Yes as a Black Country lad (and former employee of Shropshire County Council) it is reekin not wreck-in. The M54 also goes by the side of Moseley Old Hall, the Elizabethan manor house where Charles II hid from Cromwell. My mother's ashes are scattered in the small orchard there.
Come on guys, give Jon a break, his videos are extremely interesting in general...anyway, I’ve learned how to pronounce Wrekin today, thanks to Philip (and in a way, Jon), so all is good 👍🏻
Loving the outro music. Mutter has always been a favourite song and just lovely as a piano version. Incidentally, the M54 is one of my least favourite motorways to drive as the surface is unpleasant and very noisy.
The amount of work, research and traveling you punt into these series is amazing. I envy your attitude and skill. All the best to you from a traffic engineer from the Netherlands
Thanks for your comment, appreciate that. It's been a while since I was in the Netherlands but the last few times I drove over, the roads seemed to be a little bit more thought out than what we have here. Until I got to Amsterdam...you might as well park up and cycle.
@@AutoShenanigans Yeah I remember driving in Amsterdam in the early 2000's. The combination of coffeeshops, trams and driving on the right, made it somewhat challenging to say the least 🤣
The road north of western Telford is the A442 not the A422. It runs in the other direction down into Worcestershire. Props to all other locals pointing out the correct pronunciation of the hill. Story - many years ago a new expatriate MD arrived (from Japan via the US of A) to my then-employer and was given a brief tour of the area. Upon seeing the hill, he pointed and said he wanted that for his house. He had to be politely reminded that we tend to have smaller properties in Britain and the Wrekin might not be for sale. That man was a legend. There are stories that cannot be told about his tenure.
What few people realise that Jon actually played this gorgeous piano outro himself. What a talented guy. More seriously: great slice of road related industry here. Can see why I'd want to work there. Had good luck with the weather. Those woods do look nice. Not a biologist but I wonder how healthy it actually is for a nesting bird to live over a constant stream of ICE car exhaust?
All these hidden pieces of of folly are help to wildlife as well as peaceful! Even though traffic noise can still be heard, the lines of trees greatly deaden the sound! Thanks Jon👍
Quick stretch of non-smart motorway. Amazing how much the quality of driving rises when people aren't constantly watching speedos and overhead gantries, like the M6.
Junction 6 was actually built as planned; the three bridges over what would have become the Western Primary are still there, but buried. There are a few photos which show them.
Another stormer of a video that as a southerner, shows somewhere that I would never go to......and now.......still will never probably visit, but thanks anyway!!!!
I did want to include it.. buuuut.. you can't fly a drone around there, so no cool shots from the air. With permission, we could film inside the museum, but we didn't have that. So we'd be left with me in the car park talking about it.. but with little interesting footage to go with it.
I get time for like 3 hours of TV a week......Each Sunday night this take 30 mins of that slot!! I'm sure this bloke would be good value for money down the pub!
Also the M54 runs right through the site of Tong Castle just to the west of the slipways of junction 3 and south of Church Pool. It got demolished (or, rather, blown up) by the army in 1953 due to its unsafe condition. The M54 was then bulldozed right through its foundations in the early 1980s...
I happened to find myself driving up the M54 from the M6 (M6 Toll, M42, M40, M25, M3) to Telford for the first time a few weeks ago, now seen it from many different angles, thanks!
The great mystery of Telford roads: you have the M54 motorway going east-west, and the motorway-like A442 going north-south, yet there is no proper junction between them. (You have to leave one, go around a signalised roundabout, along the A5 for half a mile, then around another signalised roundabout to get onto the other....)
As a child of the 70s, we moved from Shropshire to Essex in the early 80s and made the nigh on 5 hour trip north back to see relatives in Oswestry fairly often. A journey that today is A12, M25, M1, M6, M54 and A5 was then A414, M10, M1,M6, a break in motorways for a bit to jump back on at Shifnal and the rickety racket of the M54 at Telford before jumping on the old A5. As a boy, I could never understand why the M54 just "stopped" and wondered what was beyond the closed bollards. I can recall asking my dad and he said they had run out of money and would likely leave it like that. Obviously they had a reach down the back of the sofa and found the funds to finish it and also, build the links around M25 to A12 while they were at it for good measure that did away with the slow assed jouney from M10 and A414 which i think was St Albans to Chelmsford. Long gone is that route and roads but remember it vividly. From one youtuber to another, keep up the great content!
