Great British Road Journeys - Lincolnshire - Stamford to Skegness Ep. 16

[@M4ffooD1x0n]

“Are you in Skegness or Chernobyl” never had a truer word been said

[@monotonehell]

Skegness is SO bracing!

[@danielcrud9345]

I'd rather go to Chernobyl than Skegness

[@Michael_Brock]

Chernobyl please, but just visiting.🤣

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

The people are glowing at Chernobyl. The ones at skeggy are grey, or beetroot red and pissed.

[@MINKIN2]

"50 thousand people used to live here" Now they just exist.

[@chrisrand5185]

A feature of the flat boring Lincolnshire roads is that whatever speed you are doing, the car behind you will overtake you, then drive at the same speed you were doing or slower.

[@Zeem4]

An example of my usual experience is being aggressively overtaken while I'm doing 59mph in a 60 limit, often approaching a blind bend or when there's a lorry coming the other way, not seeing that car again for 20 minutes or more, then pulling up alongside it at the Wragby Road roundabout on the Lincoln bypass.

[@notmenotme614]

@@Zeem4 You must be the only person who drives to the speed limit in Lincolnshire. It seems everyone else insists on driving at 40 mph everywhere regardless of the conditions…. 40 mph along a perfectly straight and wide A-road that’s a 60 limit… and then 40 mph when it enters a village and goes to a 30 limit. I wonder if they ever look and think, why is there a mile long queue of traffic behind them, all bumper to bumper and nobody in front of them?

[@Zeem4]

@@notmenotme614 One of the very few, it seems. Very often I have to drive from South Hykeham to either Louth or Horncastle, and each time it's almost 100% guaranteed that I'll get stuck behind someone doing a constant 40mph, there are so many of them.

[@RichardGodson-ys6id]

@@notmenotme614 and it's always a Nissan Micra at the front of the 40mph queue.

[@punksci6879]

Hospitals started out as a place where pilgrims and travelers could stay for cheap, the medical association with the word came from needing to treat the sick and injured on their journey. That's why you have the word hospitality.

[@HAL9000.]

Came here to say that and then you beat me to it with some red hot etymology.

[@garethaethwy]

@@HAL9000. ditto

[@punksci6879]

@@HAL9000. The Time Team taught me everything I know.

[@Ramtamtama]

We also got hostel from hospital

[@paulketchupwitheverything767]

I chuckle when people talk about 'working in the hospitality sector'. I can't remember the last time I was greeted by a cheery inn keeper.

[@maximillianferris228]

Can we all agree this man needs to be on the TV?

[@trentr9762]

He is worth much more then TV ever will be

[@hairyairey]

No way, he'd fall off! 😂

[@k.r.baylor8825]

You can't curse on TV, and that honesty is part of John's enduring appeal.

[@kieronmarshall2658]

@@k.r.baylor8825 you can

[@elelegidosf9707]

Not at all; TV is a dying medium. More importantly, he'd only have some production company telling him how to run his shows. He belongs online.

[@sonofjak1971]

That filling station/shop is brilliantly quirky!

[@gbhxu]

It's not self service either. You get Keith Storr serving you

[@Dean256]

I never knew about the petrol station at wainfleet and I live just down the road… that’s crazy.

[@cirian75]

old station pumps like that tended to have a few liters in the hose, my father when a teenager would go to some of them in his town just after the shops closed and get a few liters for free in his motorbike.

[@hujiproductions8457]

Great find

[@tonys1636]

They were very common in Ireland until quite recently, often the village shop or pub. Two pumps, one petrol the other agri diesel (green).

[@antonycharnock2993]

"Oh. The A1111. It's like the A1 but four times the fun" Thank you John Shuttleworth for this little gem.

[@JRLNeal]

I hope everybody appreciates the vast amount of effort you put into these videos John. Excellent research and gunfire delivery spiced with comic comments. Don’t look now, but I think your videos are getting better.

