I remember hurdling down the (then newly opened) A14 headed to Felixstowe in my Vauxhall Cavalier in the early 90's. Hitting the old twisty turny east bound section frightened the life out of me, absolutely no warning that it was coming!!! I've since walked along what is now a cycle / pathway of what it is today, sad to see a cross in the tress where it had taken one of many lives.

Nice one. Side note. Grange Hill tune? I'm here on a tangent from 2024.

The bends were great fun to drive but the crossing in the middle of the bends were lethal

This is in my local area, 100% not sad to see it gone best thing they ever did was move the a14 the other side of haughley picnic site, The road was a death trap and even when they put The speed cameras in It didn't cut the number of fatalities as the cameras were placed either ends of the bends so people would just speed up between the cameras which was even more dangerous. A little disappointed you didn't Record the homeless Cam within the woods actually probably good you didn't go in there you wouldn't have come out with any of your equipment or clothes lol

The former A2 between Pepper Hill and Cobham in Kent, might be worth a visit. It is still extant as a footpath/cycleway with the old surface and markings still there. All bypassed by a 8 lane motorway standard road.

Experienced a multi-vehicle pile-up here, in thick fog, in 1995ish. Driving east, in fog that made it impossible to see much beyond your own bonnet, I stopped for the cars in front. The car behind also stopped safely. Turned the engine off and opened the window. All I could hear were crashes all around me. Scary!!

I remember these bends from when I was younger. It was my favourite road and was a lot of fun bombing through in dad's 1990 Discovery while sitting in the dickie seats in the boot. Sadly the road and the Discovery are both gone now. :(

I worked on those bends in the naughties and then straightened them out so all you got is a twisty footpath with the odd white line adventure! 😎

Brings back memories when I used to drive on this in 1997-1998 - seemed really dangerous, but a fun interlude of the monotony of the A14. Amazing how quickly nature has taken over.

The A45 as it was back in the early-ish '90s. I drove along this stretch fairly often in the late '90s. It did take a bit of concentration to navigate it. I remember driving along that road some years later wondering where the bends had gone !

I travelled down the Haughley Bends multiple times a week on the A45 (as it was) and then the A14. When I passed my test, I used to hate travelling down here, especially at night. It was the crossings that made them so dangerous, and I hated going across them and would do my best to avoid them. There were always accidents and many fatalities. Unfortunately, I lost my best friend on this stretch of road.

After Mr. Road’s life fell apart, he must have been a very cross road.

Used to deliver in this area a lot including Toft hill, which was the other part of the dual carriage way before the A14 between Bury St Eds and Ipswich was upgraded

I wish there were more pictures of the haughley bends when the road was active, seems interesting.

So that might go some way to explaining why there is no junction 48 on the A14. To be honest I always thought the A14 section between junction 47 and 49 was very old due to the concrete carriageway. I often come back from Bury on the old road, just to avoid the concrete. And the other old carriageway is now part of the cycle path.

Great film, I like Nick used to come barrelling though here but in an HGV it was hair raising to say the least dairing to pass though without slowing. Back to calmer times now it is a lovely path if you park at Haughley and head towards Stow. My son learnt to ride his bicycle along here and it is always great for a walk the BP is still open so you can always purchase refreshments for the return leg. There was a picnic site on the westbound carrageway this is now an accessable nicely kept woodland that you can walk around it has been adopted by Haughley parish I believe it backs onto the new section of the A14.

That Crystal Maze ending 👍

A great video, very interesting I hope one day they eventually do this to the A40 in Herefordshire through Pencraig which has a similar layout to what this had

There is a short section of abandoned road on the A5 between Maerdy and Ty-nant in North Wales if your ever this way.. It was part of Thomas Telford's Original route to Holyhead, but in the 90's was moved as it was deemed that in some places it was 6 metres wide and being a major road was too narrow.

I may be wrong, but I have a feeling the original eastbound carriageway was built over an old railway line, which could explain why the bends existed in the first place. Haughley did have a station at some point. I always liked travelling eastbound and found the trees between each carriageway pretty. The replacement section of the A14 in that area was known colloquially as the "Haughley Straights" for awhile. The re-aligned road did cause the services to suffer, I think the petrol station on what had been the westbound carriageway was the first to go, although the Little Chef ploughed on for awhile longer, nowadays only the Travelodge on that site survives. However, the BP forecourt at Tothill (the former eastbound services) is still going, probably due to the fact that traffic entering Stowmarket from J49 is still taken straight past it.

I miss the Haughley bends, a little bit of excitement on an otherwise stunningly boring bit of road. bloody lethal if somebody's not paying attention, but fun if you are!

That's amazing , can I still visit the bends? I remember racing around those in the 80's and driving around the picnic area.

Love it, and that the old road passes "The Folly".

I worked with a guy who had ABI after an accident on this stretch which left the driver dead... Several years later, me & the guy with AbI revisted the spot - he'd recently felt able to handle the visit. There were still car parts from the accident in the area at 2:03

love this channel right up my street

You want a wild and disused road to explore? Try looking at the former B984 (Mastrick - Bucksburn) road in Aberdeen, specifically the 2-kilometer stretch from Northfield to Bucksburn, which was known as the "Howes Road". This used to be open to 2-way traffic back in the 1990s, and numerous car crashes and off-road wrecks were commonplace. It was then changed to 1-way traffic only, from Bucksburn to Northfield, and that lasted for a few more years, before Aberdeen City Council - tired of the continuous crashes, and frequent local speedsters using it for late night racing - just closed the road from the former houses near the Bucksburn Pond, down to Bucksburn itself. The disused roadway is now a cycle and pedestrian path.