@@davecooper3238 Yes indeed, Tong castle. A tiny bit of surviving stonework is visible on the eastbound motorway verge. Also of note is "little Nell's grave" in the nearby Tong churchyard.
@@johndell3642 Hi John, thanks for the name of the castle. It’s given me a chance to looking it up. Also confirmed that it’s not a false memory. Am I correct in thinking that quite a few humps & bits of stonework could be seen when the motorway first opened.
@@davecooper3238 Yes, you used to be able to glimpse a bit of stonework. Just west of Junction 3 about 50 yards from where the slip-roads start. If you look at it on an aerial view on GoogleMaps it's where "Church pool" comes closest to the Motorway. It used to be kept clear, but it's become overgrown in the last few years. All that area was landscaped by "Capability" Brown when it was a stately home.
great vid to watch of the locality. Didn't realise that quarry was quite so massive, explains the lorries and muck they leave up the B5061. Love the outro that you made the effort to climb the Wrekin as that was worth a comment alone. (and I'll wager that half the folks commenting about the pronunciation haven't been up the top either!) Keep an eye out for news on the M6N link from J1 as that is getting a mention regularly. Might actually happen.
Nice series and when moving onto A-roads do the A3. The Kingston Bypass section is totally wacky with its frontage roads (built for trolleybuses) some of which are one way and some 2-way, some sections virtually impossible to access without local knowledge and some turn at right angle onto the main road, plus houses with driveways on slip-roads, the whole thing is insane.
As a Shropshire lad you finally got around to doing "my" motorway. When they were building this motorway in the 70's it cut right through a lesser hill known as The Ercall. This was where, as a boy, I spent many hours harassing the construction works for ruining my woods.
Also link roads put in to connect existing infrastructure to the newly built motorway, such as the A449 link to the M5 at junction 6, also known locally as the Blackpole Spur.
Light and sarcastic delivery of your videos is great, Jon. Makes them fun and interesting to watch but probably obfuscate the effort that goes into producing them. Keep up the great work...!
As Half Man Half Biscuit once said Half way up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea, A fog descends and takes away my visibility But in this Helen Keller world, I’d still quite like to know Why is Rod Hull alive, and getting paid as well?
I have followed you since 3000 subs. I love your vids. But ending them off with Rammstein is just Lovely beyond understanding. PS. more abandoned racetracks please.
Loving this channel Jon... My Mum used to say all around the wreaking ..... Yes i come from warwickshire originally....... oh yeah while i'm at it... The music on this channel is brilliant... loving the Rammstein at the the close...
Wrekin, rhymes with speakin' Round the wrekin is also used as an expression (meaning to go the long way round more broadly, not just in a conversation) in Shropshire, to the west of the Wrekin. It seems you can go round the Wrekin heading East or West!
Passed my C+E test at Featherstone! Cheers John, keep the content coming. Better, more interesting & more relevant than anything that is being put out by the MSM. I've mentioned donations and such before, but have you looked into Merch etc ?
Cheers mate, thanks for watching. We've got "Super thanks" on the videos should anyone wish to donate, as for merch, I'm not sure it'd be worth the trouble at this stage.
If we are to have temporary power reduction to save the country's supplies this winter........ I hope that I am fortunate enough to be in a country pub with Jon and the production team, by a log fire and plenty of beer. (hope the reference to beer made it sound less romantic and candle lit) anyway.......... What a fantastic, enlightening, comical and interesting time that would be. Thank you once again for all the research and driving that you do, in order to keep tens of thousands of people entertained and informed....... Cheers
Dear diary.. I just heard myself say 'oh cool' when I saw this new episode posted. I think, just maybe I need help. lol Anyhoo another great episode guys. Regards John
4:56 that's round the corner from my house! I go by there on my way into town. The bit you're standing on is at the entrance to a nice walking path that leads up to a lovely park with a pond. There's also a path nearby that used to be a railway that used to serve a factory that stood where the Sinclair works is now. You can still see evidence of the old factory strewn around (and even the odd bit of rail) and if you follow the path right to the end, you come to the side of the motorway.
Halfway up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea A fog descends and takes away my visibility Yet in this Helen Keller state I’d still quite like to know “Why is Rod Hull alive - and getting paid as well?”
Unless you've mentioned it in another video, under one proposal for the M6 Toll, it would have joined the M6 around the M54 junction and presumably included links to the M54.