[@pgwalling6478]

Boston, where the bypass goes right through the middle of town.

[@fumthings]

so that hacking cough from the exhaust fumes is... more than a feeling...

[@TheRealWindlePoons]

I spent the end of my schooldays and got my first job in Boston (back in the 70s). Whenever I visit now, it reminds me more of trips to Eastern Europe, so high is the immigrant population. I don't mean this in a derogatory manner, just that it is very different now to how it was 50 years ago.

[@notmenotme614]

The road planning in Boston is absolutely horrendous because of it’s level crossings that cause traffic to become blocked, back up and become even more blocked. Both the level crossings by the Asda supermarket and the B1192 at a Hubberts Bridge are examples of where the level crossing forms a traffic jam that blocks entire road junctions in all directions. Even for cars that are not even crossing the rail line but were turning in a different direction.

[@nigelcraven]

St Botolph's Church Tower is known far and wide as the 'The Boston Stump'.

[@matthewtrueblood408]

And apparently if you draw a line on a map from Boston Stump to The Alps, there’s nothing taller. My old college lecturer in Lincoln told me that in 1991

[@hairyairey]

@@matthewtrueblood408 On a similar vein High Barnet is the highest land between London and York. Yes, it's quite flat around here.

[@TheRealWindlePoons]

You used to be allowed to climb one of the spiral staircases up the tower for a small donation. When I was a kid we used to throw extra strong mints from the top to see them shatter on the footpath below (along the river Witham). Happy days. 😀

[@stephenholt4670]

5:37 - the nice straight road in question was built over the top of what used to be the Lincolnshire loop line, a direct railway linking Spalding to Boston.

[@Eledore]

Fish & Chips and then fight the seagulls. Yep that is the true British experience.

[@BromideBride]

My friend bought fishcake & chips with his last bit of cash and, back then went to the public telephone. When he bit his fishcake - and a genuine fishcake, not an orange potato disc, it was still frozen inside. He returned to the chippy and they apologised by giving him a large cod. As he got to his car.... Yeah, your already ahead of me - popped it all on the roof and........ Not even the battered nub on the end, didn't get a single bite and half his chips were scattered everywhere. We just fell about laughing and still taunt him to this day by ducking and pointing to the sky when he buys takeaway.

[@adamjolley8552]

I like this video so I’ve pressed the button specifically for that👉🏻

[@Brettnet]

This is the way.

[@hannahc2102]

I don’t find south Lincolnshire boring at all. I adore the flatness of the Fens. The sky becomes the landscape.

[@MorrisPV]

Agreed... it makes for some wonderful sunrises and sunsets...

[@davebicker8618]

I lived in Gedney near the Wash for a number of years. The skies were outrageous, as were the winds directly from the Urals. A wonderful place. If it'd been closer to That London, then it would've been ruined by rich media types.

[@TheRealWindlePoons]

@@davebicker8618 "the winds directly from the Urals" === I remember them well. When I lived in Boston I was a keen cyclist and used to race schoolboy time trials. Just because the fens are flat, it doesn't follow that it is easy cycling country.

[@roysmith9733]

Thank you John for a tour through my home area. Although born in king’s Lynn (I don’t know why) I moved to Spalding when my mum took me home from hospital. For the next 21 years I walked, cycled and drove over every stretch of the roads you covered - some very fond memories indeed. At an undisclosed age I had my first kiss on the banks of the Coronation Channel and yes, I know how to pronounce Ayscoughfee Hall - it’s Ass Coffee. On my 40th birthday my late father-in-law took me aloft in his Cessna and flew a full 360 around Boston Stump. As for Lincolnshire Sausages they are by far the best in the U.K. - especially those made on my youth by George Bark in Deeping St Nicholas, and you might have passed through that totally ignoring it. Fantastic video thanks again.

[@Andy-185]

I was just about to post the exact same phonetic pronunciation of Ass-coffee. I'm sure that as a kid we used to go to Ayscoughfee Hall to watch the fireworks on bonfire night.

