The study of British and Irish roads - their construction, numbering, history, mapping, past and future official roads proposals and general roads musings.
There is a separate forum for Street Furniture (traffic lights, street lights, road signs etc).
Registered users get access to other forums including discussions about other forms of transport, driving, fantasy roads and wishlists, and roads quizzes.
RobJ29A wrote:In Congleton on the A34 is Rood Hill. Many years back the "Rood Hill" street sign at the top of said hill had been vandalised to say "Rod Hull". Marvellous!
"Rood" means "cross" (as in depictiion of the Crucifixion) in Middle English. Many churches have a screen showing a cross, between the sanctuary (where the choir sits and the clergy do their thing) and the nave (containing the seats for the common rabble sorry the laity), this is still known as the Roodscreen.
RobJ29A wrote:Many years back the "Rood Hill" street sign at the top of said hill had been vandalised to say "Rod Hull". Marvellous!
Perhaps we could start a subthread on inspired but unauthorised changes to street names and other signs.
When I was a lad I lived in Kinver, Staffs. The parish council organised a high-profile twinning project with a French village, called Mer. Some of the local chavs must have been paying attention during French GCSE classes, as no sooner had the signs gone up at the village limits saying 'Welcome to / KINVER / twinned with / MER / France' but the French village's name had acquired an extra 'DE'.
On a recent visit to Oxford, someone told me that the sign for Turn Again Lane made his day! Sadly we were with a large group, so we didn't get around to walking it, but what with the amount of times we got lost, it proved to be very handy advice.
Re. unauthorised changes, at the entrances to Musselburgh there are signs of welcome to "The Honest Toun". (The town motto 'Honesty' dates back to 1332, when the Regent of Scotland, Randolph, Earl of Moray died in the Burgh after a long illness during which he was devotedly cared for by the citizens of the burgh. His successor offered to reward the people for their loyalty but they declined saying they were only doing their duty. The new regent was very impressed and said they were a set of honest men, hence "Honest Toun".)
A while ago some of these were augmented by "beware pickpockets".
Talking of signs being altered, when I worked in Leek, driving in one morning I was highly amused by the replacement of the Leek - Queen Of The Moorlands sign with one from Stanley Moor, several miles away.
Someone had performed the prank under the cover of darkness, with tools and transport.
I walked past a few days and the Leek sign had been thrown in the hedge.
I have seen the signs to Ruckhall from the B4352 between Hay-on-wye and Hereford with the R altered and the A obliterated by some local wags.
As I only ever go along there on my way to courses to update me on the latest changes to auditing and accounting standards or tax regulations, it is the only bit of light relief for the whole day!
I just saw an alleyway named "Ingle Pingle" in Loughborough today. Suppose it doesn't count, but it had the same kind of sign that roads do in this area.