I was on the building of the hmp featherstone. We used to park on the land they are developing it was chaos with just construction traffic hate to think what a new industrial park would do to local traffic
Admiral Vernon had an officer under his command by the name of Lawrence Washington who owned land in America, he named his estate Mount Vernon after the great Admiral. On Lawrence's death it passed to his younger Brother George who became the first president of the United States.
Firstly, let me compliment you on the outro music. One of our favourite songs by Rammstein. Wonder if Til would approve??? Hilton used to be mainly farmland and woodlands and as a kid myself and my sister used to ride our horses round there, and we would go up the dirt tracks leading to the tower. When the M54 was built it cut through all the woods and fields. So sad. It did prove very useful though, as it gave access to the motorway from Telford where there was a lot of industry. We very much wish we had gone to Telford instead of coming to Bristol..... Makes us homesick for the Midlands. Whenever my dad did any work on the car, i.e. put now parts on or he Red-Ex'd it, he would take the car down the M54 to either run in the new part or create Batman's smoke screen. I will always remember sitting in the car watching that smoke. Sometimes the dog would be in the back seat.... she loved the car and once we were driving along when suddenly there was a cat on my lap. The cat had decided to take a trip with us!!! So we had a dog and a cat while making a smoke screen. My husband also used to do the same run when he Red-Ex'd his car. I think it was a firm favourite for that kind of thing because you would see cars with smoke coming out. You would go up to the next junction, turn round and come back. By the way, the word Wrekin is pronounced Ree-kin. But yes, it is a common thing in the Midlands to say, 'Oh stop going around the Wrekin will ya,' i.e. 'Get to the point'. Or 'We ended up going all around the Wrekin', if the journey was laborious and complicated.
After watching a few episodes the other day it went into auto play... I now keep finding myself humming/ whistling Wish you were here!!! 😂😂😂 Thanks haha
"W ellington, near Telford" LOVE IT! But probably more accurate to say.. "Wellingon which was absorbed into Telford (once Rural) New Town... [ along with numerous previously existant towns and villages)
Your content is so good. Taking something I always thought was dull and never considered that the reasons and details behind certain decisions are now captured in concrete and tarmac monument. Fansinating stuff when you find out abit more!
The M54 is on my route when I travel to my parents' house in North Wales from Leicestershire. The trees and verges that have, as you stated, been placed there to hide the motorway from view also make it incredibly boring to drive on. Luckily when I've been on it is usually relatively quiet, so I can get through that bit of the journey quickly.
I'm from the top of Scotland about as far from a Motorway as you can get and yet even I know it's pronounced REEKIN 😂Anyways, top vid and nice bit of Rammstein on the outro.
It definitely is. The technical term for lonely mountain is an inselberg, There are only 1 in Europe and 4 in the UK. It can be seen from the end of the driveway at J. R. R. Tolkien's drive at his cottage at Gypsey Green near Cannock. I do a video about this on my channel.
I recently found this channel thanks to the TH-cam recommendations algorithm. After watching a few videos, I've subscribed. Very informative and highlights a lot of historical landmarks etc which makes it more than just about a road. It also highlights the lunacy and daft bureaucracy that exists in the UK that often results in half-baked results that in the process, destroy good agricultural land, communities for nothing. At the same time, it also demonstrates some very talented architects, road designers and sometimes, good planning. This particular video highlighted a typical attitude in the UK. There are recent calls for farmers to re-wild parts of their farms and in some cases, that is appropriate, yet when they tear down things like old munitions factories, instead of considering re-wilding these kinds of places, the automatic reaction is to create an industrial park. There was a former golf course in a previous video that had plans to become a housing estate (that apparently failed). Instead of getting rid of good agricultural land, why not put the option to reuse these places as re-wilding areas and not just the option of an industrial or housing estate. Not appropriate in every case and sometimes a poor yielding farm would be better off as an industrial park, but the country needs to become more flexible in the way things are done.
Good stuff as always, extra points for the snippet of 'Earthworm Jim' in there too :D Of course I now have the Half Man Half Biscuit lyric in my head - "half way up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea/a fog descends to take away my visibility/yet in this Helen Keller state I'd still quite like to know/why is Rod Hull alive and getting paid as well?"
No mention that at the old Junction 7 the M54 used to flow into a two way road (now the B5061) or that that there's no Northbound link at the M6 junction. Oh and yes the pronunciation of the Wrekin (an extinct volcano, not just a hill).
