Great British Road Journeys - Bedfordshire - Biggleswade to Ampthill Ep. 9
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- čas přidán 23. 03. 2024
- #infrastructure #driving #bedfordshire #bedford #cars
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It's time to move on to another county, with Cambridgeshire out the way let's take a look at Bedfordshire... it's... fine. In this episode, we learn of a tyred train, a missing flyover and about italians.
Using a copy of the 1923 Michelin Guide, I'll be travelling the country to see what remains and what's changed since it's publication. The guide offers suggestions on thing to see and where to stay all with the goal of getting you out there and exploring in your motor vehicle. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Anybody else love these videos but are just secretly waiting for their neck of the woods? (Bonus points for your home town and other places you've lived etc)
Edit: Like this post if you too have strong opinions about Jon's hat choices.
Yeap. I'm just north of Frankfurt am Main, though. 🍺🥨🏢
He visited Willey in the naughty names episode which I drove through every day to get to work at Lutterworth
Jon visited a place about 200m from my house (Fire College, Moreton-in-Marsh) but he didn’t tell me beforehand so I didn’t get the opportunity to go and worry him like a creepy 55 year old stalker 😢
Waiting for a ‘Second Disagreement Infrastructures’ video, got loads of pillboxes around where I live in Hampshire 😂
Me 🙋🏻♂️
" By writing a coffee into the script that makes it a business expense and thus tax deductible " 8-)
Damn. I was too slow
I'm sure he's actually said that in the past.
The more I watch your content John, the more I know that 'Railway Shenanigans' will be a thing in the near future! Keep up the good work Sir. God Speed
But it would feature a lot of road infrastructure 😂
And Michael Portillo 😂
Watching these really brings home the monumental growth of population and infrastructure over the last 100 years!
Never mind last 100 years most of the expansion of Biggleswade Sandy and Bedford has taken place in the last20 to 30 years and likewise all the surounding villages that you now get road rage trying to drive through due to over development and no extra facilities.
@@stephentookey5519 and flooding, cos they’ve built on the land, mostly clay, without thinking about soak aways. There’s going to be a lot of subsidence claims!
Absolutely! All of this, plus it will be the tax payer footing the bill because these people are way beyond accountability! 🤬🤬🤬
The Stewartby brickworks site has been bought by Universal Studios and will become the UKs first Universal Studios theme park.
It MAY become that. I’m not holding my breath for its opening.
I hope so but remember the national aquarium that seems to have been a huge con trick.
Correction - it's the Kempston Hardwick Brickworks that Universal Studios own - not the Stewartby ones.
My self centredness has encouraged me to write that:
In the early nineties I lived in Marston Moretaine and also knew a chap who worked for Renault trucks. With his help I blagged my way into Millbrook Test Track and drove a couple of Renault trucks even though I didn't have an HGV licence. I told the Renault driver in the cab that I didn't have a licence and that I'd driven nothing bigger than a transit van but he said that I'd be alright only just don't tell anyone. During my lap of the banked circuit I was passed three times by a dark blue Lotus Esprit V8.
The food was pretty good too.
Was expecting to see the airship sheds at former RAF Cardington mentioned in this one :/
I know. When he said nothing came out of Bedfordshire. Well apart from pretty much the entire British airship industry and the R101. Or the motor industry.
If not for themselves, because they’re Rebel Base on Yavin’s moon.
I’ll see you guys next time for another exciting Look At Great British Railway Architecture
Mr? Tim(woke as you like)Dunn has already done that one on TV along with his weirdo friends.
Wot?...no airship hangars at Cardington!!?? I pick up building sand at the quarry at Sandy. You should have flown the drone over it...its a very big, deep hole!!(right beside the transmitter mast). I remember driving up the M1 in the 70's and if the wind was in the right direction, you could smell the brick works at Stewartby.
A Rail line from Cambridge to Oxford? Sounds to me like it’d be a railway for Punts!
As for Sandy, was always funny when watching Blue Peter back in the day (70's/80's) and one of the addresses always used was Sandy, Beds.
I think that was the RSPB.
@@robertturner4955it was.