[@roysmith9733]

@@Andy-185 John should have found time to go in sand explore the witches hill. Used to sit on the wall alongside to watch the flower parade.

[@davem9204]

Does Ass Coffee feature in the lyrics of Agadoo?

[@Summers-lad]

I assume you were born in Kings Lynn because your mother was there at the time.

[@RichardGodson-ys6id]

Queen drummer, Roger Taylor was born in Kings Lynn.

[@Stephen_Lafferty]

1:41 "I assume today some sort of voluntary donation is required, which is why I'm stood outside." :D

[@brianartillery]

I donated blood once. Never again! The questions I was asked - Why was there so much of it? Why was it in buckets? Whose was it? 🤔🤔🤔

[@77smp]

@@brianartillery boom-tish!

[@daviddorson5111]

Damn it, I KNEW I saw the Saab parked up near Scotgate last week. Missed the opportunity to say the videos are wicked sweet awesome in person.

[@iangrice329]

I think most of Lincolnshire is beautiful.

[@hairyairey]

If Jon is where I think he is at the start then he is stood in a narrow strip of Northamptonshire between Rutland and Cambridgeshire - not even signposted on the A1!

[@BostonUnitedFM]

Great to see you covering the often-forgotten part of the country, the Lincolnshire Fens. We do love our sausage…

[@andywright1634]

Forgotten for good reason. The....errr....ummmm..... no, it's gone.

[@tgheretford]

The Fens is to Lincolnshire what Bassetlaw is to neighbouring Nottinghamshire. Forgotten by TV, radio and the media and if we do get covered, it gets called "Nottingham" or "North Nottinghamshire".

[@BostonUnitedFM]

@@andywright1634 Well we grow a lot of the country’s food… the fields aren’t there for decoration 👀

[@maryginger4877]

The real question is how many fit local girls like sausage... LOL.. I'm teasing, got nothing to do with the size of your wallet.

[@AbandonedCityCamoCrewExplorers]

Yep Tallington crossing ,it is true rare you go through see gates up

[@Anmeteor9663]

Chernobyl, where people from the failing seaside town of Weston Super Mare go on holidays. The fuel station at the shop is great. There were loads of those places about when I first started driving in the 1970s. Now we have to endure Service stations and drive thru's. Motoring definitely lost the charm over the years and became a chore.

[@5340robert]

Excellent. I grew up near skeg. Yeah i agree a very flat and boring place to drive round at times. At Wainfleet the Batemans brewery is also worth a mention.

[@philwalton2009]

Thanks for the video having visited Bracing Skegness in the past, it's a never to be forgotten experience! Here's a clue to where we stayed, courtesy of Mr. Richard Stillgoe. Ve don't vant to escape Ve don't vant to get out For ze red coats are loving und kind, Ve don't vant to escape Ve don't vant to get out Even venn it is Colditz just fine!

[@PhilStar.27]

Iconic. The medieval market cross as per the original CAD drawing 😂😂

[@gbhxu]

FYI Storrs is not self service. The bloke in the glasses filling un the car is Keith Storr co-owner of the shop. You missed out Bateman's Brewery. I'm sure Stuart Bateman would have given you a personal tour round (and possibly a free bottle or two of their fine products. Combined Harvested is really good) You could have mentioned Barkham Street. Legend is that plans for the street got mixed up with those of a street in London. London got the 2 storey row of houses, while Wainfleet got the 3 storey houses. You could have mentions that Willian of Waynflete (an alternative spelling of Wainfleet), founded Magdalene College Oxford. With an offshoot in Wainfleet. The ancient cross is what is locally known as The Buttercross.

[@frankmitchell3594]

Oh yes Storrs! Even at this distance I could see the sign reads Attended Service.

[@whyyoulidl]

A similar long-since disappeared shopfront filling 'station' was Cherry's on Nightingale Road in Hitchin; Oh, the delighful memories of sniffing the pink paraffin on the way home...