Interesting video but as a Telford resident I have to point out 2 things - It's the A442, not A422 as you mentioned several times.... Also it's pronounced the "reekin" not the "wreckin"!
motorway dude you've redeemed your self... its Shropshire and to be fair i think you did a pretty good job of it, of course us locals may have to let you off with your pronunciation of the wrekin we say it more wreekin, but thats ok,,, well done sir i enjoyed your effort
Me: it’s 10:30 on a Sunday night, really need to go to bed. Oooh!! Look it’s the Secrets of the Motorway M54 edition! Screw work on Monday! I had a car written off on the M54 by some tool in a Mondeo. Good times. Great video as ever, got to say though, it’s “ree-kin”, not “wreck-in”, as pronounced by Christian Bale in the movie. That horrendous error aside, top work!
@@AutoShenanigans 😂 love the videos - I didn’t think anything would top Secrets of The Underground for addictive everyday geekery but you’re not far off - keep up the mispronounced great work!
Humour is so british. Sarcastic, dry and just spot on.
thanks mate, appreciate that!
@@AutoShenanigans Your sense of humour is a big part of what makes this channel unique. I love it. Please never change 👍
Wreck-in? It's the Ree-Kin Mate...
It's even pronounced like that in the clip he showed... SMH
I think he does this intentionally for interactions... He did Earley wrong the other week.
@@corroded precisely correct
@@corroded Yes as someone very familiar with both places this is irksome indeed.
@@corroded on that score he should have mispronounced Coven and Brewood that the Motorway passes through.
Yes as a Black Country lad (and former employee of Shropshire County Council) it is reekin not wreck-in.
The M54 also goes by the side of Moseley Old Hall, the Elizabethan manor house where Charles II hid from Cromwell. My mother's ashes are scattered in the small orchard there.
Saved me the bother of pointing out the shandy-drinking-southerner's transgression...
@@andrewdenby8239 same here
yea.... that was the only bit that really annoyed me..... even the video he inserted had the correct pronunciation lol
Come on guys, give Jon a break, his videos are extremely interesting in general...anyway, I’ve learned how to pronounce Wrekin today, thanks to Philip (and in a way, Jon), so all is good 👍🏻
The basic meaning of 'round the Wrekin' is 'the long way round', as in 'the main road was closed and a diversion took us all round the Wrekin'.
Loving the outro music. Mutter has always been a favourite song and just lovely as a piano version.
Incidentally, the M54 is one of my least favourite motorways to drive as the surface is unpleasant and very noisy.
Horrible surface!!
When you run out of motorways, you should cover the major primary and trunk routes, as some of them should have plenty of secrets to them.
Tales from the trunk roads perhaps...
Eventually he will just do all the roads in the uk from motorways to dirt tracks
Indeed, they were yesterday's motorways after all.
the whole A38
He should visit other countries and do there roads
I was not prepared for an assault by the Hell March 2 in the middle of a video. Bravo, sir
That’s a classy rendition of Mutter! Great work
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed! I loved it!!
The amount of work, research and traveling you punt into these series is amazing. I envy your attitude and skill. All the best to you from a traffic engineer from the Netherlands
Thanks for your comment, appreciate that. It's been a while since I was in the Netherlands but the last few times I drove over, the roads seemed to be a little bit more thought out than what we have here. Until I got to Amsterdam...you might as well park up and cycle.
@@AutoShenanigans Yeah I remember driving in Amsterdam in the early 2000's. The combination of coffeeshops, trams and driving on the right, made it somewhat challenging to say the least 🤣
The road north of western Telford is the A442 not the A422. It runs in the other direction down into Worcestershire. Props to all other locals pointing out the correct pronunciation of the hill. Story - many years ago a new expatriate MD arrived (from Japan via the US of A) to my then-employer and was given a brief tour of the area. Upon seeing the hill, he pointed and said he wanted that for his house. He had to be politely reminded that we tend to have smaller properties in Britain and the Wrekin might not be for sale. That man was a legend. There are stories that cannot be told about his tenure.
What few people realise that Jon actually played this gorgeous piano outro himself. What a talented guy.
More seriously: great slice of road related industry here. Can see why I'd want to work there. Had good luck with the weather. Those woods do look nice.
Not a biologist but I wonder how healthy it actually is for a nesting bird to live over a constant stream of ICE car exhaust?
