Welcome to your local community website...

Memories of the Great South West Road

Posted by Robert Cumber on Dec 24, 08 11:34 AM in People

I have always been fascinated by travel, writes Chronicle reader Mr C Panks.

As a working class kid in Watford in the 1960s, my little bro and I bundled into the back of Dad's old Anglia van and we drove up to Norfolk where we had family.

My memories are of sitting on cold grey dunes, shivering in swimming trunks and cardie, eating ham sandwiches with sand in them, gazing watery eyed out across the North Sea at the oil rigs being towed out.

On returning to school, we all had to write up our holidays and the best ones were read out.

Lots of kids went to Cornwall for their holidays and told of exotic things like cliffs, rock pools, scenery and quaint villages nestling in deep, wooded ravines... none of which existed in North Norfolk. I resolved that I would be holidaying in Cornwall given the chance.

My first car was a Vauxhall Cresta and the first place I went on my first real solo holiday was Land's End. The open road, the hum of the motor, the miles slipping by; I really had the travel bug and at thirteen miles to the gallon, thank heaven petrol was cheap, even for the likes of me taking home £40 per week (1980).

The Cresta was a motorway car but I liked the idea of exploring the older routes that were in use a generation earlier. From Watford, the best route was down through Iver, Datchet, Windsor, to the A30 and Bagshot.

Now almost thirty years on, I have a grand idea to research the history of the old holiday route from the beginning of the A30 Great South West Road at the A4, all the way down to Lands End.

I'm not a journalist by any means; I work in electronics manufacturing, writing service manuals but I do now live in Cornwall, and I can see the A30 from my front garden.

Here's the plot: I want to drive the road from end to end, gathering stories and photos along the way. Maybe I'll end up with a book, maybe I'll end up with a TV documentary?

Either way I'll end up with a substantial petrol bill, even though the 3.3 litre Cresta has long since been replaced by a little 1.1 Hyundai.

What I would really appreciate, is any stories, photos and reminisces from the good people of Hounslow, especially those of mature years living in the Travellers Way area around the top of the Great South West Road.

The icing on the cake would be to find someone living there who actually did the Cornwall trip in years gone by.

If you have anything to tell about the old road, please email me at greatsouthwestroad@yahoo.co.uk

I'd love to hear from you and maybe pop in for a cuppa when I get around to doing the drive.

We'd like to hear from you.
Send your stories, pics and videos