Hello, How the devil are you? I hope you enjoy the film. There are three musical references to look out for this week, one of them is really tough but I'm sure someone will get there. If you're interested, filming this episode involved a 22 hour day, a new record for us and confirmation of a stupid idea. Sorry to the land owner/farmer who happens to have a viaduct in their back garden, we got a bit lost and hopped some of your gates.
Jay Foreman comment spotted in the wild, glad to hear he knows about this channel too, I've been bingewatching this content and reading Pathetic Motorways ever since this started getting recommended to me
Jay, what happened to your thing you were doing with Geoff? That had promise. All the trunk roads leading to the Greater London border. I'd have loved to have seen what you'd turn up for my neck of the woods, the A12 and A13.
Great to hear from you mate, thanks for watching. It does take up a lot of time for sure but it's better than an office job. It probably goes without saying... loving your work over the years!
I have literally just watched a Jago Hazard video on Greenford Underground station and then watched this, so the Jago Hazard reference warranted a 10 second shuffle to check I had heard correctly. In 200 years time that quote will be considered on a par with anything Oscar Wilde uttered for sure!!!
As the author of 'The Great North Road - Then and Now', I can tell you parts of that road are much older than you think. Also the farm near Bramham is called Crossroads farm because way back the farm stood right on the crossroads of the Great North Road and the Leeds-York road. Theres some photos and explanation in the book. As my day job is truck driver, I've been riding around this country for nearly 40 years and am a bit of a roads historian (geek lol). The one thing I didn't know was the Welwyn Roman Baths, gonna have to go and have a look at that now.
I'm old enough to remember the old Great North Road running straight through the centre of Doncaster, with all the traffic having to go over the North Bridge in Doncaster. It was said that it took longer to get through Doncaster than it did to get there from London.
I still call the J44 Bramham junction Bramham Crossroads. Even though the old parallelogram crossroads have been replaced with a roundabout somewhat to the west and everything realigned out of all recognition. Old habits die hard, and nobody I know has ever picked me up on it. Must be in the DNA locally I guess🤷♂
I live in welwyn Garden City the roman baths is a really nice place to visit and it's well presented. I take my kids there often. Definitely a place to go and see
John, I'm absolutely flabbergasted. I'm a truck driver and I had no idea about what is around as I'm driving up and down the motorways. Keep em coming, they're awesome.👍
The abandoned buildings at 8:21 are very peculiar, I managed to visit the site before it was closed off and they seem to have a very interesting history. As it stood in 2021 they were being used by the farmer next door as storage and for cattle but the house was completely empty. The long building at the back had labelled rooms such as 'Explosives store'. The central building also being labelled on the door with 'Barrels'. So at some point the structure was used for military purposes but otherwise its a bit of a mystery to me too.
I always wonder what happened there, it would have been a substantial farm and a nice house at some point. Never knew it had other history. You wouldn’t want to live there though and not ideal for a business.
I used to spend a lot of time driving up and down the A1(M) in the 90's and became quite acquainted with its many Little Chefs as a result. I miss them now, their breakfasts were epic. Although having an Olympic before a long drive wasn't always a good idea, used to make me sleepy! People liked to take the mick out of their food, but I always found it to be of reliable quality and a welcome treat to keep you awake on the long miles.
This is such a great series. As a trucker I sit up high and get to see so much at the sides of the roads - great to finally have an explanation for some of it, and some new stuff to look out for. It's a piss boring job so we need the entertainment 😅
Many years ago, I stumbled upon a peculiar book titled "Sails and guns" describing the movement of goods in the 16th and 17th centuries in the port of Leghorn, Italy. It seems like a dull topic, but it was written by the brilliant and ingenious scholar Carlo M. Cipolla, making even the discussions about herring barrels absolutely engaging. I just wanted to express my admiration for your work and how you, like Cipolla, managed to make an impossible topic like the motorway adventure, so fascinating. Thank you.
I can't work out what's worse, arriving in Portsmouth or walking to prison....?! "All the abandoned Little Chief's" - sounds like a great new feature!!
The southbound exit slip road of the recently added junction 52 used to be described in Google Maps navigation directions as "(0x60505bcdc4a55f2d 2542 segments) exit". The voice guidance would read it out like that, preceding it with "hexadecimal". I reported it in October 2019 and 2 months later they responded saying they couldn't verify the edit. I don't remember when they finally fixed it, but it was months later and until they did, it annoyed me a bit every time the voice reeled it off!
I watched this with great interest because I've used the A1 a lot when I had to travel between England and Scotland. I was plagued with roadworks and traffic jams around Newcastle so I found it quicker to use the A66, M6 and M74. I didn't half get a surprise to hear Jago's name. I like his channel and since this video just randomly appeared, it's the only reason I can Hazzard why UA-cam algorithms just randomly threw this up.
Super video, thanks! I've been driving 'twixt the north east and Kent on the A1 for fifty years, and I remember all the landmarks. At one point the dual carriageway ran right past the Ferrybridge cooling towers and I remember being in a traffic jam beside them on a hot summer's day in the 60s. Sad to hear they'd all been demolished. At one point there was a derelict English Electric Lightning rather randomly parked beside the road; and the three Yorkshire RAF airfields of Catterick, Leeming and Dishforth could always be relied upon for entertainment - on one occasion I was amazed to see a string of about 4 Vulcans landing at Dishforth, about a half mile apart. They were awesome!
Yeah, I remember that Lightning, randomly plopped by the side of the road, covered in graffiti. Sad to see. It was the world beating plane of my childhood, although I never saw one flying.
@@sarkybugger5009 one of the most magnificent planes to see fly. I saw one in the 1980's at an airshow take off with full reheat, pull up vertically and then just accelerate away through the clouds... gone... as a teenager, the most incredible sight 9and sound) I had ever witnessed.
@@stevegreene9149 I once had the "pleasure" of being parked on the M25 as Concorde took off a couple of hundred feet above me. Now that really was loud. Scared the crap out of me, as I didn't see it coming...
The abandoned viaduct at Conisbrough (now the trans penine way) has been a notorious suicide spot since the 1900s but it was also a feat of engineering using an aerial ropeway suspended between each bank to move the bricks in place. I know this because i was once a bridge builder with occasional bouts of depression
35yrs ago I started my hgv career & the A1 was back then dual carriageway with hundreds of roundabouts & at least one or two burger bars on either side & when you got just past Newcastle it went into a single carriageway all the way to scotland. These vids bring back some memories ✌👍
Fun fact There was a former section of the A1(M) which ran straight through Newcastle city centre. It was renumbered the A6144(M) when the A1 was rerouted through the Tyne tunnel. It was then renumbered to the A167(M) after the completion of a new bypass to the west of Newcastle and is very unique as it features a section where the northbound carriageway runs on top of the southbound carriageway Edit: It was numbered the A6127(M) between 1977-1993 as got mixed up with the A6144(M) an ex motorway near Manchester which was famous for being single carriageway for its entire 2km run
Whither the A1? When I was much younger, the A1 ran through the centre of Newcastle as an ordinary road. (I remember it from travelling through with my parents ... far too many years ago). I noticed, referring to maps, that it got re-routed through the Tyne Tunnel (recently traversed this route - actually goes under the place where my mother was born in Jarrow) and then it got moved again when the western by-pass was built. Noiw youve intrigued me Alex withe the double level section. :-))
Must be nearly 30 years since I drove that, but, if I remember correctly, it was quite mad and broke so many rules for motorway standards. Tight curves, merging and diverging traffic within a few hundred metres, and a 40 mph speed limit. Or was it a 40 mph minimum?