Schon by Rammstein?
@@steve5772 by Jove! Wow
@@steve5772 Mutter (Mother) by Rammstein)
idk if they would chose to be there cos its so loud
The Rammstein outro was a really sweet touch.
How this brilliant series has not been picked up by mainstream broadcasting I’ll never know…keep up the brilliant work!
It’s probably the last thing anyone would want. Better off being solo doing what he does rather than the BBC telling you what to show, say and think.
BBC did a doc on BBC 4 a few years back. But it was more of the history/inception of the big motorways only.
All these hidden pieces of of folly are help to wildlife as well as peaceful! Even though traffic noise can still be heard, the lines of trees greatly deaden the sound! Thanks Jon👍
Nice bit of outro with Rammstein melody of Mutter 👍
Thought I recognised this tune 👌🏼
I drove the entire length of the M54 coming from Wales last night - always seems to have good, aware and proactive drivers on it.
Quick stretch of non-smart motorway. Amazing how much the quality of driving rises when people aren't constantly watching speedos and overhead gantries, like the M6.
Top notch music selection throughout this video.
Junction 6 was actually built as planned; the three bridges over what would have become the Western Primary are still there, but buried. There are a few photos which show them.
3:15 nice taste in music Command and Conquer - Hell March 👍👍
Another stormer of a video that as a southerner, shows somewhere that I would never go to......and now.......still will never probably visit, but thanks anyway!!!!
I would totally be here for a whole quarry-related series.....
Loving the rammstein at the end
No mention of J3, RAF Cosford, the Aviation Museum and flight base of the Middlands Air Ambulance?
I did want to include it.. buuuut.. you can't fly a drone around there, so no cool shots from the air. With permission, we could film inside the museum, but we didn't have that. So we'd be left with me in the car park talking about it.. but with little interesting footage to go with it.
Nice version of Rammstein - Mutter on the end there!
I get time for like 3 hours of TV a week......Each Sunday night this take 30 mins of that slot!! I'm sure this bloke would be good value for money down the pub!
Thanks for watching mate :)
Also the M54 runs right through the site of Tong Castle just to the west of the slipways of junction 3 and south of Church Pool. It got demolished (or, rather, blown up) by the army in 1953 due to its unsafe condition. The M54 was then bulldozed right through its foundations in the early 1980s...
I happened to find myself driving up the M54 from the M6 (M6 Toll, M42, M40, M25, M3) to Telford for the first time a few weeks ago, now seen it from many different angles, thanks!
Love this series, keep doing what you're doing!
Cheers mate.
I bet the staff at HMP Featherstone got twitchy bumholes when they saw your drone in the air haha
To be fair... we don't like flying near prisons for that exact reason, however, it's all perfectly legal :)
The great mystery of Telford roads: you have the M54 motorway going east-west, and the motorway-like A442 going north-south, yet there is no proper junction between them. (You have to leave one, go around a signalised roundabout, along the A5 for half a mile, then around another signalised roundabout to get onto the other....)
It’s always a good day when auto shenanigans uploads
Another great video John, Thank you!
Brilliant John. Simon Langford, have you watched this 👌
My week isn't complete until I watch your video each Sunday
and I'm glad to be part of your week sir!
As a child of the 70s, we moved from Shropshire to Essex in the early 80s and made the nigh on 5 hour trip north back to see relatives in Oswestry fairly often. A journey that today is A12, M25, M1, M6, M54 and A5 was then A414, M10, M1,M6, a break in motorways for a bit to jump back on at Shifnal and the rickety racket of the M54 at Telford before jumping on the old A5. As a boy, I could never understand why the M54 just "stopped" and wondered what was beyond the closed bollards. I can recall asking my dad and he said they had run out of money and would likely leave it like that. Obviously they had a reach down the back of the sofa and found the funds to finish it and also, build the links around M25 to A12 while they were at it for good measure that did away with the slow assed jouney from M10 and A414 which i think was St Albans to Chelmsford. Long gone is that route and roads but remember it vividly. From one youtuber to another, keep up the great content!
Love the Rammstein outro!
Thanks John, I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about junction 3 as it takes you to RAF Cosford museum
I seem to remember that there are remains of a medieval castle by the Cosford junction ( J3 ) that the motorway went straight through the middle.
