Malmesbury graveyard is worth a visit as there is an inscribed gravestone for Hannah Twynnoy who was killed in 1669 by a circus Tiger after she hit it with a stick.
@@tns5044from Wikipedia: Her gravestone records her name and death at the age of 33 on 23 October 1703, with a relatively long, evocative poem which reads: In bloom of Life She's snatchd from hence, She had not room To make defence; For Tyger fierce Took Life away. And here she lies In a bed of Clay, Until the Resurrection Day.
I remember while staying years ago at the Old Bell in Malmesbury that they said there is a ghost of a woman wandering around in one of the rooms at the front side. Although I slept in that specific room, I never saw her appearing while I was sleeping there.
There’s a running theme in a lot of these videos….manufacturing industries closing and “moving elsewhere” (assume abroad). When another small disagreement breaks out, we are f’d
The airfield mentioned is a Dyson research site, which is why the road was modified with the introduction of that roundabout a couple of years. Keeping to the theme of manufacturing moving abroad …
Trowbridge College was a centre for the study of plastic and rubber. A lot of local industries needed trained technologists and you could study to graduate level. And later they had connection to Brunel University Of course now that industry demand in the area has gone.
@@gra99 Hullavington Airfield (next to an Army Barracks on the site of the old RAF camp). There were lots of airfields in Wiltshire - but Lyneham is now an Apprentice School and Keevil (where the Spitfires were assembled and air freight was flown from, for the war in Europe) is just used for exercises.
Another excellent Great British Road Journey - thank you! The pinnacles around the market cross have a function. They are dead weights to counteract the sideways force of the flying buttresses that hold up the central lantern. Also La Cock is where William Henry Fox Talbot lived. Who he? The guy that invented the photographic negative. You missed the opportunity to visit another closed museum 😊.
The pinnacles are to stabilise the pillars of the 8 arches more than the flying buttresses on the "roof". I wonder whether the original intent was to have no centre column, but that's what Jon is sitting on at 1:57. With that there, the flying buttresses do not support the lantern to any great extent, though maybe they stabilse or centre it.
I am so pleased I found your video series! Love your irreverent, hilariously seemingly disinterested delivery, but underneath that it would be hard to miss the effort you put in! Do do Bromyard. Maybe Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster along the A44! I live in the largest building along the entire length except for some factories in Saint Johns [Worcester]. That being the Old Bromyard Hospital, a workhouse built in 1836, and now some sixty or so flats. Best wishes from George
The effort you put into these videos Jon is admirable, sadly a common theme is how many businesses have gone kaput over the past 50-60 years. Cracking video that one, all the same.
@timballam3675 that's what the ASDO is designed to prevent, opening doors where there's no platform. Sadly, on some of the older fleets, it hasn't yet been installed. I'd hate to see anybody fall out of a train, there's no soft landing and the chance of a serious injury is high.
Over the last week Jon, I have binge watched all 50 of your videos. Does that make me an anorak, watching an anorak? Great work Jon. Ive thoroughly enjoyed every one and shown my appreciation 50 times in the appropriate way.
Black Dog Halt, between Chippenham & Calne, was shorter still. Originally built in 1863 for Lord Lansdown (a major 'name' at Lloyds, whose descendant still owns the adjacent Bowood House), it was used for the public by British Railways until the Calne branch was closed. But the Halt remains..
You stopped by my home town of Trowbridge! Another bit of history about Trowbridge is the now closed Sir Isaac Pitman pub. He invented the short hand writing system. I only live in Trowbridge because it's cheap. Ish.
Strange isn't it that Nestles was pronounced "NESTLES" in their Milky Bar TV adverts when I was young. Their own adverts so I guess they should have known. Sometime in the more recent past this changed to "NESTLAY".
Apparently there were several other (small) factories in Trowbridge making various parts for Spitfires, with everything dispatched to Keevil for final assembly. Also, the original condensed milk factory in Chippenham was owned by the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, along with another site at Staverton on the outskirts of Trowbridge. Nestlé merged with the company some years later. The Factory Manager used to travel between sites on a push bike! The Staverton site stopped making dairy desserts in the 1990s and the entire site is now used for making breakfast cereals.
In the '80s, there were three separate factories on the Staverton site. Dairy - cream, yoghurts & desserts (Chambourcy); a can making plant, dating back to the milk canning - and Crosse & Blackwell beans and spaghetti, who were then using the cans. The factory was and still is known as the 'bean factory'. But nowadays, it supplies Shredded Wheat & Cereals to the whole of Europe, jointly owned by Nestlé and General Mills.
