Just been watching a bit of The Joys of Motoring which I recorded a few nights ago.
In the prog, Tristram Hunt drives a Bullnose Cowley and mentions the book 'In Search of England' by the journalist H.V.Morton. Morton was employed by , I think, The Daily Express, to go out into England by car in around 1929/1930 and report on what he found. His car of choice was a Cowley. This has long been a favourite read of mine and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. It can usually be found in charity shops for a few pence. Morton also wrote other 'search' books, Wales, Scotland, London, Lands of the Bible, South Africa and several more. I now have most of them after some years hunting. They take you back to a different time, when petrol was bought in cans and B&B was five bob a night...delightful !
Ted
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Thanks for that - my mother used to read them and you've reminded me - must dig them out.
Maybe useful for Rattle's friend looking for Wales near Leeds somewhere.
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Well worth it Pugly, forgot to mention the lovely photos, all in sepia and the curious letter S, printed all throught the books with a 'circumflex' on top which makes them look like an F. Eventually I start to pronounce all the Ss (esses?) as F. Makes for interesting reading !
Ted
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Rummaging in the attic recently, I came across a 1952 road map of France in very good condition which still shows "Destroyed Bridges" from WW2.
It is fascinating to see what the country was like before motorways.
I also found a 1972 Texaco map of the UK which is interesting - took me ages to find the hamlet of Milton Keynes!
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When I was a controller for a national motoring organisation we were issued with a new road atlas every year. Good for motorway updates, etc, I always had a 1963 AA atlas of Great Britain with me, the red, hardback one you see at car boot sales. What an excellent book it was, no motorways to speak of, but some of the tiniest hamlets, some with only one or two houses in the middle of the moors somewhere, were shown and were in the index. I still have it now.
Ted
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I watched that programme last week was quite interesting.
It is not the same anymore, if we went for a drive to try and discover England today we would just come back with a load of tickets through the post and the journey will be spent in traffic jams.
I wonder how easy it would be to drive from North to South by not using any motorway?
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I wonder how easy it would be to drive from North to South by not using any motorway?
You'd get slowed down a lot by traffic lights, roundabouts and traffic queues for a start.
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where north and where south?
pretty easy really - If you start at Lands end you need to get the edge of the next county before you even see a motorway.
Just set tomtom to avoid motorways, and off you go
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It would be easy but not quick ;-) e.g...
Using the online beta of TomTom Route Planner it's about 765 miles and almost 14 hours from Lands End to John O'Groats setting out now. That will be using motorways and traffic info. TomTom on my mobile phone says avoiding motorways is 925 miles and 20.5 hours. Which route would you take?
When my mother was a child they used to travel from South Wales (the country/principality and not the town in Yorkshire) to Blackpool. That was a mammoth journey. Once made worse by the blanket on my grandmother's lap ending up unravelled and wrapped around the drive shaft. She'd noticed it happening but didn't like to mention it. Bless ;-) Took a while to cut off with a razor blade!
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