[@hairyairey]

I once filled up at a similar garage in Husbands Bosworth (I think - might have the wrong village) - attended service is so rare!

[@reide96]

There's a fourth thing you're meant to do in a seaside town, John - have an ice cream. Specifically, a 99 - the flake is essential to the holiday experience.

[@johnludlam3905]

Nice to see the tower at the former RAF Wainfleet. As a Met Office engineer based in Watnall (Nottinghamshire), Wainfleet was one of our stations, with a Met enclosure in a field and the displays in the tower itself. One visit there saw me almost overcome by the desire for hotdogs. It was only on the way home I realised why - Wainfleet was surrounded by fields of ready-to-harvest onions! Well... you can guess what I had that evening!

[@RogerNorman-q6x]

Good fart I imagine

[@davebicker8618]

Watnall - 12 Group HQ. I spent many a day as a spotty lad underground in the Filter Block 😊

[@pwensor]

Welcome to Spalding. We locals pronounce Ayscoughfee as Askerfy. The Hall dates back to the 1450s and the gardens are well worth a visit.

[@nicklowe536]

Skegness has one thing that is growing and doing well. The stock car track is going from strength to strength while others are closing

[@TheRealWindlePoons]

I spent most of my teenage years in Lincolnshire and lived both in Boston and Skegness. In Boston we used to get Phantoms from RAF Coningsby banking over our house and heading up the coast to the Wainfleet range on twilight sorties. You could see the flashes of the practice bombs on the horizon. Windmill trivia: the Maud Foster unusually has five sails which may have been something more common in this area. The windmill at Burgh-Le-Marsh just outside Skegness was once the same. Today it has no sails and has been converted into a restaurant but 55 years ago when I was a kid and lived in Skeggy, it had five sails. I had a friend who lived in Burgh and I often cycled over for a visit. I went back to visit Skegness a couple of years ago and it is looking very tired - it has gone down-hill big time over the last 20 years. We had chips on the sea front near the clock tower and surprisingly the bird life pestering us was a plague of starlings and not gulls. My recommendation if you have visited Skegness by car is to take the road inland from the sea front by one block and head south to the Gibraltar Point nature reserve. A must-see for both walkers and bird-watchers.

[@TringmotionCoUk]

Hillary Brock's garage in Olney used to be an absolute force of nature. They were one of the top Ford dealers despite not being a gin palace. They sold too many cars for Ford to cull them. They also had those fuel pumps . They will be missed 😢

[@danwiltshire9379]

Love your videos dude. I feel the Fens get overlooked as a part of the country that can be breathrakingly beautiful. The sunsets here are georgeous as you have so much sky, the ever changing farmland landscape through the seasons, and one of the sunniest areas of the UK.

[@andywright1634]

Hitting the nail on the head. Almost all seaside towns are depressing. They are stuck in a time warp from 70+ years ago. If you're looking for plastic dolphins, locals with skin like leather and no where to park - it's a great day out.

[@TheRealWindlePoons]

"Almost all seaside towns are depressing." When I was a kid my parents' job took them all over the UK mainland and we moved house regularly. We lived at the seaside a few times: Barry in South Wales, Margate and Skegness. These places are magic for children to visit, even better living there. Its only when you grow up that you see all their shortcomings.

[@TyredCyclist]

Market Deeping is a commuter town, it’s close to Peterborough and spalding but nicer than both, it’s close to Stamford but not as expensive

[@nealepaterson3496]

Jon, standing in a shabby field near a busy road, or in a piss-stinking graffitied concrete underpass. Highlight of my week...

