While the journey from Croydon to the Sussex coast was filled with memories the decision to travel back in one day when an overnight stop for £9 had been arranged, appeared an error of judgement until now.
The centre of the Sussex coast is Brighton with a road from west and central London which passes through Wallington High Street, to Coulsdon and then joins into the major road from central London the A23, through Waddon passing the former Croydon Airport to Purley and Coulsdon. There is also the third way from the City and East London, through to central Croydon and it is on this road between South Croydon and Coulsdon that the Innkeepers motel is located. The convergence of these three routes has always created a traffic bottle neck since the day when the everyone from London headed for the coast during Summer Sundays, and even more so when the M25 was created and then the M23 to what has become London’s second airport Gatwick with both motorways accessible a couple of miles from Coulsdon via Hooley and where conveniently in recent times there were petrol stations on either side of the road and a few yards further a Little Chef restaurant where after collecting my birth and care mothers from Sunday mass and stopping at their flat for a toilet break we would go for Sunday lunch and then a little motoring during the afternoon before turning home for tea.
The Innkeepers Lodge is situated close to Purley Oaks station midway between South Croydon and Coulsdon and as I drove towards the motorway junctions on my way for Sunday lunch on the South coast I encountered the first surprise. Instead of going through Coulsdon High Street from where the road to Wallington via Smithin Bottom Lane branches off, there is now a bypass which goes under the new railway station bridge and rejoins the road before Hooley. This reduces the extent of the stationery traffic from the motorway to the Hooley Traffic Lights and then to the two sets at Coulsdon. The petrol station on this side the road has been demolished and the Little Chef has become Starbucks. I hate such changes the older I get, but the bypass is brilliant. On my way to the coast I had to remember to take the far right set of lanes as the middle two are for the M25 to the junctions with the M3. M4 and M40 before the M1 and then the A 1M. At the junction between the M25 and the A1M is a large service area with an extended seat area the other side of which are shops, meal outlets, toilets electronic games and slot machines.
Yesterday as I reached the outskirts of Wetherby in Yorkshire I discovered the new Wetherby Service area which has been built on similar lines except that the whole site is several times that of the London end with a vast parking area for Goods vehicles after a large petrol garage and multifunction store, a large area for car parking with a new Days Inn Hotel being built at the far end and the super food and shop outlet to one side, with outdoor seating for the smokers and picnic area.
For the greater part of two decades I would leave the A1M just before Wetherby village and where on the right hand side before doing so there was a pleasant pub restaurant with gardens ideal for a lunch stop. This then closed and remained bordered up be for close on two decades. Wetherby itself is a very attractive prosperous town with several pub restaurants in the town centre which is also a good meal time stop, or alternatively there are also three places on the road from Wetherby into Leeds town centre and then out of Leeds for the start of the M1. The alternative was to continue on the A1 where there was a motorway service area at the junction with the M62 from Hull to Liverpool. Then about a decade ago, perhaps less, an extension was made to the M1 which takes it around Leeds to join A1M. There had been an earlier improvements which first took the AIM onward without the former Wetherby roundabout, and more recently an improvement which meant that one did not have leave the A1M at the service area roundabout to join either the M62 which crossed above so now one has the choice of directly continuing south on filtering in to the M62 East or West.
All this means that one can travel from Scotland and Newcastle to London via the M1 without entering or stopping around Leeds, or via the A1M, or go on to Hull, Manchester or Liverpool again without stopping or needing to confront roundabouts and bottle necks in the Leeds area. There is a good service area and Motel at Scotch Corner some 30 miles North of Leeds, The Wakefield service area motel is some ten miles South of Leeds on the M1 and the Pontefract service area and Motel some ten miles to the south east of Leeds on the A1M. Therefore the new Wetherby service stop ten miles north of Leeds fills a major gap and no doubt the agricultural land owners made a good profit.
