England, The Great North Road in 1939 [further enhanced]
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- Опубликовано: 13 июн 2012
- This film follows the old road up North from London. Many towns have now been bypassed by the A1. According to a viewer, this journey is largely still do-able, although most of it would not be as easy to follow as the A1 route shown here. You'd need to deviate on to the A1000, the A507, the A6001 and A606 amongst others, then make further deviations on to now-unclassified or B-roads through town centres.
The road leaves London and passes through towns like Biggleworth, Stamford.
The barrage balloon at the beginning of the film is a give-away that this film was shot just before the beginning of WW-II in 1939.
Sophisticated software was used to generate the missing frames in order to slow down the video and still retain perfect motion.
Please refrain from making comments about the influx of other nationals into the UK. Yes England has changed, but so has the entire world. Hatred spreading comments will be removed. Just enjoy the images of how the UK was 81+ years ago...
Email: ricksfilmrestoration@gmail.com
![A Day in Old London in 1920 in colour! [AI enhanced HD]](/img/1.gif)
If you like my work then please donate: www.paypal.com/paypalme/Rick88888888
Absolutely fantastic work Ricky. Could do with some music maybe if you can’t add sound?
@@welshlad6427 Most of my (275+) videos have music...
Wish it was like that now 🏴
The Tea House at 3.32 is now an Indian restaurant.
Well yes and no, being able to drive from London to Edinburgh in 7 hrs is pretty useful.
You probably don’t if you really knew, like me, how sh*t the 1950s actually were
This was filmed by Colonel Lionel Paten ... He was concerned that England would never be the same after the impending war ... so he set out to film and filmed from Baker Street all the way down the A1 through to Grantham - Lionel Paten sadly died in 1952
In 80 years time, people will look back at England today and make exactly the same comments as we make about about England as it was in this lovely video.
Quite true - people often make similar comments about the 1970s.
I think it’s very unlikely that 2020 will be remembered as the good old days
My beautiful country before the rot set in.
The past was really cr*p, really, really
These pictures show a idealized picture of Britain, for the vast majority, life was a struggle, there was no welfare state, people did die of disease and poverty, no health service, if you had no money to pay a doctor tough, you were on your own. The majority of houses had no indoor plumbing, you bathed in a tin bath in front of the hearth, the toilet was at the bottom of the yard or garden, you used old newspaper to wipe yourself. These were the good old days,
My parents had just bought their first and only house. It was new and had an upstairs bathroom, they lived in it until they died in 2001. You are describing my paternal grandparents life though.
People didn’t miss what they had never known. Did you miss your iPhone in 2001?
I used to travel on the A1 Great North Road in the early 1960s. And watching this film bought tears to my eyes..Bless you England we still love you !!!!!
Yes me to I used to get a lift back from London most weeks 😅
Maria Stevens I agree, bless you England. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of it left.
We love what you once were - now it is a broken land with despair and no hope. Due to corrupt governments, individual idiots at the top, corrupt councils, greed and control freaks - not to mention the EU. I can still remember Great Britain as she once stood proud - but let's not forget - it was the PEOPLE that made this country what it was and those people and their values have been beaten down, driven out and can only hang on to glorious nostalgia. It's so sad. BTW: I am 52 years old. Call me what you like.
@@oz1902 Ahh, the bitter irony of people getting all nostalgic about the A1! There isn't much of the English countryside left because it has been carved up with far too many busy, soulless roads like the A1! Wherever you are in the south-east of England, you are always within a few miles (and earshot) of a ridiculously busy and ugly A road. It was the increase in motor vehicles that ruined the English countryside for ever.
@@portcullis5622 A fair point. The motor car has been nothing but a scourge and blight upon the landscape. And no doubt many people many people will agree but are they willing to give up driving . . . ? I can drive but I don't drive because one more car is one more too many. On a wider but related note. Climate change is happening and Mother Earth strikes back. Whatever the consequences, the human species can have no complaints. We will get what we deserve. Cheers
... what a wonderful pace of life it must have been back then... thanks for uploading!
Yes plenty of Greasy Transport Cafes where you could get a big fry up for half a crown that's 2/6 old money
Amazing film. Good to see the 3 lane roads. I remember these - we used to call the middle lane the suicide lane.
How wonderful it would be to go back and live in these times
Ah yes, no vaccinations or nhs, the great depression starving our working classes and keeping them off the roads and genocide raging across Europe. Simpler times!
