Into Orbit

Sunday 28th August 2022

After the morning service and a few odd jobs I headed over the Pennines to Mum's. Needless to say a full Sunday roast was on the table half an hour after I arrived! 

After dinner we went for a trip of the new and the old. The new East Leeds Orbital Route opened on Monday this week, 22nd August. We have been watching it being built and wondered where exactly it was going, so we went to drive along the new road and find out. Leeds already has an inner Ring Road and an outer Ring Road. This orbital will become the new outer Ring Road for East Leeds. It starts from the M1 (the not so new A1/M1 link) relatively close to Mum's and goes round to Shadwell, so we joined it at the end and each time we came to a roundabout we had to recognise which main road we were crossing. 

One of the roads it crosses is the A58 Wetherby Rd, not far from where we used to live and where I grew up. I parked at the Wellington Pub (The Welly as we affectionately knew it, our local at the time) and I walked back along the road to the footbridge to get a  better view. The Welly is to the left of the roundabout where the traffic lights are. To the right is our old playing field, I've spent many happy hours kicking balls and flying kites there. The white building behind the playing field used to be the Grocery Store and Post Office. It was ye typical olde grocers store with everything served from behind the counter. We knew the couple who ran it well and they always asked me to visit on my birthday, gave me a brown paper bag and allowed me to fill it with sweets. The shop and PO became a house many years ago. 

Having driven the new road in total one way we went for a trip down memory lane, the other side of the playing field. Except memory lane also has a housing estate where Strikes Garden Centre used to be. Back down through the old estate we arrived at the next new roundabout, crossed it, and continued on memory lane to establish what was left of it. 

It was quite strange seeing old familiar places absorbed into new roundabouts and dual carriageway. It will make it a lot easier getting to some places though and will hopefully relieve some of the traffic from the shopping centre near Mum.  

A piece of history.