There are so many changes coming in the next twenty five to fifty years and beyond that I will not live to see, so developments such thus one, however minor in the great scheme of things is of interest although the prices are such that I shall continue to make do buying beforehand. One interesting find is that yesterday I bought two packs of two salmon fish cakes for £3 usually £3.28 where at Azda a quality pack of two haddock fish cakes costs just under £2
I missed a call on my mobile, and decided to ring back. Usually it is the wrong number but this time it was important, to say that the TV was fixed and would be returned tomorrow between 10 and 1. Some years ago I had a video recorder which went wrong and was taken away and it was after several months and constant telephoning that eventually I was given a replacement as a stand by and then a cheque the cost of the original which could not be repaired. Having heard many stories and knowing that these day the cost of repairing in such that frequently products are written off with a voucher alternative offered I wondered if I would be without my wondrous set over Christmas, Now I have the rest of the day to catch up work, do some shopping and get the room ready. I shall buy the Christmas and New Year Edition of the Radio Times. The Gods of the many faiths of the world are being kind towards me.
On Sunday as I drove in the sun burning fog my mind was full of past experience, conjured by the places played along the route. I have used Gatwick as an airport a few times. To Corfu, to Italy and to Gibraltar and I have stayed overnight in the area at least once, possibly twice. The car parking is usually at some distance with special buses taking to the Airport and there is now a fast service from London Victoria and with connections at East Croydon. After the war the major train route stop on the way to the coast by train was Three Bridges where if memory serves me well there were connections to trains going to other destinations along the South Coast. Hasting which as a family we did not like, St Leonards and Bexhill where we had family holidays. There is also Camber sands at the far end of East Sussex and Pevensey Bay, and then the major resort of Eastbourne before the famous Beachy head where I once listened to a live Dire Straits concert on the radio sitting in the car. Then there is the Newhaven Dieppe ferry port before Peacehaven, Saltdean, Rottingdean and Kemp town before Brighton and Hove. My first experience of the seaside was to Brighton just after the end of World War II when the beach was still covered with fortifications and I went with my birth mother, the only time that she went out with a male friend, in his lorry.
Next to Brighton is Hove and the football team is known as Brighton and Hove Albion and as a young man I went to watch Crystal Palace play Brighton in the decider which settled whether Brighton or Palace would become part of the new 4th division when the two third divisions were amalgamated. I have been to Hove twice to watch Durham play Sussex, during visit stays with my birth and care mother’s at Wallington. This reminded me to check if the Durham 2009 fixtures are as yet announced, they are not but I do want a copy of the special edition of Wisden if they are still available. I will check this out and renew my membership day as well as booking the annual service of the central heating system and the cooker.
Returning to the London to Brighton route my childhood recollection was also of the Vintage car race which is run in November of each year since 1896 which was the date when legislation was passed which enabled motorised vehicles to travel up to 14 miles an hour from the previous 4 and which required a man to walk ahead carrying a red flag, Since 1971 the Queen has entered a Daimler car which is driven by members of the Royal Household. Prince Michael of Kent who is President of the Royal Automobile Club has regularly participated in the race. This year 483 vehicles out of the original entry of 550 managed to get away from Hyde Park and 420 reached their destination. For the past 100 years the Moulin Rouge Paris has had entries and this year a chorus line of Can Can girls from the celebrated night club did a pre London visit in September and formed a guard of honour at the start. The race was the subject of a comedy film called Genevieve. with Kenneth Moore, John Griegson and Kay Kendall.
There is also a famous film called London to Brighton in Four minutes of the railway journey from London to Brighton Station which was shown sometimes on TV as an Interlude. The original 1951 version was six minutes at 500 mph and the later is over 700 mph and then to mark 50 years of the electrification of the line a colour version was produced and than new version was available on the BBC I player but no longer, However several version are still available on You Tube including the original versions.
The present M23 motorway ends at Pease Pottage which as a child caused much merriment (Pease Pudding) and still does although not I presume to local residents along with those at Cuckfield, Hurstpierpoint, Pyecomb and Moulsecombe, Uckfield and Buxted., Now at Patcham there is a dual carriageway which continues on to Lewes and Newhaven to the East or to Shoreham and Worthing. I have stayed at Lewes, a small old town full of antique shops, for short period of three or four days on a visit by the Local Government Association’s Drug Advisory Committee, to facilities in the Brighton and Sussex areas.
