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The Outer Circle

Di.Poppitt

Di.Poppitt

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
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
 
Dave I wish I had £1 for the times I took the 11 from Witton island to Handsworth Wood island. My mother's famly lived in Hamstead so then I caught the 15A along Hamstead Road.
 
We used to go to the 'pictures' on Sunday afternoons Dave,to the Odeon in New Street, and it was like a ghost town in the 50's. The pubs closed at two, so there would be the odd drunk still stumbling around when we joined the queue at four; and the hot potato cart on the corner of New Street near the station. On a cold winter afternoon a hot spud was very welcome. :D
 
My Maternal Grandfather (Leslie John Gascoigne), drove a number 11 bus for many years.
Today, I bought a DVD called 'Around the circle' from https://www.discoveryfilms.co.uk/system/index.html
as a birthday present for my Mom, who has often told us of entire school holidays spent on the bus with her Dad.
To quote the blurb on the site.

This video provides a journey of history and discovery around the 'Outer Circle' Birmingham ring road.

For almost one hundred years the No. 11 outer circle buses have travelled through Birmingham's suburbs.

This video takes you on a 25 mile anti-clockwise journey through the following places: Hall Green,

Acocks Green, Yardley, Stechford, Erdington, Stockland Green, Witton, Perry Barr, Handsworth,

Winson Green, Bearwood, Harborne, Selly Oak, Bournville, Cotteridge and Kings Heath.

The video takes the form of a gentle trip 'Round the Circle', stopping regularly to illustrate points of history, or to explore places of interest near to the route.

Many a passenger on the No. 11 must have wondered, "Where did the name Acocks Green come from?" or "What is that church spire I can see?" This narrated video answers these and other questions as it takes an unhurried look around the city suburbs.

I'll let you know what Mom has to say about it after her b'day in September.
 
My parents regularly gave us kids the fare for a Sunday afternoon ride on the Outer Circle, paritularly when it was raining and we couldn't play outside. Mmmm... wonder why they wanted us out of the house. :?

I saw recently on the telly that you can now get a touristy, guided tour of the 11 route complete with commentary.
 
A trip on the "outer circle" no. 11 bus was a real treat out....AH ...the good old days!!! Margaret
 
Re: Outer Circle

My Father left the army in 1946-7 and we were living with my mothers parents. Most sundays we would walk to the Lichfield Road by Aston Cross and catch the bus to Erdington then catch the No 11 and go all round, back to where we started, bus back to Aston and then home.

I realised much later that it was not a recreation trip but that my dad did not get on with my Grandmother and it was a way of escaping her for a time.
 
Re: Outer Circle

I remember the #11. AfterI got married we lived in Northfield , so to visit my mom during the week while my husband was at work I would go to Harbourn on the bus and then get the #11 to Handsworth. With two children this was seemed quite a treck with the walk at each end of the journey, but worth it.
 
::)All these memories of the no 11 bus. We lived in Erdington on the slade road and I caught the bus regularly at Stockland Green. My husband Dave lived by the Yew Tree in Yardley, and when we married :smitten:we lived in Stechford for a while. Before we married I worked as a Student Nurse at East Birmingham Hospital. So in the days when we were among the car less :( the no 11 was just the ticket! O0
Lynda
 
Hello all i used to travell from Kingstanding to PerryBar and take a ride on the no 11 outer circle years later i used to drive buses in Brisbane Australia they had a sevice called the Great Circle line it took 3 hours to go all round and it reminded me of the Birmingham run Allen
 
I used to catch the #11 somewhere near Oxhill road in Handsworth and travel to the Fox & Goose. Once a week after field day afternoon. Was further than going back through town to Saltley but was a welcome rest after running around all afternoon.
 
