American Reacts to Outdoor Objects You Won't Find in the UK
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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In this video I react to outdoor objects that you can't find in the UK or at the very least are uncommon. I'm shocked that some of the outdoor items that I'm used to seeing all the time don't seem to exist in the UK.
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The concrete block isnt the firehydrant, it's a marker indicating where the firehydrant is. There is normally a plate in the pavement that is lifted to access water. EDIT: Typically they are not even concrete blocks anymore, they are just a sign attached to a wall.
The Steam traction engine lads use them in emergencies to top up their steam engines!@@scott4600
@@scott4600 Unless the local water authority or fire service gives permission.
Also, the figure (number) at the top of the letter 'H' is the size of the main that feeds that hydrant in millimetres. The lower figure (number) under the 'H' is the distance from that sign to where the hydrant is in metres. Although the sign is usually located in a direct line to the hydrant, in awkward or tight spaces they will sometimes have an additional 'arrow' pointing towards the position of the hydrant!
@@stewedfishproductions7959Slight correction, some hydrant signs still use imperial measurements, meaning the pipe diameter is in inches and it is so many feet away from the sign.
One advantage of the underground hydrants is that we don't get big water leaks from people crashing into them. (Also you never see kids messing with them.)
In UK, we tend not to fly our flag because we don't forget which country we live in. 😆
Neither do we worship it. We are, on occasion, expected to pledge allegiance to the King/Queen, but suspending them or their hellspawn from a post is frowned upon.
🤣
You have never been to NI then, practically every lamp post has a flag attached all year round.
It may not be generally realised, but the UK does not 'officially' have a flag. The Union Flag (or Jack) was designed for King James I to identify his ships - not the government's. In the 1920s George V allowed the flag to be flown from public buildings. And that's it. It has never been officially adopted as the national flag.
The same goes for God Save the King, too. It isn't officially our national anthem.
England is ashamed of itself. It's full of woke, self loathing anti British people.
With an outdoor mailbox, I would be paranoid that someone might steal my stuff.
Yes, again I'm relying on Hollywood portrayal of such things but I get the impression that the boxes are not lockable.
Mail in mailbox isn't really an issue...it's the packages left on porches that tend to be a problem in some areas!
or identity ?
@@reactingtomyroots I really don't understand the idea that you can leave packages outside and that would be ok.
Blame Amazon.@@reactingtomyroots
The UK fire hydrant isn’t a fire hydrant. It’s a marker for the fire officers to locate the water main. Usually it’s under a metal flap on the pavement that gives access to the water pipe valve underneath. Also there are extra separate flaps in the pavement that can turn off the water to a section of houses in case of leaks.
The last part isn't right, the Fire Hydrant valve cover, marked FH is only for the fire hydrant, the water mains are separate valves under separate covers usually marked with the local water utility companies name,
Thanks alot that you explained it very well one of my flat in the my Gated Houses was in fire those places we walk daily by without noticing we walk in Water Supply.. to like 15 fire Engine in no time every body safe Hat off to those professions
@@Puckoon2002 thank you for the correction. I have amended 👍
😂the numbers signify eg 80 inches out 2 feet down
UK's fire engines carry water on board.
I have never seen a school bus, the regular public transport is pretty good. I used trains for my high school years . More recently the local public bus services will add routes that are specifically intended to service a school primarily but are still open to any user who wants to use them.
I have seen dedicated school buses in the city I grew up in, but they're basically just one of the standard buses that's been hired
Every local authority has 'Home to School' transport for Special Needs students (and some Catholic schools bought a bus, but it's not the norm
We have school busses, but they're just regular busses chartered by schools and given a special yellow placard. Usually placed on the back window.
I very much doubt that the lack of roadside billboards in the UK is anything to do with safety. It's likely to be aesthetics. You'd never get planning permission to splash billboards all across the countryside.
yes our countryside is special to us that why we have hedges, and grass verges,
Farmers often put them on trailers in their fields
Thats why we need to hire the side of a trailer from the farmer who owns it 😂
And it’s wonderful to actually see the countryside and not have the view of it blocked by big, ugly billboards.
@@Mursh26 Unlikely. Road signs themselves can have a lot of information to take in, and 'hazardous' billboards are common when driving through towns with pedestrians, cyclists, junctions, crossings etc.
I’m a firefighter in the uk, the hydrant plate indicates the size of the water main and the distance from the plate the water main is.
The link for the hose and the tap to turn the water on, is under a small cover in the footpath/road/someone's garden, which the firemen open. This means cars don't crash into them, which we know from American films is an hourly occurence in the States.
I didn't know that, thanks. 👍🏻
The hydrant sign shown in the thumbnail shows the way to a 80mm pipe or 3.25inch pipe that is 2 meters away or approx 6ft away this mean s the firemen know how much water the pipe scan deliver and they can place the taponthe pipe itself without having to plumb in an extension from the pipe to the kerb and the fire engine carries a stand pipe which lifts the hose connection to a good height and meansother people can’t use the hydrant without permission
Came to the comments to comment this as a lot of people don't know
Also in America its an offence to park infront of a hydrant where as in uk its not! However if a car is parked over a hydrant I believe they can and do forcibly move it!
I don't know if that's because only big fires they need it because fire trucks in uk carry about 10 tonnes of water on board! Do American fire trucks carry there own water?
Hi Steve. I'm always amazed at Americans assuming that their world is universal. Why would you think school buses are yellow, fly flags or have the same fire hydrants. I'm Irish but I would never assume I would go to the local park in the USA to watch a game of hurling or cricket or go to a bar in America and expect to see people drinking Guinness and playing darts. (well, maybe in New York).😂
Just wait until he finds out we don’t have a school massacre every couple of weeks, mind blown! 🤪
what part of ireland do you live in cricket played in the parks.Yes it is amazing especially the assumption that thanksgiving is celebrated worldwide,for example gabriel byrne was asked by david letterman what was thanksgiving like in ireland.I have a cousin in chicago and he said that many do think that thanksgiving is a worldwide thing
@@gallowglass2630they celebrate Thanksgiving in not only the US, but also in Canada and the Asian continent.