It still is. @@DavidJCane
Miss Betty Lykes
The Cockwell Inn
Tillet
Herts.
Is close by too, according to Blue Peter.
"because of some geological land stuff" was a surprisingly satisfactory explanation.
That's not the great river ouse, but the river great ouse, isn't it?
Getting infrastructure prepared for nothing sums up so much of UK road planning. That “nothing” eventually becomes “something” that those previous preparations can’t cope with and need to be redone, again. 🥴 Thank you Jon for another insightful episode. 👏👏👍😀
Very interesting, especially about Bedford. Thank you Jon!
People have often said, that after WW2, half of London was built and reconstructed by Irish builders and labourers.
Now, I'm sure it would be safe to say, that after the war, a lot of London (As well as many other towns and cities that were bombed by the Nazi's) was built and reconstructed by Irish builders and labourers, using bricks mainly made by Italians at the London Brick Company.
It must have been so much hard work doing all that. Well done!
The varsity line has just been rebuilt, well as far as Bedford. The last section to Cambridge has endless NIMBYs trying to kill it.
The preferred route from Bedford to Cambridge is now to the north of the old varsity line. Some think it should follow old route that is part of the nimby battle
That might be difficult as parts of it are already redeveloped into roads, housing and some great big lakes.
The stupid part of the line from Bedford to Cambridge is that the route goes south of St Neots-the largest and fastest growing town in Cambridgeshire-and will have a station in Tempsford-a very small village. So to use the train to Cambridge from St Neots you will have to drive to Tempsford which takes nearly as long as driving to Cambridge-so nobody in St Neots will use it……..
Before you get to Stewartby you pass the new village called Wixams. Part of this was built on what used to be Elstow Storage Depot which was originally a prisoner of war camp that held Italian soldiers who worked on the local farms. After peace broke out many of the Italians stayed which resulted in the large Italian population before the bricks were being worked.
POW camp? It used to be a Royal Ordnance Factory, filling factory 16. Construction started November 1940 and completed by August 1942.
As for the Italians, they were not POWs. The brick companies had a recruitment drive with an office in Naples.
Hope this clarifies things 😊
POW camp 644 held at least 55 Italians in 1943. The exact location was classified but recorded as Houghton Conquest which was the nearest village. The actual camp was likely at Elstow Storage Depot which was an enormous site.
Can't post the link on here, apparently there was two near to the storage depot though not on it. The Italians who worked in the brickyards were not from these camps. Hope this helps 😊
The Dambusters bouncing bombs were made at Elstow Storage Depot, now Wixams.
When driving up the A1 the sign for Biggleswade always made me laugh for some reason.🤣
I once heard it pronounced as
BIG-LES-SWARD
@@TheThejpmshow In Cornwall there is a fishing village called Mevagissey. Years ago I worked in local university and an international student called it "Megapissy".
When I told someone I live in Biggleswade they laughed.
Then said “nah come on. Is that where the Biggles live?” Which cracked me up.
I’m pretty sure we were both high 😂
@@mtssman Been there. To be fair it does often piss it down in Cornwall.
The shadow cast by the cross in Ampthill at the end of your video was the place where a golden rabbit was placed in a time capsule the 70's.
The bloke that did this then wrote a book containing paintings and poems giving clues as to the location for treasure hunters.
On one day of the year the shadow of the cross marked the spot.
Strangely a relative of his ex wife found the gold rabbit a few years later.
Indeed. Except it was a Hare. I came here fully expecting to see this comment. 'Masquerade" by Kit Williams - a well-known anagram of "I will Mask It". The tip of the shadow of the cross at noon on 21 March is where the golden hare laid. My faavourite book of that time.
Not that strange - as nobody had even got near to finding the hare, which was absolutely beautiful, by the way, I have read that Mr Williams gave some people a steer as to where it was hidden.
@@brianartillerythat's what I meant by "strangely" the find was a bit controversial.
@@brianartillery I thought someone turned up near where he lived at matched the picture of rugby posts to the book illustration
@@highpath4776 - Interesting, but I can't say I've ever heard that before. Not dismissing it, but it is very strange that the 'finder' was known to the author, no matter how distantly.
