Post by Dave on Dec 12, 2020 11:07:00 GMT
Old Paignton Ring Road & Underpass 11th Dec 2020
The landscape changes we see during our lifetime are mostly created by man, new housing estates in fields we once played in, new roads built across lush green fields and valleys the list goes on and on. What was there before is normally lost, but sometimes bits get left behind and remind us of how it was before.
I grew up on Buckland Estate in Newton Abbot and can remember my walks into town from the estate. Just a single set of traffic lights let the cars go onto the Newton Road with one lane into the town and one lane out. Close to the Brunel Industrial Estate the road went over the single bridge that crossed over the railway line. Much later a second bridge was added Forde House lost some of its ground along with a high wall and two lanes became four. The penn Inn Roundabout was built and very recently a flyover was built over the roundabout.
Today’s children in Newton Abbot will only know the Penn Inn Flyover, but in years to come might come across photos of how it was before, even maybe of the old Penn Inn swimming pool where I spent a lot of my childhood at, before a supermarket was built on the site.
Walking into Newton Abbot on a Saturday morning when I was young you were greeted with one long traffic jam on the Newton Road that stretched from Penn Inn past the railway station, down the Avenue and beyond. This was the holiday makers heading for Torbay and as there was no A380 back then, all traffic from the Exeter direction had to go through both Kingsteignton and Newton Abbot.
Many people reading this will remember the journey after the Penn Inn to Torbay, the long traffic jams both ways through Kingskerswell until the recent Devon Highway was built. Now from the Penn Inn all the way to Gallows Gate and onto the beginning of the Kings Ash road is a duel carriageway.
I wonder how many remember how the road from Gallows Gate to Kings Ash once was before it became a duel carriageway? As a young milkman working for Unigate in Torquay I was often asked to work from the Paignton depot and do rounds there. I lost count of the number of times I was stopped by police on the old ring road at 3am in the morning on my way to Paignton.
The old road from Gallows gate to Kings Ash was just one lane each way and ended up going past the Old Smokey House Public House, from the Five Lanes Roundabout that part of the old road is still very much in use, but what about the rest of it?
You maybe surprised to learn that a good part of the old road still exists and in places you can still see the road markings and even a number of the cat eyes that were used on it. It has long been my plan to walk along it and also for the very first time in the underpass that was built near Five Lanes and comes out on the other side of the road on the Preston Down Road.
I parked the car on Vicarage Hill and went in search of the old road that would have come out onto the Five Lanes Roundabout. There is a pathway next to the roundabout that takes you to it. At first I was not sure if where I was walking was the old road, but soon it became clear it was due to parts of the old road surface becoming visible and a bit further on paint lines that marked the left hand side of the road. It was a very dull day and not the best for photography, but I was going to get all the shots I was after. After a while I came access two sets of gates, this area can be seen from the new road on the left hand side heading towards the Gallows Gate Roundabout.
It is when you go through the second gate the feeling of walking on an old disused road really comes alive. Road markings and cat’s eyes are there to be found and even an old section of a crash barrier. Halfway up is what looks like an abandoned caravan, has anyone ever lived in it? I only ask as at the front of it is a portable generator. A sign in the back window says beware of the dog.
I walked as far as I could as the next part was the only part of the old road used in the new road. It was time to go and check out the underpass. It felt a bit creepy walking down the slightly steep path to the underpass and it was not as long as I expected it to be. It’s full of graffiti as you might expect and not a place I would want to walk in the dark.
Back up to Five Lanes Roundabout to walk the last part of the old road and past the Old Smokey Public House, this walk due to stopping to take photos etc took about an hour and a half. I can imagine in a hundred years time it will still be there, but I expect nature by then would have reclaimed even more of it.