Unless you have cause to drive along the coast most people are now aware of the extent of the port at Shoreham by Sea, but Arundel Castle a little way inland from Littlehampton another day trip venue along with Bognor Regis because unlike Brighton with its Pebble Beach there is sand as these two resorts. I believe that as a child we had a holiday at Bognor Regis. It was only in recent times that I visited the great Cathedral at Chichester and I am not sure if I have been to Selsey and the Selsey Bill as the headland is called. Travelling north from Chichester is Midhurst and then just over the border into Surrey there is Haselemere where the youngest of seven sisters in the family of my mother, Ethel, died at the convalescent hospital from tuberculosis run by a Catholic order of nuns and where I made one visit going by bus to Guildford and then by another to the outside the town where the hospital was located on the side of hill and the beds were taken outside into the open air.
Yesterday the journey from Purley Oaks home was of a different order with constant warnings on the M25 that there were long delays between junctions 15 to 18 which covered the stretch passed London’s main airport Heathrow and where planes arrive to land every minutes or so. In fact although we did slow down to 10 MPH I cannot recall an actual stopping and for the most part we went along at a comfortable 30 to 40 MPH. I could not wait to stop for some prepared coffee, which was luke warm, at Toddington, and to buy a pack of rolls to enjoy nearly all the second pack of smoked salmon, except or a few slices used with to two further rolls with sliced olives and anchovy immediately on arrival home around 5pm. It continues to feel strange continuing to South Shields and not going through Sunderland as I had for some thirty years
Having bought a week’s use of Travel Lodge internet, I parked outside the Travel Lodge and was able to connect with my 5 year old Sony V10 but then found I only had a few minutes left with the battery, which was surprise, I then checked that I had two hours with the new free Acer via AOl, but I could not get out of Yahoo and this needs to be sorted for future reference over the next couple of days.
I did stop again at Nottingham, this time for a cup of hot coffee £2.09 and a toilet break and then it was the boring struggle to keep going for the rest of the way, hence stopping to explore the new service area at Wetherby.
Back home I had intentionally left two lights on while away, and by mistake had left a third, I also put the heating system on a timer and the timer heating had worked and was on at arrival. I hate to thin what has been the cost, there was a little post including the replacement debit card which I must find out if the code number still works. It also reminds that on the way I heard a song with the lyrics along the lines of I saw the crescent you saw the moon. I meant to make a note of the title when I stopped but can I remember and can I find it?. The search led to finding the sound track CD of the film called Benjamin Button where the first number is a traditional jazz marching band version of the When the Saints, called, Shall we walk through the streets of our City by Dr Paulin. the second number Ostrich Walk Frank Trumbauer featured Bix Beiderbeck. These are no 30 second snippets but full length versions lasting three to five minutes. Amazing. That’s how Rhythm was born Boswell sisters; Freight Train Blues- Billy and de de Pierce; Basin Street Blues by the Preservation Hall jazz band; If I could be with you tonight- Louis Armstrong and the new Cotton Club orchestra; Chanson sur Stalin; Out of nowhere Sidney Bechet; Dear Old Southland Louis Armstrong; Skokiaan-Perez Prado;. My Prayer The Platters. Bethana a concert waltz. Very enjoyable
I was desperate food and a warm drink on arrival yesterday which became priority over unpacking. Then there were plants to be watered, post to be opened. I wanted to watch part of Wallander that I had dozed through and then end Little Dorrit and listen to the X factor final. There was also the episode of Merlin Later I enjoyed a cuppa soup and four salmon fishcakes bought for £3 at Marks and Spencer’s, the last lemon Turkish delight and a few Whitakers Mint Creams. There was quite a lot of printing, the Blogs both in draft and the published version for myself and several new Friends as the mission to reach the same number as Blogs continues.
