Musings from the Merse
Saturday, December 11, 2010
And the wretched snow is still with us making the B6461 still impassable without 4 wheel drive. So we are stuck in Duns with our carport surrounded by 2 foot of snow and having to walk everywhere to reach anything.
Roll on the Spring I say
Roll on the Spring I say
Labels: B6461
Thursday, June 24, 2010
At last-a return to the blog and well overdue it is! In Duns it is easy to sink into lazy routines ignoring the big Issues which must be faced, including it seems says the Berwickshire, the dualling of the A1 which is still single carriage way for much of its passage in Northumberland and Berwickshire. Actually it is arguably time to forget the A1 and to dual the notorious B6461 and tne Fishwick By-Pass.
What has the apple tree in the Old Manse got to do with all this I hear you cry. Very Little but it is such a nice image I thought I should share it with you
Labels: Apple trees, B6461, Old Manse
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Profundis on stilts
As Huttonian arises from the depths his long depression (missing Hutton? he has been following with interest (3.5 % in line with current inflation)the very small print on the contra indications of my pills and in even smaller letters possible side effects. These range from a nasty cold to Death One of my packets talked of 'Voices' 'Hallucinations'' Self harm-like hospital food). I had a rare one-saw two people at the same time in Hutton Main street
So those pills really work.
Now A peasant more road flashes please. What is still moving on the B6461
Come one Come All Huttonian is back
As Huttonian arises from the depths his long depression (missing Hutton? he has been following with interest (3.5 % in line with current inflation)the very small print on the contra indications of my pills and in even smaller letters possible side effects. These range from a nasty cold to Death One of my packets talked of 'Voices' 'Hallucinations'' Self harm-like hospital food). I had a rare one-saw two people at the same time in Hutton Main street
So those pills really work.
Now A peasant more road flashes please. What is still moving on the B6461
Come one Come All Huttonian is back
Labels: A Peasant, B6461, Depression, Hutton
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tour de Farce?
Rhoda Hogg has been on patrol and reports as follows :
that there are outbreaks of cyclists of the even-sillier-than-the-lycra-and-a-tin-hat-that-looks-like-half-a-hard-boiled-egg variety along the B6461. They are hard to see in mist and failing light, being given to wearing a camouflage of dun colours, do not wear protective helmets and appear to be unaware of the concept of single file. You have been warned.
It is Dun not DUNS btw
Rhoda Hogg has been on patrol and reports as follows :
that there are outbreaks of cyclists of the even-sillier-than-the-lycra-and-a-tin-hat-that-looks-like-half-a-hard-boiled-egg variety along the B6461. They are hard to see in mist and failing light, being given to wearing a camouflage of dun colours, do not wear protective helmets and appear to be unaware of the concept of single file. You have been warned.
It is Dun not DUNS btw
Labels: B6461, Rhoda Hogg
Monday, October 05, 2009
ITS MONDAY. ROAD AND WATER CHAOS HORROR
Our motoring correspondent Rhoda Hogg writes:
The stretch of the B6437 S. of the junction with the B6461. During the road works there was a portaloo at each end of this section of road. However, the one at the southern end seemed to disappear at night – where to we know not. The road was closed for “resurfacing”. It now no longer has a white line down the middle but a white line near each edge of the road, thus seeming to narrow it and also to terrify anyone with a small car when there is an agrivehicle coming the other way. The ruts at the crumbling edges have been filled in with what looks like earth. Any agricultural driver trying not to leave wheel marks on the roof of a Ka or similar small car is requested not to churn up these edges with his nasty, heavy vehicle. The odd mark down the former middle of the road is still there. Nobody seems to know why all that loose grit was spread along the road the last time it was closed a few weeks ago, but there ain’t any more. Residents of nearby cottages have been inconvenienced greatly by their overflow car park having been squatted in for some time (and without warning) by large SBC road works vehicles. Has the area been turned into an SBC plant park? While the monsters are there they are not out busily mending our crumbling roads. SBC and communication, eh?
Across the water there are further hazards awaiting the unwary visitor to Norham. Northumbrian Water have some sort of strange road digging operation going on which requires a traffic light system. During the day this is complicated further by large vehicles not looking where they are going. The red light sign at the bridge end of the works is too flimsy to stand up for long and the bizarre position of the red light to which it pertains has caused many an eek moment. Every night village the temporary barriers collapse into the trench they are allegedly guarding but nobody has worked out who or what is doing this. And we thought SBC were dire…….
