An old road sign in Hutton Buscel

A blurred photograph (left) which I snatched by fortune from the top deck of our bus on its way to Scarborough as it passed through the village of Hutton Buscel two days ago.

For those of you too young to remember, this was the standard warning sign used in Britain until the recommendations of the Worboys Report were adopted.

It indicates that you are approaching a steep descent on a gradient of 1 in 5. (20% in the new language). 








My 1954 copy of The Highway Code, price one penny from Her Majesty's Stationery Office, illustrates quite a range of signs which were in use at the time. The hollow red triangle which surmounts the post was introduced by the Motor Car Act 1903 and was originally used on its own to indicate a hazard or a precipitous descent. The addition of the pictorial boards was a later development.


But the point is, under the 1964 Statutory Instrument (left) the newer 'Continental' style signs were supposed to have been introduced on 1st January 1965 and the old signs replaced.

Fifty three years later, the sign is still there. Does time run differently in Yorkshire?