Canadian Thanksgiving is not the same as USA. Different date for a start.
@@gallowglass2630 we call Thanksgiving Day Good Riddance Day.
Water towers are relatively rare in the UK, as virtually all water supplies are collected in reservoirs and piped in from many miles away to Cities, Towns and Villages, via regional water companies. Often, water towers may still exist on farm land for use by farmers, but the tower may have originally been a local water storage facility for a community decades before a regional water company was set up, or was able to connect the local community to the Mains Water system.
Not so many as there are in USA. But usually built on a hilltop to create the water pressure for houses built on the hill. There are a fair few in Yorkshire. One is 15 minutes walk from me. On top of the Highest point in the city. But its a residential area and the residents needs the pressure.
I live in Bristol in the UK our water tower is in quite a prominent place .
There’s definitely a few about still there’s a large one in Reading Berkshire
I live in the Midlands and I can't remember ever seeing one here. I may just not have registered it though. Thanks for your extra input (for me!!)
There were a lot a while ago, used for many different reasons. I think they were common near mines, and obviously mining was pretty widespread at one time.
Our water towers are really cool because they're all different designs. Also because they're made of concrete those that aren't needed anymore have been converted into homes. :) We don't have school buses. They're just ordinary large buses with special times for schoolchildren within their time tables. Adults can use them too but there generally isn't much room for other people as they're choc-a-block with children, lol.
I grew up in a rural area and most kids from outlying towns and villages went to school in the nearest large town by bus. However it was a regular bus. It would normally be under contract from a commercial bus company by the local council. No special colours or markings.
There are a number of bus companies now where regular passengers will travel on a "school bus". Its only regarded as a school bus because of the timing of the service, being convenient for kids to get to and from school.
In Scotland the only people using schoolbuses were the posh private schools we would just get regular first busses
Same in Sweden. And when you get up to the higher grades, from age 14,15... you go on regular buses to get to school. Or a tram, or subway or whatever happens to exist where one lives. Hardly anyone gets driven by their parents though. Some might bike or walk if they live close enough.
@@lastraven8575 I can't speak for Scotland, but in England even they are hired coaches rather than specifically "school busses". They don't drive around picking kids up from outside or near their homes, they drive to 1 specific drop off point where they're expected to be picked up from or find their own way home. I wouldn't say it was particularly 'posh' but I went to a boarding school in the Midlands for a couple years and, being from London, I would often get the coach back on certain weekends (even then most of us preferred to get the National Rail). They would just ditch us kids at South Mimms services on the M25, lol
@lastraven8575 I'm in Scotland and my daughter gets a school bus. It's a mini bus because we live in a small village a couple of miles from the primary school so there's about 14 kids I think from the village that go there. For the most part though there are laws meaning there needs to be school places for kids within a certain distance from the school so most of the time people have schools in places they should be able to get to themselves.
Exactly the same experience for myself. Our bus was contracted from a local company that would also supply all the buses for the middle/upper and high schools in the surrounding areas and for the school trips too.
15:35 In his videos "Lost in the Pond" makes so many howlers when it comes to British culture and life, and here is another one. This is not a hydrant it is a sign that indicates where the hydrant is. Hydrants in the UK are built into the pavement (sidewalk) and sometimes have a yellow painted metal cover. The hydrant sign shows how many metres the hydrant is from the sign and how big the pipe is. So the sign in your video is an 80mm pipe that is 2 metres from the sign (nowadays the signs sometimes have arrows below the distant indicator to show the direction it is in.)
It's not just me then. I sometimes wonder if he grew up in the same country I did.
Never seen the cover painted yellow in the UK, just left metal solour.
On reflection, many fire hydrants are left as bare metal, although some are painted yellow. I don't know why only some are painted, might be down to the local council or some other reason. Thanks for the comment, I've emended my post.😊😊@@vincentyoung4726 🙂👍
Also the cover has the letters FH or Fire Hydrant on them. The fire services have stand pipes which are then screw on to the thread in the hole to which standard fire hoses can be connected.
@@vincentyoung4726 I have seen a few painted yellow, but more often than not they are left unpainted.
Most of us live within walking distance of school to be honest, it's not usually until you start secondary school at 11 that you need to travel a bit further. My secondary school was 3 miles away but I still walked it there and back because all the horrible rough kids used to get on our bus.
When I was at school middle school it was for 9 to 13 year olds, that was quite a long while ago though. 45 years ago infact. 😳
Yeah my primary school shared a fence with my Garden. Wasent allowed to climb it though lol
Urban school yes, rural is very different. We had school buses which is usually just the local coach company that has a contract to do school runs, the coaches were whichever logo the company had
I was the other way round. Had to get the school bus to my primary school which was further away than the nearest primary school which had less capacity. My secondary school was just down the road.
Everyone not living in a rural area should be able to walk to school, shops and such.
And those living further away should be able to bike to such destinations.
Even at the age of 8-9 kids from the farms usually bike to school or walk to school in my country.
Fun fact, the reason why we mainly use brick in the uk it’s because we learn during the London fires. The great London fire where the buildings were made out of wood, very tightly packed together, so we allowed the fire to travel quickly throughout the city. This is why we mainly use break to reduce the spread of fire.
metal is also fire proof lol, pretty sure the water tower near me (im in kent area of uk) is metal, will have to take a look later as im interrested as i've rly never payed much attention to it lol
@@ReversedTech metal is fireproof lol 😂 metal bends and twists under extreme heat and especially when steel girders are holding up a shit ton of brick
@@ReversedTech do yourself a favour and Google of the melting point of steel and the melting point of a brick
@@smiffieplays6086 it takes a lot more heat than a simple wild fire to effect metal that badly
@@ReversedTech mate you will be soooo surprised
Growing up in a rural area of the UK, our school buses were usually normal public buses on a school schedule. They did the school run and then for the rest of the day operated on a normal timetable.