And if road problems re not enough how about this ?:
For Immediate Release
Engineers Battle to Reconnect Duns
Scottish Water engineers are currently assessing the damage following a burst to the 18 inch outlet main from the Dunslaw Service Reservoir.
In order to investigate the damaged main and begin repair work it has been necessary to shut off the water supply to a number of local communities. In order to reduce morning disruption this shut down was left to as late as was possible.
Customers in Duns have been first to be affected, however customers in or near the surrounding areas of Greenlaw, Swinton, Hutton, Paxton, Whitsome, Chirnside and Foulden could also be affected during the course of the day.
Craig Lawson, Scottish Water’s Regional Manager for the Borders said:
“Our engineers are doing everything possible to complete this repair as quickly as they can. The burst 18 inch iron main is affecting more than 4,900 properties and it’s important that we reduce disruption as much as possible. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this may be causing.”
We will continue to keep the local community informed as we assess the damage to the main and begin repairs.
Scottish Water would ask customers able to preserve drinking water supplies to do so at this time.
You can follow the drip by drip crisis here
In the meanwhile the Coop in Duns has run out of bottled water!
Which gives the lie to the old Two Ronnies news item:
News of Panic Buying in Scotland THERE ISN'T ANY
PS Go here to see Scotland's most popular blog
Our motoring correspondent Rhoda Hogg writes:
The stretch of the B6437 S. of the junction with the B6461. During the road works there was a portaloo at each end of this section of road. However, the one at the southern end seemed to disappear at night – where to we know not. The road was closed for “resurfacing”. It now no longer has a white line down the middle but a white line near each edge of the road, thus seeming to narrow it and also to terrify anyone with a small car when there is an agrivehicle coming the other way. The ruts at the crumbling edges have been filled in with what looks like earth. Any agricultural driver trying not to leave wheel marks on the roof of a Ka or similar small car is requested not to churn up these edges with his nasty, heavy vehicle. The odd mark down the former middle of the road is still there. Nobody seems to know why all that loose grit was spread along the road the last time it was closed a few weeks ago, but there ain’t any more. Residents of nearby cottages have been inconvenienced greatly by their overflow car park having been squatted in for some time (and without warning) by large SBC road works vehicles. Has the area been turned into an SBC plant park? While the monsters are there they are not out busily mending our crumbling roads. SBC and communication, eh?
Across the water there are further hazards awaiting the unwary visitor to Norham. Northumbrian Water have some sort of strange road digging operation going on which requires a traffic light system. During the day this is complicated further by large vehicles not looking where they are going. The red light sign at the bridge end of the works is too flimsy to stand up for long and the bizarre position of the red light to which it pertains has caused many an eek moment. Every night village the temporary barriers collapse into the trench they are allegedly guarding but nobody has worked out who or what is doing this. And we thought SBC were dire…….
And if road problems re not enough how about this ?:
For Immediate Release
Engineers Battle to Reconnect Duns
Scottish Water engineers are currently assessing the damage following a burst to the 18 inch outlet main from the Dunslaw Service Reservoir.
In order to investigate the damaged main and begin repair work it has been necessary to shut off the water supply to a number of local communities. In order to reduce morning disruption this shut down was left to as late as was possible.
Customers in Duns have been first to be affected, however customers in or near the surrounding areas of Greenlaw, Swinton, Hutton, Paxton, Whitsome, Chirnside and Foulden could also be affected during the course of the day.
Craig Lawson, Scottish Water’s Regional Manager for the Borders said:
“Our engineers are doing everything possible to complete this repair as quickly as they can. The burst 18 inch iron main is affecting more than 4,900 properties and it’s important that we reduce disruption as much as possible. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this may be causing.”
We will continue to keep the local community informed as we assess the damage to the main and begin repairs.
Scottish Water would ask customers able to preserve drinking water supplies to do so at this time.
You can follow the drip by drip crisis here
In the meanwhile the Coop in Duns has run out of bottled water!
Which gives the lie to the old Two Ronnies news item:
News of Panic Buying in Scotland THERE ISN'T ANY
PS Go here to see Scotland's most popular blog
Labels: B6437, B6461, Duns out of water, Panic butying, Scottish Water
Friday, September 04, 2009
Hurrah! Another Record for the Borders
Co'path motocyclist denies doing 166mph
is the headline over this little item in the Berwickshire News
"The offence is alleged to have happened on the Dolphinton straight of the A702 the Scottish Borders in May.
BERWICKSHIRE motorcyclist has denied travelling at what is thought to be the fastest speed ever recorded on a Scottish road.
