On The Road - show us what interested you on your travels

[DickyC]

A thread for vehicles you see that interest you that are not necessarily either cool, classic or super, and roadside ephemera you think we might like to see.

Having concluded a deal for a Lexus 600 in the car park of Mill Hill Underground Station, I set off in search of a petrol station and saw this:



As I turned the car round I stumbled upon a scene from the nineteen twenties:



that wasn't:




Near Pewsey during the week I saw this road sign, still in use, that appears to have made by a local confectioners but is mostly cast iron:






One from my home town of Newbury, a notice on the side of the Town Hall:

[DickyC]

V6Pushfit said:

A Morris Dancing



Am I doing this right?

With bells on.

[DickyC]

A 1968 TVR Tuscan I'm going for.

[DickyC]

Blakewater said:

This police box in Scarborough is one of only three in the country in their original locations.

Whenever I see a Police Box I can picture 28 April 1923 with Constable George Scorey on his horse, Billie, trotting along the Harrow Road when he is alerted to the Police Box by its blue light. He had been on duty along the route of the King and Queen as they made their way in Royal Procession to the new Wembley Stadium for the stadium's inaugural FA Cup Final. Constable Scorey was invited on the Police Box telephone to cut along to the stadium to assist his fellow mounted officers with the crowd which is hopelessly oversized due to an ill-conceived ticket sales policy. Estimates vary but, in round figures, 300,000 fans turned up to a stadium built for 127,000 (later 82,000).

Despite Billie being a grey, the shambles is referred to as the White Horse Final or the White Horse Incident.

[DickyC]

V6Pushfit said:

What every time?

Yes. I had to stop watching Dr Who.

[DickyC]

If you saw this as you hurtled past a northbound layby on the A34 south of Newbury you would be forgiven for not being drawn in to investigate.



It's where Geoffrey de Havilland first took to the air in the Earl of Carnarvon's back yard at Highclere Castle.







GEOFFREY de HAVILLAND
ASSISTED BY
FRANK HEARLE
CARRIED OUT HIS FIRST FLIGHT
IN HIS HOME MADE AEROPLANE
HERE AT
SEVEN BARROWS
ON 10 SEPTEMBER 1910

[DickyC]

That's brilliant. Up until I read that I thought distances to and from London were measured from Charing Cross.

The decisive answer in the next pub quiz could be: Hicks Hall, Smithfield.

[DickyC]

Don said:

Out on a walk in Arlesford.

Wonderful - and Google went straight to it:

http://www.alresford.org/displayed/displayed_13_3....

The piece about the dog is towards the end.

[DickyC]

On Monday I went to the chocolate box village of East Hagbourne in Oxfordshire. They have an annual scarecrow building competition. The competition was some time ago but a few were still standing, like these scary creatures:



The theme this year was Shakespeare and they are the Three Witches from Macbeth.

Even when I'd found out what was going on they were still scary.

[DickyC]

Did - or do - the Belgians have an aerospace industry or is it even more random than that?

[DickyC]

Planet Claire said:

Gilhooligan said:

Edit: lol either I've misread this thread or the OP changed it since I initially read it earlier? Either way, enjoy a cool AA phone box and mx5 .

Love the old AA phone boxes. Spotted two so far. This one is near Ambleside. One of 19 left and a listed building.

Edited by Gilhooligan on Monday 19th September 20:55

There's another one here. Not too far from Ambleside, in fact.

This has appeared several times in these hallowed pages. It's a mere box. It's merely a box. You get the idea. It's in Mere in Cheshire. We see it visiting folk in Manchester; it's on the road from the M6 towards Manchester Airport.

[DickyC]

Driving from Newbury to Haslemere earlier, I was caught in a rainstorm of biblical proportions and stopped for a cuppa at the first café I could find. The establishment was a pet feed wholesaler and boot fair venue north of Andover who have a fine line in objet d'art. I'm fairly certain the village was called Dummer.





The thing is, I didn't know Basingstoke ever had heavy manufacturing, I've never heard of Wallis and Steevens and never seen the surname Steevens spelled with so many Es.

[DickyC]

The A421 links Oxford and Cambridge. It could therefore be classed as quite an important road. Yet, until comparatively recently, the road passed over the single track Thornborough Bridge in Buckinghamshire. I had passed it many times - you can see it quite clearly from the revised route of the road - but last week I decided to stop and have a closer look.



It was built on the 14th Century and wasn't replaced until 1974! It never ceases to amaze me how woefully unprepared the world was for mass mechanised personal transport.



The surrounding area is now largely farm land but in Roman times was an important settlement.



The bridge builders used the V shape of the cutwaters to form pedestrian refuges in the road over the bridge.



It's hard to imagine what a bottleneck it must have been in the Sixties and Seventies.

[DickyC]

Observed this morning in a field not a million miles from Stonehenge. A Snowtrack Snowmobile, according to its custodian. Every home should have one. At least one.

[DickyC]

To the east of Hungerford.









Guarding a road bridge, a canal lock and the railway.

Until I read the plaque I had always believed pill boxes were sited randomly at crossings and other places that needed defending against the feared German invasion. It turns out there were lines of defence east to west across the country designed to slow an invasion. The Kennet and Avon canal that runs through Hungerford was part of the Blue Line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GHQ_Line

[DickyC]

Drummond Baize said:

Visited a site in Hilsea near Portsmouth last week and saw these:



A Google search brings up nothing on their history. Any locals know anything?

Anything subterranean nearby for which these might be vents? Longer railway tunnels often have vents and there are probably underground military goings on in and around Portsmouth.

[DickyC]

paulwirral said:

Bizarrely I'm sure I saw that 32 whatever it is car on the Wirral the other night, clocked it down the road outside an off licence then it drove past me in the street I live

Originally I thought it was a bit big for a Deuce but I reckon you're right. It may have come down to visit the Ace Café, a couple of miles round the North Circular. When I drove round later on it was in the Lexus 600 Hybrid I'd collected. All the way from the Harrow Road to Hanger Lane I was in dense traffic and the car opted to run on its batteries. That's an odd sensation for the uninitiated.

[DickyC]

vournikas said:

Great thread, and some very interesting reading.

I've only a couple to contribute, but hope you like them.

First one:-



Back in 2004, we were on an island-hopping trip around some Ionian islands, and when we disembarked the boat in Ithaca this relic from the island's German occupation in WW2 was parked up at the quayside.

And:-



This was our taxi to the market at Guadalarvaca last month

Marvellous. A '59 Impala? The taxis round here just feel as though they're from the Fifties.

[DickyC]

rovermorris999 said:

Totally O/T but I have been looking at the LS600H. I'd love to hear about yours, a new thread perhaps or pm me? I currently have an ancient LS400 that refuses to go wrong or die.

In my dotage I'm collecting and delivering cars for a dealer and the Lexus was one of them. I was just so impressed with it; it's a big car that drives and handles like a much smaller car. The designers and engineers at Toyota did a phenomenal job. My job introduces me to a lot of cars and I've realised how similar many cars have become but this one really stood out as being different.

[DickyC]

Will there be parlour games?