It was not a day to be remembered but it meant that I had gained a day. As my days run out I resent time spent in travelling.
The centre of the Sussex coast is Brighton with a road from west and central London which passes through Wallington High Street, to Coulsdon and then joins into the major road from central London the A23, through Waddon passing the former Croydon Airport to Purley and Coulsdon. There is also the third way from the City and East London, through to central Croydon and it is on this road between South Croydon and Coulsdon that the Innkeepers motel is located. The convergence of these three routes has always created a traffic bottle neck since the day when the everyone from London headed for the coast during Summer Sundays, and even more so when the M25 was created and then the M23 to what has become London’s second airport Gatwick with both motorways accessible a couple of miles from Coulsdon via Hooley and where conveniently in recent times there were petrol stations on either side of the road and a few yards further a Little Chef restaurant where after collecting my birth and care mothers from Sunday mass and stopping at their flat for a toilet break we would go for Sunday lunch and then a little motoring during the afternoon before turning home for tea.
The Innkeepers Lodge is situated close to Purley Oaks station midway between South Croydon and Coulsdon and as I drove towards the motorway junctions on my way for Sunday lunch on the South coast I encountered the first surprise. Instead of going through Coulsdon High Street from where the road to Wallington via Smithin Bottom Lane branches off, there is now a bypass which goes under the new railway station bridge and rejoins the road before Hooley. This reduces the extent of the stationery traffic from the motorway to the Hooley Traffic Lights and then to the two sets at Coulsdon. The petrol station on this side the road has been demolished and the Little Chef has become Starbucks. I hate such changes the older I get, but the bypass is brilliant. On my way to the coast I had to remember to take the far right set of lanes as the middle two are for the M25 to the junctions with the M3. M4 and M40 before the M1 and then the A 1M. At the junction between the M25 and the A1M is a large service area with an extended seat area the other side of which are shops, meal outlets, toilets electronic games and slot machines.
Yesterday as I reached the outskirts of Wetherby in Yorkshire I discovered the new Wetherby Service area which has been built on similar lines except that the whole site is several times that of the London end with a vast parking area for Goods vehicles after a large petrol garage and multifunction store, a large area for car parking with a new Days Inn Hotel being built at the far end and the super food and shop outlet to one side, with outdoor seating for the smokers and picnic area.
For the greater part of two decades I would leave the A1M just before Wetherby village and where on the right hand side before doing so there was a pleasant pub restaurant with gardens ideal for a lunch stop. This then closed and remained bordered up be for close on two decades. Wetherby itself is a very attractive prosperous town with several pub restaurants in the town centre which is also a good meal time stop, or alternatively there are also three places on the road from Wetherby into Leeds town centre and then out of Leeds for the start of the M1. The alternative was to continue on the A1 where there was a motorway service area at the junction with the M62 from Hull to Liverpool. Then about a decade ago, perhaps less, an extension was made to the M1 which takes it around Leeds to join A1M. There had been an earlier improvements which first took the AIM onward without the former Wetherby roundabout, and more recently an improvement which meant that one did not have leave the A1M at the service area roundabout to join either the M62 which crossed above so now one has the choice of directly continuing south on filtering in to the M62 East or West.
All this means that one can travel from Scotland and Newcastle to London via the M1 without entering or stopping around Leeds, or via the A1M, or go on to Hull, Manchester or Liverpool again without stopping or needing to confront roundabouts and bottle necks in the Leeds area. There is a good service area and Motel at Scotch Corner some 30 miles North of Leeds, The Wakefield service area motel is some ten miles South of Leeds on the M1 and the Pontefract service area and Motel some ten miles to the south east of Leeds on the A1M. Therefore the new Wetherby service stop ten miles north of Leeds fills a major gap and no doubt the agricultural land owners made a good profit.