Had to pause and have a good belly laugh at 9:40 because it was an excellently delivered gag
Thanks for reminding me that Bedfordshire still exists
I like this video so I’ve pressed the button specifically for that 👉🏻
The 2 great mysteries of the UK
1. The existence of the Loch Ness Monster?
And in 2nd place.
Why the xxxx has the A1M never been completed?
The Thatcher Government 79 -91 wanted, and actually started to do it. But she decided to introduce Poll Tax, and the plan fell on its arse along with her political Career.
Good vid John, love it.
Keep em coming.
Pretty sure the disused railway alignment at Sandy was once the point at which the London and Northwestern Railway route to Cambridge crossed the East Coast Mainline- the modern version of this route is due to be built going via Tempsford (to support a plan to build houses on the old RAF base) in the coming years
I was born in Dunstable. Always love to see my wonderful birthplace getting a mention! Haha.... ha 🙃
Hello neighbor, I grew up in..... Luton 😅
Born in luton
It is grate to hear it mentioned but
People always make it sound worse than it actually is
@@harryjohnson9215 Your not wrong. It's an alright place tbh. Definately good as a multi cultural place.
Other than that, not much else to say. It's certainly not the worst town in the whole country
I was born in Houghton Regis! Baptised at the church. 1966. Back when Houghton Regis was actually a village and not a suburb.
I recall the Ampthill mob running a dragster at Santa Pod backninnthe day. Oh my grandad used to run a Taxi firm in Bedford in the 59s and 60s 😊
We moved to Biggleswade in c. 1973 and South roundabout was already there ... widening of roundabout happened after 1986 when my parents moved north to near Huntingdon. When we arrived in Biggleswade in 1973 the Sandy roundabout was then a significant traffic light controlled crossroad.
Bedford to Cambridge railway crossed East Coast mainline at Sandy - as per your comments on Willington.
Thanks for stopping by in Ampthill!
The railway that comes off there is the varsity line, I have walked the full length from sandy to Cambridge along the original route as much as is possible anyway! :-) it's pretty awesome and includes the location of the outro for 3 episodes ago at lordsbridge aka MRAO:-)
The Varsity Line is currently being rebuilt, with a couple of diversions n the way due to some blokes building things on the track bed. Some of the line just outside of Oxford, near Bicester was re-laid just a few weeks ago now and Network Rail are due to put in the signaling later this year. The line is expected to reopen sometime in the (erm) mid 2030`s or soo.
I completely agree with the quality of both coffee and food at the Sandy roundabout.
The Alpine track at Millbrook is where (until recently) the world record for canon rolling a car was held, the Aston Martin in Casino Royale.
I live in Montreal 🇨🇦, one of those places with tyred metro systems. Yes Michelin makes the tyres for us. Yes it’s smooth. Yes it means the metro can never go outside because of our cold snowy climate. Yes it was probably a useless expense. Yes we’re stuck with it. Yes I admit I love our metro anyway.
Love your sarcastic tour!🌟
Love this one as this is my bit of England. Honestly so much I didn't know even in the first 5 minutes!!
My late father had is offices based in Bedford at the Igranic Works (Later Brookhirst Igrainic) that made massive bits of switchgear and other "things" for the government and power stations. As a kid we would be dumped on the riverside where we torment the swans and the locals. You missed the famous Cardington Sheds that housed airships like the R101's. My dad would take us there to so he could fly a small plane inside the sheds. (Yes they are that big). We found out that this was something to do with Radar and something called Doppling for Radars. This would have had a connection to Leicester where the Marconi Works were where a similar set up was and that was rumoured to be the biggest brick built covered building in the UK. You could fly a small plane in that one too. I also remember the Stewertby Brickworks from the train windows and from visiting the place with the school for some reason. After my dad's death seven years ago we only recently found out that he was working for the government and involved in some weird goings on in Berlin after the "2nd World Disagreement". I do have a photo of me and brother standing outside the sheds and they were utterly massive. Thank God they are listed too.
