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The Outer Circle

I walked it quite a few times when they used to use it for the old BRMB Walkathon, don't think i could do it now tho, Can only imagine what it felt like after cycling it, was bad enough walking lol
 
leanderpoole said:
Travelled the 11 bus route all the way round loads of time when I was a kid.
When I was 11 I had a crack at cycling the route. Took me 4 hours on a 24" wheel single geared bike and my legs were wrecked. Got the time down to 2hrs and 15mins eventually on a three speed sturmey archer.
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That's not bad going, the buses took 2 hrs 10 mins (2 hrs dead on Sundays later) - but you weren't stopping at every other bus stop en route, were you?
 
claire-brum71 said:
I walked it quite a few times when they used to use it for the old BRMB Walkathon, don't think i could do it now tho, Can only imagine what it felt like after cycling it, was bad enough walking lol
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Cycling is cool and does not feel too bad once you get used to it. No more stressful than driving a car. Used to do Manchester in 6 hours from Brum hence my nickname at one stage "turbo legs">
 
Di.Poppitt said:
A Sunday afteroon outing was a ride on the number 11 bus round the outer circle. I can't remember how long it took but it was usually tea time when we got home. We never got off the bus, we would have had to pay again to get home, and none of the shops were open anyway. :D
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I remember catching the No.11 bus at the top of Greenwood Avenue, Acocks Green many times. The journey, as I remember, used to take 2 hours and 10 minutes. Memories!
 
Took my 6 yr old grandson on the no 11 a few weeks ago..hadn't been on it in 40 yrs but it was still good to go upstairs at the front and pretend to drive it:)used to cost tuppence..now £5.50 for two of us
 
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Maggie

What did the other passengers think of your display of driving skills.

Phil
 
Phil it was great :)but would you believe that we were the only two upstairs for over an hour:)
 
Maggie

I can believe it, wild horses wouldn't drag me on to a bus now. I would rather walk and have done so when left with the choice of walking and taking the bus.

They are a far cry from the public service that I remember, but there again perhaps I expect too much.

Phil
 
Found this article while browsing, unique Outer Circle Bus No 11. Len.
AS far as I know, no one has yet made a television series called
Great Bus Journeys of the World. If they had, they would surely
have to include the number 11, Birmingham to Birmingham service
(calling at Birmingham and Birmingham on the way).
The Outer Circle, as we call it, is one of the great creations of western philosophy. It will occupy two hours of your life and yet, at the end of it, you will be in exactly the same place that you started.
The service was created after the First World War as a way of linking together the tramways that all radiated out from the centre of Birmingham
to the newly incorporated suburbs. It has always been easier to go up and down on public transport than across and the Outer Circle was designed to address this issue. The first stretch, between All Saints’ ChurcBack in 1927, the number 11 Outer Circle bus route was touted as a great way to see Birmingham’s new suburbs. But there were two major snags.One was that it was impossible for inexperienced travellers to know which way their bus was heading. It was pretty annoyingto be heading for Harborne when you wanted to go to Handsworth.As far as I can tell it was not untilthe 1970s that the buses were labelled 11A and 11C to make their routes clearer to the uninitiated.
The other problem was bunching. Until recent times it was common for a bus to pull in and wait till its predecessor had got a reasonable distance ahead again. These days, of course, with radio communication and more
accurate timing devices, bunching is no longer a problem. Drivers are quite happy to travel together in convoys of three and four. If you want to see what’s happened to your city in the last 80 years, there is no better place
to do it from than the top deck of a number 11. Kings Heath and the Hagley Road, was inaugurated on 8 January 1923, and before the year was out three more arcs of the circle, connecting Moseley, Acocks Green, Erdington and Perry Barr had been added. Unfortunately, someone made a mistake with the compasses and the arc between Acocks Green and Moseley missed the Kings Heath stretch by over a mile. It took two more years to iron out this out. Finally, on 7 April 1926, the kink around the Alcester Road was removed and the circle was complete. They called it the longest bus journey in the world wholly within the boundaries of one local authority and, for all I know, it still is. Almost immediately the new service became a victim of its own success, with the single-decker buses unable to cope with demand. For not only was the number 11 doing good work linking the suburban tramways together, it was also becoming a tourist attraction in its own right. Certainly it was good value. If you had a couple of hours and 1s 3d (6p) to spare, the whole of Greater Birmingham was your oyster; just sit back and let the bus take the strain.
Part of the attraction was that the people of Birmingham knew surprisingly
little about their city, beyond their own suburb and the city centre. Here
was a chance to be nosy about your fellow citizens, to see how well
or badly they kept their gardens and whether they washed the net curtains
regularly. The Tramways Department even published a tourist guide to enable day-trippers to make the most of their journey. It speaks of “the sylvan beauty”, “the profusely-wooded scenery” and “the fascinating contrasts” (which meant that not everywhere was as green as bits of Bournville. With thanks to Forward published by Birmingham City Council
 