We usually divide our back gardens with 6 foot wooden fences in Britain. We paint them in different colours and often have climbing plants growing up them. We tend to like our privacy in Britain.
Sounds right up my alley! I value my privacy as well.
For the first twenty seven years of my life I lived in houses which had quite low fences (approx 1 yd). This allowed us to have a good natter with the neighbours and we always got on well with them. Since then I've lived in one house (for nearly 39 years) which had low fences for the first few years but higher fences later. I preferred the lower fences.
Or bloody laylandii, hateful stuff
I think you're right. And I think there's a reason for it. Since the Enclosure System kicked in in Medieval times, ordinary English people have had to make do with less physical space around them than any other Western European nation. Mainly because that system stole the land from the people. We all like a bit of space. It gives us a sense of comfort. If we can't have that, we visually fence off the lack space.
This generally wasn't the case until the 80s onwards, open fences were far more common before then, as was conservation with your neighbours. Also a reason hedgehogs are dying out as they cant roam anymore.
We either walk, or bike, or take the bus...but its usually just a normal bus. School kids, old people, adults going tonwork (anyone can use them)
But each authority has school busses as well but will just be the colour of whoever gets the contract, but there are definitely school buses in uk lots of them, many are coaches, buses and double-decker, and only kids allowed on them, it may pick up at a bus stop but not a regular service
They use service numbers in 800 900 series
@mpol701 really?? Oh well maybe it was just where i live x
He did make the hydrant thing very confusing. Our 'hydrant' shown is not a hydrant, but a sign to tell you where the hydrant is. The top number is the size of the water main (mm), the bottom number is how far from the sign the hydrant is in meters. The hydrant its self is just a small metal cover on the sidewalk or in the road which you flip up to reveal the mains connection.
And the reason most people would not know how they work or what to do with one is that only the fire brigade (and the water company I guess) are supposed to touch them. You would need a special tool just to lift the heavy metal cover.
@@andyjdhurley I've seen council street cleaning tankers filling up from them.
@inegom1735 A lot of these clips on You Tube, posted by US reactErs, are confusing to say the least. This is not a good idea really, as a lot of them are confused enough. Correct information is obviously a better plan, as it educates the ignorant self centRED ones.
The small metal cover is usually the main valve control access (usually just out of reach of a kids arm) the coupling to the pipe will be under a separate plate that can be hooked onto and dragged out of the way by the same tool that can operate the valve. There may be another flow control valve under the coupler cover that can be used should it be used as a standpipe (so that the main valve does not get damaged by people fiddling). Some thought did go into planning it all.
@@davebrown6552 Both the screw thread for the standpipe and the spindle to control water flow are under the same cover (the screw thread and spindle are attached. A hydrant is a single piece of infrastructure). No need to use any other valves.
I recently found out about my (UK) town's water tower. Tower Road is named after it. It was in place for over 50 years and was a more decorated versionof the first example (being Victorian) and demolished in 1936. We've had mains direct plumbing ever since. It caused a big typhoyd outbreak in the 1890s.
The Fire Hydrant. As a retired UK Firefighter I can tell you that was not a fire hydrant you depicted, but a very visible sign plate indicating where the hydrant is. The letter H stands for hydrant, the top number indicates the size of the water main in millimetres and the lower number the distance for the plate to the hydrant in metres. In the UK, hydrants are in pits below ground level covered by a metal plate. This means they are not subject to damage from say passing traffic or tampering by anyone who wants to do such a thing. The metal hydrant plate is easily lifted using a metal hydrant bar carried on all fire appliances and a standpipe is screwed onto the outlet which is below ground. The hydrant bar also acts as a key to turn the hydrant on via a valve . UK hydrants are much more quicker and efficient as the do not require hose to be screwed in which is a lengthy process and also require a firefighter to carry a special spanner. to tighten the hose coupling. All UK fire hose couplings are instantaneous and only require pushing into each other to become locked. Neither will the coupling break apart under pressure as pressure makes them lock solid.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, hydrants are in the ground. Yellow "H" hydrant signs mounted on a small post or nearby wall indicate the location of the hydrants. The two numbers indicate the diameter of the water main (top number) and the distance from the sign (lower number). Modern signs show these measurements in millimetres and metres, whereas older signs use inches and feet. Because the orders of magnitude are so different (6 inches versus 150 mm) there is no ambiguity whichever measuring system is used.
Water towers aren't really common here because our reservoirs are higher than the towns they provide for. Towers provide a small quantity of water storage (relative to a town) but they primarily provide a head of pressure to provide the water should power to the pumps fail or the demand for pressure suddenly increases. In that way, they act as an accumulator.
Yes, I imagine the pumps operate at times of low electricity demand, a bit like storage heaters etc.
There are plenty of water towers around East Anglia which is flat. In towns, you will find that there are quite a few reservoirs at high points which are doing the same job.
Really enjoy your channel, but when I click on and see that bloke, " lost in the pond ", I switch off without watching. He is so wrong on almost everything. He's so out of touch, I think he drowned in the pond years ago. From what I gather his fan base in USA believe all he says and hang on his every wrong word. So annoying. Sorry. Have a good day. ✌
In the UK we often rely on public transport as a means of getting to school etc. Also schools look at the distance pupils are when allocating places so if you live nearer to the school you've more chance of getting a place, as as its close your more inclined to walk there. Some schools in more rural areas may provide minibus transport, but that would be in instances where there was no public transport available for some pupils.
Not strictly true my daughter catches a mini bus to get to school but there is also a public bus service that runs yet the school provides the mini bus service still.
The fire hydrant isn't that sign, it just tells firemen where it is (I can't remember how to read it, but I think the number on the top is how far the hydrant is.). The hydrant is under the road with an access panel over it, much like most services.
Only around 5% of schoolchildren in the U.K. will use a dedicated school bus and it’s usually a double decker of any colour depending on which transport company it’s being hired from.
Due to the much shorter distances involved in the U.K. the children will either walk, driven by parents, catch a normal bus on a regular route or go by train.
