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Bus Tokens

I was in that annexe too, might've been my second year. (Mr Hall was our teacher, used to flog us 'till his cane broke).
 
We got them when I was at Moseley Art School to go the playing fields on Allenscroft Rd in Kings Heath.
Dave A
 
I went to Icknield St School in the late 50's and we were given bus tokens to go swimming at Kent St baths. One time myself and a few other boys decided before going back to schoolto we would go to a cafe and listen to the jukebox, when we got back we were sent straight to the headmaster Mr Kitchen, we got six strokes each of his long thin cane.
 
It is funny that all of the posts call them 'bus tokens' except #33. I (a novice member) still have two red 1d tokens and wondered if a photo was warranted. As expected, not neccessary. However, looking more closely, they are 'tramway tokens' as Lloyd noted.

I dont know why but I also have two 2d tokens. They are blue and from 'Southampton Tramways'. Heaven knows how I got those. I did live in Bournemouth for a few months in 1947 but they had their own corporation buses.
 
we had them to go the the clinic but we walked,and used the tokens to swimming
 
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Astonian said:
The birmingham council and education department used to give the poor familys plastic coins for bus fares
of all nominations in different colours to parents to give there kids and get them to school
from i penny upwards the penny was red and green was i think was threepenny and six penny was a blue ; i think ;
any of you guys had them ; we did and i used to travel down to hockley brook on the the number eight bus to get to
ickneild street where old man kitchener would wait on the gate for the late comers ;any body go there
my two cousins went there from ford street at the back of the school . Barry and bryan phelps anybody recal them ;
have a nice day best wishes astonian
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Astonian I recall some of the red ones kicking around our house at one time . I think my sister(RIP) had them to get to and from school as she was ten years older than me , I would be talking about 1955/6
 
Tokens were still being used here in Cornwall up to at least 2000, didn't realise what they were when I started driving down here as I'd never seen tokens before.
 
I did have some Birmingham bus tokens in 1967, but cannot remember when they were phased out.
 
Morturn said:
I did have some Birmingham bus tokens in 1967, but cannot remember when they were phased out.
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I Remember having green bus tokens to get me to school and back in the mid 60's. I believe they were issued to poorer families. I remember I used to palm mine so no one could see it was a token as I was worried I would be judged by others.
Would not worry me in the slightest now.
 
Janet Hunt said:
I Remember having green bus tokens to get me to school and back in the mid 60's. I believe they were issued to poorer families. I remember I used to palm mine so no one could see it was a token as I was worried I would be judged by others.
Would not worry me in the slightest now.
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Poverty is a family’s best kept secret. People in poverty, were and still are made to feel like failures. Families would do their upmost best to keep their poverty a secret. There was a similar stigma attached to kids on free school meals too.
 
Morturn said:
Poverty is a family’s best kept secret. People in poverty, were and still are made to feel like failures. Families would do their upmost best to keep their poverty a secret. There was a similar stigma attached to kids on free school meals too.
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i agree morton. it was like the daily mail boots. they were like wearing a flag saying LOOK we are poor.
 
I used to use them from the middle 60s to 1969 from Aston to Kingstanding to go to school and back.

I guess we were poor but it never bothered me much as we just used to get on with life as we knew it and it proved a great grounding being brought up in Aston for the rest of my life.
 
Astonb6 said:
I used to use them from the middle 60s to 1969 from Aston to Kingstanding to go to school and back.

I guess we were poor but it never bothered me much as we just used to get on with life as we knew it and it proved a great grounding being brought up in Aston for the rest of my life.
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We moved from Ladywood to Kings Norton in 1956, used tokens for travelling back to St Thomas,s school for about a month until I got fixed up at Brandwood End school. I don,t think you had to be poor to get them every child who used a bus for school qualified for the tokens.
 
both of my schools were in walking distance so i did not need bus tokens however i am the eldest of 6 and although we qualified for free school dinners mom declined saying that there is always someone out there worse off than we were so let the places go to them and so we came home for dinner except on the odd times if mom could not be at home...sad to say that i had a few friends who were only children or who had just one sibling who had awful upbringings never having a holiday or feeling loved.. dad was a grafter who made sure we always had one holiday a year and as we kids got older mom took in out work....we never went hungry our clothes were always clean even though some were hand me downs and we always knew mom and dad did the best that they could for us but above all we were loved and if you have that you can get through the tough times because there was rarely spare money for luxuries but to be honest most of us in our street were all in the same boat but i would not swap my childhood for all the tea in china...this can only be a testament to mom and and dad because having pots of money does not always bring happiness and contentment

lyn
 
We used them when travelling from school which was in Vicarage Road, Kings Heath to our swimming lessons at Moseley Road Baths. They were given out to pupils by our games teacher. We walked from school to Kings Heath and used the tokens on the number 50 bus from there. It always puzzled me why we didn't use Kings Heath swimming baths.
 
I don't know. I just thought it offered a possible reason as the school would most like not want to chop and change venues.
 
jmadone said:
We used them when travelling from school which was in Vicarage Road, Kings Heath to our swimming lessons at Moseley Road Baths. They were given out to pupils by our games teacher. We walked from school to Kings Heath and used the tokens on the number 50 bus from there. It always puzzled me why we didn't use Kings Heath swimming baths.
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My junior school was Colmore Road Kings heath, that is were a travelled to on the bus
 
jmadone said:
We used them when travelling from school which was in Vicarage Road, Kings Heath to our swimming lessons at Moseley Road Baths. They were given out to pupils by our games teacher. We walked from school to Kings Heath and used the tokens on the number 50 bus from there. It always puzzled me why we didn't use Kings Heath swimming baths.
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How strange ! I went to Wheelers Lane School, (mid-50s), and we used KH baths.
 
jmadone said:
We used them when travelling from school which was in Vicarage Road, Kings Heath to our swimming lessons at Moseley Road Baths. They were given out to pupils by our games teacher. We walked from school to Kings Heath and used the tokens on the number 50 bus from there. It always puzzled me why we didn't use Kings Heath swimming baths.
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I suppose baths were allocated to schools jointly by Education and Baths departments of the Corporation. There are more classes than baths, and once one had been allocated (to KH for instance), other schools has to go elsewhere. When I was at George Dixon school in City Road, we used Harborne baths but were taken by coach - I suppose it would have taken too long on the Outer Circle 11 bus which also ran between the two sites.
 
My senior school in Marsh Hill, Erdington used to use the swimming baths in Nechells! We had a hired Birmingham bus to take us.
 
I was at Waverly Grammar Camp Hill in the late 1950s and lived in Tyseley. My friend and I both had one penny halfpenny tokens for the ride home. We would find someone who had actual cash for their threepenny fare, exchange our tokens for a threepenny bit, then walk down the Stratford Road to a café on the left-hand side which had a juke box. There, we would use our threepence to play Tommy Steele's 'Singing the blues', then walk home. We did this day after day. Happy days.
 
When I was at school (George Dixon GS, City Road) we used the former KEFW premises at Five Ways as an 'annexe' and got the green tokens to travel to or from there if using both sites in one day.
 
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