This weekend, SWMBO & I went North. On the M40 between Junctions 8 and 9 on the South (Westbound) side of the road I could have sworn that I saw a shrine - a plot about 6 feet by 4 feet with a cross about 4 feet tall.
Were my eyes deceiving me? This was just at the side of the motorway, a few feet beyond the hard shoulder.
Are such things permitted and what was it about, or to whom is it dedicated?
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theres a shrine on the road between wooley and barnsley in south yorkshire its built of brick and always full of flowers,i thought it was a pit memorial when i first saw it.
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\"a little man in a big world/\"
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Maybe it was for the whale that got lost in the Thames? That's the sort of thing I have come to expect in these 'modern' times.
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Maybe it was for the whale that got lost in the Thames? That's the sort of thing I have come to expect in these 'modern' times.
There was a cartoon about the Thames whale in a newspaper.
'Friends of the Earth' are trying to organise a protest rally.
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A protest against what? Confused whales?
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No, profaning whales of course!
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People leave flowers at the side of roads on the spot where someone has overcooked it and gone where we all go eventually and much too soon if we don't watch out. I know of two in Sussex, one for a biker, where the flowers have been renewed more than once.
In fact come to think of it the first time I saw such a wreath was in the place below the Hog's Back where Mike Hawthorn, reigning F1 world champion, had done that very thing in his Coombs Jaguar 3.8 two days earlier, racing Robb Walker in a 300SL Mercedes. The tree that the Jag took off at ground level bending itself in half was also there, the wood still raw.
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Roadside shrine?
It has to be "Marc Bolans Tree" - Barnes Common.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It has to be "Marc Bolans Tree" - Barnes Common.
Sorry to duplicate. Slow typing and watching superbowl.
A word of warning. If anyone visits the site, beware, on the other side of the bridge there is one of the worst road humps I have ever found.
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^^Slow typing and watching superbowl.
Don't you mean watching the adverts. What a spupid boring sport.
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Perfectly at home in its natural habitat then.
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I have not seen any along a motorway.
There is one for Marc Bolan of T Rex on a tree on a railway bridge near Barnes, West London railway station. It has been there continuously since 1977.
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They're think they're copying things they've seen whilst on continental holidays. However, the things they've seen on holiday are miniature places of worship (and not the scene of a fatal road accident) in remote devout rural areas when the nearest church is too far away for local farmer labourers to worship at daily.
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L\'escargot.
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There is one at the bottom of my road where a drug addled youngster didn,t make it round the bend and parked in a large tree.I've seen a few around Leeds and Bradford,including one on a pedestrian suspension bridge over the Aire,I assume someone threw themselves into the river,and another at Almscliffe,a popular spot for rock climbers.
These things were never around when I was younger,maybe an American import.I find the idea of comemorating the place where someone died a bit odd.
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"Shrines" on ordinary roads are pretty commonplace - I can think of about 4 locally. But this report is unusual - a motorway! for heavens sake.
Perhaps it is to commemorate the shrine-builders themselves, mown down on the hard shoulder while engaged in building work?
Then when their relatives come to lay more flowers, .......
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drbe,
I saw it as well. Fairly new so I think it might be in memoriam to the person who fell off the high white bridge in unclear circumstances a couple of months back. Hit by a number of cars.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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drbe, I saw it as well. Fairly new so I think it might be in memoriam to the person who fell off the high white bridge in unclear circumstances a couple of months back. Hit by a number of cars. -- I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Thank you, Mr Scunner, I was more surprised by the location - right alongside the hard shoulder of a motorway.
Did you have a good win yesterday?
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Is this the one on the Northbound side (towards warwick) just past oxford?
If so I seem to recall it was the scene of a lorry that overturned a couple of years ago.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Is this the one on the Northbound side (towards warwick) just past oxford? If so I seem to recall it was the scene of a lorry that overturned a couple of years ago. ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Just before the A34 junction IIRC
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I do not suppose we will be allowed to erect shrines to those who may be executed for smoking while driving, as the anti-smoking fundamentalists would like?
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I guess shrines might be a good way to bring the realities of death on the roads home to us all!.
In Greece, road fatalities are often marked at the roadside by a small churchlike design shrine containing a photograph of the victim,a candle, some wine and similar offerings.
Although I have normally seen these while walking in rather more rural holiday areas, they certainly focus the mind on the loss suffered by the family.
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There are lots here in Australia marking where some one has died in a road accident. They started appearing about ten years ago and are very common now. It is understandable for friends and relatives to want to mark the spot. It also has the advantage of warning people that others have died there so slow down and be careful. On the other hand it is a bit of a distraction when you are driving and it can be dangerous for relatives to get to them to tend them. It is also a problem for road authorities when they want to do road works. They don't like bulldozing a shrine but they cannot always contact relatives to get it moved.
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They're a good source of cut flowers if you get there while they are still fresh. ;-)
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L\'escargot.
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They're a good source of cut flowers if you get there while they are still fresh. ;-) -- L\'escargot.
REALLY, L'escargot!
I have to say though that after the death of the Princess of Wales I wondered whether anyone was passing through Kensington Gardens late at night to get some of the 1,000 tonnes of compost there... of course they would have needed a teddy bear filter.
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I have to say though that after the death of the Princess of Wales I wondered whether anyone was passing through Kensington Gardens late at night to get some of the 1,000 tonnes of compost there... of course they would have needed a teddy bear filter.
The heat from all the candles didn't help either!
I cannot understand why flowers left anywhere shrine/school gates etc are always left wrapped in paper. They look dreadful, especially if it rains. Kensington and Buckingham Palaces looked like my old council rubbish tip.(Our new Recycling and Disposal Centre is so much nicer)
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and it can be dangerous for relatives to get to them to tend them.
Dangerous? On a motorway - virtually suicidal. It sounds like the quickest way of going to join the loved one.
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I may be making things up, but I think there's one about half way along the M11 going up to Cambridge. Wherever it was, I saw a crowd early one Sunday morning renewing the flowers.
Why people want to leave cellophane wrappers containing compost at the place of a fatal road accident is beyond me.
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These are very popular in Greece. Lots of flowers and little white wooden crosses.
It can be rather unnerving to go tanking round a sharp corner on a hired motorbike (wearing shorts and a teeshirt) and be confronted by these....
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And in Yugoslavia years ago when we used to pass through on the way to Greece. Most popular seemed to be a steering wheel (upon which the driver perished?) on a wooden post with a photo of the deceased replacing the badge/horn button on the boss. On some stretches of the dreaded (single carriageway) motorway (autoput) from Zagreb to Belgrade they seemed to be every few yards. Just as many on the coast road from Split to Dubrovnik/Titograd. Numbers may have had something to do with Yugoslav assumption that if you were overtaking, oncoming traffic should get off the road to allow you to complete the manoeuvre - difficult if drainage ditch or rock face alongside road..
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Phil
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