Blimey, all out mom's must have sent us out on the No. 11. Judging by these posts, the bus should have been completely full of kids but I don't remember it being. Can you imagine childlren these days being happy to ride around on a bus all afternoon!
 
every sunday we was sent on the no 8 .bus route arond the circle and it cost us sixpence a mere little tanner, all the way round and it took us a couple of hours she was glad to see the back of us , sometimes if she had the money she would give us another tanner , and go around the other way , the kids we went around with there parents had money we was poor, the lads somtime used to pay for us good mates , phillip , and billy hollond, there dad was the local chimmney sweep , kenny gardner , ronnie langford , we used to keeppressing the bell , and the conductor kept running up the stairs and threating to kick us off ,
 
Alf said:
I used to go with 3 Mates from the Brookvale Road Stop by Witton Cemetery
Click to expand...
I used to get the 11 from there (after getting the 7 from Perry Common Circle to the end of the Ridgeway), from '70-'75 to get to Kingsbury Road Erdington, where my school was (E.G.G.S. - Erdington Girls Grammar School).
 
I remember friends going around the No 11 route from Handsworth for a trip out, I guess a lot of our families didn't have cars and mom's just wanted to get rid of the kids for a while. Can you imagine, kids being allowed to do that now, maybe they do!

I used to travel on the No 70 and then change at Hockley Brook onto the No 8 to go to the skating rink several times a week. :)
 
No 11 yellow outers circle bus - would catch at the top if Westminster and Wellington Road one way would take nm to my cousins and the other to Perry Barr on to Erdington where I would to to the Palace on the High Street dancing
 
In 1971 i was a security man for a private firm, and I was sent to Witton on Xmas eve to work in the building where Ansells used to park their Lorry's (Now Aston Villa academy) I started work at 6 am until 6 pm. As the Lorry's returned to depot some of the drivers used to give me some tins of beer as an Xmas drink, when finishing time came I was feeling rather tired from the long shift + the beer. I got on the No 11 at Witton to go to the Yew Tree, but I dozed off, when I woke up I was in Harborne, lucky I met a police patrol car and he had pity for me and gave me a lift almost all the way home. The city has changed but I will always remember that Christmas
 
Don Thompson WHO WON THE 1960 Olympic Gold Medal for the 50km walk and won the Outer Circle Wallk many times,died this week aged 73 deserves a mention on this page he did us proud RIP :)
 
Alf. Seems a bit of an odd place to mention someone of note,s passing away, on a page about transport ? Do we need a sort of obituary page for such events ? Just a thought.
 
:angel: BazzM we already have one, if you scroll down the 'Main Index Page' you will find about two thirds of the way down:
Glady's Personal Announcements
and a thread for:
Thoughts and Feelings
Post your thoughts and sympathetic feelings towards individuals also your feelings regarding bereavement. here.

Pom :angel:
 
me and my mates would often pay the princely sum of 17p (i think) in the mid 70s to do the outer circle trip. we would only do it when it was raining and cold... i think it took about 2 and a half hours.

these were the backless number 11s that you could jump on and off when they were moving.

i remember jumping on a moving 11 on my way home from school. we'd had cookery and i'd got a stew in my open wicker basket. as i jumped on the bus, my basket swung and the stew plopped all over some poor woman's legs who was seated on the bench seat under the stairs at the back of the bus. when i got home, my mom wondered how the school expected this meal to feed the family when there wasn't much of it to be had!

janny
 
When we first met we ran for the 11 at Witton circle, I got on first as it was moving off and was panting and hanging on to the pole. Suddenly there was a yell behind me, move up the b...... bus, there was himself running along the road hanging on for grim death :D
 
I used to catch the no 11 outer circle at the top of Westminster and Wellington Rds some Saturdays to go dancing at the Palace Erdington- at other times to visit my aunt and Uncle who lived on Greenhill Rd.
 
Remember how they had a few stops where they waited for up to 10 minutes, to give the crew a break?
Going clockwise, they stopped at Hamstead Road on the northern part of this long route. Going the other way I think they stopped at the bottom of Reservoir Road, Stockland Green. Before leaving the driver would turn his key in the 'Bundy' clock, which stamped his departure time on a paper roll, as at all bus and tram termini.

bundy.jpg
 
That is neat Peter, I remember the one at the Uplands for the 70 bus. O0

We didn't have a horse trough as it appears there is on on your photo. When was that taken?
 
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