🤦
@@stevecarter8810 Community spirit, hard workers, a proud native people, enjoying local seasonal produce which is nicer for the environment and animals, religion was respected and not mocked, family was important, English culture was alive and well, less pollution, enjoying the simple things in life and being grateful, less crime...i could go on. It would be much nicer to live back then. Death and illness is awful but it's a part of life sadly and vaccines aren't going to change my mind when I look at society now. It's a sick and dying society and the NHS is on the brink of collapse, more and more people becoming homeless nowadays.... Yeah it's great today
@@pennyb22 What laughable ignorance, utter naivety and pitiful lack of understanding. Apart from your complete lack of functioning knowledge of society at the time, only 21 years earlier the world had been at war in which millions had died. A year or two later and by some estimates, over 70 million more people were killed by a global flu pandemic. A month after this film, the second World War started - yes, they were great times weren't they?
@@Tinker1950 I am aware this happened so I'm not sure where the ignorance and naivety comes into it? We have more murders in our streets now, grooming gangs, rapes are at an all time high, suicides at an all time high and the white British will be a minority by 2050, we have just had another pandemic... Yes John times were slightly better back then. I'm pretty sure another war is looming in our future sadly
Looking at this wonderful footage I know we have lost our way. Of course one cannot bulk against change, but when that change seemingly destroys all that you hold dear it makes one despair.
One tends to forget how unsightly telegraph poles were at the side of roads. Towards the end of the film, it is amusing to think that at the time this film was made, Margaret Thatcher was probably still working in her father's grocery store, in Grantham, as a 14 year old. Many thanks for posting this.
If only she'd stayed there..........
I think what is most charming about the old villages in these clips is that today, aside from modern cars and dress sense, if you were to film around these today you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference
I grew up in Yorkshire and in the 1960's worked in London so made the trip up the Great North Road home and loved seeing that sign 'To the North' so much more romantic that to the south. My boy friend now husband and I used to stop off at a pub in Eton Soccon and have either chicken in the basket or scampi in the basket which would still be my favourite meal. Although the journey took a long time it was wonderful to be going north (as long as we didn't break down)
I don’t care if I’m nostalgic...England was so much lovelier then !
Nostalgia, it’s not what it used to be...
@privatise the NHS not really, actually it’s a very old but rye observation about misty eyed revisionism...
@@GuitarandMusicInstitute There's a lot of things we dont have now they had in those days, like...."rickets"...Tony Capstick
@@antonycharnock2993 lol, I’m old enough to remember that, brilliant!
@@GuitarandMusicInstitute Enjoy! ruclips.net/video/Fzy8ASM0Cdk/видео.html
I really enjoyed watching this. If I could go back for a weekend to see and experience this, I would do so in a heartbeat.
me too, would love to go back in time especially if I could bring a Cosworth with me
Wonderful footage. Did anyone else notice how clean the towns (and even the out-of-town roads) were? I was born after the war and I can remember the streets of Manchester kept clean by street sweepers.
Don't forget that there simply wasn't as much packaging, and what little there was was paper or cardboard and thus degradable. Furthermore, people tended not to eat and drink in public to the extent they now do. My father always said that people would have thoughtlessly discarded packaging, had there been packaging to thoughtlessly discard.
@@robertcook2572 Didn't see any biodegradeable paper packaging floating around at the side of the roads.
@@ostraadt That's because, as I said, there wasn't much packaging anyway, and eating and drinking in the street was largely unknown.
No graffiti or vandalism, great to see road signs free from paint daubs. Britain before the social sickness.
@@robertcook2572 Maybe the street sweepers heard about this guy filming his trip and decided to sweep all the litter away (that's the newpapers we used to wrap our chips in - no styrene then) before the camera arrived. For the most part, people didn't shit on their own doorsteps and took responsibility for their environment. Please note 'for the most part' - not everywhere! Clearly the inhabitants of the Great North Road had entered the competition for 'Cleanest Road in Britain'.
I note that the majority of drivers, pay little regard for keeping in lane. But oh, for roads without potholes.
This film and journey brought back memories of my honeymoon journey from Potters Bar to Inverness in 1972. My A60 caught fire just past W.G.City and we spent out first night in Baldock instead of a 4 poster in Buckden. A garage fixed my car on a Sunday! by stripping components off of a Morris Oxford so we continued to Newark for the 2nd night then Edinburgh and finally Inverness. Great holiday. We came back on the motor-rail from Perth in 12 hours! Excellent film.
No ugly, soulless, post-war Marxist tower blocks - just indigenous architecture. Lovely. Great vid.
'Indigenous architecture'? LMFAO
Ooga booga!
@@davidcarey6133 😂
Ah, beautiful. No wonder Churchill was so determined to defend our island.
Today it isn't British enough to be worth defending with the same mentality
Lovely. I was born in 1964, yet when I see a film like this I think to myself, "those were the days."