There are so many changes coming in the next twenty five to fifty years and beyond that I will not live to see, so developments such thus one, however minor in the great scheme of things is of interest although the prices are such that I shall continue to make do buying beforehand. One interesting find is that yesterday I bought two packs of two salmon fish cakes for £3 usually £3.28 where at Azda a quality pack of two haddock fish cakes costs just under £2
I missed a call on my mobile, and decided to ring back. Usually it is the wrong number but this time it was important, to say that the TV was fixed and would be returned tomorrow between 10 and 1. Some years ago I had a video recorder which went wrong and was taken away and it was after several months and constant telephoning that eventually I was given a replacement as a stand by and then a cheque the cost of the original which could not be repaired. Having heard many stories and knowing that these day the cost of repairing in such that frequently products are written off with a voucher alternative offered I wondered if I would be without my wondrous set over Christmas, Now I have the rest of the day to catch up work, do some shopping and get the room ready. I shall buy the Christmas and New Year Edition of the Radio Times. The Gods of the many faiths of the world are being kind towards me.
On Sunday as I drove in the sun burning fog my mind was full of past experience, conjured by the places played along the route. I have used Gatwick as an airport a few times. To Corfu, to Italy and to Gibraltar and I have stayed overnight in the area at least once, possibly twice. The car parking is usually at some distance with special buses taking to the Airport and there is now a fast service from London Victoria and with connections at East Croydon. After the war the major train route stop on the way to the coast by train was Three Bridges where if memory serves me well there were connections to trains going to other destinations along the South Coast. Hasting which as a family we did not like, St Leonards and Bexhill where we had family holidays. There is also Camber sands at the far end of East Sussex and Pevensey Bay, and then the major resort of Eastbourne before the famous Beachy head where I once listened to a live Dire Straits concert on the radio sitting in the car. Then there is the Newhaven Dieppe ferry port before Peacehaven, Saltdean, Rottingdean and Kemp town before Brighton and Hove. My first experience of the seaside was to Brighton just after the end of World War II when the beach was still covered with fortifications and I went with my birth mother, the only time that she went out with a male friend, in his lorry.
Next to Brighton is Hove and the football team is known as Brighton and Hove Albion and as a young man I went to watch Crystal Palace play Brighton in the decider which settled whether Brighton or Palace would become part of the new 4th division when the two third divisions were amalgamated. I have been to Hove twice to watch Durham play Sussex, during visit stays with my birth and care mother’s at Wallington. This reminded me to check if the Durham 2009 fixtures are as yet announced, they are not but I do want a copy of the special edition of Wisden if they are still available. I will check this out and renew my membership day as well as booking the annual service of the central heating system and the cooker.
Returning to the London to Brighton route my childhood recollection was also of the Vintage car race which is run in November of each year since 1896 which was the date when legislation was passed which enabled motorised vehicles to travel up to 14 miles an hour from the previous 4 and which required a man to walk ahead carrying a red flag, Since 1971 the Queen has entered a Daimler car which is driven by members of the Royal Household. Prince Michael of Kent who is President of the Royal Automobile Club has regularly participated in the race. This year 483 vehicles out of the original entry of 550 managed to get away from Hyde Park and 420 reached their destination. For the past 100 years the Moulin Rouge Paris has had entries and this year a chorus line of Can Can girls from the celebrated night club did a pre London visit in September and formed a guard of honour at the start. The race was the subject of a comedy film called Genevieve. with Kenneth Moore, John Griegson and Kay Kendall.
There is also a famous film called London to Brighton in Four minutes of the railway journey from London to Brighton Station which was shown sometimes on TV as an Interlude. The original 1951 version was six minutes at 500 mph and the later is over 700 mph and then to mark 50 years of the electrification of the line a colour version was produced and than new version was available on the BBC I player but no longer, However several version are still available on You Tube including the original versions.
The present M23 motorway ends at Pease Pottage which as a child caused much merriment (Pease Pudding) and still does although not I presume to local residents along with those at Cuckfield, Hurstpierpoint, Pyecomb and Moulsecombe, Uckfield and Buxted., Now at Patcham there is a dual carriageway which continues on to Lewes and Newhaven to the East or to Shoreham and Worthing. I have stayed at Lewes, a small old town full of antique shops, for short period of three or four days on a visit by the Local Government Association’s Drug Advisory Committee, to facilities in the Brighton and Sussex areas.
