Roads conditions 1920s

[Tony Griffiths]

Sometimes we forget just how bad early roads were - and hence how our cars would have handled them. Mike, what are the makes?

[Mike Costigan]

I've no idea what the car on the main road might be, but the car in the foreground looks like it's a 1914 Stellite, made by Wolseley Motors.

I do miss those telegraph poles, they are so evocative of road scenes from the past.

[Bob Culver]

Modern folk are taken aback by the modest performance of vintage cars. They do not realise that the above road is typical and 25 mph a not unreasonable speed. In this admittedly young country, in 1925 of 46,000 miles only 700 were sealed, including in towns. Increased to 2000 in 1929. A Model T was far more practicable than many ground hugging moderns. How a car pulled at 25 mph was more important than top speed or high rpm power.
Hopefully traffic was not sufficent to generate the horrendous metal road corrugations of the post war era, hell for Sevens.
Especially from a train the slow corkscrew of long distance open wire lines could fascinate the observant.
Possibly the guy in the Stellite used the oportunity to spin the wheels and broadside off up the road.
Modern drivers regualrly come to grief on metal roads. I wonder how they would handle straying into the mud.

[Chris Garner]

I do miss those telegraph poles, they are so evocative of road scenes from the past.

www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.8568139,-1.0397019,3a,75y,165.69h,89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s310Sr8sWdoLWHHyOP_qstA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

A remaining one just off the A46 at the Widmerpool crossroads, Nottinghamshire.

[Mike Costigan]

Nice to see, Chris, but it's the long row of them marching into the distance that I miss. You could use them to guide you when it was misty - except when they continued straight on across the fields and the road took a sharp turn!

[Martin Prior]

Yes, proper telegraph poles are a childhood memory for me. As an idle calculation, I wonder how many insulators existed at one time? These poles appear to have eleven transoms and not far short of 50 insulators per pole. The total number must have been astronomical!

[Ray White]

We still have an overhead supply for both power and telephone lines but the numerous insulators have long gone. Incidentally, Open Reach who look after the poles (are they still called telegraph poles?) have been very helpful. I have a difficult neighbour who was threatening to remove a pole on his land which would have taken out my land line. Open Reach kindly re routed the line which meant putting up three new poles - at no expense to me - and resolved the issue. I can't praise them highly enough.

[Tony Griffiths]

We still have an overhead supply for both power and telephone lines but the numerous insulators have long gone.  Incidentally, Open Reach who look after the poles (are they still called telegraph poles?) have been very helpful.  I have a difficult neighbour who was threatening to remove a pole on his land which would have taken out my land line.  Open Reach kindly re routed the line which meant putting up three new poles - at no expense to me - and resolved the issue.  I can't praise them highly enough.

I have three electricity poles on my land and every year receive a cheque for £45 for the dreadful inconvenience they cause. I wish I had 300.
Last year Open Reach turned up and started digging trenches and installing cabling and suchlike in the village. Naturally, one totters out to ask the navvies what's going on. "Bband, mate, it's for that Bband." And so it proved, unannounced and with no publicity - not even a flyer through the door -  in the middle of the Peak District we now have a 330 mbps fibre-to-the-premises internet connection. Trust me - you don't need more than 50.

[Steve Jones]

Cross referencing to the current 'Cycle Wings for a Special' thread, the telephone pole on the footpath in front of our house makes the perfect former to bend 'Stumpi Wings' around to get a good, smooth radius!!

Steve

[Malcolm Parker]

I thought you did them round your tummy!