@@davecooper3238 Yes indeed, Tong castle. A tiny bit of surviving stonework is visible on the eastbound motorway verge. Also of note is "little Nell's grave" in the nearby Tong churchyard.
@@johndell3642 Hi John, thanks for the name of the castle. It’s given me a chance to looking it up. Also confirmed that it’s not a false memory.
Am I correct in thinking that quite a few humps & bits of stonework could be seen when the motorway first opened.
@@davecooper3238 Yes, you used to be able to glimpse a bit of stonework. Just west of Junction 3 about 50 yards from where the slip-roads start. If you look at it on an aerial view on GoogleMaps it's where "Church pool" comes closest to the Motorway. It used to be kept clear, but it's become overgrown in the last few years. All that area was landscaped by "Capability" Brown when it was a stately home.
I'm not a petrol head by any stretch of the imagination and couldn't care less about car videos, but I love your infrastructure films.
great vid to watch of the locality. Didn't realise that quarry was quite so massive, explains the lorries and muck they leave up the B5061. Love the outro that you made the effort to climb the Wrekin as that was worth a comment alone. (and I'll wager that half the folks commenting about the pronunciation haven't been up the top either!)
Keep an eye out for news on the M6N link from J1 as that is getting a mention regularly. Might actually happen.
Nice up there. Bit of a mission though!
Love the outro music. Would be cool to have the original version.
Very interesting vid, thanks.
I have an O.K. view of the 'Wreck-in' from my bedroom window so it was cool to see.
Ending with a piano version of Mutter- beautiful! Wunderschon!
It's a wonderful tune and a great band !
Absolutely, great choice of music!
Nice series and when moving onto A-roads do the A3. The Kingston Bypass section is totally wacky with its frontage roads (built for trolleybuses) some of which are one way and some 2-way, some sections virtually impossible to access without local knowledge and some turn at right angle onto the main road, plus houses with driveways on slip-roads, the whole thing is insane.
That sounds crazy! I'm looking that up!
As a Shropshire lad you finally got around to doing "my" motorway. When they were building this motorway in the 70's it cut right through a lesser hill known as The Ercall. This was where, as a boy, I spent many hours harassing the construction works for ruining my woods.
What a find! THE BEST subject matter 👍
When you run out of motorways, you could do a series about places that still need road upgrades / bypasses etc. I can think of several.
Mate, if they put this as a question on the community tab the list of replies would be massive lol.
Also link roads put in to connect existing infrastructure to the newly built motorway, such as the A449 link to the M5 at junction 6, also known locally as the Blackpole Spur.
Light and sarcastic delivery of your videos is great, Jon. Makes them fun and interesting to watch but probably obfuscate the effort that goes into producing them. Keep up the great work...!
Was hoping you’d mention that massive prison at the start! But great video
As Half Man Half Biscuit once said
Half way up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea,
A fog descends and takes away my visibility
But in this Helen Keller world, I’d still quite like to know
Why is Rod Hull alive, and getting paid as well?
I wonder if they’ll bring back National Service and the birch?
Oh, and it’s Helen Keller state…
@@leopold7562 thank you for your correction.
And I wonder, but I doubt if, they will ever bring back the Watney's Cup.
I have followed you since 3000 subs. I love your vids. But ending them off with Rammstein is just Lovely beyond understanding. PS. more abandoned racetracks please.
Yes, as you say..lovely!
Rammstein - Mutter (Klavier)
I do plan to do more abandoned race tracks and roads etc. Thanks for watching.. who doesnt love a bit of Rammstein!
Loving this channel Jon... My Mum used to say all around the wreaking ..... Yes i come from warwickshire originally....... oh yeah while i'm at it... The music on this channel is brilliant... loving the Rammstein at the the close...
Wrekin, rhymes with speakin'
Round the wrekin is also used as an expression (meaning to go the long way round more broadly, not just in a conversation) in Shropshire, to the west of the Wrekin. It seems you can go round the Wrekin heading East or West!
I finally get to see one of the motorways that I travel up part of on one of these videos woo
Passed my C+E test at Featherstone! Cheers John, keep the content coming. Better, more interesting & more relevant than anything that is being put out by the MSM. I've mentioned donations and such before, but have you looked into Merch etc ?
Cheers mate, thanks for watching. We've got "Super thanks" on the videos should anyone wish to donate, as for merch, I'm not sure it'd be worth the trouble at this stage.
Cheers John, excellent presentation. Love the understated humour.