Neil Purves, 27, of Cockburnspath, was charged with reaching 166mph on a 60mph road .
Mr Purves denied the charge at Peebles Sheriff Court last week and is due to stand trial in October this year"
At least he wasn't on the B6461 or the Fishwick Bypass. Most of us can cope with the boy racers and other speed merchants, just wince, move over and good bye Jimmy -the problem is more from the inveterate middle of the road slow coaches intent on driving(npi) other road users mad with frustration.
We confidently predict a future item about some one travelling at what is thought to be the slowest speed ever recorded on a Scottish road. And I have a very good idea who that will be. And where. And just my luck to be right behind her.
I wonder who nicked Mr P? Observation by a low flying aircraft? Not overtaken by the fuzz and flagged down you can be sure.
(The image is not of Mr P on the A702-but, allegedly, of a visiting biker who had failed to notice an unexpected speed bump on the Fishwick Bypass-designed for speeding tractors, apparently)
Labels: B6461, Boy Racers, Fishwick By Pass
Friday, August 07, 2009
(Very) Late Road Flash
Rhoda Hogg writes:
Users of the B6437 are advised to take great caution when driving along certain stretches because of an SBC plot to obscure the road markings with light grey gravel to such a depth as to make skidding very likely. The section due north of Whitsome village is one such, while the section south of the junction with the B6461 Berwick-Swinton road is lethal. Please drive along this stretch with your windows shut because speeding 4x4s are seriously kicking up the dust. There is also a section of gravel gouged away at the junction with the Norham road. Perhaps someone has been nicking it for their driveway? – SBC have certainly spread more than enough.
Users of the B6461 have the usual warnings when passing Paxton, which seems to be a magnet for every whacko motorist/bike rider in the county. Drivers are also warned that the current warn weather has led to a proliferation of repulsively lycra-clad cyclists, with or without pointy helmets. If you need to stop to be sick, please do so in a safe place. There are tourists stopping in strange places to take pictures of each other.
The final hazard is hedge cutting operations, most of which are taking place without appropriate warning signage. However, for the first time ever a few days ago, one warning sign was seen for the stretch near Fishwick. There’s a first time, etc…..
Inspector Jock Dangling-Stick of the Fishwick Special Branch comments:
" These of course were not tourists (almost unknown in the area)-but Special Branch Officers in undercover mode ' Operation Pussy Cats Claw" Other operatives disguised as lycra clad cyclists were withdrawn as being too conspicuous - No Respectable Borderer would be seen in daylight cycling wearing anything else than old cords, cloth cap and wellies. (NRB would not seen at night as they don't believe in using lights)Although no terrorists were apprehended two Hedge Cutting Consultants were taken into custody for failing to display warning signs in the vicinity of the notorious blackspot on the Fishwick bypass."
(The image is sent in by a recent visitor to Fishwick-note a number of Chinese tourist buses seem to have caught up in the gridlock)
Labels: B6437, B6461, Fishwick Special Branch, Rhoda Hogg
Monday, June 22, 2009
TRAFFIC MERSE: FLASH
Our motoring correspondent, Rhoda Hogg, has just sent this by pigeon post:
urgent news flash :
If driving down the section of the B6347 south of the Whitsome Hill crossroad with the B6461, beware a yellow and green tractor. This vehicle judders from side to side like any other indifferently driven agricultural vehicle in the Merse. If behind it do not attempt to overtake. If driving toward it, pray or hope that suddenly mounting the embankment will not scupper your vehicle’s underpinnings. The tractor driver is clamped to his mobile phone and unaware of the road ahead. This has happened twice in the past week. Third time……….
NB Military Traffic Reports of relevance to the B6461 and the Fishwick Bypass will now be semaphored in by Major Rhode-Ahead TD and Bar.Retd
Our motoring correspondent, Rhoda Hogg, has just sent this by pigeon post:
urgent news flash :
If driving down the section of the B6347 south of the Whitsome Hill crossroad with the B6461, beware a yellow and green tractor. This vehicle judders from side to side like any other indifferently driven agricultural vehicle in the Merse. If behind it do not attempt to overtake. If driving toward it, pray or hope that suddenly mounting the embankment will not scupper your vehicle’s underpinnings. The tractor driver is clamped to his mobile phone and unaware of the road ahead. This has happened twice in the past week. Third time……….