Are you sure your numbering is correct? The A6144(M) was an unusual Motorway; a single carriageway road in Greater Manchester with traffic lights before the end of the road. Were there really 2 sections of it so far apart?
@@AutoShenanigans LOL. Thanks, however I was involved with the setting out of the mainline, earthworks and structures. If you want to see my tarmacing skills, you'll have to visit the M77 in Ayrshire and the Glasgow Southern Obital in Lanarkshire.
@@AutoShenanigans Speaking of tarmacing skills. Between Fairburn and Micklefield (North Yorkshire) after laying it they had dig it all up again and relay it. I think it was something to do with the sub-base.
Just brilliant!! These are getting better and better guys. It's like Urbex (😍) for the road network. I love Roman stuff and didn't know about that bit under the motorway. Gives me places to visit too. Top notch guys👌🏻
I lived not far from the The Roman Baths at Welwn (note - NOT Welwyn Garden City!) Check their opening hours online before you visit as they are sometimes a little erratic at short notice.
Appreciate the amazing drone footage in your videos, you can’t appreciate the spectacle of these roads without it! Thumbs up for Little Chef and Happy Eater action 👍🏽👍🏽
Great video as always however, I find the in video slides disappear too quickly and it would be good to have some arrows showing what exactly you’re talking about to allow for correct understanding, I’m usually pausing the video to orientate myself, but then I end up missing your voiceover.
You didn't mention that the section of A1(M) at Alconbury was a prototype "super motorway", not only with four lanes, but also very straight and having features such as street lighting and overhead gantries with electronic display signs at very frequent intervals.
I don't remember anything special about this section of road from an infrastructure point of view. My recollection is that the number of lanes was determined by predicted traffic volumes. As such the number of gantries was determined by the necessary standards in the DMRB and other specs (MCHW etc) because it was four lanes. It was one of the first things I worked on in motorways over 20 years ago. It is interesting in that there is no lighting for the blue signs on the gantries as the material used on the signs was super reflective Scotchlite from 3M, and this was the first time this had been tried. And of course that section is a DBFO (Design Build Finance Operate). Finally, the transmission station for this section wasn't one of the regular little brick buildings at the side of the road but was just a big row of cabinets at the south end.
@@Crashedfiesta That's interesting, thanks. I recall reading that at one time they had intended to upgrade the whole of the A1 to the same standard as that section, but it proved too expensive and they abandoned the plans. Nevertheless, it is rather interesting to drive on. You go from the normal twisty A1 with roundabouts to this wide, straight, four lane section of road that seems totally out of place for its location.
This is what I call dedicated and passionate. An automatic subscribe for me. The topic is of no interest but you literally take your audience on a worthwhile journey into a hitherto unknown auto history. Fabulous.👍
I Remember the A1 before it was upgraded. Loads or roundabouts. There was Happy Eater, Little Chef’s competitor. Both did great pancakes. Both were on trunk roads. Putting them in motorway service stations never worked. New motorways took the traffic and the two brands went. It’s interesting driving down a main road which was replaced by a motorway- seeing what they are used for now!
@@aaronbuildsa I worked with a guy who swore Happy Eaters were better. I had to meet him at the one near Chipping Norton for breakfast when we were out on business. It was on the main road between Birmingham and Oxford before the M40 was built. I drove passed it a few years ago. It was an antiques centre.
Loved Happy Eater and Little Chef as a kid. Always used to visit on the way to Brands Hatch from Portsmouth. Space Chefs grill…yum! Then we’d take as many lollies from the basket as we could for the rest of the journey 😜
Great stuff. I like you are doing more of the adjacent sites of interest. When I was younger I used to like demolition films. But now when you think of the effort of design and labour, plus the use of materials, it makes me sad. The fall of the cooling towers is especially poiginiant. Your grace and politeness in introducing and concluding your videos is commendable in this atagonistic world. All the best.
"Planning permission was refused" 🤦♂️ not unusual for commonsense not to prevail in this country 😂 cracking vid again John & team! Have a good week 😁👍
Yeah. Ideal development location. Out of the way. Ready made public transport. Makes sense it was refused. Obviously the correct brown envelopes under the table not forthcoming in this case.
When I hear 'Doncaster'? I think of Eddie and 'his bird' going on a vacation there. And I wonder how Richie got out from under that fridge. This video was jam-packed with interesting tid-bits. Well done...thank you. ☮
John, the amount of research you do for this channel is simply amazing. Motorways and A Roads have always fascinated me since buying the largely forgotten work of Paul Graham and his book of Photographs of the "A1 The Great North Road" from 1981-82.For anyone interested I would also recommend the book "London Orbital" by Iain Sinclair which is also fascinating history of a walk around the M25 which encircles greater London. Love this Channel keep up the great work.
I was so hoping you’d mention the flying saucer McDonalds which used to be at Alconbury, appreciate it wasn’t technically on the A1M, but fabulous landmark and quite inspiring from a youngster’s perspective. Fantastic to watch as always, thank you 🙏
Someone told me that this originally opened years prior to McDonalds taking it on as an individual independent restaurant.. It was called "The Megatron" and my friend said internally the theme was some sort of sci-fi set up with the staff being dressed a bit like cybermen.
Nice to go back and revisit a few from the early days of “secrets of the motorway” series love it :-) great work John as always, look forward to this weeks episode! Regards
I know the A1 from its Southern end to the junction for Thirsk having driven it over the past 30 years or so. The worst stretch is the bit through Bedfordshire as it still has roundabouts between Biggleswade and the Black Cat junction with the A421. Why the 4 lane stretch between Alconbury and Peterborough was built has always been a mystery. Some locals say that it was a special project to improve the connection with the then Prime Minister's constituency and the Constituency of Peterborough South. The MP at the Southern end was John Major and the other MP was his bosom buddy Brian Mawhinney. Very strange. 😅😅
what an interesting and educational series this is, I wish there was history and geography teachers back in my school days as school would be a whole lot more interesting. My sincere appreciation for the long hours of research that must have gone into each program and the painstaking editing , a whole lot of hard work and dedication.
'If I see an abandoned building, I'm on it like Jago Hazzard on an underground line', absolutely classic! I to love abandoned buildings especially industrial sites and service stations etc. I too miss the Little Chef/Happy Eater chain sites, I used them regularly when I was 'on the road' in the 90's and early 2000's. The seemingly standard replacements of Burger King/Gregs/Starbucks etc, just don't offer a proper meal when you've been 'on the road' all day, and there are now fewer 'budget' alternatives where you get a knife and fork etc to eat with!
The stunning parabolic roof of the grade 2 listed former ?little chef? you showed was the inspiration for my father to build a “flat” roofed bungalow on the west coast of Scotland. It drains the copious Scottish rain swiftly to three points. Two front and one rear. A shaped at the front aspect and V shaped at the rear and everything in between! The ceilings inside mirror the upper profile. The now renovated A1(M) eatery reminds me of him every time I pass. So glad that they restored it and gave it new purpose. The Doncaster bypass was the location of my first ever ton-up! I shall seek the Roman baths next time cos I am older and wiser now😏
Great video as ever! We actually saw John and his bodyguard in Little Paxton this day. Johns owner had removed his hat and was switching out a hard drive and doing some soldering at the back of his head. Fantastic work droid! 👍🏻😊
Regarding the missing junctions 54 and 55, I've often wondered why the UK doesn't do what some other countries do (e.g. New Zealand) and use the distance from the nominal start of the road as the exit number. Especially as we already have the distance markers in KM every 500m or so anyway, they'd make a lot of sense, and it certainly lets you have a better feeling for how far it is until the junction you want.
yeah they do that in USA too and initially it confused the hell out of me until I worked out the junction numbers were effectively milepost numbers. both systems have their merits, the UK how many junctions to go, the other how many miles to go! It gets confusing when there are several junctions within the same mile, 103a, 103b etc. particularly as sometimes the letters are used for junctions off junctions so the main road may go from 234a to 234c because b is where it splits again!