Nice to see nature taking over again.

I love the Grange Hill theme in the back ground :)

Next time you are north of the border, look for the old "Cairnie Braes" section of the A9 north of Aberuthven. Great views (apart from a huge dung pile) and a slightly bizarre gate across the entire road, which seems to have been designed to cope with a kangaroo problem which we don't have. This is located about a mile from the western end. No kangaroos (to the best of my knowledge) but you might be lucky enough to spot a red kite or indeed a red squirrel. Pedestrian access to the west end of this old section of road is from the Findo Gask turn off just beyond the old River Earn bridge, at Chapelbank, or if you prefer to enter at the eastern end, a blink and you miss it turn in from the A9 slightly further north. This was a fairly notorious section of the old A9, on a steep hill, where trucks would frequently break down, causing huge tailbacks, and boy racers would take to the scenery while engaged in high speed dangerous overtaking manoeuvrers.

You mean, you'd come barrelling down a lovely new dual carriageway, hit the Haughley bends, crank up the Eurobeat and deliver the tofu.

Five Bridges Road on the edge on Winchester isn't abandoned as such but closed - I guess due to the building of the M3. You can still walk much of it though. I only found this out quite randomly when walking up to St Catherine's Hill from this road. There is marker near a tree on the way up to the hill on a old road where a young motorcyclist (I think) was killed in the late 70's. I think it would of linked up with Domum Road back then.

I used to hoss around these bends in the early 1980s.

I remember having many a near miss on these bends, with people pulling out of the blind junction

I got a speeding fine for going through there (i think it had a 50mph limit) around 2001.

How about doing one about the A229 (The Chatham Road) at Blue Bell Hill in Kent? A lot of the old road is abandoned and there is also many witness accounts of a phantom hitch hiker who haunts this road (you never know, you may even catch a glimpse of her).

An interesting video of the now abandoned Haughley Bends on what was the original eastbound carriageway of the A45 which was renamed the A14 in the early 1990's. I live in Stowmarket & I very well recall this notorious section of the A14 & those right turn gap junctions to Haughley, Harleston & the picnic area as well as Haughley New Street. Driving along there at 70mph used to scare me somewhat as cars crossed in front of you & when the 50mph limit came in enforced by those speed cameras it didn't make a lot of difference really. It is just typical of this country, a cheap & cheerful idea to dual an existing single carriageway at the time & then start all afresh when several people were killed in tragic accidents along that stretch. I have to admit it is a pleasant walk/cycle path now & I have cycled the whole length of the abandoned Haughley Bends, very well worth a try & thank you for posting video.

Going down the bends on a motorbike was hairy in the dry... Wet or foggy weather could often mean a change of trousers on getting home - or if you pushed it, half a day out with the undertaker. 🤔🤔🤔 😆😆😆

Good dog walking path though when it's muddy raining.

My satnav thinks i'm in a field when I get to this part of the A14. And the A45 should have got a mention.

Is that the Grange Hill theme tune playing at 1:30 ?

My dad disconnect the Eletrical supply to the speed camera when UKPN was moving the electrical supplies and I can remember bombing down there in my escort shortly before it closed

That road used to be the A45.

... 'lives in a Council Flat' .... I doubt even Clarkson could get away with that quip?

Call me crazy, but is the background music the theme to a school-related former BBC kids show which ran from 1978-2008? (No name, just in case the copyrighters get on your case!) I think I heard an animated duck-related theme in a previous video too.

What is the speed limit on that road?

There is an abandoned strip of road on the A47 between the A1 and A43

Best thing they did!

Methinks that Jon can be a tad facetious on occasion, thus making the mini-docs additionally entertaining. One query, if you are going to bleep out expletives then why use them? Many thanks. A. Fan esquire.

Here’s a like and comment to give you that warm and tingly feeling inside! 😂

Lovely place lol. Make a track out of it?

I wonder if anyone has any footage of driving this

But if they've closed it, why is it still there? Why not just tear it up to re-use the surface elsewhere?

Sorry back then it's was part of the a45

Grange Hill!

2:00 :)

It looks like it could be repurposed as a bike path.

1:53 *Eastbound.

This used to be a dogging site too

Yh my mums cousin died on this road before I was born.

Hi as I'm sure that I have mentioned before, I think it be a great idea if you were able to use your drone to replicate the old east bound section route ran along side with this footage found on You tube. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ndeVnaVksbi6faM.html Like a 'Now & then' video ..... I think that would be pretty damn cool :)

Why don't they convert that abandoned road into a cycle route? I'm sure they would need to add bits, to both ends, to connect it to the towns either side, but cyclists need to do the same journies that car drivers do and this wouuld be a great opportunity to allow cyclists to bypass traffice queues, avoid breathing in car fumes and - more importantly - avoid getting flattened by cars and lorries.

Damn what a crapy video! (Compared to your current standards) 😇

Haughley Bends: Physical proof that some drivers are simply incapable of operating a steering wheel and brakes. Obviously I had to revisit this one after watching your new video. WhSA!

The description at the end that's um that's me. 😂