No wonder our forefathers fought tooth and nail to preserve this beauty
Absolutely agree. Well said!
@Tricky Tricky The UK is 88% white skinned, you thick arse.
@@probinson4383 I think his skull is thicker than his arse tbh.
@@probinson4383 how much?
As someone deeply concerned about road safety it's interesting to note that in 1939 over 8,000 were killed on the roads when there was barely a fraction of the road traffic we see today. It's around about 1/5th of that today.
Interesting how you aren't looking at London at all in this film, or any other highly populated city. This is home town, and cross country. It's amazing how in your head you have the past made up, you see the film right in front of your dumb eyes and all your brain is telling you is "sad, black cars, little vehicle amount." Self manipulation
yeah but they could actually go faster without traffic. difficult to die in a traffic jam
Yes,its very difficult not to become misty eyed ; I recall as a very young child our annual holiday to Cornwall in my Fathers Rover 12; A30, A303 RAC motocyclists saluting and very very little traffic; all at a top speed of 50M.P.H; a day and a half of pure adventure for me.,
My dads rover 12 took us from Nottingham to Carbis Bay in 1951 and 1952! 343 miles to Carbis bay hotel. Through the Cotswolds, Exeter, Taunton etc. 12 hour trip! Behind a commercial vehicle, then limited to 20mph, was a bit of a trial! But gosh happy days. Peter Rabbits
I had the unfortunate experience of travelling from West Yorkshire to Carbis Bay in 1969 - seven of us in a Morris Minor. It took us 20 hours. Awful.
What about the people who could not afford a car and who lives from hand to mouth and died early from preventable diseases because there was no NHS? Are you a bit simple or just selfish?
This film was taken by Lt Col Lionel Paten in 1939 - he was an officer in the Indian Army and a member of the Paten Family who ran the Bull Hotel. This film was kept by Rev Richard Paten until the 1980's when it was donated and transferred for use in a VHS video of old film of 'Peterborough and the Fens'. Also on the film was the East Coast Main Line in 1939 in colour - plus 'The Lindens' in Lincoln Road - A house donated to house the elderly of Peterborough by the Paten Family in the 1950's.
Very interesting, is a copy available? So much has changed over the decades, makes me wonder sometimes,have we really progressed or are we just kidding ourselves.
We should not forget than millions of Indians volunteered to fight for the British Empire in WW II, despite their being "downtrodden"!
Brian Pearce the footbridge between Queensgate and the railway station has been named afte this family.
Thank you Brian.
But What Make is the American Car . The most popular makes in 1938-9 were Buick as the Royal Family had Six, followed by Packard , (Much more Expensive). This looks like a Chrysler Kew . Anyone know for sure ?
Magnificent, I traveled that road in an old coach with my Dad in 1945 when I was 11 on our way to Slough. I now live in Sawtry and often drive into Stamford. The roads have changed some since 46, but Stamford hasn't - except for the traffic.
Incredible beautiful footage. How wonderful someone thought this was important enough to film. Thanks for uploading. I guess the fact that war was over the horizon gave impetus.
Thanks for this. Hardly any traffic. So peaceful. How times have changed!
I have travelled that road many times since the 1970's, its changed a lot, not always for the better. There are still places and buildings still recognisable today along the road despite many towns being bypassed. Stevenage old town and Biggleswade have new shop fronts but most of the buildings are still there. Progress is not always better.
For all those wallowing in nostalgia, this was the year war broke out, people were no different to today, and less traffic meant slower deliveries and a poor range of goods and services.
Not that much has changed, except these towns no longer have an arterial road running past their front doors and fibre optics have put pay to those unsightly telegraph poles littering the landscape.
That said, smashing film.
@Abu musab Al Zarqawi What?
I love the way the cameraman (Lt Col Lionel Paten) just leaves his car on the main road while filming, not even parked very close to the kerb. Today, such parking would lead to the vehicle being smashed into small fragments by the next 40-ton truck.
What a great film archive! ....and how poignant too....just a month before WW2 began. Some of the places featured in this footage will have been bombed or destroyed completely. All seems so sad and senseless. Amazed at the amount of cars and vans there were back then. I kept thinking this was from the 1950's (because of the number of vehicles) but had to remember it's all pre WW2! Priceless film footage.
It is the A1 mind, but then again it's also before Beeching ripped up the majority of the country's railways.
Progress hasn't been kind to our world.
Just depends, in terms of safety and science yes
Well, WW2 started the same year as this video ... so progress has been kind.
@@_B.M_ I'm talking about the planet, not it's human inhabitants. Our progress is killing us. Since WW2 half the number of the world's animals have disappeared and we have destroyed enormous amounts of land and waterways.
