The A303: Highway to the Sun

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This trunk road consists of 90-odd miles from the junction with the M3 in Hampshire to Annie's Tea Bar in Devon, where it joins the A30.

Having spent most of my life living and working along various points on the A303, I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I could relate to the places described. After all, the literal 'road maps' and plans cost a few million to draw up before even a square metre of tarmac is raised. He describes the road's origins, and some of the interesting sites it passes close to; most of these would be unfamiliar to the majority of its users as we're only interested in getting to the end of it. Even if the A358->A303 renaming went ahead as you describe I see no possible reason for that to present a case for renumbering the A30 as A35. For me, and I am sure many others, it has always been, and is now, if not a highway to the sun, at least a highway to a windy beach, with a good few sights along the way.

The last major road renumbering that I can think of was the A14, which coincided with significant stretches of new and improved road, effectively making a new route to the Midlands that took in sections of several old roads. His account of the Free Festivals at Stonehenge made me remember a forgotten journey in my life, when travelling on a motorcycle i just happened upon the free festival. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. He lives in South Oxfordshire with his wife and two of his children and has been travelling up and down the A303 for over five decades.

Traveling down the road in an ancient Mini Traveller car from the Sixties, he came across as someone prone to mugging in front of the camera for no apparent reason: what mattered was not so much the sites, but his reaction to them.

Like the road, the book is unsatisfactory in places - spending a bit too long on well-documented Stonehenge whereas more time could have been spent on some of the obscure sites and sights. It's a good watch for those who are familiar with it, very much a poetic look at the road which I liked.

The A303 is one of the essential routes of English motoring, promising to whisk the traveller towards the green and honeyed lands of Somerset and the far west to a world of holidays and escape (although these journeys all too often grind to a standstill. Fort is uncomfortable with modern motoring (for the tv series which was the progenitor to this, he travelled the road in a Morris Minor) and it's clear he prefers reflecting back n the golden age of motor travel pre-M1, rather than the modern behmoth. Having built a new road from Ilminster to the M5, the HA and local councils are likely to want to discourage through traffic from using the old route. At first it seemed as if Fort intended to show how the A303 has changed the landscape over the years.

At last someone has celebrated the romance of the British road' Guardian The A303 is more than a road. I felt it was a shame that he didn't actually make more of his love of rivers and fishing, as he was writing at his best when he veered toward this topic. years ago, the bluestones of Stonehenge were conveyed west from the river Avon along a small section of its route. CitroJim A very naughty boy Posts: 49004 Joined: 30 Apr 2005, 23:33 Location: Paggers My Cars: Bluebell the AX, Polly the C3 Picasso, Pix the Nissan Pixo, Propel the duathlon bike, TCR Pro the road bike and Fuji the TT bike. Unfortunately John Holdsworth's documentary was ruined by the decision to use Tom Fort, a self-styled 'eccentric' as presenter.

This look at the historical sites along the A303, a road stretching from the south-east to the south-west of Britain, connecting right through to Exeter in Devon, had fascinating potential: ancient and modern sites compete for attention on both sides of the road, that befit close attention. The author didn't really seem to have much of a personal connection with the road and I think it would have been better with a bit more present human experience. For those that don't know it, the A303 forms part of a major longer route from London to Penzance, except that it only goes about a third of the way, doing the bit between Basingstoke and Honiton. This book was first published in 2012 (just before we moved down here), and was updated seven years later. A bit disjointed but I was in particular fascinated by the story about the fairly cavalier rearrangement of the stones at Stonehenge in the 1950s - not quite the unchanging timeless monument we all imagine it to be, then.I would go so far as to say that Fort is to the A303 as Jerome K Jerome was to the Thames in his time. Don't go looking for a travel book, this is more of a history, and, at times, even a political rant. Tom Fort’s latest book begins with the premise that holidays, while supposedly among our most cherished memories, are often eclipsed by the journeys involved in getting to our destinations, in Fort’s experience this being westwards down the A303.