11-11-11
The date of 11-11-11 made me think – not only about the fact that it was rememberance day, but the significance of the recurring number 11. And that this date will only occur every 100 years.
But for those who were bought up, lived or have worked in Birmingham the Number 11 will have an even greater significance. It is the number of the OUTER CIRCLE BUS route.
If you or anyone you know is old enough to have journeyed to school, or indeed work, in Birmingham in the 1950 or 1960s there’s a pretty good chance that the No 11 Outer Circle bus would have played a part in that journey.
Living as I did in leafy Hall Green, I travelled on the Outer Circle as a child and a teenager to go to school in Bournville, to visit my uncle and aunt in Perry Barr, to play records with my mates in Kings Heath and to meet with my girlfriend (now my wife) in Acocks Green. My mother travelled late at night and early in the morning to go to her night shift as a nurse at the Cottage Homes in Erdington. My Uncle Tom drove the Outer Circle buses almost all his working life, and my father-in-law had graduated from trams to driving on the Outer Circle in the 1940s & 50s.
So the plan was to go around the Outer Circle on 11-11-11. Better still to start at 11:11 and to use a No 11 bus from my childhood!
I hired the bus and invited a few friends to come along for the ride, but there are over fifty seats on a 1953 double deck Birmingham City Transport bus. So I invited anyone who was interested to follow this blog, or my tweets http://twitter.com/outercirclebus and subsequently 50 other folk joined me on board the OUTER CIRCLE BUS on 11-11-11.
From this we decided to run similar trips in the following three years, not just around the Outer Circle, but to the Cotswolds too. All profits were donated to local charities such as the QE & Wythall Transport Museum.
To read the posts cataloguing the progress of our tours over four years click on the “Archive” links in the right hand sidebar.
We ran our last Outer Circle tours in 2014. But then published the content here for everyone to read. To find it click here. You can now hop on a 11a bus and read your own tour. We’ve even got a map for you to help you navigate the 26 mile route. Click here to see it.
We are now giving “Birmingham Heritage Talks” to local history societies and other interested groups, so if you belong to one, or know someone who does then it’s now possible to enjoy a 60 minute “virtual” guided tour of the Outer Circle. A splendid time is always had by all!!
Following on from our “Outer Circle Talk” we now have a small portfolio of “Birmingham Heritage Talks” covering topics such as Back to Back Housing, Theatres, Prefabs and Canals. To see the list of our Heritage Talks please click here.
To get in touch simply send an email to info@outercirclebus.com.
David & Pam Humphries
2976 about to set off from Wythall on 11-11-11
Outer Circle Bus - Take your own Guided Tour 
Looking for the calendar that was printed in 2012 of the No 11 Bus route, anyone gone one please.
The Best 2 hours of my life without leaving my chair, I know most of the route, but not too much of the history, GREAT TOUR I’LL definately do the whole lot in the very near future, (when the wether picks up) Well Done.
Thanks Dave
We hope that you enjoy your tour when you get the chance to go all the way round.
D
I am looking for a copy of the calendar of the outer circle bus route No 11 printed in 2011 by Kevin Beresford, any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Ann Marie
11-11-11 also happens to be a date in the Remembrance calendar of the British Legion; a million men died on the British Empire side of the First World War, and you’re more interested in a bus route, not even a particular bus. Your friends, I daresay, did not want to come to your bus because they observed the customary two minutes’ silence at that time.
Thank you for taking the time to make an observation regarding our first Outer Circle Bus Tour. However what you would not have realised is that on the date of 11-11-11 we did in fact observe the two minute silence at 11am. We were joined by a lay preacher who had travelled from Lincolnshire to be with us and he led us in prayer at about 10:58. Then at 11am all those on the bus observed the two minutes silence. We had been joined by a reporter from the local radio station who was broadcasting live, conducted interviews and accompanied us in the two minutes silence. I dare say that you probably do not realise how much the Outer Circle bus route is fondly remembered and used to this day by the people of Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. We conducted the tours on eight more occasions over the following four years limited only by the number of seats on the bus which is one of the few “Birmingham Standard” buses in preservation. We have delivered our “Virtual” tour as a talk to History Societies, U3A groups, WI etc on 69 occasions since 2015, and have bookings for the same talk in our diary for the next two years. Thank you for your interest in Birmingham’s Outer Circle Bus Route and we hope that you will one day take the journey yourself, using our guide which can be found at The Tours page in this site.