It just looks a nicer place to live.
It was
Life was hard tho, people worked their asses off.
@@pete3816 my grandparents seemed happier than we all are now though;).
@@pete3816 i am the first to admit, we have never lived in better times, humanity is at its most comfortable for sure.
I'm gobsmacked! What a remarkable upload! Thank you very much for this extraordinary video!
Nice footage of a once blissful England, before the developers got their hands on it, my family left the centre of London in early 70's for the Countryside as it was then (Middlesex/Hertfordshire boarders) I thank them for that one good decision, I grew up in a nice area, thankfully.
Great to see all the old vehicles any Colour you like as long as it's Black, now you have to pay a premium for a Black car, how times have changed, not for the better either in many, many ways... you can still find parts of 'old' England, but it's getting more and more difficult, every day.
And what would you still call "old England" nowadays?
@@Rick88888888 Well I think it speaks for it's self, somewhere that is still pretty much as it was, not overly changed by the modern age, ok so good things about living in this time are obviously the internet, cell phones and car's that don't break down every other week, and I'm lucky enough now to live somewhere fairly unchanged by developers and modern buildings.
Loads of these places still look identical to how they do in this film, Buckden, Stilton, Wansford, Stamford and Great Casterton are almost completely unchanged really. If anything there’s less soot on the buildings in Stamford and pedestrianised areas where cars are shown driving in this footage.
Shocking changes, and not for the better. Stamford is still very recognisable though, thankfully
Stamford looks the same as it is now (thankfully).
I love Stamford. Passed through last week on a day out. Traffic levels are pretty busy even though the A1 now bypasses.
end of empire
Reap what you sow
1939. The final year before the UK went downhill forever.
P D ....NO...BRITAIN WENT "DOWNHILL " FROM THE MOMENT THE BEATLES SPLIT!?...(from the 70s onwards).....
The change from then to now is inconceivable
Can't watch it for long as it's just heartbreaking to see that and then to see it now. Tragic.
I know what you mean Its so sad to see what we become
Why, what does it look like now?, ugly buildings everywhere i'm guessing?
dislexic landlord And foreigners taking over the country...
dislexic landlord you mean the fact we all now have a higher standard of education, living standards, cheaper food and better opportunities
You are living out a fantasy in a low tech past while ignoring the grime and the poverty
Dear Rick88888888, thank you so much for this "video" and the enhancement work done.
I was born after the war and so where I lived in West London wasn't so delightful as these images, which do look very "green and pleasant land" - but as someone has mentioned - those lovely old cars and other vehicles weren't such a treat to drive or ride in. and houses had no insulation or central heating and, and etc., and just think of the horrors awaiting all those folk in that film! My most local "big road" was the Great West Road - simor , if post war, memories.
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" I'll certainly subscribe to your channel! Thanks again.
What strikes me is how modern it looks
I was born in 1951 and the country was almost identical to that shown in the film. Of course the industrial areas were not so attractive, but overall they were. We had a beautiful country at one time but now we are so overcrowded and often surrounded by ugliness. Yes some things are better but overall we have lost far more than we have gained.
I was born in 1965. My problem with this country and its policies is also the erosion of living space.
population then, 46 million, now 61 million, but Britain is still almost all countryside. You should get out more.
66 million actually. Fine if you live in the more rural or remote areas, but most of us need to live close to where we can work and would like easy access to the countryside.
David Hussell yes , It's very clear that we now have a problem with too much signage and lighting.
David, I was born in 1948 and conditions in large swathes of rural Britain, at least, remained very little changed in the 1950s from those that had obtained as far back as 30 years earlier. Yes, the welfare state was starting to make inroads into endemic poverty -- and thank "God" for that! -- but mains water and electricity were still far from universal in rural areas , and "the squire" retained much of his traditional influence (even if it was by now only a blocking power) over the lives of ordinary people. I nevertheless rejoice in the fact that post-war we were on the move towards greater social justice (despite the setbacks to come, post 1979). I can't therefore join in with the "everything was so wonderful then; why can't we just turn back the clock?" sentiments expressed in so many reactions here. We have indeed lost many things (just as we've all lost the vigour of our own younger days) -- especially the idealism of the immediate postwar years -- but let's not kid ourselves that most ordinary people, most of the time, are not now far better off than they have ever been.
Such wonderful footage, I just love the awnings on the shop fronts back then. The high streets looked so clean & smart, unlike today's high streets; which just look run down & tatty in my opinion. Wonderful empty roads, which we can only dream of now. Thank you for sharing. I need a time machine!! 😊
Its tatty because they let in the scum of the earth.