@@SummerHoneyClock - A sad ailment nowadays is the idea of 'Near Enough', which is closely linked to 'Who Cares?' and 'Doesn't Matter'. It's a policy of corporate laziness, by people who hope that nobody notices.
So many thoughts: my teenage home was on the hill behibd Avoncliffe, I remember it before the restoration: a great pub there, and I have caught a train there. Avon tyres also had a factory in nearby Bradford on Avon: Trowbridge made sausages and beer then, was a but smelly. And I did cycle to Caen Lovks once. And sorry to spoil the joke - it’s pronounced Lay Cock, and as well as being used for period dramas, it was significant in the development of photography. Good video …
Hi Jon, Excellent video as always. As a resident of Chippenham for 30 years (now ex resident) you gave it precisely the amount of airtime deserved, ie as little as possible. The only thing noteworthy was the nightclub Goldiggers
Woohoo! More canal stuff! The Caen Hill Locks are considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways and are an impressive example of early 19th century civil engineering.
Wiltshire boy here, born in Trowbridge. I forget that Wiltshire exists sometimes too. Grew up near Avoncliff and caught the train there many times. Longer trains do stop there but you can only alight at the very end door with the conductors help. To stop the train you genuinely have to stand on the platform with your arm out or it’ll keep going past you 😅
Your opening scene perfectly sums up Wiltshire, the placement of that bench! I could have taken you to half a dozen benches within three miles of where I live that are so badly placed the view you are meant to admire is blocked. Can’t explain it!
Still trying to get another security guard to move you on Jon. You should have flown your drone over Lacock (Laycock not La Cock) you might have got some security people on film then. It’s become a feature each week to hang about outside closed down factories.
Probably worth reflecting that if you had made cock jokes about Lacock a few centuries back, and then followed it up by saying it used to be home to a reigning consort that you would probably have been hung, drawn and quartered for such a vulgar juxtaposition of vlog topics. :-) Wicked, sweet, awesome!
Great video content I used to deliver in my HGV to Bowyers in Trowbridge and Hygrade in Chippenham both Victorian factories and an absolute bloody nightmare to access and manoeuvre in.
Yay you finally made it to my town, sorry about that. You missed the floods in Chippenham it was the most exciting thing to happen since king Alfred’s sister married some dude here. And nice, more canals 🤜🏼 pronounced cane btw, we are all thick here and can’t spell
Back on my stomping ground again Jon? Formerly RAF Hullavington, now the home of the Gurkha's and Dyson research centre for the electric vehicle that he decided not to go ahead with. Hey Jon, now you can tell people: When I was in Nam... Chippenham!
A long long time ago when I was a truck driver we use to deliver to Linolite Malmesbury which became the Dyson factory. Driving down from Stroud to Malmesbury very early in the morning in the mist was a very special ethereal experience. Truly a special place. Oh and the chip shop on the square used to do lovely chicken and chips.
The shortest platform I believe is at Beauly Kyle of Lochalsh line in Scotland, it's less than one carriage long and only the middle doors can be used. Actually caught a train from there in 2021.
Avon Tyres made some emergency sets for F1 teams in 1981 and 1982 - even scored some points. And Lacock is worth a visit; it's where the first photograph in Britain was taken.
As a Trowbridge resident, from what I’ve read, the original County Town of Wiltshire was Wilton, but was officially made the new County Town because it was the easiest place to travel to.
it was equidistant by train from salisbury and swindon via train... i say was... but this made it an easier choice for becoming the county town way back when.
Its good you covered Wiltshire at last. I was going to comment on the canal locks in a previous episode so I'm glad you covered them in this one so I don't have to. They're worth visiting is my comment.
Nice! I grew up near Malmesbury, spent some years living near Melksham, and now live in Chippenham. Fascinating to hear your perspective! That new road layout at Hullavington catches me by surprise every time I go that way….
3:03 The hangars at RAF Hullavington used to be part of a training base and were apparently built with a nod to Le Corbusier. Two of them have been hoovered up by that great fan of innovation, Sir James Dyson for an R&D facility. 5:05 We wuz rong then, us wot thought that the pispronunciation had been retired. 'Laycock' is the home of photography, the chocolatetiest chocolate box village and Abbey, all run by the National Trust and unpassbyable. Many, many films have been shot here including those Potter ones and maybe that's why drones are banned - it's the most "Don't do this, You'll be shot if you do that" NT site I've been to and all these restrictions in fact ruin the experience.
Yay! Trowvegas, a town so great we call it Trowvegas (not at all sarcastically. Well, maybe a bit.) I used to work at Cooper Tyres, The americans only bought it to asset strip, something that has happened to a good few British industrial institutions now. Caen hill is well worth a visit, but be warned, gets very busy in the summer.