It never ceases to amaze me how much money the government wastes not building a decent road network. Biggleswade South Roundabout is the first roundabout out of London, and it busy enough to require a flyover, so let's fix that by doing half a job and then not actually doing the bit that will make a difference.
When they started to build the 2000 new homes to the east of Biggleswade the roundabout was upgraded then. I think there were calls for it be a flyover or burger but they did the minimum.
Now we have big distribution warehouses going up and the northbound side of the roundabout is a magnet for overturned lorries.
Thing is you put in a flyover there and the next two roundabouts are nowhere near suitable to upgrade, plus the Biggleswade to Sandy section is flanked by houses near Sandy plus it is a floodplain.
As soon as I saw Biggleswade, I thought he's bound to mention nearby Old Warden and its wonderful aeroplane collection........
I was wrong.
Nah he’s been through my area a few times. I like to see that everyone else in the country has to put up with the mess of a road network like me.
Hello Jon, how the devil are you, have you had a good week?
I urbexed Stewartby Brickeworks before the demolition. Fascinating site, absolutely huge. Lots of it remains (or it did two years ago when I was last there).
Slightly deviating from the route....a walk along Sandy Hills. Lovely walk where the RSPB is and a walk along the quarry by Sandy Heath Tele Tower transmitter. Which is worth a look... There is a great place to grab a coffee in the nearby Potton😊
Michelin used to have two warehouses in Bedford on Elms Farm Industrial Estate with a lot of deliveries going to Vauxhall/IBC plant in Luton, Ford plant at Langley, New Holland at Basildon and Crane Freuhauf at North Walsham
My dad's family lived in Stewartby. My grandfather worked as a manager there after the war and then my grandmother lived in the retirement section of the village until she passed.
I had some great summers there swimming at the pool, walking around the lake and investigating the abandoned parts of the factory back in the 80s.
There is a community centre in Sandy , used by the toy train collectors society about every two years for a exhibition and also I think by the guage 2 railway society ( a big bigger than O guage or S guage )
My wife's (Italian) Aunt was Lord Hanson (co owner of London Brick) housekeeper .... there was obviously a strong connection with Italy. The Aunt used to get Lady (?) White's hand me down clothes, they have family photo's of her various other aunties in Italy rocking some Chanel, Dior etc ... unfortunately my wife donated most of what she had to charity shops, it would be worth a small fortune now!
at its western end, Verney Junction near Buckingham, the Varsity Line once had a direct connection with London's Metropolitan Railway (now the Metropolitan line on the Underground)
the Met used to be much longer at the northern end than it it is today, and was pruned back to Amersham when it was electrified in 1961
You should be getting sponsorship from the tourist board as well as from Michelin. I've never thought about taking a road trip across Bedfordshire before, but now I want to.
9:14 Millbrook is where they filmed Daniel Craig's Bond flipping his Aston in Casino Royale. Adam Kirley the stunt man was really hoping for 3 or 4. We got a record making, truly magnificent Seven!
In other news, it also happens to be where I had the best day's paid employment ever.
Filming a video for a brand new BMW, the director noticed the similarity between the presenter and me, the lowly runner. Suddenly I was the one bombing around the track at the side of BMW's chief test driver, Steve Soper.
The banked track was fab but the tarmac sphere here was sthg else. When they put on the water sprays... wow!
Tempsford might become a large town if East-West rail is built. It'll be a major interchange on the ECML as well. Because bizarrely the only line westbound south of Peterborough is just before you reach Kings Cross.
I like to rock the boat and play with place names, once I regretted it because I stole the D off of Dunstable and it was left unstable
abandoned train station, old air field, old (type 20) pillbox, derelict brick works, old mansion, lots to like on this one.
If you had travelled a little further up the A1 from Sandy you would have encountered the Black Cat intersection which is just under going its second major revamp in a few years after the previous one was a disaster!
Lived outside of Sandy for 30 years and this is pretty accurate :) Down to the 'nothing happens here' type description at the start lol
Welcome to Bedfordshire John! And you’ve been to some of the nicer bits. Can’t wait to see what you think of some of the less salubrious bits in the south. 😂
No, I haven't had a good week but this video made up for that! lol
1 of old quarries at Stewartsby now houses a massive incinerator power plant with another under construction next door to it
The last place I ever expected to see this channel visit is my little town of Ampthill lol
9:26 Go easy on the griffin! The Lotus Carlton stomped around that bowl.