NB Military Traffic Reports of relevance to the B6461 and the Fishwick Bypass will now be semaphored in by Major Rhode-Ahead TD and Bar.Retd
Labels: B6461, Borders Traffic, Rhoda Hogg, Whitsome
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
RALLYING AROUND
The vote against a repeat of the Jim Clark Rally in Duns next year seems to be settling down as follows:
Would you like to see the Duns stage of the Jim Clark Rally repeated next year?
Yes [28.3%]
No [71.6%]
Don't Know [0.1%]
(why do the 'don't knows' bother to vote one wonders?)I suspect the habitual voters are back to more vital topics such as should Berwick be part of Berwickshire although the Duns Poll remains THE ISSUE in the Berwickshire News.
Not that the organisers will take a blind bit of notice of any expression of public opinion unless it is in their favour
In the meanwhile the Hutton Think Tank (Rally, Roadworks and Bike Section) have suggested a novel stage for next year, instead of abusing Duns : 'The B6461 Scramble
(A) Close the B6461
(B) Half the cars start at one end the others from the other ( junction with Berwick By Pass)
(C) Simultaneous start from each end
(D) Winner is the car that travels the furthest distance before the race is stopped for health and safety reasons
Fun! And folk in Duns can stroll their streets in safety
Mr Pagan : Over to you
(Thank you 4_hero of Flickr for the image. Not much the driver could do about that one?)
Labels: B6461, Jim Clark Rally
Monday, June 08, 2009
The Song of the Borders Road
On the Today programme someone was pushing his book on the romance of the mundane British road. Why did we have no glamorous Route 66 or a Bob Dylan to sing about a Highway 61?
"Oh God said to abraham kill me a son
Abe said man you must be puttin me on
God said no, abe said what
God say you can do what you wanna but
The next time you see me comin you better run
Well abe said where dyou want this killin done
God said out on highway 61" (Highway 61 Revisited)
Well you have got to start somewhere-if Chesterton could do it on the Rolling English Road;
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.
So can we:
The Hutton Think Tank, Songs, Psalms and Paraphrases Section are offering a major prize (Two weeks in Whitsome) for the best lyrics about a Berwickshire Highway; their main frame computer Big Mac has chosen one by random. B6461. So get scribbling. You know the sort of thing: Havering On will suggest the backing
On the B6461,
Where Milk Lorries ply their trade,
And White Man Van,
And Tractor Dan
collide with a foul tirade
On the B6461
Big Jim* is justifying expenses
His greatest Ally
The Jim Clark Rally
has done for most of his fences.
(with a change of metre)
On the B6461
Where the speed limit is just a suggestion
the dilatory wanker, the 14 wheeled tanker, the 32 Bus
All holding up us
Not conducive to a healthy digestion
* The Councillor responsible for roads and irresponsible for the highest mileage claim)
On the Today programme someone was pushing his book on the romance of the mundane British road. Why did we have no glamorous Route 66 or a Bob Dylan to sing about a Highway 61?
"Oh God said to abraham kill me a son
Abe said man you must be puttin me on
God said no, abe said what
God say you can do what you wanna but
The next time you see me comin you better run
Well abe said where dyou want this killin done
God said out on highway 61" (Highway 61 Revisited)
Well you have got to start somewhere-if Chesterton could do it on the Rolling English Road;
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.
So can we:
The Hutton Think Tank, Songs, Psalms and Paraphrases Section are offering a major prize (Two weeks in Whitsome) for the best lyrics about a Berwickshire Highway; their main frame computer Big Mac has chosen one by random. B6461. So get scribbling. You know the sort of thing: Havering On will suggest the backing
On the B6461,
Where Milk Lorries ply their trade,
And White Man Van,
And Tractor Dan
collide with a foul tirade
On the B6461
Big Jim* is justifying expenses
His greatest Ally
The Jim Clark Rally
has done for most of his fences.
(with a change of metre)
On the B6461
Where the speed limit is just a suggestion
the dilatory wanker, the 14 wheeled tanker, the 32 Bus
All holding up us
Not conducive to a healthy digestion
* The Councillor responsible for roads and irresponsible for the highest mileage claim)
Labels: B6461, Bob Dylan, Borders Roads, Hutton Think Tank
Sunday, May 24, 2009
JAM TODAY
"The Paxton curse is manifest again. This time, the darkish
blue offending vehicle of Wolfsburg construction settled on a fixed speed of
43 m.p.h. for a long, long journey before disappearing (without timely
signalling, natch) to a certain executive-housing-plagued village".