@@handbags4948 they didn't modernise or keep the equipment up together, only fixing things when they broke. If you didn't work there you haven't got a clue. Nothing they did was good business sense 🤦
Chippenham was also home of the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co who supplied brakes and signal equipment (hence the name)to the world for over a century...... To the side of Avoncliff aqueduct is the remaining of a railway incline that linked from a limestone quarry above the villiage. This later became an underground factory for BSA and Bristol Aero Engies during the Second Small Disagreement..
I think you're confusing that with the mainline at Corsham and Box tunnel? The quarries there were linked underground and were known as the CAD - Central Ammunition Depot. The Corsham underground (the WW2 RR/BSA factory) later became 'Burlington' - the top secret codeword site for the evacuation of Government into, in time of nuclear war. It had its own BBC broadcasting station, and accomodation for the royal family.
@@ianhudson2193 I think you're still a little confused. Westwood (Murhill) Quarry was used from 1940 by Royal Enfield, to manufacture gun and bomb sights. There was also an above ground Royal Enfield factory in Bradford itself. The Bristol Aero engine (not R-R, my error) & BSA gun barrel manufacture was in the Corsham underground, predating the Westwood site. Although manufacturing never got fully off the ground it was simpler to keep production (and the thousands of people needed, daily) in Filton. At least the Corsham (Hawthorn/Westwells) site had all the infrastructure to accommodate those numbers, both with barrack blocks and the escalators taken from the London Underground, for access. Edit - the 'railway incline' was a horse drawn tramway connecting to the _canal,_ not the railway line on the other side of the river.
@@ianhudson2193 Try the local BoA museum, the Mendip Cave Registry, Subterranea Brittanica, Higgypop and other Urbex sites, Royal Enfield's website, the Facebook Avoncliff group - and Nick McCamley's book, 'Avoncliff'. Whereas Mark Ovenden's book covers an awful lot, but in not very much depth, according to many reviews. But it is a matter of documented fact that the Bristol Aero engines & BSA cannon manufacturing site was at Corsham and much, much bigger. That would be the 'underground city', certainly when it became Burlington. (Other codenames for the later CGWHQ included Subterfuge, Stockwell, Turnstile, and Eyeglass.) Is that not covered in Ovenden's book?
Great video as always Jon, you weren't that far away from the Least Used Station in Somerset when you were at Avoncliff, as Freshford is the Least Used Station in Somerset. Beauly Station has shorter platforms than Avoncliff (I think...)
Since you looked at Coventry ring rd, will you ever take a look at the a465 Heads of the Valley rd when the roadworks are done and talk about how bad it is. ❤
5:12 The very funnily named Lacock (and its abbey) is a site of particular importance to the history of photography, being the place where the earliest (first?) surviving photographic negative was created. It's well worth a visit. I will admit that the only reason I know all this is because me and my Girlfriend found the name immensely funny on our way back from Bath and decided to stop by.
It might be even funnier if you three had pronounced it properly. /lay-cock/ Laycock Abbey. (Typical of abbeys really!) Although, of course, I am sure Jon just pronounces it that way as a bit of click bait. And why not!?
Also, Lacock is a National Trust village and well liked by period drama location hunters, they were filming the ITV version of Emma when I visited the place 28 years ago.
Makes a change for me to see a Jon video in an area where I have no memory of ever being and about which I know (now knew😉) the square root of buggerall. As a result everything (except the Spitfire which I had heard of🤭) was new and therefore engrossing. Nice one, mate👍
G'day Jon, I did enjoy this weeks Road Journey & used the button specifically for that 👍 🤔You missed the opportunity for a Knice Wiltshire "Stay Sharp" pun
After watching these videos for a few months I am actually started to consider visiting Britain sometime. I just have to find me a copy of the 1923 Michelin guidebook first.
I was born in Bradford on Avon, passed through Avoncliffe Halt Station thousands of times on my way to and from school by train, moved to North Bradley and used to trespass onto the old Spitfire works on my Moulton Bike. Worked at Airsprung Trowbridge, and Ladd's at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge - visited the Cross Keys at Avoncliffe a few weeks back. Bradford on Avon is interesting and drone shots of all the white horses in Wiltshire would look great too. Been watching you for ages Jon. Thank you. Love it all.
Always fairly surreal to see some bloke on the internet where I often take the dog for a walk. Still, always nice to learn a bit more about things around me!
I once sang in the choir at Malmesbury Abbey, before my voice broke but long after it fell down. Some bloke in a cassock told us it fell down in an earthquake, which sounded impressive but was clearly a big fat lie.