That's a great idea, noduff, but the only problem is that when roads are reprofiled/realigned as a result of improvements then the distances from the datum can change which means renumbering every junction further up the line. That'll cause havoc to all the prat-nav services that people rely on nowadays because they've lost all sense of direction and ability to think.
I had a feeling a video about a UK highway would have some interesting history to it, remains of a castle? abandoned steel works? Roman baths? brick train viaduct? why yes of course it would. Great video.
My recollection is that the section north from J56 - the Durham Motorway built in the 1960s - originally didn't have numbered junctions. When they eventually added the numbers the plan was that there would be more junctions that were eventually built on the stretch across North Yorkshire - also the current junctions 43 and 44 were originally 44 and 45. The section from J56 (which is in the old Barton quarry) to about a mile south of J58 is built along the alignment of a railway - the Merrybent branch - that connected the quarry to the Darlington to Barnard Castle railway. I remember seeing some before and after photographs of this section about 55 years ago.
Just behind that disused farm at Bramham is one of the only surviving WW1 wooden hangers. Flaxby golf course was going to be a housing estate, until they discovered that thousands of tonnes of illegal waste had been landfilled. They are now building 3-4 k new houses at green Hammerton. Great informative video.👍
Another great piece by you. I used to travel along the Peterborough section when it was being upgraded. The workers constructed a wooden version of “the angel of the north” which made me chuckle at the time. Love the Jago Hazzard reference by the way.
Ha ha, I remember that! - the Angel of Sawtry it was called. It had the price written under the name, £3.20 or something like that. I guess the workers were making a satirical comment on the money spent on the Angel of the North.
I used to work in a little chef. It was my first job after school. It was on the M1 at Leicester Forest East services. The rest of the site was welcome break so we had petrol stations, WH smiths, various restaurants etc. It was an ok job, but i'm glad i don't have to do it anymore!
For a relatively small channel, you upload regular and good quality content. I’m sure it’s not cheap heading all over the country for these so thanks mate
as an HGV driver I can tell you that travelling north after Ferrybridge on the A1(M) is a nightmare. I prefer the A19 with it's numerous layby's that allow truckers to take a15 min break - especially at night - when we are tired.
Well I certainly didn't expect a video about the A1M to hold my attention for long, never mind all the way to the end! I love the fast paced style and I'm going to watch plenty more. Who would have guessed that a bloody motorway could be so interesting?!!
I remember driving through the night up the A1 and A1(M) in about 1979 and counting the roundabouts to help relieve the monotony and stay awake. There were 33 of them between the North Circular and Newcastle.
Nice to see my local viaduct at Belmont... but did you know that the A690 is actually also built on an old railway from the A1(M) junction to its junction to the A181 where it's station was - or rather, still is, in the form of the Travelodge!
At Bedale north of Baldersby (once called the bumpiest section of A1 known to man) there used to be a Shell garage where I'd sometimes stop southbound for fuel and a crap pasty. The credit card machines all had the name as 'Beadle' which tickled me no end. The road I stamped every week for nearly 4 years has changed almost beyond recognition now. I used to know every single back road and bypass to get around the queues on the A1 on a weekend. Excellent video Jon, keep 'em coming. The Jago Hazzard mention made me chuckle too.
I hoped you were going to mention the lost lamented Happy Eater at Rainton (on 5he North Yorks stretch), which was a regular feature for me of driving from Manchester to Gateshead in the early 1980s. You may have missed it, however, because it was on the old A1 alignment. I noticed, when driving up the new A1(M) stretch in 2018, that quite a lot of that old alignment had simply been bypassed by building the motorway a bit west. The old road was then given a new local A road number. The Happy Eater site would have been both sides of that old road.
As a kid whenever we passed the Happy Eater near Markham on our way up north to visit relatives I would misread the sign on the outside and wonder why they were wishing people a happy Easter all year round...
The Happy Chunderer became a Little Thief and was my fuel stop on my weekly commute home from Cambs in the 00's. Sad day when it was finally bypassed and it's a truck garage now. They also made the scrappy services at Leeming Bar a pain to get to as well. Still, extra Greggs at Wetherby so what's not to like.
Actually most of the new J49 to J56 Dishforth to Barton motorway upgrade was built to the EAST of the old A1 alignment. The old A1 northbound carriageway (suitably modified) became the A6055 distributor road. The giveaway is that the distributor has a "6" road number meaning that it's starting to the west of the A1. If it had been to the east of the A1 it would have started with a "1" (geek alert😉)
You gave your "Big Southern Girls Blouse" credentials away with your pronunciation of "Doncaster" at 04:50! 😆 Edit: Loved it mate! These are getting better & better. But could we have slightly longer clips? Especially your drone shots, old maps & ancient pictures. Those prison ones for example. You're making interesting videos but, to me, I feel rushed. I have that "Wow! That's interesti... Oh bugger! It's gone! Then a "Oooh! From the air you can see all th... Aaaargh! That's gone too!" Does anyone else feel like this? Great videos but slow down! Even so, they're still a Sunday afternoon treat John, Cheers!
Behind the abandoned farm at J 44 lies a very early R.F.C later R.A.F airfield known initially as Bramham and later Tadcaster. It was used to train pilots in WW1, it closed in the late 20s. However a grade one Hanger still exists and is now used as hay storage, it is visible from the A64.
Just had your channel pop up in my suggestions and I'm 8 videos deep. I'm 50/50 here for the historical info and the glorious weather. We've still got the sun mind you, it's just fucking cold at the same time now!
The “planning permission was refused” but cracked me up. I mean why would you want a new rail link and 2000 houses next to a major motorway built on an abandoned golf course.
I've been on the Belmont Viaduct a few years ago. It's quite tricky to find and access, but well worth the effort. Unfortunately, it may have involved a little bit of trespassing on private land, but no harm done. There's a big iron railing to discourage access to the viaduct, but there's a gap you can slide under. Just watch for the vandal-proof paint! The walk along the river Wear below it is very pleasant. Just a few minutes walk to the north of the viaduct access is an interesting wooded area with a lake/big pond, just behind Frankland prison. It's like a nature reserve and seems very little-known. I've lived in the area all my life and found it purely by accident!
11:00 I never realized junctions in Britain were numbered sequentially. In the US we get around missing numbers by just numbering them by the mile post they are at on the road. This new exit is at milepost 160? Just number it exit 160 and avoid shifting all the other numbers by 1.
1:10 You can't just upgrade the current A1 to motorway standards - it is necessary to provide a parallel road for non-motorway traffic. The B1043 serves that function from Alconbury. You will see the same is when the A74 became the A74(M) - there is a paralle road from Gretna to Glasgow. When the A1 was dualled around Haddington/Longniddry a new road was built, but not classified as a motorway. However, in order that it could be reclassified signs on entry ban traffic would not be permitted on motorways, thus preventing a right of way becoming established. A friend's father was a senior civil servant in charge of motorways, and I asked him what made a motorway different from a dual carriageway, and he said "Blue signs, and which filing cabinet my approval goes in".
