Anyone got any suggestions for favourite ones? I'm writing a piece (for Reader's Digest, August) and have the usual - Stonehenge, Angel of the North, Cerne Abbas Giant.

Would welcome suggestions.

The Uffington White Horse (Oxfordshire) should be up there.

Not really a monument, but from the M6 between J9 and J10, you can see the tallest rugby posts on the planet.

Not a monument, as such, but how about the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the A4? It makes the entry to Bristol arguably the most visually spectacular approach to any British city.

I wouldn't have thought that either Stonehenge or Cerne Abbas were in any way conceived as roadside monuments; they just happen to be ancient monuments visible from roads nowadays.

The dragons that guard the entrance points to the City of London are real roadside monuments.

I have always liked what the French did for the WW1 Canadian Vimy Ridge war memorial near Arras. When the A26 autoroute was built about a mile away in recent years, they cut a clear view path through the intervening forest, and erected roadside signs to point it out as you pass.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=50.374304, ... 6,,2,-1.03

The Wicker Man on the M5 would seem to be an obvious example.

Penshaw Monument, known locally as the "Ornament", is right by the A183 between Sunderland and Washington. It's a monument to the first Earl of Durham.

How about Lord Hill's Column, by Shirehall in Shrewsbury? It's taller than Nelson's Column.

And the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster? That wasn't conceived as a roadside monument either, but it is a beautiful construction that is visible from across the entire city, as well as from the M6.

I've been to the top of the Ashton Memorial. You get a lovely panoramic view over Lancaster. Nice park, too! In fact, Lancaster was a nice city, even if we were staying in nearby Morecambe, which looked like it was recession hit even 5 years before the recession!

Lancaster is a wonderful place. I lived there for 11 years; the only bad thing is that it rained for 9 of them.

---

As many of our entries on this thread are landmarks, rather than purpose-built roadside monuments, how about that farmhouse on the central reservation of the M62?

What about Norman Cross and the monument to the Napoleonic era POW camp with the huge eagle on top? It was moved from the side of the A1 to a nearby layby. There's a lot of little monuments alongside the (old) A1 if you know where to look.

There's a lot of little roadside memorials to plane crashes and old military bases, particularly from WW2. Many were young men trying to avoid hitting houses and schools and sacrificing their lives in the process. Annoyingly I can't find any pics on my PC....

I like this Vampire on a pole at RAF Grove...



Just ouside Lancaster, the Jubilee Tower is a nice viewpoint over Lancashire and the Dales.

I did think of that. During my first year at University my mates and I spent ages trying to work out what this distant little box on the edge of the moors was that we could see from our kitchen. Needless to say, when the summer came around we decided that instead of revising for our exams, we would walk to it. It was about 7 miles each way, and I led the group by "guessing" my way there without using a map. The tower itself was one hell of a disappointment, but the view - Lune estuary; Lancaster University's Bowland Tower; the M6, with the grade-listed concrete mushroom service area; and a very distant Blackpool Tower - was well worth the walk. And it wasn't raining that day, either.

The Brighton pillars?

If you want to mention historic ones (i.e. not there anymore), then there was the cooling towers as you passed Sheffield on the M1. Now all that is of interest there is the sprawl of Meadowhall Shopping Centre on the opposite side.

There's also the Wellington Monument near the M5, and also Avebury Stone Circle, which has the A4361 (ex. A361) passing right through it.

I'll see your Vampire on a pole and raise you Spitfire Island, Castle Vale.

I've lived near there all my life and regularly drive past it and walk up to it and I have a geocache at the top. Not once in my life have I heard it called that.

Glastonbury Tor!

My family, and their friends from the east Durham coalfield *always* called it that. Maybe it's a Pitmatic thing?

Stockport Pyramid and Viaduct on the M60.

The Chill FactorE ski centre next to the Trafford Centre, again on the M60.

How about the Wicker Man and camels next to the M5 in Somerset?