Heading west from Truro we come to Perranporth, now known world-wide as a surfing resort ‘par excellence’. During the 1950s the principal operator in the area was Mitchell’s of Perranporth who were something of an ‘upstart’, having only come on the scene in 1954 with a nineteen year old Bedford WLB that had been new to Safety Coaches of Corfe Castle and had a somewhat chequered career in the interim, going via Southern National and Whitfield of  Goonhavern. Mitchell then purchased the Morris from Taylors of Falmouth to replace the WLB and then doubled his fleet size in 1957 with the purchase of a Bedford OB/Duple (SMY262) from Harper and Kellow of St Agnes. That coach too had been around a bit, having started life in 1948 as the only Bedford OB in the fleet of AEC Regals belonging to Lily Coaches in Edmonton in North London, and then passed to Mrs Harry, another of the Penryn rota operators in 1950, then on to Harper and Kellow in 1953. Mitchell’s really started to expand after they took over Norman Whitfield’s operation in 1958. Included in that transaction was another Bedford OB (MCV311) which was in immaculate condition as was a Commer Q4 (LRL306) with bodywork, as so many of the Cornish registered Commer Qs received, by Myers and Bowman, a small concern based at Distington near Workington in Cumberland. What a fantastic delivery journey to have made in the late 1940s! Later in 1958 Mitchell put into service two second-hand Bedford SBs, one with a Burlingham Seagull body and the other, which was from Robinson’s of Great Harwood, with a Plaxton Venturer body. Mr Mitchell must have been impressed with Robinson’s striking green and black livery, for several later additions, including a massive looking underfloor engined Leyland Royal Tiger, also with a Plaxton body (JOT571) were painted to match. From Truro we shall head west to the Land’s End peninsula, travelling firstly along Western National’s old route 18 to Lanner, the home of Marigold Coaches. In early 1951 they purchased a new Duple bodied Bedford SB 33-seat coach (OCV273) to accompany the Harrington bodied Commer Avenger (MCV653) which I might just have mentioned once or twice in a previous chapter! The interesting thing was that even after delivery of the Bedford, the Commer seemed to still be the preferred choice for the longer private hires with local rugby clubs and the like which ventured up into England. In 1956 Marigold acquired a 1953 Bedford SB (UMU659) again with Duple body, but slightly longer than OCV and seating 35 people. This had come from Taylor’s of Caterham in Surrey, although dealer registered by Arlington. On delivery to Marigold it still had less than 38,000 miles on the clock, an average of only slightly over 12,000 miles a year, and was very much the pampered flagship. I thought I knew most things about Marigold both through the Newton Trewren years and the Harold Stephens years, but recently I came across a photograph taken in Alma Place, Redruth of a Bedford SB with a Brush body obviously lettered for and in Marigold livery and registered PBB954. This coach had not previously appeared on my radar at all and could not have been acquired by Marigold before 1961, but thanks to Andy Ritchings’ extensive records, I now have more information.  Also operating out of Redruth, mainly on the run down the valley to Portreath, was the Silver Queen fleet of Tom Mundy of Camborne, who was not really into private hire or excursions in quite such a big way. Although he always had at least a couple of very tidy Bedford OBs, within his nine or ten vehicle fleet, most of the rest, were either service buses or else had bus seats within a coach shell configuration. One unusual member of the fleet for a short time was a quite elegant looking 1948 Daimler CVD6 half cab (JNC214) that had been delivered new with a Santus body to Sharp’s Motor services of Longsight, Manchester in March 1948 and had been sold to Silver Queen in June 1949. In less than two years it was replaced by an almost new but very heavy looking Churchill bodied Commer Avenger with Dudley County Borough registration. Very noticeably the whole Silver Queen fleet was always kept spotlessly clean and well presented. Meanwhile JNC’s career saw it passing to Teign Cars Limited of Teignmouth, an associated company of Taylor’s (Central Garages) of Exeter, and immediately sent, without entering service, to Durrington to be rebodied by Heaver who had already bodied several similar chassis for the group in 1947. Both Teign Cars and Taylors were taken over by Greenslades in 1954.