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Hi everyone, I have such good memories of the No 11 - we used to go from Quinton on the no.9 to Bearwood & catch the No.11 to Bourneville (I can still smell the chocolate - so I always knew we were nearly there) and then another little bus to Mulberry Rd. where my grandparents lived - seemed to take a long time!!!
Sheri
 
Len: Thanks for posting the article about the Outer Circle 11 and it's history. It's very interesting to see how the route evolved over the years decades ago.
I know about "bunching" years ago on the No. 11 route. Caused me to be late for work many a time. It was so frustrating for everyone standing
at the bus stop in the morning. Not a good way to start the day.
 
Thanks Len, great article. Brings back many happy memories when I was a kid and had a few hours spare during the school holidays, great way to spend an afternoon. I think more people look at those new TV screens they have on some buses on the 11 route now rather than study the interesting and varied areas the route passes, that is if the TV screens are working. Talking of those TV screens, as they are computer based I sometimes get carried away with the interesting Microsoft Windows error messages thrown up on them! I have missed my stop a couple of times being too interested in the error message and what could be the cause of it!
 
Thanks for that. Len - although - was some of it missing? The early history seemed a bit vague, so here are my route records up to c1932.
As you all will know, the one place it never went - either as a terminus or via point - was Birmingham!

15/1/1923: New service 11
Erdington (Six Ways) via Wood End Rd, Bromford Lane, Stechford Lane, Station Rd, Stony Lane, Church Rd, Yardley Rd, Sherbourne Rd, Station Rd and Warwick Rd to Acocks Green (Shirley Rd). Return via Dudley Park Rd, Sherbourne Rd etc.

14/5/1923 Service extended from Acocks Green via Westley Road, Summer Road, Shaftmoor Lane, College Rd, Wake Green Rd and St Mary’s Row to Moseley Village.

16/7/1923 Service extended from Erdington via Reservoir Rd to Stockland Green.

12/11/1923 Service extended from Stockland Green via Marsh Hill, Brookvale Rd, Witton Rd and Aston Lane to Perry Barr.

2/2/1925 Service extended from Perry Barr via Wellington Rd, Church Lane, Oxhill Rd, Rookery Rd, Soho Rd, Boulton Rd, Handsworth New Rd, Winson Green Rd, Dudley Rd, City Rd, Sandon Rd, Barnsley Rd and Hagley Rd to Kings Head PH. Service named “Outer Circle”.

7/4/1926 Service extended from Hagley Rd via Lordswood Rd, Harborne Park Rd, Harborne Lane, Oak Tree Lane, Linden Rd, Watford Rd, Pershore Rd, Fordhouse Lane, Vicarage Rd, Alcester Rd South, Addison Rd, Brook Lane, Coldbath Rd, Swanshurst Lane, Cole Bank Rd, Stratford Rd, School Rd, Fox Hollies Rd and Westley Rd to Acocks Green (incorporating service 10). Section of route between Acocks Green and Moseley (14/5/1923 extension) transferred to service 1A (q.v.).
The route is now fully circular.

6/7/1932 Service diverted from Sherbourne Rd via Dudley Park Rd and Warwick Rd to Westley Rd.


And here's one of the route information booklets, when the route skipped from urban to countryside scenery between districts.
 