Woohoo, you’re in my county at last! Living less than a mile from Caen Hill Locks it’s a regular dog-walking route for me. Unfortunately I was not there the day you filmed, that would’ve been wicked, sweet and awesome
Excellent video as always but those pinnacles are not simply decorative. Stone is extremely strong in compression but less so in tension so the heavy pinnacles compress the stonework below to protect against cracking and ultimately structural failure. Loving the videos, cheers.
Excellent video, that statio. platform looks possibly giganticenormus compared to Beauly and Conon Bridge stations on the far north line out of Inverness, each around 15 metres long 😁
Jon is producing better content than the BBC.
Yes however, a 2 year-old with mummies IPhone could produce something better than BBC...!
And he’s not on yew tree
The BBC produced Jimmy Saville, etc.
I mean they did do TopGear - at least it wasn't so bad a few years ago 😂 But thats also all i know since i don't live in the UK 🙈
Not difficult these days tbh.
Distinct lack of HYPERBOLIC PARABOLOID 7.5/10
I was at Markham Moor earlier today. I couldn't refrain from a bit hyperbolic paraboloid on my way by.
really was expecting jon to hold a costa cup 🤣
Roads, canals, railways and Spitfires all in one episode. Bravo Jon 👏👏👍😀
Bridges too!
@ Oh yes, Jon loves a bridge too! 👏👏👍😀
Yeah it was FWickedSweetAwesome! 🙃👎
Malmesbury graveyard is worth a visit as there is an inscribed gravestone for Hannah Twynnoy who was killed in 1669 by a circus Tiger after she hit it with a stick.
Her headstone says 'here lies a stupid bint'?
@@tns5044from Wikipedia:
Her gravestone records her name and death at the age of 33 on 23 October 1703, with a relatively long, evocative poem which reads:
In bloom of Life
She's snatchd from hence,
She had not room
To make defence;
For Tyger fierce
Took Life away.
And here she lies
In a bed of Clay,
Until the Resurrection Day.
I remember while staying years ago at the Old Bell in Malmesbury that they said there is a ghost of a woman wandering around in one of the rooms at the front side. Although I slept in that specific room, I never saw her appearing while I was sleeping there.
She who chides a tiger...
Hannah Twynnoy (c. 1669/70 - October 1703)
Hello Jon, how the devil are you, have you had a good week?
I been in Trowbridgeshire kind sir
Jon turns it up to 11 with a Spinal Tap joke 😂
It was timely and thoughtful
There’s a running theme in a lot of these videos….manufacturing industries closing and “moving elsewhere” (assume abroad). When another small disagreement breaks out, we are f’d
Or just considered pretty pointless & so, left alone . . . (Don't hold your breath for that one : )
Small I feel like it might be a tad big
The airfield mentioned is a Dyson research site, which is why the road was modified with the introduction of that roundabout a couple of years. Keeping to the theme of manufacturing moving abroad …
Trowbridge College was a centre for the study of plastic and rubber. A lot of local industries needed trained technologists and you could study to graduate level. And later they had connection to Brunel University Of course now that industry demand in the area has gone.
@@gra99 Hullavington Airfield (next to an Army Barracks on the site of the old RAF camp).
There were lots of airfields in Wiltshire - but Lyneham is now an Apprentice School and Keevil (where the Spitfires were assembled and air freight was flown from, for the war in Europe) is just used for exercises.
Another excellent Great British Road Journey - thank you!
The pinnacles around the market cross have a function. They are dead weights to counteract the sideways force of the flying buttresses that hold up the central lantern.
Also La Cock is where William Henry Fox Talbot lived. Who he? The guy that invented the photographic negative. You missed the opportunity to visit another closed museum 😊.
The pinnacles are to stabilise the pillars of the 8 arches more than the flying buttresses on the "roof". I wonder whether the original intent was to have no centre column, but that's what Jon is sitting on at 1:57. With that there, the flying buttresses do not support the lantern to any great extent, though maybe they stabilse or centre it.
@neilbarnett3046 doh! I completely missed the centre column.
I am so pleased I found your video series!
Love your irreverent, hilariously seemingly disinterested delivery, but underneath that it would be hard to miss the effort you put in!
Do do Bromyard. Maybe Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster along the A44! I live in the largest building along the entire length except for some factories in Saint Johns [Worcester]. That being the Old Bromyard Hospital, a workhouse built in 1836, and now some sixty or so flats.
Best wishes from George
The effort you put into these videos Jon is admirable, sadly a common theme is how many businesses have gone kaput over the past 50-60 years. Cracking video that one, all the same.
Ah, Avoncliffe, one of the key stops on my test route for testing the automatic selective door operation system on some of the GWR train fleet.
