1960s WORK
0106 Burton car travel
Burton on Trent is just about in the centre of England. Indeed, it is the midway between the M6 and M1; though the roads to and from these motorways were small country roads when I lived there! The main road was to Birmingham rather than cross-country; though I only remember going to Birmingham once at that time.
Accordingly, to get to London by car -- since the railway journey which involved changing at Birmingham then was almost impossible -- I used to have to go cross-country through Swadlincote to join the M1 not far from Leicester. Ultimately I knew every back double on the route and it didn't take me too long to make that journey.
Equally, the roads across to the M6, near the Stoke turn off, were just as tortuous. I followed a very twisty back double, which started by going out of the wrong side of Burton; using the back roads -- including some very fast straight Roman roads - to Uttoxeter before winding my way to the M6. We used this route when we went to see my parents, which we occasionally did. I started off with a Ford Corsair, a high-powered version, which was quite fast. I would have liked a Cortina GT but got one only just before I got fired. I don't know whether it was deliberate or accidental, but the day I returned the Cortina I managed to sideswipe the gate of the factory and ruined the whole of one side of the car: which did not amuse John Cahill!
When I eventually got my job with IBM I only had Pat's mini-- which was not suitable for travelling down to London. Accordingly Pat used to have to take me into the centre of Burton to get the cross-country train to Birmingham, where I then caught the main line to London; and then the tube to the education centre at Greenford. The return journey was the same except that on the last leg I took a bus to the school playing field at the back of the house. It was a marvellous feeling, after a week away from home, crossing the field to the back garden and being home! The journey time, though, was something like three hours. I well remember that one of the other trainees I was working with left at the same time as me each weekend and flew to Copenhagen. He was inside his front door before I was. But, of course, the worst of all was catching the early train back to London on Monday morning -- with that homesick feeling as I saw Burton disappear into the distance; knowing I had a full week ahead before I would get home.
When I eventually did get my new Renault car, having traded in the mini, I was working in the field. The branch were kind to me and gave me job well away from branch, in Ipswich, which meant that I could claim for staying in a hotel. It did, though, mean that I had to travel halfway across England, again on country roads.
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