I was scrolling through the comment looking for someone to mention the Lotus Carlton
Meh... not really a Vauxhall is it :D
Millbrook Test Track, where 007 rolled his Aston Martin in "Casino Royale," and where Clarkson, Hammond and May indulged in some cocking about in the days of real Top Gear. The Convertible People Carrier lost its roof on the high-speed bowl; 2 out of 3 British Leyland cars failed the hill brake test; May got egg in his eye on the bumpy road, looking like "a spaniel that's crashed into the back of a hen" (as Clarkson put it); the HGV's gear lever went-up Clarkson's backside; May's Torrey Canyon (Jaguar XJS) leaked oil all over the place....... Some epic Top Gear moments took place there.
Not to mention an episode of Silent Witness!!! For some totally unknown reason, apart from the fact it's a secure area, they chose the fuel station to represent a fuel garage and had a sniper shooting people! Not an every day occorance at Millbrook.
Some very efficient greenhouses there behind you at the beginning..
Sandy roundabout area I think.
Came back again to locate some -locations- places and ended up watching the whole thing again. It's surprising just how much I didn't pick up first time around. Well worth a second watch.
Nice one mate, thanks for watching!
Looking at the first drone shot is a reminder of how many flat-roofed warehouses and distribution centres there are now. When I flew to Guernsey from East Midlands Airport last year the plane flew at a hight of 14,000 feet. On the journey south there seemed to be these very large white boxes everywhere.
Missed a trick John theres a fantastic coffee shop in the center of Biggleswade called surfin cafe full of slabs of home made cakes. Next road trip though write into the script a full coffee AND cake break!
The grand staircase from Houghton Hall is in a hotel in Bedford. At one point they were owned by the same person and he needed a staircase for his new hotel....
Brillant, thanks for looking some local landmarks but you should have checked on the progress at r=the Black Cat roundabout whie you were in the area. None excpt the statue hasbeen removed for safe keeping and average speed cameras have been installed!
I was raised in Biggs, now live by the coast
Stewartby is indeed a bit weird but there is an interesting walk you can do around the nature reserve where the quarry has now been flooded.
The changes they made in 2014 to increase the size of the Biggleswade South roundabout work pretty well when you are driving south along the A1. However, travelling north up to said roundabout, the approach section of the road doesn't bend round to the left enough and a lot of traffic on the inside lane (of two) before the roundabout drifts into the middle lane because the change of direction is too great (or people are going too fast or both).
Mind you, the engine of my friend Gareth's car blew up when he was coming up to the roundabout and the brakes and the steering went on a go-slow, so he was unable to keep in the correct lane. Fortunately, no-one was coming round the roundabout at the time and his car ploughed straight across the middle before ending in a hedge on the other side of the roundabout. The car was a write-off and Gareth's only souvenir was that the inflation of the airbag somewhat re-shaped his glasses.
yeah, it never rains in England... that shot would have been awesome in the rain, but in this episode the gods have been kind to Jon and he got his ass dry. Wicked sweet awesome videos as always, sir! Thanks!
Moved to Bedford in 2003, every time we had viewed the house the wind must have been coming from west/north/east. Day after we moved in the wind was coming from the south - I'll never forget the sulphurous stench of Stewartby brickworks.
Thanks
Thanks a lot mate, appreciate that!
I like to call it Boggleswode but that’s just me.
Very interesting especially the bit about RAF Tempsford. I once hosted a gentleman who was in the Special Operations Executive based there. Fascinating what they got up to.
I agree with you about the A1 that needed a better junction with slip roads just like the one at Biggleswade. On the A3 as you head down from London and Hindhead Tunnel and from M27 & Portsmouth.
There is a roundabout called Ham Barn a mile north from Liss where the A3 and B3006 meet and that too is also a bottleneck since the Hindhead Tunnel was built and opened in 2011.
