Unfortunately only the eastern half of Brum appears to be covered by high resolution satellite/airphoto imagery on Google Local but I think there is more detailed coverage on Google Earth. For which you will need OS X 10.4.

I would really like to add Google Earth oblique images of some of my hiking travelogues as this would really help convey the route, the terrain and provide a geo-reference for the photos, but of course the resolution over Welsh Mountains does not provide the detail. These things will come in time though.

Of course if other aspects to crop up during specific sections then that’ll be great but if I start off wanting to get oral histories for every section or whatever then I’ll never get anywhere.

At the end of the day the journey of writing this thing will give it shape. Right now it’s circular and kinda basic – who knows what it’ll be when it finally put it all together!

Another brilliant prospect. Part of the trip can go backwards, through time!

Memories of the route… I’ve seen something done this way…. what was it? Interspersing contemporary and remembered segments, first person and otherwise. Accounts of current and former travellers, picking up bits of other people’s journeys. How do you feel about having fictional or semi-fictional elements? William Hutton and William Cobbett come to mind as Brummie journeyers. They wouldn’t have ridden the No. 11, but the 11 may cross their paths.

I think you may need a special page for collecting people’s memories….

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=104

Those crazy Victorians.

My childhood memories of the No. 11 (I didn’t take it much myself) was that you saw it on the Stratford Road where the River Rea crosses it and then you would see it again somewhere else! And of course they were always the cream and dark royal blue city buses. I was always a radial traveler in those days (No. 151 Midland Red from Earlswood to St. Martins in the Bull Ring) so the idea of going round the city was for someone else!

My favorite city bus was the Lodge Road 96. I don’t think it has a modern equivalent, or does it? Anyway, it went up Newhall Hill where I got off. I never did go all the way to Lodge Road! My Aunt Lizzie lived up Rotten Park Road and I think that was the No.7 to Portland Road.

And another piece of trivia. In those days city buses stopped at the city boundary. If you wanted to travel to Shirley (why would you?) you had to take a Midland Red as the city buses stopped at the end of the Hall Green dual carriageway. It was the same on all the main roads out of Brum.

Well, enough reminiscing, it’s bad for the brain. Your big project sounds like a great idea. Somehow you have to bring in a different dimension and I don’t think you have to know that heads up. It might come to you quite late in the project. But that will be the making of the story. I promise!

I like the historical aspect of the project but that’s because I am getting on in years! I am worried that there might not be a No. 11 in a few years time.

Yes, I think you’re right. Can’t wait!

I think most of the busses start from Acock’s Green garage but I wouldn’t hold me to that.

As for drafting other people in, I think that’s a terrific idea, especially if they know something about the area but even if they don’t an extra pair of eyes is always useful. Once it gets going I’ll try and plan out a schedule of visits so folk can accompany me, or at least announce the next one on the blog.

As for spin-off ideas, that’s why I decided to write it down now! Need to keep it simple… Of course there’s nothing to stop other people spinning off my stuff, such is the nature of these things.

Thanks for the positive feedback – good to know I’m not being utterly stupid.

Aside from that, I love these kinds of journeys, and want to be part of the fun – so are there ways that other people might be drafted into this project? I know you said the emphasis is on ‘personal’, so maybe I’m off track already, and a collective effort should focus on some other thing.

Ideas are already proliferating. A cultural geography in the first person, a website of collected stories, a resource of places and activities. Interviewing bus riders, getting some of their stories. That would attract sponsorhsip from TWM, and could result in banners with snippets and prompt spin-offs along the way. Jeez, too much already!

But back to your idea. It’s brilliant, and I’m looking forward to seeing the first dispatches.

I think the historical aspect should be fascinating, and you could well end up writing the history of outer Birmingham. Only a little over a hundred years ago, for instance, the only building on what’s now Bearwood High Street was The Bear, and Sandford Road was an unmetalled track. Have a look at the early Ordnance Survey maps – they’ve got a ridiculously high level of detail.

But interesting as all that might be, the really important question is clockwise or anti-clockwise?