[@ukar69]

I went to the Wainfleet bombing range some years ago when it was operational. Started off in the tower where they would control aircraft coming onto the range. I think it might have been Jaguars dropping practice bombs (smoke and flash) and their cannons. We then went out to one of the wooden scoring huts mounted on stilts where hits would be triangulated with the view from another hut further up the coast. It was during winter and bloody freezing standing outside the hut waiting for aircraft to be directed in but the huts had massive lights on them which would get turned on when an aircraft was doing runs, so they didn't attack it, although apparently some had in the past, mostly Americans. The light was of the incandescent type and actually provided a bit of warmth. Practice bombs would occasionally be recovered and I have one in my possession. A hollow plastic body with fins and a lump of metal at the front where the "warhead" was.

[@JohnSmithShields]

Good to see the American stereotype is well earned still.

[@David_Crayford]

It is so good that peace has broken out and nobody needs to practice fighting any more. Oh, wait...

[@RichardGodson-ys6id]

In their youth, over 100 years ago, my grandfather and his siblings used to cycle from the family farm near Sleaford to Skegness and back again in a day. A round trip of over 70 miles.

[@Greg-eq7pf]

Ahhh Skeggy, many a night in our late teens early twenties we'd look across from Hunstanton.. then decide for no other reason than boredom and the journey itself, to drive around to Skeg, get some food, check out the Skeg lasses, do a one wheel peel, drive home at 2am.

[@highpath4776]

really says a lot about Hunstanton that a good night out is to go to Skegness

[@dougiebrown9318]

I used to frequent Skegness’s nightlife back in the 70’s .. & haven’t been back since & don’t intend to either..

[@jennythescouser]

That sea wall in Skegness looks like they've nicked the panels off an old tardis interior - lol

[@tradeplatetravels]

I love being in those wide big sky open spaces of Lincolnshire. This was a really good video! Thanks Jon.

[@MikeWooshy]

About 10 years ago I went to Pripyat, later that year I went to Skegness and thought to myself: "I wish I was in Pripyat." That radiation really did have a warming affect.

[@cerysfrost3215]

My family’s originally from small villages about 10 miles from Skegness, which was the bright city lights then, and possibly still is. In the last 20 years I was mostly going back for funerals or to visit my gran with dementia during the long grey winters. I only came once in the summer, and the coast was much more lively and cheerful, though I understand why my mum and dad didn’t move back from Bracknell when they retired…

[@uutarn]

"Have a fight with some seagulls." They're taking over I tell ya.

[@dom.b1972]

Skegness Raceway is definitely worth a visit for some quality oval motorsport 👍🏻🏁

[@77smp]

I'm surprised The George in Stamford never got a mention. Dated someone from Deeping St James. Used to cycle from Whittlesey to Crowland. Family outings to Skegness....all happened 30 plus years ago. I feel old now but don't live in the fens anymore, so good news 🙂

[@maryginger4877]

Keep quiet.

[@nataliewhittle9299]

Fab video. Cheers. Wouldn’t be a Sunday without you

[@ChrisBrown-px1oy]

St Botolph 5:55 was a patron saint of travellers - hence the three churches of that dedication in the City of London, all close to gates regulating main road exits east and north - Aldgate, Bishopsgate and Aldersgate. What a survival, Storr's at Wainfleet. The shop front looks a lot earlier than 1958, the "established" date given, and I'd guess that that was already an obsolete way of arranging petrol hoses by then, which wouldn't have got planning permission. Before 1947, it wouldn't have needed planning permission either, so Storr's probably took over an earlier business. If nobody's ever changed the use there's been no occasion to apply for, or refuse, a new permission, and I doubt if renewing the hose ever needed it.

[@phils8990]

As always, great video! 👌 If you have more of Lincolnshire to visit, Tattershall would be a great addition. Never mind the boring castle, the local scrap yard has the Lockerbie plane wreckage, easily visible via satellite!

[@TheRealWindlePoons]

If you are interested in military aviation, you get the best view of RAF Coningsby from the top of Tattershall Castle. The last time I visited, the Battle of Britain Flight (based there) were all out of their hangers on the apron.

