Where to find 'open b-roads' in the south?

[Red_Bat]

Now what is an 'open B-road'? One with no or verry little hedges especially in corners.
I find those corners where you have no forward visibility (so you can't see past the corner or what's coming on the other lane) to be dangerous and so inevitably I end up driving much slower than I'd like.

In the past I was surprised by anything from a slow cyclist to a full size combine harvester, or more frequently the usual idiot who can't stay in their lane in the past...

Any ideas for such fun driving roads, let's say within a 100 mile radius from London - would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[brisel]

B1225 Caistor High Street
B4425 Cirencester to Burford road

What you need is an old drover’s road - wide verges for the drovers to graze their animals on their way to market all those years ago.

If you want good visibility, try a fenland road. No hedges at all plus the road is usually higher than the land around it. Which is usually subsiding due to the underlying peat oxidising. Oh, and the big deep drains either side. And the sudden 90 degree bends :-)

[TB404]

brisel said:

B1225 Caistor High Street
B4425 Cirencester to Burford road

What you need is an old drover’s road - wide verges for the drovers to graze their animals on their way to market all those years ago.

If you want good visibility, try a fenland road. No hedges at all plus the road is usually higher than the land around it. Which is usually subsiding due to the underlying peat oxidising. Oh, and the big deep drains either side. And the sudden 90 degree bends :-)

Thank you this is excellent.

I know I asked about the south but are there areas in England that generally feature roads like that? Any deserts?

[Red Devil]

TB404 said:

I know I asked about the south but are there areas in England that generally feature roads like that? Any deserts?

The opposite of the Fens. Head for the hills: North Pennines AONB. Pretty much any A or B road within the box formed by the A6/A66/A67/A68/A69 has great sightlines.

[Truckosaurus]

The New Forest has plenty of 'open' roads, but a 40mph speed limit of course.

Similarly, Dartmoor, but that might be too south.

[Riley Blue]

I'd forget fenland roads, they're often very undulating due to swelling or shrinkage of the underlying peat and the weight of agricultural trailers can leave high 'sump cracking' crowns. They are, in my opinion, some of the worst roads in the country.

[brisel]

A 100 mile radius from central London takes you to Norwich, Boston, Birmingham, Gloucester, Bath, Warminster, Bournemouth and the entire south east.

I can recommend the Chilterns, Cotswolds, Salisbury Plain, Wessex Downs, Lambourn Downs, North & South Downs for good open sighted roads.

As above, the North Pennines, North York Moors, Lincolnshire & Yorkshire Wolds all have great open roads but if you really want to let rip, go to Wales & Scotland! It's well worth the extra distance

[Marquezs Stabilisers]

Romney Marsh - the Old Military Road is the sort of road you describe

[dcb]

brisel said:

but if you really want to let rip, go to Wales & Scotland! It's well worth the extra distance

Is it ? I find it surprising that Brits are so parochial & tend to stay
in their little offshore island so much.

For Wales, London to Aberystwyth - 230 miles.
OTOH, London to Amiens, France - 200 miles.

France IMHO offers better quality drivers & roads, faster travel, better food & drink
& better weather than Wales.

For Scotland, London to Inverness - 570 miles.
London to Tuebingen, BW, Germany - 570 miles.

Germany IMHO trumps Scotland by a considerable mile too, for similar
reasons given above.

No contest, AFAIK. I picked Amiens & Tuebingen at random. There
are many other nice places on the way.

[P675]

dcb said:

Is it ? I find it surprising that Brits are so parochial & tend to stay
in their little offshore island so much.

For Wales, London to Aberystwyth - 230 miles.
OTOH, London to Amiens, France - 200 miles.

France IMHO offers better quality drivers & roads, faster travel, better food & drink
& better weather than Wales.

For Scotland, London to Inverness - 570 miles.
London to Tuebingen, BW, Germany - 570 miles.

Germany IMHO trumps Scotland by a considerable mile too, for similar
reasons given above.

No contest, AFAIK. I picked Amiens & Tuebingen at random. There
are many other nice places on the way.

Where am I gonna find a Greggs in Germany?

[Mr Tidy]

P675 said:

Where am I gonna find a Greggs in Germany?

Somehow I don't think you will!

I've had a few trips around Cumbria, Northumbria and North Yorkshire, often on my way to Scotland, and found some great roads, including the A68 someone mentioned earlier. No cameras but there are some Greggs.

Never tried Germany though. But I think the appeal is sections of Autobahn with no limit, which could get boring pretty quickly.

I quite fancy the Isle of Man as they have more challenging roads with no speed limit.

Although living in Surrey means travelling some distance!

[brisel]

dcb said:

Is it ? I find it surprising that Brits are so parochial & tend to stay
in their little offshore island so much.

For Wales, London to Aberystwyth - 230 miles.
OTOH, London to Amiens, France - 200 miles.

France IMHO offers better quality drivers & roads, faster travel, better food & drink
& better weather than Wales.

For Scotland, London to Inverness - 570 miles.
London to Tuebingen, BW, Germany - 570 miles.

Germany IMHO trumps Scotland by a considerable mile too, for similar
reasons given above.

No contest, AFAIK. I picked Amiens & Tuebingen at random. There
are many other nice places on the way.