@@tasty_fish I can't remember quite how the road went from Stilton to the Peterborough turnoff (As a student in the early 70s it was my route from home to Leeds University first on a Lambretta SX200, then a Norton 650SS - I still have the latter). It is possible that, like the stretch in East Lothian, when the original dual carriageway was built it bypassed all current rights of way and prevented non-motorway traffic using it so as to prevent establishment of RoW.
If you're interested in the A1 buy a copy of the book, "The Great North Road Then And Now" by Chris Cooper. Highly entertaining and informative and chock full of pictures old and new.
The A1 is interesting for me because of the many airfields along it. There's Wittering, Alconbury, Leeming, Catterick, Dish-something (Dishforth) Newark, Colsterworth, Cottesmore and probably a few more.
@@highpath4776 I must admit, the A1M does superficially resemble the USA's Eisenhower Highways, linking a number of military installations together with wide sections of highway. Given the construction of highways and runways are drastically different due to differing expected forces, as with the Eisenhower Highways, I think it unlikely you'd plan to use them as runways, however they're certainly useful for ferrying critical equipment and personnel between airbases at short notice and without the need for aircraft to transport them.
Speaking of adult stores, there used to be a swingers' club called "The Vanilla Alternative" on one of the non-M stretches, somewhere south of the A14 junction.
The A1 at Black Cat roundabout where it meets with the A428 is to be upgraded with the A428 to be dualled and to link from Cambridge to Milton Keynes and Oxford. And improvements to be made on the A1 at Biggleswade and Sandy in Bedfordshire. Mind you the M1 motorway could of continued all the way to Newcastle from where it meets with the A1(M) outside of Leeds.
the M1 only now meets with the A1 because we built that section 30 years ago. the M1 ended at a roundabout in Leeds which is now junction 3 of the M621. The A1-M1 link road was built at a cost of 253 million quid, not bad considering the amount of huge concrete structures undertaken . I was one of a 3 man team concerned with the pioneering construction of what is known as the air valley viaduct, motorist would hardly know they have driven over it. The thing took 2.5 years to build just that single bridge, it is enormous.
@@only-vans I have been on the A1(M) to York and yes as you mentioned about the A1-M1 link road and the A64 turnoff where the spur comes off the A1(M) onto the A64 towards York and Scarborough (which at one time was the A64(M)).
We always used to stop at Grantham services as kids going from the North East to Kent as roughly half way. When I go the opposite way next week, it will the Xtra services at Cambridge and Peterborough and services at Blyth instead of Wetherby this time to give me roughly 2 hour stints. Services in this country are dire compared to Europe, America and Canada.
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Hello, How the devil are you? I hope you enjoy the film. There are three musical references to look out for this week, one of them is really tough but I'm sure someone will get there. If you're interested, filming this episode involved a 22 hour day, a new record for us and confirmation of a stupid idea. Sorry to the land owner/farmer who happens to have a viaduct in their back garden, we got a bit lost and hopped some of your gates.
I feel like sh1te mate. But thanks for the video. Please can you do one on the A14?
The most fascinating/baffling thing to me about your videos is.
How the hell is it that you know all this stuff??
I got the Blockbusters tune. was there another reference?
@@thedave7760 Google Earth and the Internet.. amazing what you can find on there :)
@@thedave7760 when you get on camera you either know you're shit, or know your shit.
I bloomin’ love this channel! Your videos clearly take a tremendous amount of research and effort and time (and petrol!)
Jay Foreman comment spotted in the wild, glad to hear he knows about this channel too, I've been bingewatching this content and reading Pathetic Motorways ever since this started getting recommended to me
Jay, what happened to your thing you were doing with Geoff? That had promise. All the trunk roads leading to the Greater London border. I'd have loved to have seen what you'd turn up for my neck of the woods, the A12 and A13.
Praise from the utterly wonderful and skilled Jay Foreman is praise indeed!
Passive aggressive comment from Jay. I suspect it's because Jago got a mention and he didn't.
Great to hear from you mate, thanks for watching. It does take up a lot of time for sure but it's better than an office job. It probably goes without saying... loving your work over the years!
“I’m on it like Jago Hazard to an underground line”
Beautiful piece of scripting!
I'd scripted something else but it just came to mind so I left that in instead :D
@@AutoShenanigans if it was off the cuff, then even better. Great content by the way, been following you for a while now.
Nice one, thanks for sticking with it :D
May not be PC, but the phrase 'like a tramp on chips' came to mind.... 🙂
I have literally just watched a Jago Hazard video on Greenford Underground station and then watched this, so the Jago Hazard reference warranted a 10 second shuffle to check I had heard correctly. In 200 years time that quote will be considered on a par with anything Oscar Wilde uttered for sure!!!
Never thought a show about motorways would make such fascinating viewing.
As the author of 'The Great North Road - Then and Now', I can tell you parts of that road are much older than you think. Also the farm near Bramham is called Crossroads farm because way back the farm stood right on the crossroads of the Great North Road and the Leeds-York road. Theres some photos and explanation in the book. As my day job is truck driver, I've been riding around this country for nearly 40 years and am a bit of a roads historian (geek lol). The one thing I didn't know was the Welwyn Roman Baths, gonna have to go and have a look at that now.
I enjoyed your book, Chris. Very well researched and full of pictures of the old 'Great North Road'.
I'm old enough to remember the old Great North Road running straight through the centre of Doncaster, with all the traffic having to go over the North Bridge in Doncaster. It was said that it took longer to get through Doncaster than it did to get there from London.
I still call the J44 Bramham junction Bramham Crossroads. Even though the old parallelogram crossroads have been replaced with a roundabout somewhat to the west and everything realigned out of all recognition. Old habits die hard, and nobody I know has ever picked me up on it. Must be in the DNA locally I guess🤷♂
I live in welwyn Garden City the roman baths is a really nice place to visit and it's well presented. I take my kids there often. Definitely a place to go and see
John, I'm absolutely flabbergasted. I'm a truck driver and I had no idea about what is around as I'm driving up and down the motorways. Keep em coming, they're awesome.👍
That's because you're too busy texting.
@@James-gf9jl no they're too busy looking straight ahead
The abandoned buildings at 8:21 are very peculiar, I managed to visit the site before it was closed off and they seem to have a very interesting history. As it stood in 2021 they were being used by the farmer next door as storage and for cattle but the house was completely empty. The long building at the back had labelled rooms such as 'Explosives store'. The central building also being labelled on the door with 'Barrels'. So at some point the structure was used for military purposes but otherwise its a bit of a mystery to me too.
I always wonder what happened there, it would have been a substantial farm and a nice house at some point. Never knew it had other history. You wouldn’t want to live there though and not ideal for a business.
I used to spend a lot of time driving up and down the A1(M) in the 90's and became quite acquainted with its many Little Chefs as a result. I miss them now, their breakfasts were epic. Although having an Olympic before a long drive wasn't always a good idea, used to make me sleepy! People liked to take the mick out of their food, but I always found it to be of reliable quality and a welcome treat to keep you awake on the long miles.
Loved the jago reference both channels are great.
Agreed! As a fan of Jago as well as this channel, the reference made me smile.
@@Goldfishdave it made me chuckle
He's a funny chap.
This is such a great series. As a trucker I sit up high and get to see so much at the sides of the roads - great to finally have an explanation for some of it, and some new stuff to look out for. It's a piss boring job so we need the entertainment 😅
Truck yeah! Thanks for watching mate.
I've watched a few of these, but subbed at the Jago Hazard gag. Well played.