Seriously wish I had your job.
@Anmeteor9663 rough with smooth, my friend, the GWR stuff is much nicer to do than the London Overground work.
I remember being on a train through there when someone didn't quite get off onto the a platform.....
@timballam3675 that's what the ASDO is designed to prevent, opening doors where there's no platform. Sadly, on some of the older fleets, it hasn't yet been installed. I'd hate to see anybody fall out of a train, there's no soft landing and the chance of a serious injury is high.
The door opening at Avoncliffe is performed by the guard.
They only open one set of doors in the first coach.
Over the last week Jon, I have binge watched all 50 of your videos. Does that make me an anorak, watching an anorak? Great work Jon. Ive thoroughly enjoyed every one and shown my appreciation 50 times in the appropriate way.
I've actually travelled through the Caen flight of locks on a narrow boat. What a day of fun that was!
Beauly station in Scotland (near Inverness) has a shorter platform.
As does Gilfach Fargoed in Wales (near Bargoed (north of Cardiff))
Black Dog Halt, between Chippenham & Calne, was shorter still. Originally built in 1863 for Lord Lansdown (a major 'name' at Lloyds, whose descendant still owns the adjacent Bowood House), it was used for the public by British Railways until the Calne branch was closed. But the Halt remains..
Berney Arms in Norfolk also has a very short platform!
You stopped by my home town of Trowbridge! Another bit of history about Trowbridge is the now closed Sir Isaac Pitman pub. He invented the short hand writing system.
I only live in Trowbridge because it's cheap. Ish.
Nice place, visited only last month 👍
Canals! And yes, it's quite a day's work to traverse the locks, but also a lot of fun to do.
The quickest ten minutes of the week.
That's what she said.
Not according to your other half........
@@martinhowe1422 nor yours
still studiously avoiding mentioning or passing through Sw***on 😂😂😂😂. Good choice!!
He did do an hour long video of the Swindon Magic Roundabout which, for a gentle background, beats that log fire thing from Netflix.
@@gavinjamiemaybe we ought to demand an “All The Roundabouts of Swindon” episode / series…
Some of us live there! It’s not as bad as it’s painted to be.
Another fwickedsweetawesome video, Jon. Loved the intro 🤣
Always a brilliant watch! ❤
Sent it to my friends who live in that neck of the woods.
😂 👍👌
The Dundas Aqueduct at the aforementioned Limpley Stoke is even more impressive!
Strange isn't it that Nestles was pronounced "NESTLES" in their Milky Bar TV adverts when I was young.
Their own adverts so I guess they should have known.
Sometime in the more recent past this changed to "NESTLAY".
Blame it on the Swiss, for not being ..... English ..... enough.
Same way 'bucket' became a nice bunch of flowers . . . : )
Thanks for braving the chill. Here's for a cupper... 😂
Jan Molby sent me ❤
Any episode with a Spitfire factory is the best episode the channel can possibly produce. Thanks mate.
Apparently there were several other (small) factories in Trowbridge making various parts for Spitfires, with everything dispatched to Keevil for final assembly.
Also, the original condensed milk factory in Chippenham was owned by the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, along with another site at Staverton on the outskirts of Trowbridge. Nestlé merged with the company some years later. The Factory Manager used to travel between sites on a push bike! The Staverton site stopped making dairy desserts in the 1990s and the entire site is now used for making breakfast cereals.
In the '80s, there were three separate factories on the Staverton site. Dairy - cream, yoghurts & desserts (Chambourcy); a can making plant, dating back to the milk canning - and Crosse & Blackwell beans and spaghetti, who were then using the cans. The factory was and still is known as the 'bean factory'. But nowadays, it supplies Shredded Wheat & Cereals to the whole of Europe, jointly owned by Nestlé and General Mills.
@ Indeed - the Littel Building making the cans from rolls of tin-plate.
@@dukeofaaghisle7324 The building is still there, but the daily rolls of tin plate from South Wales are long gone.
That replaced pinnacle on the market cross is sheer vandalism! Why can't we do beautiful any more?
@@SummerHoneyClock - A sad ailment nowadays is the idea of 'Near Enough', which is closely linked to 'Who Cares?' and 'Doesn't Matter'. It's a policy of corporate laziness, by people who hope that nobody notices.
Part of what scientists call the shitification of everything.
@@Tim091 It was Cory Doctrow who came up with the term
Yeah you could do proper stuff when the working class was literally starving. Don't worry we're heading back there.