[@phils8990]

@@TheRealWindlePoons Then maybe the Castle isn't so boring after all. 😂 I bet that's a good sight tbf. 👍

[@markarnold8160]

There is the Boston Sausage. Worth a try. Thank you for visiting my village as you used the old A16 to Boston, which is now mostly B roads and a bit of A152.

[@johnd6487]

Boston sausage.. that takes me back. We were very friendly with our next door-but-one neighbours, and they still had family near Boston, they never visited (not a massive journey, we live near Nottingham) without bringing back sausages. It almost seemed more important to them than seeing their relatives 😂

[@brandonmartin-moore5302]

I've been at that crossing in Tallington when it's broken before, for a good hour.

[@Bakabakaonichan]

After being a fan for over a year, you've finally stepped foot into my home town of Spalding. Hope you had your trusty stab vest on you! And don't worry, even we don't know how to pronounce Ayscoughfee. I went to secondary school in Market Deeping and I agree that it's quite boring, but it does have a pretty active night-life with 5 pubs basically right next to each other in the town centre. Entertaining as always, John!

[@SteveDonaldson-r5k]

He didn't go on the Royce road estate so he was fairly safe!

[@whyyoulidl]

​@@SteveDonaldson-r5kI really hope this road has a 'car wash' 😆

[@scottishcarenthusiastsandtrain]

Never seen a filling station like that before, but good it's been kept and operational as part of the towns history. Another excellent video Jon.

[@ianreynolds9733]

The flatlands….don’t go into the county when it’s harvest time, I can guarantee you WILL get stuck behind a tractor, combine harvester, lorry (carrying farm produce) or a van full of “local” crop pickers. Good work fella as usual.

[@maestromanification]

Hi John, I believe the A16 from spalding is the former east lines railway which closed in 1970 Cheers Russ

[@ehsnils]

Whenever I hear about Lincolnshire I think first of "Lincolnshire Poacher". But you'd need to involve "Ringway Manchester" for taking that route.

[@IronFanJoe]

Somewhere else that's in Lincolnshire and is awesome - Mablethorpe! Love it there. ❤️

[@IronFanJoe]

That fun fair has the only 'bee hive' roller coaster in the world. Never been able to ride it. One day, I'll go to Skegness sea front on a day when everything *isn't* closed! The stuff dreams are made of. #hope

[@El_Smeghead]

The Chernobyl reference had me in fits! 🤣 🤣

[@paulfrisby4424]

Finally you reach my hometown of Stamford. Tourists love it. I remember the days before hundreds of coffee shops and inconsiderate parking. Oh well another great informative video.

[@renrutmat]

I remember the first coffee shop sometime around 1975. Tiny little privately owned place not far away from the Stamford boys school. Coffee was good unlike most of the stuff in the UK at the time.

[@martynpatrick]

"Stamford is home to over 600..." I was expecting Jon to say "coffee shops"...

[@robe3836]

or charity shops

[@allrightdrive1537]

Thanks

[@rayhitchman4741]

Think I'm going to press the button specifically for liking this video

[@Bugger-Me]

I can’t wait for your Southend special

[@eight-two]

Sunday just aren't Sunday's anymore without Jon's latest video.

[@PenryMMJ]

I grew up in Boston. When Jon is filming the Maud Foster windmill, he's standing about 50 yards away from my childhood home.

[@Mort221]

Mentioned the petrol station at 9:45. There's one in Bala that's much the same. Park up on the side of the road and fill your car up. It's great.

[@IndigoJo]

A less well-known fact about Stamford is that in the Medieval era, it briefly had a university: a group of academics from Oxford decided to set up shop there after some kind of dispute with other Oxford academics. This was back when Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England (they had a few in Scotland). It didn't last very long because they couldn't get their students' papers marked externally, the result being that the dons had to close their college and patch up their difficulties with their old colleagues in Oxford. I always wondered why they never tried to revive it when the red-brick universities started opening in the 19th century. I once did a truck driving job that involved a daily run to Boston (namely the big sandwich factory on the eastern side of town). I was amazed that they'd built this nice new straight road up from Peterborough, but didn't bother building it around Boston. A few years ago this TV show visited Boston where they tried to get people to leave their cars at home and use public transport; they found everyone convinced that the reason Boston was choked with traffic was through traffic and that the solution was a bypass. It was easy enough to get from the Peterborough road to the factory, but getting anywhere else (like out to the A17 west to get to Newark) was a nightmare.