Many years ago, I stumbled upon a peculiar book titled "Sails and guns" describing the movement of goods in the 16th and 17th centuries in the port of Leghorn, Italy. It seems like a dull topic, but it was written by the brilliant and ingenious scholar Carlo M. Cipolla, making even the discussions about herring barrels absolutely engaging. I just wanted to express my admiration for your work and how you, like Cipolla, managed to make an impossible topic like the motorway adventure, so fascinating. Thank you.
I can't work out what's worse, arriving in Portsmouth or walking to prison....?!
"All the abandoned Little Chief's" - sounds like a great new feature!!
The southbound exit slip road of the recently added junction 52 used to be described in Google Maps navigation directions as "(0x60505bcdc4a55f2d 2542 segments) exit". The voice guidance would read it out like that, preceding it with "hexadecimal". I reported it in October 2019 and 2 months later they responded saying they couldn't verify the edit. I don't remember when they finally fixed it, but it was months later and until they did, it annoyed me a bit every time the voice reeled it off!
Alll your base are belong to us
I used to use this exit to get to work and loved that Google announced it that way.
I watched this with great interest because I've used the A1 a lot when I had to travel between England and Scotland.
I was plagued with roadworks and traffic jams around Newcastle so I found it quicker to use the A66, M6 and M74.
I didn't half get a surprise to hear Jago's name. I like his channel and since this video just randomly appeared, it's the only reason I can Hazzard why UA-cam algorithms just randomly threw this up.
"I found it quicker to use the M6"‽ Those are words one very seldom hears.
@@johnwinters4201 I know! :) But it was only from Penrith to Carlisle.
OMG the Little Chef Olympic Breakfast! My favourite thing when I used to be travelling around the UK!
Super video, thanks! I've been driving 'twixt the north east and Kent on the A1 for fifty years, and I remember all the landmarks. At one point the dual carriageway ran right past the Ferrybridge cooling towers and I remember being in a traffic jam beside them on a hot summer's day in the 60s. Sad to hear they'd all been demolished. At one point there was a derelict English Electric Lightning rather randomly parked beside the road; and the three Yorkshire RAF airfields of Catterick, Leeming and Dishforth could always be relied upon for entertainment - on one occasion I was amazed to see a string of about 4 Vulcans landing at Dishforth, about a half mile apart. They were awesome!
I never got to see a Vulcan fly... what a sight to see 4!
Yeah, I remember that Lightning, randomly plopped by the side of the road, covered in graffiti. Sad to see. It was the world beating plane of my childhood, although I never saw one flying.
That was also the only time I saw one fly, as a child stuck in a traffic jam with my dad next to Dishforth watching one land. The noise was immense.
@@sarkybugger5009 one of the most magnificent planes to see fly. I saw one in the 1980's at an airshow take off with full reheat, pull up vertically and then just accelerate away through the clouds... gone... as a teenager, the most incredible sight 9and sound) I had ever witnessed.
@@stevegreene9149 I once had the "pleasure" of being parked on the M25 as Concorde took off a couple of hundred feet above me. Now that really was loud. Scared the crap out of me, as I didn't see it coming...
The abandoned viaduct at Conisbrough (now the trans penine way) has been a notorious suicide spot since the 1900s but it was also a feat of engineering using an aerial ropeway suspended between each bank to move the bricks in place. I know this because i was once a bridge builder with occasional bouts of depression
Hope you're in a much better place today and keeping well!
35yrs ago I started my hgv career & the A1 was back then dual carriageway with hundreds of roundabouts & at least one or two burger bars on either side & when you got just past Newcastle it went into a single carriageway all the way to scotland. These vids bring back some memories ✌👍
Fun fact
There was a former section of the A1(M) which ran straight through Newcastle city centre. It was renumbered the A6144(M) when the A1 was rerouted through the Tyne tunnel. It was then renumbered to the A167(M) after the completion of a new bypass to the west of Newcastle and is very unique as it features a section where the northbound carriageway runs on top of the southbound carriageway
Edit: It was numbered the A6127(M) between 1977-1993 as got mixed up with the A6144(M) an ex motorway near Manchester which was famous for being single carriageway for its entire 2km run
Whither the A1? When I was much younger, the A1 ran through the centre of Newcastle as an ordinary road. (I remember it from travelling through with my parents ... far too many years ago). I noticed, referring to maps, that it got re-routed through the Tyne Tunnel (recently traversed this route - actually goes under the place where my mother was born in Jarrow) and then it got moved again when the western by-pass was built. Noiw youve intrigued me Alex withe the double level section. :-))
I went to there
Eh? I thought the A1 was rerouted west of Newcastle and the A19 was rerouted west of Sunderland to the Tyne Tunnel. So they rerouted it twice?
Must be nearly 30 years since I drove that, but, if I remember correctly, it was quite mad and broke so many rules for motorway standards. Tight curves, merging and diverging traffic within a few hundred metres, and a 40 mph speed limit. Or was it a 40 mph minimum?
Are you sure your numbering is correct? The A6144(M) was an unusual Motorway; a single carriageway road in Greater Manchester with traffic lights before the end of the road. Were there really 2 sections of it so far apart?
Proud to say I worked on the upgrade at Wetherby. Great days. Another excellent vid John.
Good tarmacing skills. Thanks for watching
@@AutoShenanigans LOL. Thanks, however I was involved with the setting out of the mainline, earthworks and structures. If you want to see my tarmacing skills, you'll have to visit the M77 in Ayrshire and the Glasgow Southern Obital in Lanarkshire.
@@AutoShenanigans Speaking of tarmacing skills. Between Fairburn and Micklefield (North Yorkshire) after laying it they had dig it all up again and relay it. I think it was something to do with the sub-base.
Just brilliant!!
These are getting better and better guys. It's like Urbex (😍) for the road network.
I love Roman stuff and didn't know about that bit under the motorway. Gives me places to visit too. Top notch guys👌🏻
This episode was certainly a bit heavy on the abandoned theme. thanks for watching
@@AutoShenanigans You can never be too heavy on abandoned stuff. IMO 👋🏻😁
I lived not far from the The Roman Baths at Welwn (note - NOT Welwyn Garden City!) Check their opening hours online before you visit as they are sometimes a little erratic at short notice.
Great series, love abandoned stuff, and mining and spent most of my time on roads, this is great stuff
Glad you enjoy it!
I love abandoned stuff and nothing more than an abandoned road … Keep it coming
Appreciate the amazing drone footage in your videos, you can’t appreciate the spectacle of these roads without it! Thumbs up for Little Chef and Happy Eater action 👍🏽👍🏽
Great video as always however, I find the in video slides disappear too quickly and it would be good to have some arrows showing what exactly you’re talking about to allow for correct understanding, I’m usually pausing the video to orientate myself, but then I end up missing your voiceover.
Really interesting stuff, got the blockbuster theme, loved the Jago Hazard reference
You didn't mention that the section of A1(M) at Alconbury was a prototype "super motorway", not only with four lanes, but also very straight and having features such as street lighting and overhead gantries with electronic display signs at very frequent intervals.
I don't remember anything special about this section of road from an infrastructure point of view. My recollection is that the number of lanes was determined by predicted traffic volumes. As such the number of gantries was determined by the necessary standards in the DMRB and other specs (MCHW etc) because it was four lanes. It was one of the first things I worked on in motorways over 20 years ago.
It is interesting in that there is no lighting for the blue signs on the gantries as the material used on the signs was super reflective Scotchlite from 3M, and this was the first time this had been tried. And of course that section is a DBFO (Design Build Finance Operate).