Very interesting from an American perspective!
I will add, (from the perspective of a local council worker in a rural education department)
There tends to be a contract with various bus companies to provide a certain level of dedicated school bus service depending on location and pupil role in that area, pupils will be allocated to a bus route for their area.
I myself walked 30 minutes to the train station, traveled by train to the nearest town then walked 30 minutes from the station to school. Leaving the house at 7:15am and getting home at 5pm, it was a long day when you add on homework
Me used I also used regular buses two there and two back then a 10 minute walk to the school
They were just private hire coaches in my area and only if you were beyond a certain radius from school. We were within radius despite there being no pavement on the B road we were expected to walk on. Therefore we all got driven to school.
I’ve lived in south London for almost 50 years and the only school buses I’ve personally ever seen were for children with disabilities
South Londoner here too. I do remember the pale blue ILEA school buses that were around in the 70s, but in my experience, they were used for things like taking us for swimming lessons at the local swimming baths rather than taking you to and from school at the start and end of the day. If you needed to catch a bus to school, you just got on the big red variety!
Likewise. South East, border of Kent. Only seen SEN transport or some school provided services.
In the infants we had a school bus, was a coach really, probably hired just for that. Once we moved up into juniors and could find our way home they left us to it.
Was less than a mile though so wasn't a problem. It was only by the time we were ten or eleven that we were walking a mile or more although anyone much further out than that tended to use public transport (or just ride a bike).
I do recall a bus for disabled kids too though (this is up in the east midlands in the 80's). Probably a legal requirement?
@@andybaker2456 yh same,swimming sessions,it was always same bus,as it had a picture of k.i.t.t from knight rider
I'd forgotten about the trips to the swimming baths! Everyone I knew was fetching a rubber brick out of 8 feet of water by the time they were seven or eight years old.
It used to seem really weird whenever I found someone that couldn't swim, if only a few meters.
I never did find out who was supposedly throwing all these bricks into rivers and lakes though.@@andybaker2456
Most school children walk to school in the UK, we also have very good public transport, unlike the US.
And usually people live much closer to schools here. My kid's primary school was a 3 minute walk. I was shocked to hear an American youtuber talk about how happy they were that their child's school was "only" 7 miles away.
My school was about 10 miles from where I lived. At various times through my secondry school life we used the public bus system (44A or 44B into the town centre and then the 351 to the town where the school was) or buses from a private company that the council paid for.
my high school used coaches and later on a contract with a local public bus company that used their double decker buses. It was really cool when they sent the old routemaster (red london bus) as our school bus. (this was no where near london, it was a company that used old buses at first and recently has branched out and got a bunch of more modern ones. mainly when they pushed out the already existing company in the area by doing fares much cheaper.)
Good public transport you must be joking here in suffolk it's dog shite. I see at least a post a week of the college kids can't get on the bus because it full or it's late. They don't run in early or late hours and they are stupidly expensive.
@@Cader-ce6bv exactly I live in a relatively rural area but in a town in Suffolk and it's absolute dogshite. Go in to large places like London then yes but not here. I went to Oxford a few years back I couldn't believe the busses ran all through the evening.
Love your videos. It’s lovely to see an American interested in non-American stuff. Carry on the good work.
The UK fire hydrant shown in the video wasn't the hydrant itself but the sign with information so the fire brigade can locate the hydrant, UK fire hydrants are located in the ground under a cast-iron cover usually on the pavement so cars don't park over them, the yellow signs have a large H for hydrant and two numbers, the top number tells the fire fighters the size of the water main pipe in millimetres that feeds the hydrant, the bottom number tells the fire fighters where the nearest hydrant is located in metres away from the sign, if the distance from the sign is more than 10 metres there will be a small black arrow at the bottom showing the direction to the hydrant. The yellow signs are everywhere but because they're small you hardly notice them, having the hydrants underground protects them from damage and frost, and no matter where you are in all UK cities you're never more than 90 metres away from a hydrant.
Steve, water tower construction in the U.K. varies, and as others have suggested, some may have been converted for residential use. The structure may have internal stairs for maintenance, but generally, the whole thing supports a metal tank within the top.
Cant understand why Americans are shocked when they are told other countries do things differently to them! 🏴 19:12
Not being rude but there genrally uncultured (never leave the US/think the world revolves around them). Where lucky in the fact europe is so diverse,history ete (small) haha
thats my impression anyway from when iv visted the states
@@hogg0151 not being rude but I think you are rude ...uncultured..world revolves around them and there is you ..either you can't spell or have no grasp of English grammar .."there?" ..should of been they are or they're...not being rude .????!!!! Where or we are or even we're ...is iv a new spelling for I've ? ..I don't usually criticise someone unless they are or they're criticising someone else ..again ..not being rude
That's because they don't really believe that other countries exist.
@@hogg0151your spelling is so atrocious, you ought to double-check before posting.
Don't speak as if you know... we actually aren't "shocked" and really don't care if other countries are different from us whatsoever... you guy's really need to drop this stereotype about us being all about ourselves because you are completely wrong.
Children don't get indoctrinated into a pledge of alleigence or saluting the flag, it's kind of culty don't you think? Patriotism doesn't require overt signs of adherence to banal ritual. That's not to say it's wrong to have pride in your nation and it's flag, but to force a daily ritual of swearing alleigence to it? Really? Are you following North Korea's example?
I the UK, you may see yellow hydrant marker plates attached to a wall, fence, or a short concrete post. They are rectangular yellow signs with a large black 'H'. The numbers above identify the size of the water main and the number(s) below show the distance to the hydrant.
We actually have a LOT of tall brown (natural coloir) wooden fences around homes and between gardens. This is very common. You see more stone on regional areas like Cotswolds
most school busses in the uk are just hired from coach companies, so can come in any colour, they are not dedicated school busses, and can be hired by anyone.
