When I was a child living in Balsall Heath with my grandparents Sunday Morning was a very boring time for us children. To get us from underfoot whilst cooking Sunday Dinner we were sent for a ride around the Inner Circle number 8 bus route. This cost around 4d a child and the year would have been around 1955 when I would have been about 8, I would have been accompanied by one uncle aged 9 and an aunt around 14. Our biggest problem would be deciding if we would travel clockwise or anti- clockwise around the route.
It seems that we always chose the clockwise route more often than not. So for illustration purposes that is the route I will try to reproduce here. The route is basically the same today, though it has changed a little. I will try to reproduce the 1955 route as near as I can remember, but please forgive me if I stray a little off path because it has been a long time. For guidance this is the route today.
Balsall Heath
Lee Bank
Five Ways
Jewellery Quarter
Hockley
Newtown
Nechells
Saltley Gate/ Alum Rock
Bordesley
Small Heath
Sparkbrook
Balsall Heath
Please join me on this journey and add anything about the route that you wish to be it a memory or a photo. I ask only one thing, that you keep to each section of the route as I lay it out, as memories and photos of Sparkbrook for instance would make little sense in the Hockley part of the route. I will give plenty of time for additional comments between each section, though at the end of the route there will be time to comment on any part of the route.