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No 8 Bus Route

I take issue with Peter Walker on the route of the CITY CIRCLE 19 as I do not remember it ever going to Five Ways were it would have met the INNER CIRCLE. My memory is that it crossed Broad St from Granville St to Sheepcote St.
That's what I thought as well. Here's an extract from my (incomplete, only done to wartime yet!) BCT route database:

2/3/1932 New service
19 Benacre St, Bristol St, Great Colmore St, Cregoe St, Granville St, Broad St, Sheepcote St, St Vincent St, Summer Hill St, Powell St, Albion St, Frederick St, Vyse St, Well St, New John St, Aston Rd, Dartmouth St, Lawley St, Watery Lane, Adderley St, High St Bordesley, Alcester St, Vaughton St and Gooch St to Benacre St. Service named “City Circle”.
25/9/1939 Wartime restrictions: Service operates weekday peak hours only.
19/7/1943 Service diverted from Benacre Street via Sherlock Street, Gooch Street and Wrentham Street to Bristol Road.
 
I take issue with Peter Walker on the route of the CITY CIRCLE 19 as I do not remember it ever going to Five Ways were it would have met the INNER CIRCLE. My memory is that it crossed Broad St from Granville St to Sheepcote St.

Hi David,

My 1950's BCT route map also shows the 19 route crossing
Broad Street from Granville Street to Sheepcote Street.

Kind regards

Dave
 
With the open back buses you used to be able to get on the bus after it was started, holding on like grim death to the handrail and scooting with your foot. My brother got to the stop at Aston Cross a little before me, and I saw him dragged across the road and dropped on the other side. I'm sorry to say me and my friends laughed our heads off.
 
It reminds me when younger you wait half an hour for a number 8 then two arrive the first one stops just to let people off ,and the second one passes by empty,i`m sure it was a game with those drivers
 
My first job was in Hockley at Marples and Beasley and I lived in Belchers Lane, Alum Rock so I caught a bus from the Pelham, a 14 or a 55, to Saltley Gate then the Inner Circle 8 to Hockley Brook and looking back to over fifty years ago realise that I never waited more than a few minutes for a bus in those days. Birmingham City Transpoert truly was a public service and an object lesson as to how to run a bus service where the passenger came first and most of the workforce, although they probably wouldn't admit it, took pride in the job.

Anyway here's an image from those days with a No.8 turning into Nechells place all those years ago----enjoy.
https://www.redbubble.com/people/artistjeffries/art/5093538-1-btc-daimler-cog5
 
When we lived at the café at saltley gate, I can remember mom putting us kids on the number 8 for a bus ride. We didn’t have a car in those days, so it was a nice sitting upstairs in the front seats watching the world go by. I remember the big key clock machine outside the café, the drivers used to insert and turn their numbered key into the machine. I would imagine this recorded the time they arrived or left the terminus. I used to stand by the machine and ask the drivers to stamp my hand with the inked number on the bottom of the key. That was more than 50 years ago, wasn’t pleasure for kids was so simple then.
 
HI JETTYMAN
Yes i also remember your moms cafe and that dreaded bus terimal clock there would be about five of us when we went on a tanner trip around thecicle for a coupleof hours
when we pulled up out side the clock we would always grab the two front seats of the bus when we could and we would stretch ourlittle necks to the window to see if we wrer gonna be there for ages and one would shout out ho no hes gonna go in the cafe and we would keep looking and one would say hooray hes coming out
then he would move on up rocky lane the cross and back up to lady wood monument rd clock we would get off and wait for the driver to punch is clock asnd we would do the same asked him to put it on our wrist the ink numer best wishes astonian
 
Having a bus terminus clock by the café was great for business; lots of drivers and conductors would grab a sandwich and fill their white enamel tea canteen at the café. If you couple that with the trade from shift workers at the Saltley gas and railway works, it was a gold mine. When they knocked the café down for road widening, we moved to Brighton and brought a guest house. The café was run by my mom, Margery Brittain, my dad Harold Brittain worked at the Morris Commercial factory. They were both from the Basall Heath / Moseley Road area…..Michael Brittain.
 
Thanks for these post re the Bundy Clock. This is new information for me as I did not know that the key was inked. I always thought that the driver turning the key in the clock just recorded that a bus was leaving the stop not which bus it was. I was more familiar with the No 11 Outer Circle and I remember when visiting my grandmother we could wait upto 10 minutes at the clock at the Church Road Wellington Road stop. Returning home the bus would crawl slowly up City Road so as not to be too early at the Kings Head stop.

View attachment 64380Picture posted under Wiki Commons Licence
 
monument rd clock we would get off and wait for the driver to punch is clock asnd we would do the same asked him to put it on our wrist the ink numer best wishes astonian

Not about the Inner Circle route but the 29A (which has been renumbered 90 I believe). I used to cycle to the Baldwins Lane terminal on many occasions. Friendly BCT staff would allow you to empty the used ticket box into a 'andy carrier :D, change the bus destination blinds if they were short working or going to Yardley Wood Garage and finally impress the Bundy Clock key number on your wrist. ;)

Those were the days when most youngsters followed outdoor pursuits.
 