This series has become my Sunday treat.
If we are to have temporary power reduction to save the country's supplies this winter........ I hope that I am fortunate enough to be in a country pub with Jon and the production team, by a log fire and plenty of beer.
(hope the reference to beer made it sound less romantic and candle lit) anyway..........
What a fantastic, enlightening, comical and interesting time that would be.
Thank you once again for all the research and driving that you do, in order to keep tens of thousands of people entertained and informed....... Cheers
Dear diary.. I just heard myself say 'oh cool' when I saw this new episode posted. I think, just maybe I need help. lol Anyhoo another great episode guys. Regards John
We're planning on setting up a helpline.
Nice music at the end. Piano version of Rammstein's Mutter.
John the family 👪 just found you on utub brilliant blogs very interesting 👍
4:56 that's round the corner from my house! I go by there on my way into town. The bit you're standing on is at the entrance to a nice walking path that leads up to a lovely park with a pond. There's also a path nearby that used to be a railway that used to serve a factory that stood where the Sinclair works is now. You can still see evidence of the old factory strewn around (and even the odd bit of rail) and if you follow the path right to the end, you come to the side of the motorway.
Halfway up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea
A fog descends and takes away my visibility
Yet in this Helen Keller state I’d still quite like to know
“Why is Rod Hull alive - and getting paid as well?”
I look forward to these every week, keep ‘em coming!
Unless you've mentioned it in another video, under one proposal for the M6 Toll, it would have joined the M6 around the M54 junction and presumably included links to the M54.
I swear that outro music was a Mutter instrumental haha
The drone footage gives the series that extra lift (pun intended)!
I was on the building of the hmp featherstone. We used to park on the land they are developing it was chaos with just construction traffic hate to think what a new industrial park would do to local traffic
Worked in Hilton Hall until I left the company in 1999 and moved to Hertfordshire
New episode! whoop whoop!
5:50 Let's use the extra space for some rapid transit.
Wicked, Sweet, Awesome 👍
Admiral Vernon had an officer under his command by the name of Lawrence Washington who owned land in America, he named his estate Mount Vernon after the great Admiral. On Lawrence's death it passed to his younger Brother George who became the first president of the United States.
Firstly, let me compliment you on the outro music. One of our favourite songs by Rammstein. Wonder if Til would approve???
Hilton used to be mainly farmland and woodlands and as a kid myself and my sister used to ride our horses round there, and we would go up the dirt tracks leading to the tower. When the M54 was built it cut through all the woods and fields. So sad.
It did prove very useful though, as it gave access to the motorway from Telford where there was a lot of industry. We very much wish we had gone to Telford instead of coming to Bristol..... Makes us homesick for the Midlands.
Whenever my dad did any work on the car, i.e. put now parts on or he Red-Ex'd it, he would take the car down the M54 to either run in the new part or create Batman's smoke screen. I will always remember sitting in the car watching that smoke. Sometimes the dog would be in the back seat.... she loved the car and once we were driving along when suddenly there was a cat on my lap. The cat had decided to take a trip with us!!! So we had a dog and a cat while making a smoke screen.
My husband also used to do the same run when he Red-Ex'd his car. I think it was a firm favourite for that kind of thing because you would see cars with smoke coming out. You would go up to the next junction, turn round and come back.
By the way, the word Wrekin is pronounced Ree-kin. But yes, it is a common thing in the Midlands to say, 'Oh stop going around the Wrekin will ya,' i.e. 'Get to the point'. Or 'We ended up going all around the Wrekin', if the journey was laborious and complicated.
This shouldn't be as interesting as it is, but here we are. Quite possibly the highlight of my week.
thanks for watching mate :)
Yes, subs are coming along rather nicely :)
For sure they are! Exciting time :)
I am constantly amazed by how many things were planned regarding motorway layout or expansion, but just simply never happened.
Halfway up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea
A fog descends and takes away my visibility
After watching a few episodes the other day it went into auto play... I now keep finding myself humming/ whistling Wish you were here!!! 😂😂😂 Thanks haha
"W ellington, near Telford" LOVE IT!
But probably more accurate to say.. "Wellingon which was absorbed into Telford (once Rural) New Town... [ along with numerous previously existant towns and villages)
Your content is so good.
Taking something I always thought was dull and never considered that the reasons and details behind certain decisions are now captured in concrete and tarmac monument. Fansinating stuff when you find out abit more!