Although the transport department never bought any second-hand buses, in 1924 the popularity of the 11 route as it was developing was so great that the 20 seat Leyland and 24 seat Daimler single deckers that ran it were totally insufficient, and in consequence new double deckers were ordered from AEC in London. Until they were ready, AEC hired nine former London 'General' "B" type buses to the department in 1924/5 for immediate use on the 11.
Unfortunately Birmingham is far more hilly than London, and they were plagued with overheating and breakdowns which didn't really help!
They ran in full London General red livery, like this now-preserved one illustrated.
 
Most of the last two years correspondence and queries can be answered in "Outer Circle" by David Harvey, Peter Drake and Margaret Hanson, published by Tempus Publishing, (now The History Press) in 2003. :)
 
All the comments re the 'Outer Circle' brought back memories of my brother and me being sent off for the afternoon with sandwiches and a bottle of cold tea - grabbing the upstairs front seat and completing the entire circuit. I didn't see any mention of the shorter escapade on the No.8 Inner Circle!!! Same sandwiches/cold tea but much shorter outing.
 
Great thread, thanks everyone for all the information and remiscences. The no.11 was an alternative route for me travelling from Sheldon to school on the Hagley Road back in the 60s. Quickest (usually) was into town and out again but if there was time to spare it was a nice change.

I notice our friends over at Birmingham:It's Not Sh*t are promoting an '11 hours on the no.11 bus on the 11th day of the 11th month' event next month.
 
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One of my favorite rides in the late40s early 50s was the #11 around the outer circle, Is that still in service? John Crump Old Brit, parker Co USA
 
Hi John: Welcome to BHF. The Outer Circle Bus route is still going strong and is a firm favourite for so many people. There is so much information, films and photographs of the route online and it even has it's own website. www.elevenbus.co.uk Here is another link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FYUfEtt2-s&feature=related. It also has it's own song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PzzAVXcWZs
I lived close to the route for several years in the charming suburbs of Birmingham. The 11 route is unique. is a part of Brum's history and has so many sentimental memories for lots of Brummies.
 
Hi,
Just read the postings with interest, thanks.
The Number 11 played a big part in my life in the 1960s.
I loved the monthly trips to my grandma at Perry Barr, I caught the bus to school at Erdington for five years, went regularly to the library at the Swan and the shops at the Yew Tree, occasionally to the cinema at the Fox and Goose and it was handy for visiting friends at various places. Best of all, as a girl, was the chance to take a trip all the way round, pocket-money permitting, and enjoy sightseeing and daydreaming for at least a couple of hours.
No wonder I remember it well!
 
So far I have not managed to do the Outer Circle on my visits to Birmingham, it's top of my list the next time I get over!
 
A few photos with an Outer Circle connection. My brother-in-law's mother was a bus conductress (clippie) on the Outer Circle route in the late 1940's. She was based at the Wellhead Lane garage and these photos of a young girl playing by the buses at Wellhead Lane garage were taken there. They used to put on Christmas Pantomines in a theatre there, I saw one it was great - amazing what was done in those days. I suppose none of it's there now. I'm told that the bus crews had a preference for the clockwise route.
Outer_Circle_Bus_Wellhead_Lane.jpg

No_11_at_Wellhead_Lane.jpg

Bus_Platform_at_Wellhead_Lane.jpg
 
It was unfortunate she was standing in front of the number plate. I notice a couple of dents in the front mud guard, and the low probably yellow fog lamp brings back memories of the fogs back then, and I remember once seeing a bus conductor walking in front of the bus to guide it in a thick fog.
 
Thank you for these brilliant photos. It's all so interesting. I think I was a passenger on this bus from time to time, but I was very very small
 
oldMohawk said:
It was unfortunate she was standing in front of the number plate. I notice a couple of dents in the front mud guard, and the low probably yellow fog lamp brings back memories of the fogs back then, and I remember once seeing a bus conductor walking in front of the bus to guide it in a thick fog.
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HOV 711 was the registration number you were lookiing for old Mohawk .
 
I wonder who that little girl was in the photos and whether she is still around.

They are great shots, thanks for sharing them.
 
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