So many thoughts: my teenage home was on the hill behibd Avoncliffe, I remember it before the restoration: a great pub there, and I have caught a train there. Avon tyres also had a factory in nearby Bradford on Avon: Trowbridge made sausages and beer then, was a but smelly. And I did cycle to Caen Lovks once.
And sorry to spoil the joke - it’s pronounced Lay Cock, and as well as being used for period dramas, it was significant in the development of photography.
Good video …
Hi Jon, Excellent video as always. As a resident of Chippenham for 30 years (now ex resident) you gave it precisely the amount of airtime deserved, ie as little as possible. The only thing noteworthy was the nightclub Goldiggers
@@Noseyparker-ty9zg Goldiggers is actually a Wiltshire dialect word for a JCB.
Chippenham was where Top Gear did the oil and spark plug changes on their
St. Mary’s Street in Chippenham features in the opening credits to the Antiques Roadshow, in doll’s house form. How underwhelming is that?
@@Gordanovich02 Interesting - which garage did they use?
@@austid01 They didn't name it unfortunately, they just said "a service centre in Chippenham".
Thanks for making another great video, was happy to see the hangars of my old camp at RAF Hullavington.
Used to drive past there in the 80s when they did parachute training....
This episode has assisted with the digestion of my lunch. Thank you.
You missed out the metropolis of Calne(fornia) and its bacon factory.
Thanks, Jon: I was beginning to get paranoid: my first three Sunday YTers let me down today, but Auto Shenanigans came through! Yay! 🎉
I went to Chippenham this morning, can't see why it exists
Woohoo! More canal stuff!
The Caen Hill Locks are considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways and are an impressive example of early 19th century civil engineering.
6:18 - Paul and Rebecca Whitewick vibes!
9:18 - Geoff Marshall and Jago Hazzard vibes!
A great start to Wiltshire, Jon!
Great video never seen any photos of the spitfire factory before ,nice
Wiltshire boy here, born in Trowbridge. I forget that Wiltshire exists sometimes too. Grew up near Avoncliff and caught the train there many times. Longer trains do stop there but you can only alight at the very end door with the conductors help. To stop the train you genuinely have to stand on the platform with your arm out or it’ll keep going past you 😅
I almost gave up, Jon didn't mention railways until nearly the end. The aqueduct looked pretty sweet awesome.
Your opening scene perfectly sums up Wiltshire, the placement of that bench! I could have taken you to half a dozen benches within three miles of where I live that are so badly placed the view you are meant to admire is blocked. Can’t explain it!
Still trying to get another security guard to move you on Jon. You should have flown your drone over Lacock (Laycock not La Cock) you might have got some security people on film then. It’s become a feature each week to hang about outside closed down factories.
Then why isn't it spelt Laycock? So Lactose should be pronounced Laytose? English in England is weird.
Probably worth reflecting that if you had made cock jokes about Lacock a few centuries back, and then followed it up by saying it used to be home to a reigning consort that you would probably have been hung, drawn and quartered for such a vulgar juxtaposition of vlog topics. :-) Wicked, sweet, awesome!
@@AnyoneSeenMikeHunt God doesn't know why either!
Great video content I used to deliver in my HGV to Bowyers in Trowbridge and Hygrade in Chippenham both Victorian factories and an absolute bloody nightmare to access and manoeuvre in.
50 episodes, look forward to more interesting and informative vids! Safe travels Jon atvb.
Yay you finally made it to my town, sorry about that. You missed the floods in Chippenham it was the most exciting thing to happen since king Alfred’s sister married some dude here.
And nice, more canals 🤜🏼 pronounced cane btw, we are all thick here and can’t spell
16 locks one after the other... One wonders why they didn't put them side by side.😮
Well, because the keys would snag on each other.
I adore Malmesbury, one of my favourite places in England, I lived just on the outskirts from 1985-1993.
Back on my stomping ground again Jon?
Formerly RAF Hullavington, now the home of the Gurkha's and Dyson research centre for the electric vehicle that he decided not to go ahead with.
Hey Jon, now you can tell people: When I was in Nam... Chippenham!
My friend, you can’t call it “Nam!” That is reserved for places that resemble a war zone…….
Like Dagenham 😂
Daggernam!
@@ChrisBeevor0511 Birmingnam.
A long long time ago when I was a truck driver we use to deliver to Linolite Malmesbury which became the Dyson factory. Driving down from Stroud to Malmesbury very early in the morning in the mist was a very special ethereal experience. Truly a special place. Oh and the chip shop on the square used to do lovely chicken and chips.
9:24 great catch 2 egrets
Those were Frank Sinatra's favourite birds. As he famously sang:
"Egrets... I've had a few..."
Avoncliff was our Pub site when i was Uni in 1975.
