At last the new section bypassing Wetherby has opened.
70 glorious miles per hour.
3 lanes of luxury underfelted tarmac.
A whole 4 minutes earlier to work.
Oh, it was a joyous moment after a year of roadworks.
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Ages since I stopped there - a lovely town.
I always used to stop at at my Aunts house there on the way to visit my mother in Northumberland from London in the 60's and early 70's.
Even if I turned up unannounced, whatever the time of day I would leave there stuffed to the gills with glorious home cooked food as my aunt ran her own catering company and believed in feeding up everyone who called. Good old fashioned Yorkshire hospitality, plenty of pies ( yes, I ate them all) and cakes.
In those days it was only single carriageway each way and you had a sharp left turn as I recall at the roundabout by the racecourse.
It used to be a seven hour actual travel time journey then to Wetherby from South London traipsing up Edgware Road , Finchley and St Johns Wood long before the M25 ro get to the A1- now I reckon I could do the same journey in five hours easily.
Anyway what are you going to do with those four minutes Rob - boil an egg?
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DOH - Sharp RIGHT turn not left otherwise I'd have ended up in Harrogate.
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I wish to cancel my booking for my helicopter charter ;-)
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It's not Mrs Shipman is it? I bet she's enjoying the new road as well, all of 10ft from her front door.
4 mins? Time is money, greed is good, lunch is for wimps etc etc.
I suppose I could spend those 4 mins laying-in, still dreaming of Jenny Agutter and Ingrid Pitt.
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Nope - Nothing to do with Primrose Shipman happily.
Dear old Aunt died many moons ago well into her eighties and even left me a few quid in her will.I never drive through Wetherby without thinking fondly of her.
Dreaming of Jenny Agutter and Ingrid Pitt ! Showing your age there a bit Rob.
I know JA was in the Railway Children but ISTR wasn't there a film a while back with her swimming in an Australian outback pool in the buff, very naughty at the time ?....... What was it called?
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Picnic at Hanging Rock
Walkabout I think
www.imdb.com/title/tt0067959/
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Yep John M - Walkabout is the one I was thinking of. It was such a change from her usual goody goody image. Anyway I'msure the mods will point out it has nothing to do with motoring .
Anyway - It says a lot about my age that I dribble more these days about Aunties pies than over Jenny Agutter.....
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Now I've had a really long hard look around the backroom and I can't see any reference to a "reliving my childhood fantasies" or "oooh, I know that town, stopped there for fish and chips once and they charged thruppence for vinegar" forum. In fact, the harder I look, the more I get the impression that this is a motoring forum.
I may, of course, be wrong.
I know, I'm (a) mean (b) inconsistent and (c) sarcastic. I just don't see why Mark should have all the fun.
No Do$h - Alfa-driving Backroom Moderator
mailto:moderators@honestjohn.co.uk
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Well, to get it back on track, I did call the HA to enquire why the roadworks had been delayed by the contractors completely stripping and relaying the tarmac they had only just laid the month before, but never got a response.
So if anyone does know what they did wrong the first time, please let me know.
(Oh, re the ladies, I'm only 36 you know, but watched a lot of Hammer Horror/American Werewolf as a teenager)
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AND another thing, the initial post was really about the (nowadays) rare joy of motoring. I actually felt really happy driving along this pristine new motorway, something perhaps the older members might remember from the days of the M6 and M1.
Although this is a bit rambling in terms of subject matter, it reminds me of the first time I saw the Forton services on the M6, only a few years ago now. Although this huge concrete control tower is a bit dilapidated, it represents (to me) a celebration of motoring from a bygone age, when the construction of the M6 meant more freedom and communication across the UK.
I think it's worth remembering in these days of motor car villification.
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Don't hold your breath for trouble free motoring on the A1(M). I have just this week received the public consultation document on the plans to upgrade the next bit of 'old' A1 - from Dishforth to Leeming. More years of roadworks to come.
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I have just this week received the public consultation document on the plans to upgrade the next bit of 'old' A1 - from Dishforth to Leeming.
Me too. As an excercise in telling you as little as possible in a bright, modern way, it is outstanding. Mis-spelling a place name on the map shows how careless the HA can be.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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"I know, I'm (a)"
Thats a very short list ND? you will have to do better than that to compete with mark!
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And the people Fairburn are now reunited. When the old A1 was dualled it split the village in two.
Just been to Majorca and had the pleasure of trying the new motorway extension which bypasses Lluc Major a day after it opened - what a great feeling quiet roads and new tarmac is!
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Compete with Mark? No chance. I just wanted the tiniest slither of the pie for myself today.
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As Rob said - the thread was about his joy of motoring past Wetherby and my point was about my happy motoring memories of Wetherby with a bit of a ramble off into reminiscence I do admit.
I did use to travel the old A1 very frequently and it does seem that all the old towns I used to pass through on single carriageways are by passed and the whole road is just another Motorway without those identifiable landmarks in your journey like Scotch Corner and the Ram Jam Inn.
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Motorways and major dual-carriageways are fine ~ provided that you don't live nearer to one than about a mile. I use to live about half a mile from the AI just north of Doncaster and (depending on the weather conditions) the noise could be most intrusive. It wouldn't have been so bad if the volume of traffic at night had been light, but traffic on the A1/A1(M) is heavy 24 hours a day. With a window open it was sometimes impossible to sleep. Whenever I hear about proposals for a road being dualled I always feel sorry for the people living nearby.
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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I don't know how Yorkshire link got away with a concrete road surface on the A1/M1 link between the M62/M1 junction and the A1.
Its got to be the noisiest road in Yorkshire.
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Hear, hear to that noisy bit of concrete!!
As to age, well what are we all on this (wonderful) site for? What would we have been surfing 25 - 45 years ago!!?? Not looking for stuff on coolant leaks I'll bet!
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