I watch how England use to be,and I feel a rage of what this country has become.Im 72 ,England was not a Utopia but I can sincerely state I lived through the best two decades In the 20 century.I now feel I live in a parallel universe where every moral and ethical principle has been reversed.
Yep, I'm 73 and emigrated to Australia with my wife at the end of '74. We see the difference every time we come back for a holiday. The way it's gone down hill is such a shame.
Ah, the good old days, when the house was freezing cold in winter, when people died from polio, whooping cough, tuberculosis, etc., when only the very well-off could afford cars, when you (72) and I (69) would almost certainly not still be alive at our age. Yes, it looks lovely on silent film, and some aspects were much better than today, but for most people, despite all the bad attitudes and the selfishness of today, we're in a better place now than our parents in the 1930s.
@@davidw1518 Yep, I agree with what you say and I'm glad I wasn't around for WW2. It's also true that we have a better life expectancy now, but back in my younger days the place was less crowded and I like to wear my rose tinted spec's now and again. Having said all that, I eas driving lorries all over GB in the 60's and 70's. No power steering or A/C. Manual clutches with no air or hydraulic assistance, lucky if you had a heater/demister and even luckier if you had a working one. If you couldn't find a B&B and had to kip in the cab, it wasn't much fun, but I was younger than and knew no different. Even with all that, I'd still go back to the 60's & 70's because we had good music and the girls wore short skirts. :-)
Called decadence.
Lol, you're funny with your Belgian name.
Nice to see a world where manners were observed,people were polite and not in such a hurry they'd meet themselves on the way back.
No not a view through rose tinted glasses,just an observation on today's greed obsessed selfish ,me first society.
Thanks for posting.
Not all manners were observed back then, and not all people were polite: notice the selfish jayparker at 1:58.
The jayparker is the cameraman !
I assumed so, since it's always the same vehicle. But that only adds arrogance to his selfishness.
Some people will moan about anything!.One car parked on a quiet road(,as most roads were then) .doesn't compare to today's inconsiderate and selfish motorists.
Funny you say that when mosr of these drivers didnt know the highway code - they just went to the post office to fill a form and walk away with a driving license!
How neat and trim the towns were. Not a trace of litter anywhere. And we forget, from that monochrome era, that it was a world of colour, too- the bright liveries of many of the buses and lorries. The old, inviting coaching inns still plying their trade in the era of the car.And the sky set ready to fall any day.This is a precious record of a way of life on the very cusp of its extinction, soon to become grey, neglected, and war-begrimed. The old England about to sacrifice itself for social justice...
So very well said!
What a stupid comment, this is Stamford area, not shit hole Manchester, Yorkshire, Newcastle and all other dump industrial places, yeh it's the immigrants who have done it lol , Britain is and always has been an enslaved Country, this is also pre Bread and Circus' Council housing sprawling it's ugly everywhere.
phaasch Yes and even those with not a lot kept it clean and orderly.
phaasch 2:36 piece of litter on the bottom right, sorry mate
@@neonskyline1 Dear me, look at your videos you complete, pitiful loser. You're like a pound shop David Brent, only worse! You're one of these twats who refuses to accept in any way that fifty years ago or more might be better than today because you know that it's the perverse political ideology you support and have swallowed hook, line and sinker that is responsible for making things worse today. There is a thing that money can never buy and its called living in a civilised, cohesive and relatively safe society, something none of us can claim today which we had back then. And it's all thanks to liberal leftist twats like you. Go back to making your delusional videos in your bedroom, bellend. You're no good for anything else.
Hello WheelieMacBin
So far Brian has not asked me to remove this video.
I do not intend to remove it. I agree fully with you. Too many license holders spoil their material with ugly logo's and other unnecessary markers. A good example of such destructive attitude are the Huntley Film Archives who add a huge logo smack in the middle of all their material plus a huge banner and a timer. They are so affraid that others might steal their licenses (probably worth only pennies).
My husband recently purchased a 1939 Flying Standard 14 car and he will love watching this. Well done 👍🏻
Wonderful peace an quiet. They could not have known how terrible it would be what was about to happen.......
@Zain staric no, I meant the second world war.......
Excellent. One of those houses on route is now a Swingers joint called The Vanilla Alternative. How scummy society has become....
They’ve been about since the beginning of time..
If anything it’s likely dampened down a smidge
It looks boarded up these days.
Wonderful and evocative footage. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent work....what a fantastic reminder of how it used to be in this country...I need a time machine to transport me back to those day's....My oh My...have we lost out.
mixwizard2310 actually, I think it looks archaic and dreadful. Thank heavens we've moved on.