Grew up in Bedford, you did well to find something of interest. Its a place thats in my blood I guess, but rarely in my thoughts.
Fantastic as I live a stone throw from Sandy Sandy 🤷♂️
We have the same problem on the Sherriffhall Roundabout on the Edinburgh City Bypass. They keep finding excuses not to do anything. I do find it remarkable that a junction so far south hasn't been grade separated though when they've grade separated all the junctions further north in Nottinghamshire etc.
I used to have a colleague who lived in Biggleswade, he would often informally refer to it as "Biggley-Wiggley"
Yay you came to somewhere close to where I live lol and yes there's little to note in most towns.
Ayy the castle mound lol. The cineworld in Bedford use to be a monastery in the same land which also was a swimming pool before becoming the cinema. The cinema itself is said to be haunted with the ghost of a monk. We also have the car wash where top gear set fire to when putting their convertible people carrier through
I love these journeys. Thank you for making them for us to enjoy.
Once again brilliant and educative
The most interesting thing about Bedford is the former RAE Bedford site, home of significant aircraft experimental development work, plus being one of two key national wind tunnel sites in the UK (along with Farnborough). One of the RAE wind tunnels has survived as the Red Bull Racing tunnel, while the Aircraft Research Association down the road still runs their large transonic tunnel.
I believe there was a plan at one point for the countries longest runway, and one of the neighbouring roads still has the cutting where the runway or taxiway would have passed overhead.
Don’t forget, glen miller took off nearby , raf twinwoods
Yes, RAE Bedford deserves an episode of its own.
The runway at Thurleigh (RAE Bedford) was one of the longest in Europe with talk at one time of being an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle. Combined with nearby Twinwoods, this was one of 3 shortlisted sites for a new London airport before Stansted was chosen (not one of the 3). In the cutting mentioned above you can see the base of what would have been bridge supports for a runway or taxiway passing over, this separates the 2 lanes of the road.
I used to stay over night in Sandy alot, there was a lovely curryhouse there call The Gandhi, it was the Gandhi in Sandy lol
That certainly is LOL.
Simply riveting! Thank you Jon. 😘
Perfect video for a Sunday
A pleasure to watch and listen :-)
"But by writing a coffee into the script, I'm forced to stop and get one. OH NO!"
And now you're forced to make it a business expense. 🤣🤣
Thank for another awesome vid. Safe travels Jon atvb.
Awesome Video
Please tell me I’m not the only one who replies to “hope you’ve had a good week” with yea I have John cheers
Quite a good one... Cheers
This is the best video I've ever seen about anything
Absolutely fascinating mate 😂😂😂😂😂😂❤
I live in Sandy, interesting to see your take on the locality. Thanks for another great video.
Can’t wait for Dunstable 🙏
Good old A5 but not the good part up through north Wales
John can come and see our internationally famous balaclava clad motorcyclists that roar up and down the high street whilst our ever vigilant (for a photo opportunity) PCC dives in front of any camera going.
I love all the detours you take in these road journeys 😊
I like these road trip videos. Mildly interesting and very entertaining.
Was expecting to see Lockheed Martin mentioned in Ampthill, which used to be hunting perceival who made the jet provost for the raf. This is at redding's Wood and used at one time to also hose an old bovril factory/ animal rendering works.
Yet another great video of An area I know quite well
I'm loving how these vids have developed into local guides ❤
Interesting point about Millbrook - the mountain circuit bears a striking resemblance to Monte Negro according to Casino Royale (the Daniel Craig version!).
Get this man some Michelin tyres for the Great British Car Journey! He's promoting them from a 100 year old handbook.
Keep up the good work, Jon. Your wit and humour is what makes your videos great to watch 👍
Fun fact: the Vauxhall 30-98 was the first British production car that could do 100 MPH. John Steed of The Avengers had one...
Great video John,epic as always,and more railway infrastructure, always a pleasure 👍👌😀
@Auto Shenanigans Just Let You Know You Forgotten to do A Secrets of The Motorway - A195(M) Washington Spur There is Lots Of History And Secrets Of this Spur/Motorway, so please do a video about this Motorway.