The M54 is on my route when I travel to my parents' house in North Wales from Leicestershire. The trees and verges that have, as you stated, been placed there to hide the motorway from view also make it incredibly boring to drive on. Luckily when I've been on it is usually relatively quiet, so I can get through that bit of the journey quickly.
I'm from the top of Scotland about as far from a Motorway as you can get and yet even I know it's pronounced REEKIN 😂Anyways, top vid and nice bit of Rammstein on the outro.
I think the Wrekin is probably the inspiration for Tolkiens 'Lonely Mountain'
It definitely is. The technical term for lonely mountain is an inselberg, There are only 1 in Europe and 4 in the UK. It can be seen from the end of the driveway at J. R. R. Tolkien's drive at his cottage at Gypsey Green near Cannock. I do a video about this on my channel.
Great presentation and interesting stuff, Bob
I recently found this channel thanks to the TH-cam recommendations algorithm. After watching a few videos, I've subscribed. Very informative and highlights a lot of historical landmarks etc which makes it more than just about a road. It also highlights the lunacy and daft bureaucracy that exists in the UK that often results in half-baked results that in the process, destroy good agricultural land, communities for nothing. At the same time, it also demonstrates some very talented architects, road designers and sometimes, good planning. This particular video highlighted a typical attitude in the UK. There are recent calls for farmers to re-wild parts of their farms and in some cases, that is appropriate, yet when they tear down things like old munitions factories, instead of considering re-wilding these kinds of places, the automatic reaction is to create an industrial park. There was a former golf course in a previous video that had plans to become a housing estate (that apparently failed). Instead of getting rid of good agricultural land, why not put the option to reuse these places as re-wilding areas and not just the option of an industrial or housing estate. Not appropriate in every case and sometimes a poor yielding farm would be better off as an industrial park, but the country needs to become more flexible in the way things are done.
J2 appears to be another M49 in the making 👍😂
Good stuff as always, extra points for the snippet of 'Earthworm Jim' in there too :D Of course I now have the Half Man Half Biscuit lyric in my head - "half way up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea/a fog descends to take away my visibility/yet in this Helen Keller state I'd still quite like to know/why is Rod Hull alive and getting paid as well?"
Another excellent video, Jon. Many thanks.
Love the Rammstein piano outro!
No mention that at the old Junction 7 the M54 used to flow into a two way road (now the B5061) or that that there's no Northbound link at the M6 junction. Oh and yes the pronunciation of the Wrekin (an extinct volcano, not just a hill).
Just pleased to hear the c&c soundtrack 😅
Rammstein piano cover outro? top drawer.
It is!
Quarries around the Wrekin were used to source the aggregate for the original carriageways, that's the main reason for building from west to east
Love the Wrekin (and your pronunciation of it 😂)
Nice one, thanks for watching!
Great vid. The Wrekin is actually pronounced as ‘reekin’ by locals.
Interesting video but as a Telford resident I have to point out 2 things -
It's the A442, not A422 as you mentioned several times....
Also it's pronounced the "reekin" not the "wreckin"!
It is the A442... I just can't read, type or talk!
Great stuff as always
motorway dude you've redeemed your self... its Shropshire and to be fair i think you did a pretty good job of it, of course us locals may have to let you off with your pronunciation of the wrekin we say it more wreekin, but thats ok,,, well done sir i enjoyed your effort
Thanks for watching mate... Wreekin.. I now know ;)
The dramatic ending sealed it for me. Lovely.
Enjoyed this video. I've driven up the M54 so many times and did no know there were so many hidden gems!
Me: it’s 10:30 on a Sunday night, really need to go to bed. Oooh!! Look it’s the Secrets of the Motorway M54 edition! Screw work on Monday!
I had a car written off on the M54 by some tool in a Mondeo. Good times.
Great video as ever, got to say though, it’s “ree-kin”, not “wreck-in”, as pronounced by Christian Bale in the movie. That horrendous error aside, top work!
It's not an Auto Shenanigans video if we don't pronounce everything incorrectly. Thanks for watching mate!
@@AutoShenanigans 😂 love the videos - I didn’t think anything would top Secrets of The Underground for addictive everyday geekery but you’re not far off - keep up the mispronounced great work!
Awesome video once again John. Love the work you put into these.
And once again, fantastic outro clip. Love the waving drone shots!
A totally unnecessary thing :D Thanks for watching.