Lost buildings of the A1 widening scheme - March/April 09

The highways agency or whoever does this sort of thing is currently widening a large stretch of the A1 between Leeming and Dishforth. I drive this stretch of road every day and have watched as a boundry line was established along side the Southbound carriage way. It became clear that all the buildings inside this line were going to be demolished to make way for the new carriageway. One of these buildings was an old GPO exchange/repeater shed, not very exciting but I'd always wondered what was in one, and knew if I didn't stop and have a look I'd be gutted when it was gone. I knew before I stopped it would be crap and it was, but this started me on my mission to try and record all the interesting buildings that are going to be lost forever under the tarmac. Over the last couple of weeks I've managed to record the older and more interesting buildings along my route. There are a lot more, but flatpack petrol stations and Little chefs are crap and can be seen all over the country. So here they are, on their own not particularly interesting but as a group worth a look. Anyway in my head I thought it was important to record these familiar sights, seen and forgotten by thousands of people everyday, before they are gone forever.

nice work mexico great pics of the site.so has the last train been removed yet?

No that's still there, I forgot to mention the train grave yard

Just want to say that report is AMAZING!! Thanks for getting to them before the A1 did and how cool are the hooks. There are a few ex boyfriends I'd love to string up there mwah ha ha ha ha.

Yeah, those hooks are odd, what do you think they were for? Aside the obvious...

Nice work Mex -some consolation to know that even when all these buildings are demo'd, there'll be this long lasting record. Nice work dude

Good to see these pics, as we ( Neosea, Gangeox, 85Vintage and I) noticed these on the way to St Mary's recently, isn't there an abandonned Burger king along there too?

well thats what DP is all about, getting pictures of stuff before it goes. Well done, cracking pictures, and your very brave going down into the cellar after your were already creaped out by the place !
nice one.


T

Nice report mate.

I love that old station, and I think I stopped at the Bistro once or twice on my way to Newcastle.

Pip

Cheers for the comments guy's @ kaputnic, there is a BurgerKing but I didn't bother with any of the new stuff. Can't believe you went to St Marys instead of stopping at these St Mary's is good though isn't it

Whilst I can understand the feeling that the GPO building was empty and boring, you need to remember that they just don't make them like that any more. And to quote a sales blurb, once they're gone, they're gone.

So I do think it's important to get a pictorial record of places like that. I have too many regrets of not using a camera in the past, and of course, it's way too late now in many cases. It might not be considered interesting enough to post, but that doesn't mean it's not important enough to capture, is what I'm trying to say.

Apart from petrol pumps, obviously.

So well done Mex.

Oh, and the hooks used to have those string things for hanging plants in. I can't remember the proper name at the moment. No plants though as far as I can remember. But my guess at the time was, it was used for hanging meat.

Assuming of course, this was the wee cupboard sized room.

Is macramé the word you are looking for? That's the name of the technique for making them. I made a macramé plant hanger when I was at primary school.

Seahorse said:

Oh, and the hooks used to have those string things for hanging plants in. I can't remember the proper name at the moment. No plants though as far as I can remember. But my guess at the time was, it was used for hanging meat.

Assuming of course, this was the wee cupboard sized room.

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i think the hooks would have been used for hanging game bird and rabbits etc cos that little room looks like a pantry/larder of years gone by

Great report Mex' thanks for sharing

RichardB said:

Is macramé the word you are looking for? That's the name of the technique for making them. I made a macramé plant hanger when I was at primary school.

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That's the word. But they looked like a cross between those and string bags.

I think DB is right. Game hooks. Although I'd been thinking hams and stuff. I've seen something similar with a chunk of meat that had obviously been hanging for decades. Mummified pork anybody?

Great stuff Mexico, you've captured a fair bit there, hope you get to do some more. Some really nice buildings there.

Beautifully recorded! Some lovely shots of some lovely old buildings.

mexico75 said:

Cheers for the comments guy's @ kaputnic, there is a BurgerKing but I didn't bother with any of the new stuff. Can't believe you went to St Marys instead of stopping at these St Mary's is good though isn't it

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If we'd had time, Mex, we'd have had a nosey around some of these, but with travelling time, and a good few hours at St Mary's, it would have been a very long day! so it's good to see your pics of these places before they vanish into the tarmac.