I was around in those day's, did you experience just how it was??
Not much different..
No health service...no penicillin...ruled by aristocrats...etc
A truly fascinating view of pre-war life which appeared to stretch out like a long white road.
During the 1940s there was so little traffic on the main road out of Bristol into Gloucestershire that we could sit on the grass and write down both the number and make of cars that passed by.
The country, the nation, really has lost its soul and another revival is required, and quickly too!
Thank you for presenting Lt. Col. Paten's film. ~ JMW
Remember those middle 'suicide' lanes? Who's going to bottle out first?!
@Fred Bloggs scary!
Thank you! I live in Biggleswade, and have driven most of these roads: and also driven the modern A1, which is mostly dual carriageway bypasses these days. A lot of the town centre high streets haven't changed much in terms of buildings, they just have nose-to-tail traffic.
Recently relived the Biggleswade 'refreshment stop' on my childhood coach journey's in the 1960's from Yorkshire to London - and pleased to see the black and white timbered cafe where we'd go is still there!
It is so incredibly sad how much our society has lost, something really terrible has happened -a silent war.
The Kalergi Plan.
Simply Connected Please can the admin delete this ☝️ nonsense.
William Gruff racist detected.
@@georgerbuchanan Anti-white racist detected.
@@georgerbuchanan that's because you are looking for it!
my home town of Stamford [6.50] hasn't changed all that much I can still recognise streets and shops.The George hotel [on the left hand side of the gallows straddling the street]was a stopping off point for coaches [as in horse and coach!] and is still open today and the gallows are still there too.When you go through the main doors there are bars to the left and right that still have the old signs "London and York" because they were the waiting rooms for passengers heading south to London and North to York.There has been an inn of some type on the same site since 947 AD and it was also a meeting place for the Knights Templar
I lived in St Martins filmed here on the way into Stamford as a child in the sixties. The pretty houses are owned still today by the Burghley Family. Most of the people commenting here would have no idea what it was like to live in a feudal society. It might look pretty but it was suffocating and l couldn’t wait to leave! Incidentally I have lived in a lovely diverse area of Bristol for nearly 40 years and wouldn’t swap for anything! These racists don’t now what they are talking about the British empire was the cause the most terrible bloodshed and inhumanity. We should be ashamed!
Love Stamford , wish i lived there .
@@shelleydavis1040 Feudal society ? The Cecil family live in Burghley house and while they do have some rental properties they do not own most of Stamford !
I wouldn't really want to live in these hard times with high poverty, impending war and all the sickness etc but it certainly has a lovely, simple, charm about it. Look at the beautiful old buildings, the smart clothing and classy designs of the cars. So much more beautiful than today's run down high streets, full of drunks, litter and boarded up shops with their cheap and tacky plastic facias.
Love them good old days , bring em back lol
Wonderful. Pure magic. 🚂🚃🚃🚃
What a fantastic film Rick88888888. Everything seems so much more gentle and well ordered compared to the chaotic mess we live in today. The Belisha beacon crossings had only been introduced in 1934 by Leslie Hore-Belisha and were without the zebra stripes. These stripes were added some years afterwards. If only we could turn back the clock...
The film shows about 20 vehicles in total. The same film now would have 20,000.
There are no ugly buildings, in fact very few buildings at all.
No confusing, messy signage all over the roads.
No telephone, electric and 4g masts
No polluted skies.
But was it gentle, slower perhaps, more civil.
Si Fi Even 20 years ago, life seemed a lot more easy going compared to now
This is utterly beautiful. Litterally a window into another era. This is just amazing.
Amazing to think that most if not all the cars and trucks shown would have been made in the UK.
Before England became too over crowded
Dan 7787 ...Yeah ....this island is sinking..FAST!.....and yet the world's population wants to come aboard!....(and our government lets them)......
@@frankhornby6873 Governments just want more taxable people, they don't care about the quality of life for the rest of us.
No crappy 1960s architecture.
or 70's !!!!
Highways agency take note. Not a single pot hole in sight!
Lovely film of when Britain was truly beautiful just before the coming storm . Thanks for the video
I’m an immigrant from the southern hemisphere and this is what England was taught to us as a young child, so peaceful and gentile…..a far cry from today’s world, sad to say the least !
What a find this video is? I’m from Bristol, sat here in Adelaide watching this.. I used to go to college in Hitchin.. used to get pissed up in Biggleswade! Surprised I remember it tbh.
Fantastic, " I'll trade all of my tomorrows for just one yesterday " from a song by the great merle haggard
Wonderful old film of times gone by. However, as tranquil as the roads appeared in those days they were far more dangerous than now. In 1941, 9,169 were killed on GB roads, and in 1966, 7,985 were killed. In 2016 'just' 1,792 died despite the tremendous increase in traffic volume and speed.