Finally, the transmission station for this section wasn't one of the regular little brick buildings at the side of the road but was just a big row of cabinets at the south end.
@@Crashedfiesta That's interesting, thanks. I recall reading that at one time they had intended to upgrade the whole of the A1 to the same standard as that section, but it proved too expensive and they abandoned the plans. Nevertheless, it is rather interesting to drive on. You go from the normal twisty A1 with roundabouts to this wide, straight, four lane section of road that seems totally out of place for its location.
@@ib9rt ...and southbound signs for East London iirc; always makes me think something's not quite right 🤔
Well, thankfully they saw sense and superseded that idea with the infinitely more sensible "smart motorway" 🙄
Horrific
This is what I call dedicated and passionate. An automatic subscribe for me. The topic is of no interest but you literally take your audience on a worthwhile journey into a hitherto unknown auto history. Fabulous.👍
Thanks a lot, appreciate you watching!
I Remember the A1 before it was upgraded. Loads or roundabouts. There was Happy Eater, Little Chef’s competitor. Both did great pancakes. Both were on trunk roads. Putting them in motorway service stations never worked. New motorways took the traffic and the two brands went. It’s interesting driving down a main road which was replaced by a motorway- seeing what they are used for now!
Happy Eater! There's a blast from the past..
@@aaronbuildsa I worked with a guy who swore Happy Eaters were better. I had to meet him at the one near Chipping Norton for breakfast when we were out on business. It was on the main road between Birmingham and Oxford before the M40 was built. I drove passed it a few years ago. It was an antiques centre.
'HAppy eater' OMG. didnt they have a pac-man like logo sticking his fingers down his own throat? Happy days! *sigh*
Loved Happy Eater and Little Chef as a kid. Always used to visit on the way to Brands Hatch from Portsmouth. Space Chefs grill…yum!
Then we’d take as many lollies from the basket as we could for the rest of the journey 😜
Great stuff.
I like you are doing more of the adjacent sites of interest. When I was younger I used to like demolition films. But now when you think of the effort of design and labour, plus the use of materials, it makes me sad. The fall of the cooling towers is especially poiginiant.
Your grace and politeness in introducing and concluding your videos is commendable in this atagonistic world.
All the best.
8:30
That whole bit about the abandoned golf course is brilliant 😂 Absolutely deadpan and then rounding off with that note 🤣
"Planning permission was refused" 🤦♂️ not unusual for commonsense not to prevail in this country 😂 cracking vid again John & team! Have a good week 😁👍
Yeah. Ideal development location. Out of the way. Ready made public transport. Makes sense it was refused. Obviously the correct brown envelopes under the table not forthcoming in this case.
round my way "planning permission refused" is usually followed by the mysterious fire that destroys whatever the refusal was protecting.
@@davidsirett5560 same round here too, my old gym being the latest victim 😔
Yes, a little bit further east, on the A59, they decided to destroy two lovely villages instead by adding thousands of new houses.
I lolled at the Jago Hazard comment. It's the kind of nerdy channel I love. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for watching mate
When I hear 'Doncaster'?
I think of Eddie and 'his bird' going on a vacation there.
And I wonder how Richie got out from under that fridge.
This video was jam-packed with interesting tid-bits.
Well done...thank you.
☮
Really enjoying these. As someone who loves road trips, abandoned things and maps, I thank you!
As a truck driver, I've been up and down that road hundreds of times, and I've learned so much about it . Thanks for the video.
John, the amount of research you do for this channel is simply amazing. Motorways and A Roads have always fascinated me since buying the largely forgotten work of Paul Graham and his book of Photographs of the "A1 The Great North Road" from 1981-82.For anyone interested I would also recommend the book "London Orbital" by Iain Sinclair which is also fascinating history of a walk around the M25 which encircles greater London. Love this Channel keep up the great work.
I was so hoping you’d mention the flying saucer McDonalds which used to be at Alconbury, appreciate it wasn’t technically on the A1M, but fabulous landmark and quite inspiring from a youngster’s perspective. Fantastic to watch as always, thank you 🙏
I used to stop in there regularly, on my trips between Kent and Yorkshire. I was gutted when it closed. My daughter thought it was amazing.
First place I ever drove to in my newly-purchased Fiat Uno Turbo back in 1994, it was indeed a remarkable sight and a fun place to visit
Someone told me that this originally opened years prior to McDonalds taking it on as an individual independent restaurant.. It was called "The Megatron" and my friend said internally the theme was some sort of sci-fi set up with the staff being dressed a bit like cybermen.
Are you sure about the flying saucer? I thought this was the one at Markham Moor, on the A1 between Newark and Retford?
@@keith6400 Yes I can *just* about remember it being something like that prior to becoming a McD's
Nice to go back and revisit a few from the early days of “secrets of the motorway” series love it :-) great work John as always, look forward to this weeks episode! Regards
Cheers mate, thanks for watching!
I know the A1 from its Southern end to the junction for Thirsk having driven it over the past 30 years or so. The worst stretch is the bit through Bedfordshire as it still has roundabouts between Biggleswade and the Black Cat junction with the A421. Why the 4 lane stretch between Alconbury and Peterborough was built has always been a mystery. Some locals say that it was a special project to improve the connection with the then Prime Minister's constituency and the Constituency of Peterborough South. The MP at the Southern end was John Major and the other MP was his bosom buddy Brian Mawhinney. Very strange. 😅😅
what an interesting and educational series this is, I wish there was history and geography teachers back in my school days as school would be a whole lot more interesting.
My sincere appreciation for the long hours of research that must have gone into each program and the painstaking editing , a whole lot of hard work and dedication.
You didn't miss much unless you wanted to learn about Tudors, Nazis or ox-bow lakes.
Another fantastic episode! Really loving this series.
Oh hello mate! I love watching your pilot vlogs.... Cars vs Plane... collaboration?
Nice to see you here! I love both this channel and yours! I've been following your adventures for over a year now!
I'd love to see a three way collaboration between John, Noel and Jago!
'If I see an abandoned building, I'm on it like Jago Hazzard on an underground line', absolutely classic! I to love abandoned buildings especially industrial sites and service stations etc. I too miss the Little Chef/Happy Eater chain sites, I used them regularly when I was 'on the road' in the 90's and early 2000's. The seemingly standard replacements of Burger King/Gregs/Starbucks etc, just don't offer a proper meal when you've been 'on the road' all day, and there are now fewer 'budget' alternatives where you get a knife and fork etc to eat with!
The stunning parabolic roof of the grade 2 listed former ?little chef? you showed was the inspiration for my father to build a “flat” roofed bungalow on the west coast of Scotland. It drains the copious Scottish rain swiftly to three points. Two front and one rear. A shaped at the front aspect and V shaped at the rear and everything in between! The ceilings inside mirror the upper profile. The now renovated A1(M) eatery reminds me of him every time I pass. So glad that they restored it and gave it new purpose. The Doncaster bypass was the location of my first ever ton-up! I shall seek the Roman baths next time cos I am older and wiser now😏
Great video as ever! We actually saw John and his bodyguard in Little Paxton this day.
Johns owner had removed his hat and was switching out a hard drive and doing some soldering at the back of his head.
Fantastic work droid! 👍🏻😊
haha. Little Paxton is just up the road from HQ. He also does the drone flying!
There must have been dozens of Little Chef restaurants along the A1 back in the day. Loved them.
there were loads! Which might be a contributing factor their failure?