The shortest platform I believe is at Beauly Kyle of Lochalsh line in Scotland, it's less than one carriage long and only the middle doors can be used. Actually caught a train from there in 2021.
Well that was Fwicked sweet awesome. Now, where is that button especially for that?
Avon Tyres made some emergency sets for F1 teams in 1981 and 1982 - even scored some points.
And Lacock is worth a visit; it's where the first photograph in Britain was taken.
Ive had a crap week..... but yes... Happy Sunday
You are brilliant. :D
As a Trowbridge resident, from what I’ve read, the original County Town of Wiltshire was Wilton, but was officially made the new County Town because it was the easiest place to travel to.
it was equidistant by train from salisbury and swindon via train... i say was... but this made it an easier choice for becoming the county town way back when.
Some good pubs in Chippenham.
... and the surrounding villages.
Its good you covered Wiltshire at last. I was going to comment on the canal locks in a previous episode so I'm glad you covered them in this one so I don't have to. They're worth visiting is my comment.
Nice! I grew up near Malmesbury, spent some years living near Melksham, and now live in Chippenham. Fascinating to hear your perspective! That new road layout at Hullavington catches me by surprise every time I go that way….
3:03 The hangars at RAF Hullavington used to be part of a training base and were apparently built with a nod to Le Corbusier. Two of them have been hoovered up by that great fan of innovation, Sir James Dyson for an R&D facility.
5:05 We wuz rong then, us wot thought that the pispronunciation had been retired. 'Laycock' is the home of photography, the chocolatetiest chocolate box village and Abbey, all run by the National Trust and unpassbyable.
Many, many films have been shot here including those Potter ones and maybe that's why drones are banned - it's the most "Don't do this, You'll be shot if you do that" NT site I've been to and all these restrictions in fact ruin the experience.
Ha ha, my local area, La-Cock has always amused me too. I didn't know about the burial chamber at Lanhill!
Yes I have had a good week. Yes I did like the video and pressed the buttom specifically for that.
Malmesbury Abbey was used for some scenes in Robin of Sherwood.
Such a quaint part of the world
Yay! Trowvegas, a town so great we call it Trowvegas (not at all sarcastically. Well, maybe a bit.) I used to work at Cooper Tyres, The americans only bought it to asset strip, something that has happened to a good few British industrial institutions now. Caen hill is well worth a visit, but be warned, gets very busy in the summer.
Why didn't the original owners 'asset strip' it instead? Could it be that the Americans had more business sense?
@@handbags4948 they didn't modernise or keep the equipment up together, only fixing things when they broke.
If you didn't work there you haven't got a clue.
Nothing they did was good business sense 🤦
Hiya John Another wicked sweet travel log. And including planes, trains and autos! Thanks for posting. Take care & stay safe.
Chippenham was also home of the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co who supplied brakes and signal equipment (hence the name)to the world for over a century......
To the side of Avoncliff aqueduct is the remaining of a railway incline that linked from a limestone quarry above the villiage. This later became an underground factory for BSA and Bristol Aero Engies during the Second Small Disagreement..
I think you're confusing that with the mainline at Corsham and Box tunnel? The quarries there were linked underground and were known as the CAD - Central Ammunition Depot. The Corsham underground (the WW2 RR/BSA factory) later became 'Burlington' - the top secret codeword site for the evacuation of Government into, in time of nuclear war. It had its own BBC broadcasting station, and accomodation for the royal family.
@wessexdruid7598 No! The quarry above Avoncliff was used by BSA and Bristol Aeroengines and is now a secure data storage site.
@@ianhudson2193 I think you're still a little confused. Westwood (Murhill) Quarry was used from 1940 by Royal Enfield, to manufacture gun and bomb sights. There was also an above ground Royal Enfield factory in Bradford itself.
The Bristol Aero engine (not R-R, my error) & BSA gun barrel manufacture was in the Corsham underground, predating the Westwood site. Although manufacturing never got fully off the ground it was simpler to keep production (and the thousands of people needed, daily) in Filton. At least the Corsham (Hawthorn/Westwells) site had all the infrastructure to accommodate those numbers, both with barrack blocks and the escalators taken from the London Underground, for access.
Edit - the 'railway incline' was a horse drawn tramway connecting to the _canal,_ not the railway line on the other side of the river.
@wessexdruid7598 I'll stick with what Underground Cities says, given the time the author spent researching it.
@@ianhudson2193 Try the local BoA museum, the Mendip Cave Registry, Subterranea Brittanica, Higgypop and other Urbex sites, Royal Enfield's website, the Facebook Avoncliff group - and Nick McCamley's book, 'Avoncliff'.