Yes......contracts given to coach companies usually owned by a local councillor's nephew/son/daughter/niece!!/brother
True but in West Yorkshire we still have some dedicated school buses which are yellow and are run by various bus companies [originally loaned by METRO] which have been yellow for the past 20 years If you google [mybus west yorkshire] you might even see a fleet of them.
I got to ride a yellow American school bus for a few years in the 80s, American Embassy school in Saudi. It was cool, but better in the UK where you walk to school mostly
The thing about school buses in the US is not just they're yellow - they have lots of special rules and specifications, including traffic rules that other drivers have to follow around them (eg not passing a school bus stopped with its lights on). I think they're also used more for unaccompanied young children etc so there's a higher duty of care compared to typical UK school bus services.
In my city, there are a few school routes operated by the biggest bus operator but for certain schools that i think may not have as easy of a way to get to them on normal routes. However, some of the normal routes have an extra scheduled bus out of the regular schedules bus (so one bus at 7:20, one at 7:40, an extra one at 7:55 and then another normal one at 8:00). It would take me ages to explain my city's biggest bus operator. 😂
I live in the countryside in England. No water towers I can think of near me, we just have a lot of reservoirs about.
My school bus was just a standard coach bus, probably did other drives when not in school season.
Our fire hydrants are actually under the floor, in the video they show a marker, which says you are near one. The "80" is the size if the water main, the "2" is distance in meters to the hydrant from the sign.
Nobody has a fire hydrant under their floor, they are underground. You need to understand that the ground is not the floor.
Lol I'll make sure my wording is correct for you next time
* The Fire Hydrant is below ground level, but actually only under a fire hydrant drain cover... :p
When I went to school, there was a service that ran a few times in the morning, from normal bus stops, using normal buses that has 'SCHOOL' on the destination board.
In villages and the countryside, stone walls are new (last 3 or 4 hundred years. Many hawthorn hedges are old - planted 1500 to 2000 years ago but, if fields and boundaries change, they'll be replanted and only a few hundred years old.
The hydrant marker 'H', indicates where the hydrant connection is. The upper number shows the diameter of the water main in millimeters, the lower figure shows the distance from the sign, in metres. UK hydrants are normally under the pavement or road.
Fire hydrants in the UK are buried underground under a manhole cover, the hydrant (H) marker sign isn't the hydrant itself. The H sign shows the distance to the main and the water main size. Being buried provides the benefit that an accident is unlikely to damage the hydrant itself, as you generally can't crash a car into something that is burried for example.
Lawrence is a nice bloke,but he’s always wrong…his info is so out of date.
Yeah, I like watching him but I've noticed he's a bit out of date regarding the UK, having now lived in the US for years but he's funny.
Fire Hydrants in the UK are normally in a covered pit, covered by a cover. The numbers above identify the size of the water main and the number(s) below show the distance to the hydrant.
Usually, a marker plate will be installed in line with the hydrant to show its location but the plate may also include an arrow to show the direction to the hydrant. The hydrant is below ground and is connected to the water main. The cover to the fire hydrant will normally be cast with the letters ‘FH’ and might be painted yellow.
All hydrants are also shown on the digital maps available in fire engines so that the nearest one can be identified while firefighters are on their way to an incident. This means that even if a marker plate is missing, broken, or covered, our crews will still be able to find the fire hydrant in most cases, and once reported they will be repaired in due course.
And we rarely open one up and dance in street.. it's usually pissing down anyway.
Yes, apparently the above ground ones are preferred in USA because they are easier to access in deep snow.
@@Phiyedoughthat makes sense
My secondary school was a unusual case, it's catchment area not only included the town it was in, but also the next town over. As such a local coach company was contracted to bus the kids in from over there. Those of us who lived in the local town would either get a lift from parents, walk, or catch public transport. All other schools didn't have this weird catchment area, so no weird school buses.
You should google Shelton water tower, it’s a very interesting building. We don’t use water towers anymore, quite a few have been made into houses.
We do still use water towers especially in flat counties like Norfolk, Suffolk and essex
Hello Steve . I was born in 51 so some of what I knew may be out of date now.
On the water tower not all towns have them some use reservoirs on or in high ground. A side note when I was a child, with the tales of the war I thought the first one I saw was an old Ack-ack tower.
School transport was the problem of the parent, meaning the local bus service, in my town you got a free bus pass if you lived 3 miles or more from the school, at 16 we all got a half fare pass so we could travel to school and back on a child's fare.
The laws on bill boards is that they cannot be put up more than 3 miles from the town centre on ordinary roads .On Motorways the law is :- No sign can be raised !Only Ministry of Transport signs can be shown. Contractors have been known to leave an old wagon with their name on, in a field near by .
The "fire hydrant" that drongo showed was in fact the plate telling the Brigade the distance to the out let which is set in the Pavement or road and the laws are like U.S. laws ;park by or on at you peril. I hope that was not to much of a bore.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to explain! :)
I agree with you that manshe is not my cup of tea.
We have fewer trees (in part) because Henry VIII had a lot cut down to make ships. Since then the intensity of arable farming has limited forests. Wood is mostly therefore growing and not intended for building material! Also (obviously) a stone or brick wall will usually last longer than the house owner without any maintenance!
The reduction in trees dates back to when we started smelting iron in about 750BC. you need charcoal and a lot of it.
@@Joanna-il2ur There would have been much less trees in North america pre european colonisation,because the native americans kept the forests open through the use of fire.Though european colonists would have cleared land they didn't manage the forests in the sameway and the forests grew very dense whereas before thy were savanna like.
Wooden fences are quite common particularly between back gardens but normally they will be close boarded and 6 feet or more high. No, we don't have so many trees because first we cleared them for agriculture, then for early industry, then to build ships and finally to build WW I trench props!
'Don't have many trees'? Are you talking about the _UK_ ??? Just look at Google Earth.
Loads of trees!!!!
@@daftirishmarej1827 Leafy Surrey (SE UK for USAnians) is the most wooded county in England with 20% coverage, mainly due to the soil not being that good for agriculture.