Blockbusters theme tune, south mims and Harworth all in one wonderful vid! Magic
Great episode! Addictive content. My bro call me sad for watching a doc on motorways but when he actually watched it he loved it too
The best bit of the A1(M) Alconbury to Peterborough was removing the horrendous bottleneck roundabout at Norman Cross
Regarding the missing junctions 54 and 55, I've often wondered why the UK doesn't do what some other countries do (e.g. New Zealand) and use the distance from the nominal start of the road as the exit number. Especially as we already have the distance markers in KM every 500m or so anyway, they'd make a lot of sense, and it certainly lets you have a better feeling for how far it is until the junction you want.
I had never thought of that. But it probably goes some way to explaining my amazement at once exiting a highway in South Africa at Junction 495!
yeah they do that in USA too and initially it confused the hell out of me until I worked out the junction numbers were effectively milepost numbers. both systems have their merits, the UK how many junctions to go, the other how many miles to go! It gets confusing when there are several junctions within the same mile, 103a, 103b etc. particularly as sometimes the letters are used for junctions off junctions so the main road may go from 234a to 234c because b is where it splits again!
But then how could you argue in the car about which junction you're supposed to be coming off at?
That's a great idea, noduff, but the only problem is that when roads are reprofiled/realigned as a result of improvements then the distances from the datum can change which means renumbering every junction further up the line. That'll cause havoc to all the prat-nav services that people rely on nowadays because they've lost all sense of direction and ability to think.
I had a feeling a video about a UK highway would have some interesting history to it, remains of a castle? abandoned steel works? Roman baths? brick train viaduct? why yes of course it would. Great video.
Awesome, thanks a lot for watching!
My recollection is that the section north from J56 - the Durham Motorway built in the 1960s - originally didn't have numbered junctions. When they eventually added the numbers the plan was that there would be more junctions that were eventually built on the stretch across North Yorkshire - also the current junctions 43 and 44 were originally 44 and 45.
The section from J56 (which is in the old Barton quarry) to about a mile south of J58 is built along the alignment of a railway - the Merrybent branch - that connected the quarry to the Darlington to Barnard Castle railway. I remember seeing some before and after photographs of this section about 55 years ago.
Just behind that disused farm at Bramham is one of the only surviving WW1 wooden hangers. Flaxby golf course was going to be a housing estate, until they discovered that thousands of tonnes of illegal waste had been landfilled. They are now building 3-4 k new houses at green Hammerton. Great informative video.👍
I didn't come across any mention of illegal waste, that's very interesting!
That’s what normally happens under “golf courses” . They probably made enough money tipping on it to disguise the fact, and then shut it anyway!
Another great piece by you. I used to travel along the Peterborough section when it was being upgraded. The workers constructed a wooden version of “the angel of the north” which made me chuckle at the time. Love the Jago Hazzard reference by the way.
Ha ha, I remember that! - the Angel of Sawtry it was called. It had the price written under the name, £3.20 or something like that. I guess the workers were making a satirical comment on the money spent on the Angel of the North.
Ahh wish I'd seen that, sounds amazing :D
I used to work in a little chef. It was my first job after school. It was on the M1 at Leicester Forest East services. The rest of the site was welcome break so we had petrol stations, WH smiths, various restaurants etc. It was an ok job, but i'm glad i don't have to do it anymore!
For a relatively small channel, you upload regular and good quality content. I’m sure it’s not cheap heading all over the country for these so thanks mate
It is not cheap and you can all rest assured I'm doing my bit to keep it warm in summer for years to come. Thanks for watching!
@@AutoShenanigans appreciate the emissions bossman
@@Tomtown007 🤣🤣 its funny cos its true and if there is a hell, I'm going to end up there.
as an HGV driver I can tell you that travelling north after Ferrybridge on the A1(M) is a nightmare. I prefer the A19 with it's numerous layby's that allow truckers to take a15 min break - especially at night - when we are tired.
Never in a million years would I think I'd see Thrislington quarry featured on here, my home village is next door and we did school trips there 😄
It makes for a nice photo !!
Well I certainly didn't expect a video about the A1M to hold my attention for long, never mind all the way to the end!
I love the fast paced style and I'm going to watch plenty more.
Who would have guessed that a bloody motorway could be so interesting?!!
I remember driving through the night up the A1 and A1(M) in about 1979 and counting the roundabouts to help relieve the monotony and stay awake. There were 33 of them between the North Circular and Newcastle.
Nice to see my local viaduct at Belmont... but did you know that the A690 is actually also built on an old railway from the A1(M) junction to its junction to the A181 where it's station was - or rather, still is, in the form of the Travelodge!
At Bedale north of Baldersby (once called the bumpiest section of A1 known to man) there used to be a Shell garage where I'd sometimes stop southbound for fuel and a crap pasty. The credit card machines all had the name as 'Beadle' which tickled me no end. The road I stamped every week for nearly 4 years has changed almost beyond recognition now. I used to know every single back road and bypass to get around the queues on the A1 on a weekend. Excellent video Jon, keep 'em coming. The Jago Hazzard mention made me chuckle too.
I love about 20 minutes from scotch corner services!
Fascinating, quirky stuff as usual. Always a little something to look forward to every Sunday evening.
👍 👍 👍
Cheers mate
Loving this series Jon, that viaduct looked so picturesque being surrounded by trees .
There is a possibility of railway extensions like the Metro or even a freight line that could see it reused.
I hoped you were going to mention the lost lamented Happy Eater at Rainton (on 5he North Yorks stretch), which was a regular feature for me of driving from Manchester to Gateshead in the early 1980s. You may have missed it, however, because it was on the old A1 alignment. I noticed, when driving up the new A1(M) stretch in 2018, that quite a lot of that old alignment had simply been bypassed by building the motorway a bit west. The old road was then given a new local A road number. The Happy Eater site would have been both sides of that old road.
As a kid whenever we passed the Happy Eater near Markham on our way up north to visit relatives I would misread the sign on the outside and wonder why they were wishing people a happy Easter all year round...
The Happy Chunderer became a Little Thief and was my fuel stop on my weekly commute home from Cambs in the 00's. Sad day when it was finally bypassed and it's a truck garage now. They also made the scrappy services at Leeming Bar a pain to get to as well. Still, extra Greggs at Wetherby so what's not to like.
Actually most of the new J49 to J56 Dishforth to Barton motorway upgrade was built to the EAST of the old A1 alignment. The old A1 northbound carriageway (suitably modified) became the A6055 distributor road. The giveaway is that the distributor has a "6" road number meaning that it's starting to the west of the A1. If it had been to the east of the A1 it would have started with a "1" (geek alert😉)
If Dale Winton and Adam Hart-Davis had a passion for Motorway travel. Cheers for the interesting facts!
I dont have the Tan.
@@AutoShenanigans do you at least have the funky Hawaiian shirts?
Who would have thought a banger of a video could be made about a road lol , bloody enjoyed this mate .
Nice one mate!
You gave your "Big Southern Girls Blouse" credentials away with your pronunciation of "Doncaster" at 04:50! 😆
Edit: Loved it mate! These are getting better & better. But could we have slightly longer clips? Especially your drone shots, old maps & ancient pictures. Those prison ones for example.
You're making interesting videos but, to me, I feel rushed. I have that "Wow! That's interesti... Oh bugger! It's gone! Then a "Oooh! From the air you can see all th... Aaaargh! That's gone too!"
Does anyone else feel like this? Great videos but slow down!
Even so, they're still a Sunday afternoon treat John, Cheers!
I'm a Northerner on the inside... I hate spending money, muddy beers are good and I like mines.