writes our motoring correspondent who was presumably intent on escaping from the Jim Clark Rally. But the occasional faffer on the B6461, however intensely irritating that can be, rather fades into insignificance when compared to the Newcastle County Down heading traffic on a Norn Iron Bank Holiday. You never have tail backs in Berwickshire, apart from the Fishwick By Pass of course and the mad rush of two fisherman past Fishwick Mains and the Farmer C rejuvenate the Merse building development. But County Down is serious stuff and even when you reach Newcastle your problems are not over as it can take half an hour to squeeze past the massed ranks of day long parkers jamming the main drag or endlessly circulating around the One Way System, radios blaring until they appaer raey to disappear up their own.... Huttonian dwells at the quiet end of town,beyond the snarl of the OWS. But to get there...You could always take a thirty five mile detour via Newry, the Stranraer of Norn Iron, minus the ferry, coming up from ther south and I am sometimes tempted.
But not yesterday. Town almost empty. Wet morning. All the day trippers had gone home.
Good riddance I say
The image may not be of Newcastle but come here on the 12th of July you would find this scene familiar
Labels: B6461, Fishwick Bypass, Norn Iron
Friday, April 10, 2009
Driving us mad
Our Berwickshire Motoring Correspondent Rhodda Hogg reports
The B6461 is now minus roadworks between Swinton and Berwick although confusing diversion and road closed signs remain in situ. The chain bridge corner has 2 signs, the placement of one which looks as if the way ahead to Berwick is closed. Roads in the area are now populated by some very dangerous folk driving INCREDIBLOODY slowly to enjoy those views as yet uncontaminated by wind farms.
This coincides with a major story in this week's Berwickshire here about complaints about potholes from local motorists. Apparently the Borders does not figure in the top ten pothole infested areas in the UK as measured by suspension problems: Ayrshire is the potholers paradise but our neighbours Northumberland are in the second slot.
I have always believed, as hinted above by Ms R Hogg, that the main danger on Borders roads and especially the notorious B6461 is not potholes, or even Boy Racers but the very slow drivers which infest these parts. We should start photographing their number plates or noting them down and reporting them to the fuzz. A few of these faffers hanging from gibbets along the B6461 would encourager les autres to drive with more consideration-and would be an alternative attraction to the wind turbines which we cannot hope indefinitely to escape.
Our Berwickshire Motoring Correspondent Rhodda Hogg reports
The B6461 is now minus roadworks between Swinton and Berwick although confusing diversion and road closed signs remain in situ. The chain bridge corner has 2 signs, the placement of one which looks as if the way ahead to Berwick is closed. Roads in the area are now populated by some very dangerous folk driving INCREDIBLOODY slowly to enjoy those views as yet uncontaminated by wind farms.
This coincides with a major story in this week's Berwickshire here about complaints about potholes from local motorists. Apparently the Borders does not figure in the top ten pothole infested areas in the UK as measured by suspension problems: Ayrshire is the potholers paradise but our neighbours Northumberland are in the second slot.
I have always believed, as hinted above by Ms R Hogg, that the main danger on Borders roads and especially the notorious B6461 is not potholes, or even Boy Racers but the very slow drivers which infest these parts. We should start photographing their number plates or noting them down and reporting them to the fuzz. A few of these faffers hanging from gibbets along the B6461 would encourager les autres to drive with more consideration-and would be an alternative attraction to the wind turbines which we cannot hope indefinitely to escape.
Labels: B6461, Borders Roads, Rhodda Hogg
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The Road of (Slow) Death
The Blog's newly acquired (we could not get Jeremy Clarkson for contractural reasons) motoring correspondent writes:
Comment has been made previously about strange driving practices along the B6461, particularly along the stretch around Hutton and Paxton. Early last evening I was poodling in the Berwick direction at my standard 55 when behold (or did when he eventually doused his full-beam headlights) a black van man, someone having evidently resprayed a vintage Bedford . Every time the driver hit a pothole, the lights blared up again. He covered the ground between me and him as fast as if he were delivering a human kidney – hopefully not mine. He then overtook (without signalling) and veered (without signalling) into the Paxton cut-off then reduced his speed to normal. Is there something about the Paxton area which makes it into what sounds like the latest Alexander McCall Smith – the Resort of Needful Drivers?
There is certainly something about the B6461-a highway of (near if not sudden) death which used to feature regularly in the proceedings of the Hutton and Paxton Community Council when ever the Fuzz were in attendance. The first Paxton turn off (coming from England, as they do), on a bad corner is a very nasty accident waiting to happen. So many drivers seem to remember urgent business in Paxton at the very last moment or that the Cross has a particularly good Beer of the Month and veer off with no warning. And others seem so desperate to flee the village that they shoot out without observing the traffic on the mainer road.