I love the idea of actually being able to cross the A1 as a pedestrian back then !. Something that would be pretty dangerous today. The quality of the film is really good too . Some parts of the UK were like this up to the 50s but something disastrous happened from the 1960s onwards and everywhere is urban sprawl now. In 1939 there were 2 million private cars on Britain's roads , there are now approximately 37 million , around 1 car per two people !.
Glpi lpi I occasionally cross the carriageway of non-motorway stretches of the A1. Within Bedfordshire, Many very old Rights-of-Way still cross the A1 and there are very short overlapping gaps in the central crash barrier to let a pedestrian through.
I was born in a small area not far from Portsmouth, Hampshire. The A3 (main road Portsmouth to London) ran pretty close to the end of our street. In 1945 I was five years old and used to catch a double decker bus to school and back for one penny each way. Due to my delight at having that homeward penny fare in my pocket after I got off the bus and walked across the A3 I sometimes would spend it at the local shop and eat a penny bun walking the rest of the way to school. Come hometime I just walked along the A3 and crossed it to get home. Dad would come and look for me, once on a horse, once on a motorbike and sometimes in a taxi that he used to occasionally drive. Must have driven my parents mad with worry, but they never showed any anger, just relief that I had made it home.
Wonderful footage.
Into my heart on air that kills
From far yon country blows.
What are those blue remembered hills,
What farms, what spires are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
Those happy highways then I went
And cannot come again.
Apologies for any misrembering there, my nostalgia for a time I wasn't even born to see.
Maybe play Lionheart (Kate Bush) over the film for effect.
What a wonderful poignant poem - thank you!
This is wonderful, and I applaud your decision not to include a cheesy soundtrack/musical accompaniment.
Fascinating to see commuter/new towns like Stevenage before the postwar development!
That's a big improvement. The speed of the vehicles is much more authentic now - though some are certainly not going slow! Thanks for enhancing and uploading this. It's a real pleasure to watch.
Though not widely travelled , from Leeds ,and 76 ,I have always thought that the south of england was the most beautiful ,indeed dreamlike ,place ever to exist on earth(was.of course)..Scotland,only could ,for different reasons equal it and that for sheer romantic associations and ethereal landscape...there are times and places,people and events that are unique,irreplaceable and eternally memorable..they pass too soon,this corrupted world and we are not quite worthy to keep them
Wales much nicer than Scotland and south of England.
@@blackporscheroadster6415 ethnically differentiated motorist of probably Celtic origins,I would never relegate the Welch in any area of human activity..we in this city still revere the memories of those sporting geniuses John Charles and Lewis Jones and always will
france is still like this i suppose thats part of the attraction of the ex pats living out there
@@paulbarrett22 I was thinking the same thing. Looking at those old films reminded me of France of not so long ago.
Wow I didn’t know Aspro was that old. Those Telegraph poles were interesting. The whole video reminds me of that Margaret Rutherford, Rex Harrison film, Blithe Spirit. I would love to have gone to that Tea House in the video because you know they would have served the tea from a tea cozy and had scones with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry jam. 😋. Great video thanks.
I did some UK motorway design in the 1960s. We made good use back then of American textbooks, and also of a translated autobahn design manual, the original version of which had been issued, rather surprisingly, in 1943.
This looks as if it was shot on 16mm colour film. It must have cost a fortune to make - many hundreds, or even thousands of pounds in todays prices. The most remarkable thing to me is how few lorries. Cars and buses, yes but practically no big lorries - it all went by rail! Extraordinary piece of history, thanks for sharing!
Black was a popular colour for cars! 😏I was born in 1951 and can remember how different it was on the roads in the 50's, people didn't seem to be in such a hurry in those days. Many things have changed for the better, but the slower pace of life back then was nicer.
I lived in St Martins filmed here on the way into Stamford as a child in the sixties. The pretty houses were owned then and still are today by the Burghley estate. Most of the people commenting here would have no idea what it was like to live in a feudal society. It might look pretty but it was suffocating and l couldn’t wait to leave! Incidentally I have lived in a lovely diverse area of Bristol for nearly 40 years and wouldn’t swap for anything! Interesting to see this though, thanks for sharing!
Serfs were not really allowed to leave feudal societies or they would have became outlaws and been punished harshly if captured probably involving death or at best losing important body parts.
I had an old Austin A40 in the late 60’s and used to drive from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to London quite often for work, happy memories and happy days.
War time, looks so modern and civilised. Beautiful road quality.