[@hairyairey]

Remember that Cambridge was a breakaway from Oxford - so you could call it Oxford University in Cambridgeshire. Which clearly reduces the number of possible winners of the Boat Race...

[@johnburn8031]

The reason it's called a hospital is due to the word then meaning a place that provided care of any type of person in need: So they would look after the poor, orphans, widows, and the sick. It wasn't until about the Victorian era that hospital became a term for caring for the sick only.

[@xr6lad]

Bingo. It has nothing to do with the modern meaning of hospital.

[@garethaethwy]

@@xr6lad correct, that was an infirmary, sanatorium, or the like...

[@garethaethwy]

Brilliant railway video with a bit of road, keep up the great work Jon!

[@davidquirk8097]

Market Keeping was popular (and probably still is) with the more senior level Engineers at Perkins Engines on account of not being Peterborough but still close enough for an easy drive into work. When I used to visit Perkins I used to stop in the Deeping Stage public house after having had a couple of really shit stays in Peter's Bog Horror.

[@InTheBeginningTheUniverseWas]

5:50 Looks like the A16 _is_ on the old map, but instead of car traffic it was receiving train traffic instead!

[@williamstephens9945]

1:58 The word "hospital" originallly meant a place where people could stay or take refuge (similar to a hostel) before the meaning shifted to that of a medical institution.

[@ivanoffw]

John knows his audience, some very apt bits of commentary with the odd railway infrastructure sprinkled in for good measure.

[@bigpete2378]

I stayed at the Tower at Wainfleet…….. it was indeed….wicked, sweet and Awesome👍

[@AMGitsKriss]

Ooh Stamford, nicest town I've ever lived in. There's a disused bit of road between the A1 and Colsterworth near there. I think it used to be a bypass or something, idk. Was a nice place to walk as a teen stuck in a village.

[@cameronashton7150]

As Jon says "there are only three things you do in a failing seaside town" the missus says "a 2p slot machine?!!". A few seconds later she screams "Yes!!" in a way I've not heard for several years.

[@rogerlill]

Not called Lassie is she?

[@cameronashton7150]

@@rogerlill Gotta love a Porky's reference!! 🤣🤣

[@DustyCustard]

3:49 I wish you'd have done a whimsical prance to the left at this point as if jumping back over the county border.

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

2:42 Well... I didn't have anything much to do, so I went off into the world of thank God for the immeasurable variety that passes for that's interesting! and lo and behold there's loads on Tallington ECML level crossing. I do this so you don't have to, you understand. The gates are open (old terminology meaning for ttains and not road users) for ¾ of an hour, every peak hour. But thankfully, the barriers don't stay down blocking the traffic constantly through that time. They rise up ½doz times per hour it seems. Still, the various videos show so many vehicles crossing the tracks at some points, that the traffic jam has barely dissipated before the flashing and the warbling start up again. Finally, just like in France where they have that evocative sounding Un train peux encacher un autre there's not one IET to wait for, but an average of trois. Toot toot!

[@J4M35UK1]

To fix the burst defenses at Crowland, they buried a few old military tanks. One of which was dug up recently.

