On the Buses; Birmingham’s Transport Heritage

Birmingham Conservation Trust has been selected as one of the recipient charities for monies raised by OuterCircleBus this year- which we are obviously delighted about!  David Humphries who runs the historic bus tours around the city  has written something for our blog below. Get your seat on one of 7 tours running this year and proceeds go to charities – including ours!

Transport Heritage, by David Humphries

“Much goes into our heritage; there are the people of course that make our city so creative and diverse. There are the buildings that provide the environment to make our lives work and leave us a substantial reminder of our past. Then of course there is the infrastructure, the power, the water, means of communication and methods of transport – including the buses.

To many, one of the defining images of Birmingham for the first 70 years of the 20th century were the blue & cream buses (and the trams) that plied our streets taking us to work, school, shops and for leisure. Until 1969 the Birmingham City Transport Department ran the largest and arguably the best presented municipal buses in the country – probably to the envy of most other local authorities.

In Birmingham we are fortunate to have on our doorstep the Transport Museum in Wythall, which is home to dozens of buses from Birmingham, the Midlands and across the country. Anyone who remembers the blue and cream can see over a dozen of the old favourites at Wythall, but there is also the opportunity to enjoy a journey on some of them.

In 2013 there are a number of Historic Bus Tours in and around Birmingham. There are two opportunities for you to ride on a 1953 Birmingham double deck bus on the whole of the Outer Circle Bus route in September, and on the old 1A route from Acocks Green through Moseley & Edgbaston to the city in July. The latter will also take in visits to the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and Winterbourne House & Garden. In June you can ride on old Midland Red buses, one tour to the Black Country Living Museum to ride on a tram & a canal boat; and another through the Cotswolds to ride on a steam train and to see the tallest fountain in the UK.

To start the tours this year a 1963 West Bromwich double deck bus is going round Birmingham’s Outer Circle in April. On each of the tours money is raised for various Midlands charities, this year the Birmingham Conservation Trust will be one of the recipients. To find out more about the tours you can visit

www.OuterCircleBus.com or call the organisers Pam & David Humphries on 07405 849192.

Birmingham City Transport started their motor bus services just an hundred years ago in July this year, so here is an opportunity to celebrate this significant anniversary.