And at the second turn off- to Paxton and eventually (if you are spared)Greenlaw) you have a choice of turning suddenly towards the village or an equally dramatic hand brake turn to the left into Paxton House with a good chance of marginally reducing the number of local dog walkers which remain in season even when PH is not.
Or of course you can control your instincts and carry on straight to Kelso.
But that would be a pity as you would miss the better Hutton turn off. And that would be a crying shame
(The image is apparently to do with a vehicle test conducted recently on the Fishwick Bypass)
Labels: B6461, bad driving, Hutton, Hutton and Paxton Community Council
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Road Rage on the B6461
A fairly local bloggee is worth quoting:
I generally take the B6461 into Berwick. The stretch of road between Fishwick and the A1 appears to be a variant on the Bermuda triangle mystery. Low budget cars (with the exception of mine) appear to be prone to a malaise which only allows them to do less than 40 m.p.h. and also to turn off the road without signalling. Recent carriers of this plague include a Vauxhall Astra and a Ford Corsa. I am not known for my reckless driving and detest the local speed culture but nevertheless find the go-slows both dangerous and irritating, especially when there is a gas guzzler behind trying to put tyre marks on my roof. At least a third of the tractors on that road are gents who actually signal when the road ahead is clear, but not these ones. Neither do they seem to be flat cappers. The other scourge of that stretch of road are the folk at night who can’t work out that having headlights on full is not very kind to the person in front of them, usually me.
Right on. In my experience it is the slow faffers, not the Toads, who are the real menaces on the road and especially the stretch that leads from the entrance to Paxton House until the A1 as identified above. This stretch is undulating and twisty and only encourages the boy racer to have a go at overtaking when he really shouldn't and even a 40mph crawler is not a safe bet. I remember a voluble attender at Hutton and Paxton Community Council meetings complaining (at every opportunity) to the visiting fuzz about the dangerous drivers on this road-subsequently I found myself stuck behind the complainer who only exceeded 35 mph, once, when, perhaps, unexpectedly passing wind*. Two toads behind me could not bear to be thus stifled and both overtook us barely missing an oncoming tractor. The slowster in front indulged in a lot of angry gesticulation and would never have admitted being the main cause of such dangerous driving.
For a fun and challenging respite from the funereal B6461 try the Fishwick Bypass. If the late Jim Clark had ever taken on one of Farmer C' 4wd fisher folk friends he would have come
a very bad second
(* by the slow speed not the toxic emanation)
A fairly local bloggee is worth quoting:
I generally take the B6461 into Berwick. The stretch of road between Fishwick and the A1 appears to be a variant on the Bermuda triangle mystery. Low budget cars (with the exception of mine) appear to be prone to a malaise which only allows them to do less than 40 m.p.h. and also to turn off the road without signalling. Recent carriers of this plague include a Vauxhall Astra and a Ford Corsa. I am not known for my reckless driving and detest the local speed culture but nevertheless find the go-slows both dangerous and irritating, especially when there is a gas guzzler behind trying to put tyre marks on my roof. At least a third of the tractors on that road are gents who actually signal when the road ahead is clear, but not these ones. Neither do they seem to be flat cappers. The other scourge of that stretch of road are the folk at night who can’t work out that having headlights on full is not very kind to the person in front of them, usually me.
Right on. In my experience it is the slow faffers, not the Toads, who are the real menaces on the road and especially the stretch that leads from the entrance to Paxton House until the A1 as identified above. This stretch is undulating and twisty and only encourages the boy racer to have a go at overtaking when he really shouldn't and even a 40mph crawler is not a safe bet. I remember a voluble attender at Hutton and Paxton Community Council meetings complaining (at every opportunity) to the visiting fuzz about the dangerous drivers on this road-subsequently I found myself stuck behind the complainer who only exceeded 35 mph, once, when, perhaps, unexpectedly passing wind*. Two toads behind me could not bear to be thus stifled and both overtook us barely missing an oncoming tractor. The slowster in front indulged in a lot of angry gesticulation and would never have admitted being the main cause of such dangerous driving.
For a fun and challenging respite from the funereal B6461 try the Fishwick Bypass. If the late Jim Clark had ever taken on one of Farmer C' 4wd fisher folk friends he would have come
a very bad second
(* by the slow speed not the toxic emanation)
Labels: B6461, Borders Roads, Road Rage
