RE: Hugenden Valley/Hampden Valley
Discussion
Agreed this is a great road - my wife commutes these roads - but Butlers Cross (Between Chequers and the end of the route) is a favourite with the police to catch speedsters with a speed gun. It''s a 40mph zone through the village and lot''s of people don''t pay attention to it. I advise a radar detector or don''t drive like an idiot through the built-up areas.
The village at the end of the route really isn't necessary for what I described. The crossroads at Ellesborough (? - can never remember the name of the place) really marks the end of the run with plenty of parking space at the hall and a pub opposite.
I really miss driving the route but my girlfriend has pretty much banned me from taking it when she is in the car as she invariably feels sick by the time we reach Aylesbury!
My wife drove me in a hired Megane the other day. She usually drives a Clio. I felt *really* awful by the time we got to Hughendon Manor... Groo!
quote:
I really miss driving the route but my girlfriend has pretty much banned me from taking it when she is in the car as she invariably feels sick by the time we reach Aylesbury!
Defintely a good road - esp. if you live in the area - everything else is so congested in the S.E! My grandparents lived in Ellesborough Manor until recently and I used to go out there on Sundays. Cyclists seem to be the main obstacle, esp on the bit near the tree trunk on the bend (locals will know the one).
I also forgot to mention the "mysterious" blacked-out range rovers that occasionally cruise the local roads. These are the PMs security detail, they very rarely stop anyone and when they do they are only out to scare you. All the same having a fully automatic shoved into your face and being dragged out of the car isn't amusing! (been there, done it and don't particularly want to repeat the experience) Thankfully our current PM doesn't like living at the Chequers so they are a VERY rare sight. Before anyone gets scared - I've only had this happen once in 15 years of driving that route but I know I'm not the only one to have been stopped!
Another rare sight (now - but used to be more common) is/was the Blue Coral Porsche Team out testing their road cars. It seems that this was their favourite route.
As I mentioned all of the roads I described are actually sub-B class roads and don't have numbers. Where the roads are named I have given the name. The best thing I can suggest is using streetmap.co.uk to look up the start and end locations.
The start of the route can be seen at http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?grid2map?x=486500&y=197500&zoom=3&isp=200&ism=1000&arrow=y?12,88
The end of the route can be found at http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?grid2map?x=484500&y=206500&zoom=3&isp=200&ism=1000&arrow=y?55,15
It really is worth driving a few times to learn the route as there are some tricky adverse cambers and unexpected twists to tame. Get them right and you'll begin to see what makes these roads so good. Get them wrong and you're likely to be parked facing the wrong way in a hedge (or in some cases a tree - I've seen plenty of accidents along this road where a crane has been called in to recover a vehicle from the branches of a roadside tree).
jimbro1000 said: I also forgot to mention the "mysterious" blacked-out range rovers that occasionally cruise the local roads. These are the PMs security detail, they very rarely stop anyone and when they do they are only out to scare you.
i got called over to one of those black range rovers about a year ago and i got questioned to the nth degree about why me and a few mates were there. i tried to explain i was there cos i was bored and it was something to do but he wasn't having any of it and radio'd my licence number through to somewhere and eventually told me to leave! wtf is that all about!
>> Edited by tim_s on Thursday 24th April 16:16
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