Unless you have cause to drive along the coast most people are now aware of the extent of the port at Shoreham by Sea, but Arundel Castle a little way inland from Littlehampton another day trip venue along with Bognor Regis because unlike Brighton with its Pebble Beach there is sand as these two resorts. I believe that as a child we had a holiday at Bognor Regis. It was only in recent times that I visited the great Cathedral at Chichester and I am not sure if I have been to Selsey and the Selsey Bill as the headland is called. Travelling north from Chichester is Midhurst and then just over the border into Surrey there is Haselemere where the youngest of seven sisters in the family of my mother, Ethel, died at the convalescent hospital from tuberculosis run by a Catholic order of nuns and where I made one visit going by bus to Guildford and then by another to the outside the town where the hospital was located on the side of hill and the beds were taken outside into the open air.
Yesterday the journey from Purley Oaks home was of a different order with constant warnings on the M25 that there were long delays between junctions 15 to 18 which covered the stretch passed London’s main airport Heathrow and where planes arrive to land every minutes or so. In fact although we did slow down to 10 MPH I cannot recall an actual stopping and for the most part we went along at a comfortable 30 to 40 MPH. I could not wait to stop for some prepared coffee, which was luke warm, at Toddington, and to buy a pack of rolls to enjoy nearly all the second pack of smoked salmon, except or a few slices used with to two further rolls with sliced olives and anchovy immediately on arrival home around 5pm. It continues to feel strange continuing to South Shields and not going through Sunderland as I had for some thirty years
Having bought a week’s use of Travel Lodge internet, I parked outside the Travel Lodge and was able to connect with my 5 year old Sony V10 but then found I only had a few minutes left with the battery, which was surprise, I then checked that I had two hours with the new free Acer via AOl, but I could not get out of Yahoo and this needs to be sorted for future reference over the next couple of days.
I did stop again at Nottingham, this time for a cup of hot coffee £2.09 and a toilet break and then it was the boring struggle to keep going for the rest of the way, hence stopping to explore the new service area at Wetherby.
Back home I had intentionally left two lights on while away, and by mistake had left a third, I also put the heating system on a timer and the timer heating had worked and was on at arrival. I hate to thin what has been the cost, there was a little post including the replacement debit card which I must find out if the code number still works. It also reminds that on the way I heard a song with the lyrics along the lines of I saw the crescent you saw the moon. I meant to make a note of the title when I stopped but can I remember and can I find it?. The search led to finding the sound track CD of the film called Benjamin Button where the first number is a traditional jazz marching band version of the When the Saints, called, Shall we walk through the streets of our City by Dr Paulin. the second number Ostrich Walk Frank Trumbauer featured Bix Beiderbeck. These are no 30 second snippets but full length versions lasting three to five minutes. Amazing. That’s how Rhythm was born Boswell sisters; Freight Train Blues- Billy and de de Pierce; Basin Street Blues by the Preservation Hall jazz band; If I could be with you tonight- Louis Armstrong and the new Cotton Club orchestra; Chanson sur Stalin; Out of nowhere Sidney Bechet; Dear Old Southland Louis Armstrong; Skokiaan-Perez Prado;. My Prayer The Platters. Bethana a concert waltz. Very enjoyable
I was desperate food and a warm drink on arrival yesterday which became priority over unpacking. Then there were plants to be watered, post to be opened. I wanted to watch part of Wallander that I had dozed through and then end Little Dorrit and listen to the X factor final. There was also the episode of Merlin Later I enjoyed a cuppa soup and four salmon fishcakes bought for £3 at Marks and Spencer’s, the last lemon Turkish delight and a few Whitakers Mint Creams. There was quite a lot of printing, the Blogs both in draft and the published version for myself and several new Friends as the mission to reach the same number as Blogs continues.
It was not a day to be remembered but it meant that I had gained a day. As my days run out I resent time spent in travelling.
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