I’m in Northern Ireland and the yellow school buses are used for kids who are transported by the education authority to schools for kids that have additional needs.
I don't ever recall seeing a water tower except at railway stations. We usually have water pumped to us from a water works!
Living in a village in UK a lot of children just catch a normal bus, alongside adults.
You won't see many Union Flags being flown in the UK....but during a world cup you'll see many many England flags flying. Same goes for Welsh and Scottish flags on the rare occasion they are in a World Cup :-)
You see them on houses in UK seaside towns. That’s the only place really.
We have them around the North east as we have strong military connections
Kudos to you for some of your comments, it's easier to understand American culture from here than vice versa, possibly because American films have been marketed so globally. Still hope - one day - to visit America. I know I'd love it.
as many commenters have said, we dont have "school buses" in the sense of school XYZ having X number of buses which they have dedicated staff driving, instead we use a mix of two things - public transport and hired buses. public transport will typically have two options: bus routes that normally pass near to schools will have a modified "Sch" timetable which mean the bus stops outside schools before 8-9am and around 3pm (these timetables only apply during term time - when school's out, there's an alternate NSch timetable), OR there will be a dedicated school route which calls into one specific school (these buses often have really high route numbers like "936" instead of more typical route numbers like "20" to make them more visible from a distance, and they'll go from one close-by town directly into the school grounds, potentially meaning that some kids are on the bus for an hour before they get to school). sometimes, schools will charter coaches/ex-transport buses for use from a local depot, but this isn't granted and in my experience those buses are terrible.
When we go on school trips we get a coach ,but in every day life you get to school using public transport such as buses ,bicycles or walk to school depending on the distance you love from school .
Most urban population zones in the UK have underground reservoirs. Water towers are for areas that are too flat to create water pressure, as water pump power has increased in the last 50 years the towers are slowly being phased out. They have an interesting looking one in Blackpool.
He's lived in the USA too long some of his takes are well out of date.
yep clueless,
Our "school buses" tend to be just ordinary public transport buses that double as school buses in the mornings then again in the afternoon. On one of my local routes, the 8.30 am bus misses, as does the 3pm bus because, at those times it becomes a school bus. The rest of the day it comes every half an hour as a regular service bus.
The fire hydrant is a marker showing where the grid is on the ground to reach the valves etc
The figures on the fire hydrant sign indicate the diameter of the water main in in millimetres (so the '80' here us telling you the water main is a tad over 3" in diameter) and the lower figure is telling you how far the hydrant is from from the sign in feet. The hydrant itself is normally under an iron plate flush with the pavement which will have a shaped hole to allow it to be lifted with a matching 'key'.
Water towers are an interesting topic. There used to be water towers in towns and cities in Poland (there's still a historic one from 19th century in my town) but nowadays we all get our water from an underground system of pipes and pumps. You usually see these towers near train stations or train tracks but never in residential areas. No one uses them anymore and they're more like monuments of historic infrastructure
Water towers are very rare in UK. It’s pretty much all piped like what you said in poland
Ahhh, Laurence and his outdated information.
He is a bit of a dipstick.
Laurence's information is so out of date.
@@katerhodes9264He's still more accurate than Watch Mojo UK though.
Its annoying how he is the go to RUclipsr for supposedly learning people about the UK and he is also the worst.
His takes are atleast a decade out of date and are based on 1 specific place of reference , which itself is not the average place
Really? It must depend where you live. I often disagree, but knowing his home town, he's not as inaccurate as you suggest. He doesn't reflect regional differences.
Have you made any videos about similar subjects?
The newer towers are concrete. Croydon, where I grew up has a beautiful red brick Victorian water tower
Watertowers are a rural thing in the UK. Urban water pressure doesn't seem to need them.
Schools don't often own buses: local companies provide rush-hour services to and from school. Schools may own mini-buses to take kids on trips for other purposes. Local 'coach' companies would be hired to take kids on trips with larger numbers.
The H thing is a sign to indicate there is a fire hydrant nearby. In the UK a fire hydrant is a hatch in the road which gives the fire brigarde access to the water main beneath. The top number in the H is the size of the main in millimetres, the bottom number is distance to the hatch in metres. Sometimes there's an arrow to point you in the right direction. You don't need a huge metal plug that people can ram their cars into or people can sabotage to get a spray of water in the street as I understand is populer on hot days in some cities.
I know of precisely one house in my town with its own flagpole.
UK infrastruture is different to the US. Most of our things are in walking distance. Schools, doctors, pharmacys, bakers, shops, bars, hair dressers etc. We don't have to drive miles for the basics (its only if you choose to go somewhere else you need to travel in most cases)
Regarding the flag issue, there’s a difference between patriotism and jingoism. We just don’t feel the need. I actually have a flagpole, I will raise the union flag for special events, the english flag on st.George’s day and my county flag occasionally for something like a sporting event but most of the time it’s just an empty pole!!!
Thanks for offering your perspective!
I find that even more cringe than showing it all the time.
@janescott4574 That's good that you only fly an appropriate flag on certain occasions. Where I live in West Yorkshire, if I were to fly an England flag or Union flag, the council would order me to take it down. Apparently we musn't upset the immigrants. This in my own country, whereas in the US, they would probably be penalised for NOT flying their flag.
In the Isles of Scilly close to Cornwall, the school bus is a boat. The school children line up on the quay side in their uniforms
Five Islands, watched Russell Kane in the school hall.
The Flags we don't at school swear allegiance to our flags, unlike Americans .
But that doesn't mean that we are less patriotic to our country..
Swear allegiance feels really weird to me and doing it regularly is like being in a cult.
If anything we are more patriotic, because we respect our fellow citizens instead of a piece of cloth.
Hi steve love your vlogs,It seems to us brits that it's a form of brainwashing from a young age ,which enforces & enhances the patriotism drummed into you everyday.that your the best at everything in the whole world. All countries have there good and bad points .
We are not allowed to be patriotic.
What happens is if a kid turned up in a union flag T shirt at school one of three things would happen.