Better roads than where I live now!!
@@leedorey1490 The big roads were all brand new then, due to the Arterial Road building programme of the time. An awful lot of the resisidential roads (especially the new ones) remained unmade until the 1950s.
Good old Blighty ...... what the hell happened !!
It wasn't wartime. That started on the 1st September 1939 so this was the 'Good old days' before it all started and then rationing came in later. This Country never did recover from WW2 and was changed forever, mores the pity. Wouldnt it be nice to drive about in 1939 Britain, even if it were for a week, just to experience it for oneself. Now its mostly a misable experience. Thanks for posting this wonderful snapshot of a great past.
atlantic1952
But there's a barrage balloon at 35 seconds. So the "phoney" war must have just started.
atlantic1952 Stamford is more or less the way it was, I was surprised.
Kount Five yes, they're still using a road sign from this period in the town centre!
atlantic1952 the buses have silver grey roofs and not the dark grey of the wartime years. This was to make the buses less conspicous from the air.
and its even more miserable now 13/2/2018
I was born in 1936, I joined a cycling club and rode my first 25 mile time trial at Grantham in 1950, the A1 was not very busy even then, so many memories, thank you.
Kinder and gentler days.
Were they really?
That's a funny thing to say about the start of world war two.
One thing is for sure though, Britain had a sense of national solidarity in those days. Multiculturalism has destroyed that.
...and the war was won with the brave support of people from the commonwealth, people from a range of 'cultures'. Read some history
Absolutely. We should have shut the door and never have let those bloody Danes, Angles, Saxons, Normans and Vikings in. As for the Huguenots, pfft, don't get me started! Yeah, multiculturalism really screwed this country up....
Thanks for posting, thoroughly enjoyable.
Some people say there were no good old days,,,, me, I beg to differ.......
There certainly was
My car was three years old in August 1939. To be able to see the country as she would have seen it is pretty special. I don't know if she was ever driven along the Great North road but whenever I watch a piece of film from this period I always look for her. Its a long shot but you never know.
I love the texture and the colours.Watching these films is like having a time machine.I bet all the towns are now bypassed. I wish the sign posts of today were as stylish as back then!
I wish modern life was as stylish as back then ! everything these days is watered down ...sad, mediocre, bland, cheaper ,culture-less, moral-less , style-less,......Oh god i'm getting depressed !
@@shakespeare_hall4788 result of Labour ideology and Conservative greed. If only we could have gone with Labour greed and Conservative ideology.
It’s hard to see the England of my forebears and of my youth, clean, litter free, no congestion, little pollution, and proper village/town pubs, all gone now of course, but I have the memories of growing up in a much better society than today, I feel sorry for today’s youth, they will never get to experience the joys of my carefree childhood, outdoors most of the summer holidays, no curfew except for tiredness, eating a packed lunch with filthy hands and never getting poorly, and yes, they were a much simpler and better time. 👍🇬🇧🏴
Keeping the streets clean has to privatised
Companies on the orders of Margaret Thatcher
Little pollution? they had to introduce the clean air act because of the levels of pollution . The trains all ran on coal as did virtually everyone's heating. Many rivers were devoid of life due to everything that got dumped into them by factories.
So how come infant mortality was higher and life expectancy was lower?
Usual claptrap from the far right
I'm living this dream, driving around small town Cambridgeshire on the Great North Road, sleeping in the back of my car. Problem is it's illegal to do that after 3 pints (sleeping in the back). Currently watching this from a St. Ives pub.
I do hope that you don't remove this video, as it has great educational value. there are far too many people about these days trying to claim copyright over anything and everything. 'Fair Use' is a policy that serves the public well, rather than lining the pockets of greedy 'chancers' who want to claim ownership of British history.
Stevenage looks much as I remember it in the the 50's when I used to go there with my father in his Austin Nippy! some of the cars look more 1940's though but what a great piece of film!
As it was 1939, I doubt if any of the cars were 1940s.
Fay Brown it's lovely seeing an actual film of the old High Street of my home town of Stevenage - if you've not been here since the 1950s you will see plenty of change. It's getting far too big now.
After Barnet, I believe Stevenage was the second town to be Bypassed and with the first “A” route road converted to Motorway A1(M) circa 1962.
Two things stand out for me.
1) The number of wires on the telegraph poles.
2) The centre road white lines appear to be a rough guide only :-)
Tunsgate 2) Even more so these days!
When I was stationed in Catterick in 1947 I used to thumb my way to Sheffield and back at the weekend up the North road but I often wondered why it wasn't called the SOUTH Road .
It looks idylic, but despite the low levels of traffic over 8000 people were killed on UK roads in 1939.