Whereas Mark Ovenden's book covers an awful lot, but in not very much depth, according to many reviews.
But it is a matter of documented fact that the Bristol Aero engines & BSA cannon manufacturing site was at Corsham and much, much bigger. That would be the 'underground city', certainly when it became Burlington. (Other codenames for the later CGWHQ included Subterfuge, Stockwell, Turnstile, and Eyeglass.)
Is that not covered in Ovenden's book?
I was literally in trowbridge yesterday 😂
Nice. See a bit of snow on the ground. Happy travels.
It was -6 (C) when I started filming which is quite cold for me!
Immensely enjoyable , thanks Jon
I liked the video and used the button spacifically for that
Nicely done John, thankyou 😊
Looks awfully cold there, stay warm John!
Great video as always Jon, you weren't that far away from the Least Used Station in Somerset when you were at Avoncliff, as Freshford is the Least Used Station in Somerset.
Beauly Station has shorter platforms than Avoncliff (I think...)
Since you looked at Coventry ring rd, will you ever take a look at the a465 Heads of the Valley rd when the roadworks are done and talk about how bad it is. ❤
It looks SO cold!
5:12 The very funnily named Lacock (and its abbey) is a site of particular importance to the history of photography, being the place where the earliest (first?) surviving photographic negative was created. It's well worth a visit.
I will admit that the only reason I know all this is because me and my Girlfriend found the name immensely funny on our way back from Bath and decided to stop by.
It might be even funnier if you three had pronounced it properly. /lay-cock/ Laycock Abbey. (Typical of abbeys really!) Although, of course, I am sure Jon just pronounces it that way as a bit of click bait. And why not!?
Also, Lacock is a National Trust village and well liked by period drama location hunters, they were filming the ITV version of Emma when I visited the place 28 years ago.
Here comes my weekly dose of shenanigan 👍
Makes a change for me to see a Jon video in an area where I have no memory of ever being and about which I know (now knew😉) the square root of buggerall.
As a result everything (except the Spitfire which I had heard of🤭) was new and therefore engrossing.
Nice one, mate👍
Great Sunday Video Jon, how's Gilroy doing..............
Avon tyres went the same way as Michelin apart from a guide book and restaurant stars? Cool.
G'day Jon,
I did enjoy this weeks Road Journey & used the button specifically for that 👍
🤔You missed the opportunity for a Knice Wiltshire "Stay Sharp" pun
Great video Jon, love the history lessons you always give.
Happy Sunday John hope everyone has a wonderful day ⚓️🧲👍😁
Congratulations on 50!
Hello Jon, the long shadows in the video intro tell me you moved that seat behind the sign to keep the sun out of your eyes
Even though lived in Wiltshire for 25 years, this was still the best video I've seen in ages
After watching these videos for a few months I am actually started to consider visiting Britain sometime. I just have to find me a copy of the 1923 Michelin guidebook first.
Grand video as always.
Hi great video as usual, one of the two aircraft hangers is home to M4 karting which also does mini moto racing when conditions allow.
Quite common the short platforms on the Highland line , most notable is connon where there is only enough room for one door to open
I was born in Bradford on Avon, passed through Avoncliffe Halt Station thousands of times on my way to and from school by train, moved to North Bradley and used to trespass onto the old Spitfire works on my Moulton Bike. Worked at Airsprung Trowbridge, and Ladd's at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge - visited the Cross Keys at Avoncliffe a few weeks back. Bradford on Avon is interesting and drone shots of all the white horses in Wiltshire would look great too. Been watching you for ages Jon. Thank you. Love it all.
Always fairly surreal to see some bloke on the internet where I often take the dog for a walk. Still, always nice to learn a bit more about things around me!
Thanks Jon always a pleasure.
I once sang in the choir at Malmesbury Abbey, before my voice broke but long after it fell down. Some bloke in a cassock told us it fell down in an earthquake, which sounded impressive but was clearly a big fat lie.
Woohoo, you’re in my county at last! Living less than a mile from Caen Hill Locks it’s a regular dog-walking route for me. Unfortunately I was not there the day you filmed, that would’ve been wicked, sweet and awesome
Excellent Sunday afternoon viewing - Thanks Jon
Another fantastic piece of work, Thanks, who put the signs up in front of the Bench
Excellent video as always but those pinnacles are not simply decorative. Stone is extremely strong in compression but less so in tension so the heavy pinnacles compress the stonework below to protect against cracking and ultimately structural failure. Loving the videos, cheers.
Excellent video, that statio. platform looks possibly giganticenormus compared to Beauly and Conon Bridge stations on the far north line out of Inverness, each around 15 metres long 😁