A) He'd get beaten by an ethnic minority.
B) The Teachers would call him a racist facist bigot who deserved it.
C) He would probably be arrested while trying to stop himself from being stabbed to death.
We have not pledged to the US flag in American schools ,since the 1970s.
Schools often own a minibus or two (van with lots of seats for trips or boarders). We don't really have "specific" school busses but regular public service busses (usually the double deckers at school times) for those who live outside walking distance. I cycled to school.
In rural areas the "school bus" is a regular bus operated by a private company contracted by the local authority to run specific routes morning and afternoon as a "school run".
We don't have yellow school buses in NZ either. Sometimes local bus companies are hired to take the odd group of kids to school and back home again but usually kids go on foot, bike, public bus or by car.
Here in Italy I never saw a water tower so the first time I saw one abroad I had to ask what it was :) We go to school by normal city bus or by car with the parents, no school bus exists. You guessed wrong. We also don't have billboards on motorways, they're too distracting to be safe for drivers. Mail is delivered in a box attached to the wall, as you say, and in the most common condos (we don't have many one familky houses) someone takes it and divides it in the "casellario" (I can't find an english translation!) one small box per family, in the common area at the entrance. If there is a doorkeeper, he/she does it, if not, the first tenant who finds it usually takes care of the mail and divides it.
The closest translation for "casellario" that I can find would be "pigeon hole". A similar system is used in many apartment blocks and shared housing in the UK.
Also, most schools in the UK have their students use public transport or hire buses from local firms to transport them.
The UK is much more similar to the rest of Europe than many Brits care to realise!
It's basically a personal letterbox with your name on it. I remember hunting for any with somewhat British or German names 😊
@@StormhavenGaming thank you! pigeon hole! funny! I have searched for that word for ages because my dad's job was making them, and I never knew how to explain it to non italian speaking friends!
@@solaccursio You are very welcome. Happy to be able to help.
@@StormhavenGamingMost British people do realise this.
Some years ago ( perhaps 20 or so ) I was wandering around some rather genteel neighborhoods of Valencia, Spain - admiring the splendid ( and huge ) terraced town houses. I noticed a most peculiar thing : The letterboxes were fixed into the front doors at a height of about 9 to 10 feet off the pavement.
I suppose these days they receive their mail by text, but when those houses were built ( I later learned ) the houses received their mail by the Postman on Horseback.
From Sweden here: Most kids either walk, bike or take public transport to school. In some rural areas where they live further from school they'll have buses come pick them up and they're simply regular Scania/Volvo/MAN-buses like any other but oftentimes white, grey or black instead of yellow.
Suburban neighborhoods oftentimes have mailboxes just like the US but not in that shape. Some people opt for locking mailboxes as well, so one where you can not reach into it to grab something without the key. In other parts of Sweden in apartments and what not you'll either see letterboxes at the door, or at ground floor you'll have a large wall with all the letterboxes where you go and pick up your mail with a key. This makes it easier so that the postman doesn't have to go up 4-5 flights of stairs and put in the mail in each individual door, they just go to the main wall of letterboxes for the particular house and leave everything there.
School buses in the UK are usually just normal buses or coaches that are hired by the school, either by a bus company or a private coach company. It will look no different to a public transport bus except during its "school run" it has a yellow sign on the front and back with a parent and child symbol to show its doing a school trip.
The only water towers I've heard of were on the railways in the days of steam locomotives,used for filling the boilers or tenders.
You've obviously never lived in the fens. A big concrete mushroom-shaped one was built near where I lived when I was a child in Lincolnshire.
Fair enough.
You will see literally tens of thousands of flags flown all year round in Northern Ireland UK, practically every lamp post has a flag
The nature of the flags indicate the predominant sectarian group living there. Many, disgracefully, are for illegal paramilitary groups.
A pledge of allegiance would cause all sorts of problems for that reason - some are loyal to Britain, some Ireland, and a lot of us are sick of that nonsense, and think the concept of nation is a terrible idea...
There's a reason for that, the history of Northern Ireland is quite violent and sectarian.
@@donmac7780 I had a front row seat for the first 20-odd years of my life, hence the being thoroughly sick of it....
@@colinmorrison5119 I totally agree. Leave the past in the past, live for yourselves and secure the future of your children.
We do have school buses in the UK but they're rare. To be eligible you have to more than 2 miles away if your child's under 8, or 3 miles away otherwise. Most kids meeting those requirements live out in the countryside, and there just aren't usually enough of them to require a bus, so a minibus might be used instead.
When I went to school in the 1960s, kids either took the normal local bus or went all together in a bus provided by the local council. There were no private bus companies then, this was before Mrs Thatcher. Now I've noticed that there are a lot more school buses in my area, and they are yellow. They are called Mybus. Why do we always have to copy what America does? For example, when I go to have my feet looked after, it's now called Podiatry instead of Chiropodist. I can't even say the word!
Correction it's 3 miles. That's why I had to cycle to school 2.5 miles away. When I first started at the school (1958)we had school busses but then the government moved the goal posts in 1960.
@@mothmagic1 That may have been the case when you were a kid, but I'm not wrong. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1165730/Travel_to_school_for_children_of_compulsory_school_age.pdf - page 11
We measured the distance to my school as 3.1 miles, but the council insisted it was less than 3. If they had admitted it was more I would have been given a bus pass and taken the normal buses. I did sometimes if I was going home late.
I live next to a primary school. I don't see many kids arriving by bus at the start of the day. I do see older kids on the bus after schools are out. Sometimes there are yellow buses but they are "field trip" buses.
It's 2 miles or 3 miles WALKABLE. My children live about a mile and a half from their school, but there's no walkable route (countryside, no pavement/sidewalk) so the council puts them on a bus and we don't have to pay.
Edit: the school bus is a dedicated service for children going to that particular school, but the physical bus is just a coach that's used for other services at other times. I think it's dark red but other buses serving the same school are other colours.
Old Water Towers are sometimes turned into houses, with great views from the top.....