HI DAVID
Didnt your stret have a coronation street party we had a big one down on lichfield rd aston and up our end by the terrace andf thompsons the butchers
was organised by mr sheldon and mr craddock and by mr jelfs caruering from is coffee shops and he supplyed the food and tables and chairs
and for the cromwell terrace tennants afterwards we all walked down to the coffee shop and carried on celebrationg and shouted hip hip hooray for the queen
and still carried on artying in that coffee shop it was a two tear section with a billard tables on the second floor
there was a member on here along time ago whom was called f#lower girl her mother took it over and sold flowers but i later leart as my mother was told to his daughter whom was my mother that this ladys mother was a relatiopn to her but her father would not give her the named person for the thought of upsetting my mother
and through this forum i did learn whom the flower girl was i learnt of the mothers name and like the jelfs history they pass each other or shopuld i say they sold there bussines to each other when they want to move on she said it was ivy in fact its was her fathjer whom sold it to trhe lady
best wishes astonian
 
My father drove a No 8 bus for years and years. He retired and died so I rang people who would have known him and finally his old garage at Liverpool St. I said: "One of your old drivers has died ... George Smith .. everyone knew him ... popular bloke ... wrote the garage notes in the transport magazine." Complete and utter lack of interest and I thought: "Why am I doing this?" Then I said: "His number was 8806". The reaction was immediate. I heard him shout: "Hey, 8806 has died." He said: "Please convey our sympathies to his family ...." etc etc. So remember. They may not know you when you are gone. Best to leave a number.
 
Just joined the site - so my input to this thread may seem a bit late.
I lived in Benacre Street most of my childhood life and went to school at Hope Street at infant, junior and senior level.
I remember the inner circle 8 well. Between the years 1961 to 1965 (age 10 to 14 ) me and my best friend William used to ride the no. 8 all the way 'round on a Saturday (and often weekdays during school holidays)- just for the fun of it. I think our parents were glad to see the back of us for a few hours.
We did this often, depending on if we could scrounge up the fare, and always bags'd the upstairs front seats if we could. We'd do our fair share of secondary smoking and have a crafty fag of our own if we could afford one (3 old pence for two Woodbines or Park Drive with two matches purchased from one of the local Papershops) and enjoy the view. we would take a few sarni's and a bottle of cold tea to share on our journey. It was great fun and nobody ever bothered us - not even the conductor. Our biggest decision was which direction to travel round the route in, though often this was dictated by whichever bus came first.
I once saw a photo' of a no. 8 bus approaching a junction in a book about Birmingham, and there at the front on the upper deck were two young lads, one to each double seat, gazing out of the windows. it's not a brilliantly clear photo' so I can't say for sure, but it could have been us.
Wish I'd still got that photo'.
 
Well what do you know!
Many, many thanks David - this is the very phot'o I spoke of - and I'm still convinced in my own mind that it is William and I at the upstairs window.

William would be on the left as you look at the front of the bus and me on the right. Our usual positions on those journeys.

If anybody has a larger or better definition copy of this photo' I would love to see it.
 
Just joined the site - so my input to this thread may seem a bit late.
I lived in Benacre Street most of my childhood life and went to school at Hope Street at infant, junior and senior level.
I remember the inner circle 8 well. Between the years 1961 to 1965 (age 10 to 14 ) me and my best friend William used to ride the no. 8 all the way 'round on a Saturday (and often weekdays during school holidays)- just for the fun of it. I think our parents were glad to see the back of us for a few h

We did this often, depending on if we could scrounge up the fare, and always bags'd the upstairs front seats if we could. We'd do our fair share of secondary smoking and have a crafty fag of our own if we could afford one (3 old pence for two Woodbines or Park Drive with two matches purchased from one of the local Papershops) and enjoy the view. we would take a few sarni's and a bottle of cold tea to share on our journey. It was great fun and nobody ever bothered us - not even the conductor. Our biggest decision was which direction to travel round the route in, though often this was dictated by whichever bus came first.
I once saw a photo' of a no. 8 bus approaching a junction in a book about Birmingham, and there at the front on the upper deck were two young lads, one to each double seat, gazing out of the windows. it's not a brilliantly clear photo' so I can't say for sure, but it could have been us.
Wish I'd still got that photo'.



Hi depeden, this post took me back,my cousin and I often travelled on the number 8 bus, from Hockley to Balsall Heath, and visa versa, she lived in Handsworth and I lived in Balsall Heath, one day we were catching the bus from Hockley we had to run but the driver didn't wait for us, we like you always got the front upstairs seat, cut a long story short we had to wait for the next bus, we went a couple of stops, and the bus we would have been on had crashed, the upstairs front was wrecked, it had gone straight into what I seem to remember was the front of a cafe, on a corner, I think we would have been seriously injured had we been in our usual seat.
 
Thanks John,

William had light red hair (his mom called it strawberry blonde...) and mine was a dark brown, so the colouring would be right on a old B&W photograph.
We both had the common fringe cut (like the lad bottom right of photo' who is walking with his mom), so that would be also be right.
We'd be about 11 when we first started our round trips and around 14 when we last did one, so the age would appear about right too.
Okay - not quite case proven, but certainly a very real possibility.

Oddly strange, but also trhrilling to think that it really could be us and that I might be seeing my (somewhat blurry) self as I was all those years ago.

Thank you so much for the help.
 
Hello Liz,
A narrow escape – sometimes luck rides with you, sounds like it was your turn to have a bit of the good stuff that day
 
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