@@AutoShenanigans Heh heh I've been known to practice me Ecky-thump on the moors too... By 'eck as like! 😆
I'm constantly taping screen to pause and see the pictures. Also rewind a lot.
Behind the abandoned farm at J 44 lies a very early R.F.C later R.A.F airfield known initially as Bramham and later Tadcaster. It was used to train pilots in WW1, it closed in the late 20s.
However a grade one Hanger still exists and is now used as hay storage, it is visible from the A64.
I'm disappointed that I missed this!
Just had your channel pop up in my suggestions and I'm 8 videos deep. I'm 50/50 here for the historical info and the glorious weather. We've still got the sun mind you, it's just fucking cold at the same time now!
Welcome along!
The “planning permission was refused” but cracked me up. I mean why would you want a new rail link and 2000 houses next to a major motorway built on an abandoned golf course.
Brilliant Jon! First stretch from South Mimms up through Hatfield & WGC is my neck of the woods. I'm really glad you covered it.
You are correct, that Jago Hazzard fella does like his tube lines
I've been on the Belmont Viaduct a few years ago. It's quite tricky to find and access, but well worth the effort. Unfortunately, it may have involved a little bit of trespassing on private land, but no harm done. There's a big iron railing to discourage access to the viaduct, but there's a gap you can slide under. Just watch for the vandal-proof paint! The walk along the river Wear below it is very pleasant.
Just a few minutes walk to the north of the viaduct access is an interesting wooded area with a lake/big pond, just behind Frankland prison.
It's like a nature reserve and seems very little-known. I've lived in the area all my life and found it purely by accident!
Cracking video of my favourite motorway. Nice mention of Jago Hazard in your film too. ( I did chuckle at that 🤣).
11:00 I never realized junctions in Britain were numbered sequentially. In the US we get around missing numbers by just numbering them by the mile post they are at on the road. This new exit is at milepost 160? Just number it exit 160 and avoid shifting all the other numbers by 1.
1:10 You can't just upgrade the current A1 to motorway standards - it is necessary to provide a parallel road for non-motorway traffic. The B1043 serves that function from Alconbury. You will see the same is when the A74 became the A74(M) - there is a paralle road from Gretna to Glasgow. When the A1 was dualled around Haddington/Longniddry a new road was built, but not classified as a motorway. However, in order that it could be reclassified signs on entry ban traffic would not be permitted on motorways, thus preventing a right of way becoming established. A friend's father was a senior civil servant in charge of motorways, and I asked him what made a motorway different from a dual carriageway, and he said "Blue signs, and which filing cabinet my approval goes in".
I always thought that but where’s the alternative for non m’way traffic between 16 and 17 and between 49 and 50?
@@tasty_fish I can't remember quite how the road went from Stilton to the Peterborough turnoff (As a student in the early 70s it was my route from home to Leeds University first on a Lambretta SX200, then a Norton 650SS - I still have the latter).
It is possible that, like the stretch in East Lothian, when the original dual carriageway was built it bypassed all current rights of way and prevented non-motorway traffic using it so as to prevent establishment of RoW.
I love your nod to jago hazard .... and the similarity between your presenting styles :-)
He's a good egg. Thanks for watching.
That Jago Hazzard reference was on point
If you're interested in the A1 buy a copy of the book, "The Great North Road Then And Now" by Chris Cooper. Highly entertaining and informative and chock full of pictures old and new.
I was just scrolling down to mention that myself...so thanks for the heads up!
Love the Jago shoutout!
Im gonna check both the quarry and the viaduct out on ma way back up to gateshead on sunday , great work thanks for posting
This is an epic watch! Great stuff. 👍
that viaduct at the end is insane! might have to check in there on the next run up to scotland
The amount of time and money you put into these videos and fuel 👏 must be through the roof
This was my longest day yet at 22 hours.
@@AutoShenanigans can't believe that beat the M25
Ooh, Jago Hazzard reference. Respect!
Totally surprised that I really enjoyed this video, crackin presentation, great job.
The A1 is interesting for me because of the many airfields along it. There's Wittering, Alconbury, Leeming, Catterick, Dish-something (Dishforth) Newark, Colsterworth, Cottesmore and probably a few more.
Yes and they're a bloody nightmare when you want to fly a drone.
@@AutoShenanigans I wonder though if it means in a (national) emergency they can press the motorway into use as runways ?
@@highpath4776 Part of the current plan along with dispersing sections of RAF aircraft to civilian airfields due to the Ruzzian affair.
@@highpath4776 I must admit, the A1M does superficially resemble the USA's Eisenhower Highways, linking a number of military installations together with wide sections of highway. Given the construction of highways and runways are drastically different due to differing expected forces, as with the Eisenhower Highways, I think it unlikely you'd plan to use them as runways, however they're certainly useful for ferrying critical equipment and personnel between airbases at short notice and without the need for aircraft to transport them.
You forgot to mention all the adult shops that are dotted on that road 😂
Another excellent episode yet again 👍🏼
Adult shops that used to be Little Chefs...😉😉
loving this channel, so much stuff I had no idea I wanted to know about or even care, but I have to watch it !!
Slick video with decent presentation - unlike 99 per cent of You Tube. Can't work out if this is utterly boring and sad or quite thrilling.
I love the Alconbury - Peterborough section, so damn quiet, although I am disappointed you didn't mention the adult store...
Thanks for mentioning the adult store , thought i was going mad ! drove past it a few weeks ago , and nody else in the car saw it
Speaking of adult stores, there used to be a swingers' club called "The Vanilla Alternative" on one of the non-M stretches, somewhere south of the A14 junction.
@@skidmarkbill It's one of two possibly three on the A1 that I'm aware of from the same chain
@@skidmarkbill Speaking of adult stores, I'm pretty sure I've seen one on the A38 near Burton upon trent/Lichfield... 😆
@@tonycooke8545 correct, it’s on the site with the filling station, using a building that used to be a restaurant. Just before Alrewas..
I liked the A1 when it was still called The Great North Road
It still says that on some signs
Wow - those Little Chefs. Now that's entropy in action!
I drive past the abandoned station at 7:20 almost every day, always wanted to stop and look, its awesome to see what's left of it.
The A1 at Black Cat roundabout where it meets with the A428 is to be upgraded with the A428 to be dualled and to link from Cambridge to Milton Keynes and Oxford. And improvements to be made on the A1 at Biggleswade and Sandy in Bedfordshire. Mind you the M1 motorway could of continued all the way to Newcastle from where it meets with the A1(M) outside of Leeds.
the M1 only now meets with the A1 because we built that section 30 years ago. the M1 ended at a roundabout in Leeds which is now junction 3 of the M621.
The A1-M1 link road was built at a cost of 253 million quid, not bad considering the amount of huge concrete structures undertaken .
I was one of a 3 man team concerned with the pioneering construction of what is known as the air valley viaduct, motorist would hardly know they have driven over it. The thing took 2.5 years to build just that single bridge, it is enormous.
@@only-vans I have been on the A1(M) to York and yes as you mentioned about the A1-M1 link road and the A64 turnoff where the spur comes off the A1(M) onto the A64 towards York and Scarborough (which at one time was the A64(M)).
Great to see regular videos that are unique and interesting.
Thanks for watching!
We always used to stop at Grantham services as kids going from the North East to Kent as roughly half way. When I go the opposite way next week, it will the Xtra services at Cambridge and Peterborough and services at Blyth instead of Wetherby this time to give me roughly 2 hour stints. Services in this country are dire compared to Europe, America and Canada.
I really enjoyed that. Thank you! Did I geek out or nerd out. Not sure, but it was excellent!