The fire hydrant sign tells the fire crew that the hose fitting is 100mm and the tap is 1metre in front of the sign.
The biggest reason we don't have wooden houses is because theyre not great at insulation.
All our houses are designed to trap as much heat in as possible in winter, and to a lesser degree to keep it out in a heatwave.
Almost every house is insulated along with every window being at least double glazed if not triple glazed.
It's a lasting thing. Wooden houses don't last as long as brick/stone ones and over half of our housing stock predates WWII. About a quarter predates WWI and about 10% is over 100 years old. From a European perspective, an American house is a glorified shed. I mean they use felt shingles on their roofs, hell I wouldn't use that on a shed let alone my house.
My flat in a 1772 Grade One listed terrace is single glazed sash windows. The walls are solid stone (actually double skin portland stone with rubble infill) around 18" thick. The roof space is insulated, but otherwise there is only the stability of a large thermal mass, and a tendency to excess warmth in summer and slight chilliness in winter. Nothing that changes to clothing habits and warm food can't fix though.
Modern wooden houses are very insulated, as they are in Denmark and Sweden.
I don't think I've ever seen one of those water towers. Our local water "tower" looks like a castle on top of a hill, complete with crenelations and turrets. Sadly, it isn't in use any more but still looks awesome overlooking the lake, so much better than those Brutalist style towers. I wish I could post a pic for you.
There's actually a few examples of creative minds turning old water towers into rather unique houses...
@@Ollybus No, Scotland actually, but I'm glad to hear we are not alone in having inventive and artistic architects.
Getting to school 1. Walk, 2. Public Transport, 3. Parents in car (most schools object/unhappy about 3).
The yellow things with the H on them are not fire hydrants, they are fire hydrant signs. The top number tells you the size of the nearby water main and the bottom number tells you how it is in front of the sign. The water is generally accessed through a small metal cover set into the ground. Incidentally, we don't have 'fire departments'. We have 'fire brigades'.
There are no dedicated schools buses in Britain. We used normal service buses to get to school and back, but more often than not, we would walk.
For a few years in the 1980s I used to travel to school in the UK on a yellow school bus. It was yellow because yellow was part of the local authority's colour scheme, not because it was a school bus.
I just took the bus that went past my school. It wasn't specifically a school bus though. Anyone could get on, it was just regular public transport.
Some towns and cities do have American style fire hydrants. Most however are set in the pavement/sidewalk under a metal plate that has to be opened with a key. What you see in the pic is an information post telling the fire crew the size of pipe and how far away it is. So that sign says it's a 80mm pipe and is 2' away.
Our school buses are just regular buses but with allocated routes for the school and not for general public. we had the double deckers and the cool kids sat at the back upstairs and smoked cigs and weed haha
The fire hydrant in the picture is just a sign, saying that the hydrant is 80... somethings big (size of water main) and the 2 means it's 2ft away in the direction of the sign. There will be a manhole cover and the hydrant is underneath, fire engines all carry a stand pipe that they stick in to it whereas the US hydrants are essentially a permanent stand pipe.
We don't have actual permanent billboards alongside motorways (because of regulations regarding signage and because they would require planning permission, which would be denied (because of said regulations)), but you will periodically see a truck's trailer "temporarily" parked in a field alongside the motorway with an advertisement on it, or with a contact number to speak to the famer to advertise there.
School buses are generally, regular buses that do bus routes, possibly on a special route for a school start or finish time.
Sometimes these routes only allow children on them
The fire hydrant sign sign is above the outlet which is in the ground under a metal plate
11:23 The reason you see more stone and brick than wood in UK homes is not a lack of wood, it's more down to climate. We're a lot further north than the US, the vast majority of the UK is at a higher latitude (further north) than Winnipeg! We have cold, wet and windy winters with a LOT of storms. We're also an island, so we have a marine climate, wet and humid most of the year so any exposed untreated wood quickly rots.
Wooden houses just get too cold (or cost too much to heat) and take too much work to maintain in our weather.
In the uk we do have yellow school buses, generally its for kids in primary school so up to 11yo. These also get used by the education authorities for field trips
Our school buses are just basically regular old buses or coaches, which is kinda weird when you think about it
Typically children in Britain go to school within walking distance of their homes. Most children who need to travel by bus use the regular public services. Some schools whose students come from a greater distance do run a few bus routes- but these are double decker buses from the same company as the local bus service, not a specific design of 'school bus' .
A lot of our garden fences are wooden- overlapping vertical planks - and about 3-4 ft high at the front of the house (which is seen as a pubic display area) and up to 6' at the back for privacy. Chain link fences are reserved for business premeses, and look very utilitarian to us.
As others have said, the fire hydrant sign from Britain that he shows is just that- a sign! Our hydrants are set into the road/ pavement several feet below the surface. The fire service have a key to open the manhole cover, and attach their hose to that. The numbers on the H sign tell them how far away, and how deep, from the sign the hydrant is. I notice on a recent video Laurence put out he does explain properly about the hydrant- and I do wonder if he got feedback after thsi video saying he wasn't clear.
Here's a 'short' from my local fire service explaining a bit about them.
ruclips.net/user/shortsnfuLVQdsgk8
Water towers are no longer in use in the UK as water is now pumped under pressure, many of the towers have been demolished or converted to other uses. Most school children use local service buses. Some places do have extra school only buses where a service bus is not available but they are just normal buses provided by local bus companies.
The hydrant sign tells you were the hydrant tap is located. The top number is the fitting size in mm and the bottom number is how far away in metres the cover to the hydrant is.
This is not the fire hydrant; this is a sign telling the fire service what size the hydrant is and its position from this sign, Top number is diameter of the hydrant and bottom number is how many metres from sign to hydrant. The hydrant is under the road or pavement; the cover is removed and a metal 'Stand Pipe' is coonnected. Hose then connected to stand pipe and water valve is opened. Hope this helps.
I can’t think of a new water tower now I think of it. Always old concrete ones from 1940’s to early 70’s and fairly uncommon.