[@LongLiveHelghast]

It’s quite a trip seeing Jon in my hometown (Boston)

[@jaydubya1996]

As a Market Deeping...er, I never thought it was boring. But now, with no abandoned road, unfinished junction or disused railway, I feel the place may indeed be distressingly bereft. 😢

[@JonCoupland]

Should have stopped by and seen the Coupland Collection whilst in Boston 😁👍 Dad would have even put the kettle on

[@mitchyk]

As kids my dad would drive through many of these towns on the way to "Skeggy", or Skegness to normal people! This video brought back many memories. My dad used to have a key to the gate the lifeguard station was behind and we could drive right up to the sand. It was great. Then we had to drive back in the dark and the road was covered in this black slime? It took a minute to realise it was millions of frogs! Have you ever tried clearing frogs off a road in the pitch black while your dad slowly creeps along in the car? Yeah it wasn't fun! lol

[@ianhalsall-fox]

That was a remarkably interesting video. I never knew southern Lincolnshire was so fascinating.

[@baystated]

Oh, cute! Old Boston!

[@ianhelps3749]

I have seen a shop/filling station in The Hague. Didn’t take a picture unfortunately. The new A16 between Spalding and Boston was built on the former East Lincolnshire railway. Which will make life difficult if they want to reopen the line.

[@bh_92-k4t]

Can’t they just build next to the new A16?

[@JimGDMAC]

Can't manage a shop/filing station but in rural France I did find a petrol station with a bar instead of a supermarket inside.

[@bryemycaz]

4:15 Photo, not the March to Spalding line. That bridge was the old M&GN Spalding-Sutton Bridge line, further upstream gone now.

[@richardwalker4541]

And the bridge over the Coronation Channel 5:01 is another M&GN structure. Built at great expense by British Rail for a total working life of... 12 years!

[@johnmurray9526]

"You "have" to give a voluntary donation upon entry.. which is why I'm stood outside." 😂😂😂

[@gerrimilner9448]

Skegness looks like a really lovely beach!

[@lollington_bear]

"Medieval CAD drawing" - Giggled hard to this one.

[@Jim-Scott]

I was in Spalding for a couple of days a few years ago (Ministry of Ag course) and someone booked accommodation for me for the night . . . in a massage parlour! Those footpaths along the waterways are quite a pretty walk when you're avoiding going back for the night!

[@nst1981]

no happy ending then?

[@MrGreatplum]

Skegvegas and medieval market crosses designed by CAD… we are blessed!

[@TheManFrayBentos]

The Inland Pier - what fecking genius came up with that? A point about the petrol station in the shop. There were still a lot of them around 30 years ago In Ireland's small towns, but they've gradually disappeared as businesses changed hands or closed. When they were made, there were next to no regulations about tanks under the pavement but there are plenty now, so if a tank becomes life-expired or anyone wants to install one from scratch, the amount of hoops to jump through is immense and expensive. Basically, it's not on, not any more.

[@ConfusedRaccoon]

SKEGGERS! I hope theres a trip to old Scunthorpe. Fun fact about Skeggo. My now wife drove up from Devon to visit me in Lincoln with a couple of mates. The day after I took um to old Skegvegas as a sort of day out/date thing. What's weird is it didn't scare her off and as I mentioned before, we're now married =D

[@MrSekund]

John, whatever your situation is, you seem to have enough resources/ time to prepare all this -and it's on weekly basis ! Apart from the obvious fun of all the travel and visits, there's probably awful lot of work when it comes to research and editing. Now, that's a true volountary contribution/ service to us all ! Respect man ! 💪 As a lorry driver, my work has become more interesting now that I learn all this about the roads I use and towns/ places I pass or see... Thank you !

[@IAmUndersteer]

This has by far been my favorite GBRJ episode. Educational, hilarious, sarcastic, and interesting. I hope this guidebook is a long one!

[@GF-ep1pf]

Never been to that part of the country but your videos are joyous, 12 minutes of perfect escapism & assorted history.

[@robe3836]

started in my home town, nice video hopefully you will pass by another time edit: with the spalding flooding they built flood defences with some old buffalo amphibious vehicles, one of which was dug up and is being restored

[@Balecart]

I never thought it sounded like a disease until you said and it does ! An interesting video, 👍

[@cpuuk]

Once again taking us places and asking the questions that no one will ever ask. Thank you for your service 🙂