motorways and later national express . on retirement the tedds sold the company to thamesdown transport of swindon but in 1997 kingston was sold on to wilts & dorset and the fleet of eight coaches was moved to wilts & dorset s salisbury bus depot . tourist coaches edit tourist coaches logo tourist coaches was founded in 1920 by e & df stanfield in figheldean wiltshire . at the time it provided both private coach hire and contract coach services for the military establishments around salisbury plain . 6 depots edit the company has depots at salisbury figheldean and fovant . 7 references edit companies house extract company no 707318 tourist coaches limited companies house extract company no 1945370 pia swindon limited formerly kingston coaches salisbury limited companies house extract company no 2524573 levers coaches limited bus buy for go ahead the guardian 12 august 2003 ra bell & sons countrybus about us . www.touristcoaches.co.uk . retrieved 15 september 2016 . work for us . tourist coaches . retrieved 15 september 2016 . external links edit official website v t e go ahead group united kingdom bus companies anglian bus brighton & hove carousel buses go ahead london blue triangle docklands buses london central london general go north east go south coast bluestar marchwood motorways uni link damory coaches southern vectis wilts & dorset more salisbury reds tourist group hedingham chambers konectbus metrobus oxford bus company plymouth citybus thames travel singapore bus companies go ahead singapore united kingdom railway companies as govia govia thameslink railway including gatwick express great northern southern thameslink london midland southeastern defunct uk operations aviance uk east thames buses meteor parking solent blue line thames trains thameslink govia retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title tourist group & oldid 739572792 categories bus operators in dorsetbus operators in wiltshirecoach operators in englandgo south coast companieshidden categories articles needing additional references from september 2016all articles needing additional referencesofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 september 2016 at 14 09 . text is 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