Colchester to Buxton, 1950s style….

[johnpsanderson]

A few different things have woven together in my mind over the Christmas break, and posting here now in case either a) there’s an easy answer to this or b) others have worked this through and found it to be a pipe dream/hellish in practice…

The ingredients that have sloshed around in my mind are:
1 - the slog from Colchester up to the Staffs/Cheshire border that we do to visit my dad, usually there and back the same day via the A120, M11, A14, M1 and A50 but sometimes for slightly more fun including the run from the A1 to the M1 via Melton Mowbray and sometimes going across the Peak District: Strines/Snake Pass/Cat and Fiddle etc…

2 - having a bit more time over Christmas and so overnighting in Hartington and re-discovering the joys of some of the minor Peak District roads.

3 - the desire for some sort of ‘adventure’ to make up for the last few years of not getting out much…

4 - lots of browsing reasonably cheap classic/special/kit car ads

5 - the spirit of that Top Gear episode where they raced on car, bike and by train up the A1….

6 - a general fascination for ‘where the old road used to go’, I.e. what travel was like prior to the development of the motorway network…

All of which had led me to consider: can I pick up something quirky/fun/‘sporting’ for a few grand and then put together a road trip from Colchester up to the Peak District using ‘pre-trunk road/ motorway’ roads all the way. And see some nice countryside along the way. Or will it just be awful….

TL;DR - can you journey like it’s the 1950s in the UK and have fun or will it just be crap?

[Riley Blue]

johnpsanderson said:

TL;DR - can you journey like it’s the 1950s in the UK and have fun or will it just be crap?

A resounding 'Yes!'

I have a fascination with old roads and routes, have had since being driven along the Great North Road in the 1950s and even more so since buying a '63 Riley 12 years ago.

In the intervening years, prompted by Robbie Coltrane's TV series "B-roads Britain" we've driven all over the UK via B-roads including Land's End to John O'Groats and St David's Head in west Wales to Ness Point near Lowestoft.

One of the advantages of travelling this way is you get to see far more of rural Britain and its heritage, another is the lack of traffic and traffic jams; who in their right mind faced with a long drive would deliberately take the most minor roads - some of the routes we've followed have been on lanes with grass growing in the centre.

You do need an appropriate car to get the most fun out of it: not too big or powerful nor 'precious' in case it gets scratched or otherwise damaged (we cracked two sumps before fitting a sump guard.)

Also, just to make it more interesting, we navigate either using tulip diagrams as devised for road rallies in the 1950s or by using a map.

Of course we could simply be very sad people...

[DS129]

OP, yes you can do it but you need to decide how serious you are about using only the old roads

Just taking the start of your journey you can use the A120 on it's old route up to Coggeshall then do you go through the village or round the bypass?
Next you come to Braintree, use the bypass or go through the town ?
After Braintree it is easy to follow the old road to the M11.
Now you have to decide which road to go North,
This being SE England the old roads have been renumbered and probably lost under housing developments.
I suggest you get some old maps (1960s) and overlay them on current digital maps.
If you have a go at this, good luck, it could be fun if planned well

[Mr Tidy]

That trip sounds like a great idea!

With the current proliferation of speed cameras on Motorways and A Roads using older routes may even allow for some fun.

If you do it OP please let us know how you get on.

[Marquezs Stabilisers]

This is definitely possible. From Colchester I'd suggest you head due north, passing Cambridge to the east. This will be more fun and less crowded than a lot of the other roads. Once out in the fens you can head west via Chatteris, Oakham and Melton Mowbray, then aim to get yourself in the general direction of Ashbourne.

I wasn't as strict as you but I did once do Bar Hill to Manchester without bothering a motorway

[coppice]

I have written a guide to using the route of the Great North Road/A1 over 60miles in West and North Yorkshire- starting near the A1M /M62 junction and ending N of Scotch Corner. PM me for copy

[mmm-five]

Was 'forced' to do an almost mirror-image of that journey to get a poorly car (e34 M5) from Liverpool to a specialist in Earls Colne (via a mate in Harpur Hill).

Couldn't go above 50mph or 2000rpm or it would cut out, and couldn't take corners at either of those as the extra power required for the steering would make it cut out too.

Just had the sat-nav plot me the most economical route, avoiding motorways, and it ended up something like this...
https://goo.gl/maps/jytSm6zSMaoCdnzm6

To be fair, I don't remember much of the route/scenery as I was concentrating on ensuring the car didn't cut-out, as the M5's brakes & steering get extremely heavy when there's no assistance.

On the plus side, it was the first time I ever got over 30mpg out of it.

[johnpsanderson]

Thanks for the thoughts/ encouragement!

I’ve had a look at some ‘old maps’ (great idea, not sure why I did not think of it as I’ve lost no end of hours on https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/ in the past) and have quickly discovered something I wasn’t necessarily expecting, but that comments above alluded to…

A lot of the current main roads I use cover the same major route as 40s/50s roads, what was missing back then was “the bypass” and “the ring-road”… From a cursory look it seems in these cases much of the ‘old road’ is probably very much under the current road, or likely doesn’t exist any more…

I will have to re-spec this somewhat as I was certainly thinking more along “b-road Britain” lines and that I’d probably be working on a route that was closer to ‘as the crow flies’, but I’d had the misapprehension that 40s/50s travel *was* more like that…

[johnpsanderson]

Riley Blue said:

we navigate using tulip diagrams

I like the sound of this. I’m already imagining a Jenks style roller map device…

I don’t suppose there’s anything that auto generates tulip maps from route planners is there? Or do you compile them by hand?

[DS129]

Wow !!
I can see how you lost hours on that map link, so much info for anyone interested in the history of an area and how it has developed, thanks.

[Riley Blue]

johnpsanderson said:

Riley Blue said:

we navigate using tulip diagrams

I like the sound of this. I’m already imagining a Jenks style roller map device…

I don’t suppose there’s anything that auto generates tulip maps from route planners is there? Or do you compile them by hand?

I haven't found a means of auto generating tulips, I use Don Barrow's Excel template: https://donbarrow.co.uk/tulip-road-book-software-d...

The route itself is worked out using Google Maps as it's easy to alter it and measure distances between turns. It all takes a lot of time but ultimately makes the trip more interesting and seems the most appropriate when in our Riley. We use a free tripmeter app on the move to measure distance and - provided I do what my navigator tells me - don't miss too many turns.

You've given me an idea though - must investigate Jenk's roller map...

[johnpsanderson]

Minor update. I broached this idea with my wife during a rare child free 24hrs away in Bury St Edmunds, whilst we trundled up there avoiding the A12/A14 and it turns out she’s onboard with the idea, so this whole idea looks like it might become the excuse for a long weekend (again, sans kids) either in July or September.

Entirely related tangent, Bury St Edmunds yielded exactly the sort of yesteryear motoring accountrement this whole idea is about, I give you: The Pillar of Salt

The only other waypoint I have in mind for the trip at the moment is to pass through Burton Lazars (to pay homage to Count Zborowski who is buried there).

I’ve floated the idea that we need something other than the family workhorse Kia Sportwagen for a trip like this, so am idly browsing MX-5-ish vehicles when time allows…

[coppice]

I will confess to being the saddo who loves exploring 'lost highways' , Roman Roads and forgotten road furniture . I can recommend an MX 5 for this purpose - I have a Mk 4 which is ideal for top down exploring , even if the Home Service is hard to find on its radio.