The 100 mile radius was part of the OP's criteria. I would guess that they wanted something within a day's drive of London, bearing in mind they have to get out of and back into London too.

Point taken though.

[carreauchompeur]

brisel said:

If you want good visibility, try a fenland road. No hedges at all plus the road is usually higher than the land around it. Which is usually subsiding due to the underlying peat oxidising. Oh, and the big deep drains either side. And the sudden 90 degree bends :-)

I’ve had a few pursuits on similar roads…incredibly sketchy trying to keep up with things when you’re not quite sure where the next random hump is, and with the added pressure of possible drowning if it goes wrong!

[milesgiles]

I don’t like the sound of this

[plenty]

dcb said:

For Wales, London to Aberystwyth - 230 miles.
OTOH, London to Amiens, France - 200 miles.

France IMHO offers better quality drivers & roads, faster travel, better food & drink
& better weather than Wales.

Travel time is a more practical comparison than distance on a map.

Rather than Aberystwyth which is on the far side of Wales, let's take Abergavenny which is surrounded by great roads. That's three hours from my door in NW London. And my route there takes in some very nice stretches through the Chilterns and Cotswolds. From Abergavenny I could build in 2-3 full days or 500-750 miles of top-quality roads without once double-backing on myself. If I have only one day available I can reach Snowdonia and back in the same day to take in the delights of the B4391 etc.

From my door to Amiens on the fastest possible crossing, Eurotunnel, is realistically 6-7 hours depending on how busy the border is on both sides. To get there I have no option but to fight my way along the M25 and M2/A2 as opposed to the lovely backroads drive to Wales. And that's me living in London - folks living further north and west have even further to go to get to the border crossing.

My 6-7 hours of motorway and waiting around at the border crossings still only takes me as far as Picardy (where Amiens is), where there aren't many decent twisties at all, and certainly not a patch on Wales and Shropshire. I'd have to travel to the Vosges or to Brittany to find comparably good driving, but then you're talking 9-11 hours from my door.

So it's a minimum three-day trip to France versus Wales which is feasible in a single long day if you're so inclined.

Can't disagree about the better drivers and food, though.

[CDP]

carreauchompeur said:

brisel said:

If you want good visibility, try a fenland road. No hedges at all plus the road is usually higher than the land around it. Which is usually subsiding due to the underlying peat oxidising. Oh, and the big deep drains either side. And the sudden 90 degree bends :-)

I’ve had a few pursuits on similar roads…incredibly sketchy trying to keep up with things when you’re not quite sure where the next random hump is, and with the added pressure of possible drowning if it goes wrong!

You have to know the road very well to be able to drive quickly on them. As well as the humps the roads can be rutted as badly as tracks.

[milesgiles]

plenty said:

Travel time is a more practical comparison than distance on a map.

Rather than Aberystwyth which is on the far side of Wales, let's take Abergavenny which is surrounded by great roads. That's three hours from my door in NW London. And my route there takes in some very nice stretches through the Chilterns and Cotswolds. From Abergavenny I could build in 2-3 full days or 500-750 miles of top-quality roads without once double-backing on myself. If I have only one day available I can reach Snowdonia and back in the same day to take in the delights of the B4391 etc.

From my door to Amiens on the fastest possible crossing, Eurotunnel, is realistically 6-7 hours depending on how busy the border is on both sides. To get there I have no option but to fight my way along the M25 and M2/A2 as opposed to the lovely backroads drive to Wales. And that's me living in London - folks living further north and west have even further to go to get to the border crossing.

My 6-7 hours of motorway and waiting around at the border crossings still only takes me as far as Picardy (where Amiens is), where there aren't many decent twisties at all, and certainly not a patch on Wales and Shropshire. I'd have to travel to the Vosges or to Brittany to find comparably good driving, but then you're talking 9-11 hours from my door.

So it's a minimum three-day trip to France versus Wales which is feasible in a single long day if you're so inclined.

Can't disagree about the better drivers and food, though.

My mate absolutely swears by wales on his bike

[dcb]

Mr Tidy said:

Never tried Germany though. But I think the appeal is sections of Autobahn with no limit, which could get boring pretty quickly.

It sounds like there is a gap in your automotive experience.
I suggest a week's holiday over there and see how you get on.

I find it hard to understand how interacting with traffic at 200+ kmh
can be boring. It's all fast moving.

Certainly better than waiting a long time for a gap to appear
to overtake some dithering old duffer on a hilly road, in my experience.

[Mr Tidy]

dcb said:

Mr Tidy said:

Never tried Germany though. But I think the appeal is sections of Autobahn with no limit, which could get boring pretty quickly.

It sounds like there is a gap in your automotive experience.
I suggest a week's holiday over there and see how you get on.

I find it hard to understand how interacting with traffic at 200+ kmh
can be boring. It's all fast moving.

Certainly better than waiting a long time for a gap to appear
to overtake some dithering old duffer on a hilly road, in my experience.

I used to do those sort of speeds in traffic on the M25 in the 80s, which felt pretty exciting at the time.

But after a weekend in Scotland without having to wait long for a gap to overtake a dithering duffer and head towards the redline it feels much more exciting to me now!