Humour is so british. Sarcastic, dry and just spot on.

Wreck-in? It's the Ree-Kin Mate...

Yes as a Black Country lad (and former employee of Shropshire County Council) it is reekin not wreck-in. The M54 also goes by the side of Moseley Old Hall, the Elizabethan manor house where Charles II hid from Cromwell. My mother's ashes are scattered in the small orchard there.

Rammstein's "Mutter" rendered on piano. Awesome outro!

The amount of work, research and traveling you punt into these series is amazing. I envy your attitude and skill. All the best to you from a traffic engineer from the Netherlands

When you run out of motorways, you should cover the major primary and trunk routes, as some of them should have plenty of secrets to them.

The road north of western Telford is the A442 not the A422. It runs in the other direction down into Worcestershire. Props to all other locals pointing out the correct pronunciation of the hill. Story - many years ago a new expatriate MD arrived (from Japan via the US of A) to my then-employer and was given a brief tour of the area. Upon seeing the hill, he pointed and said he wanted that for his house. He had to be politely reminded that we tend to have smaller properties in Britain and the Wrekin might not be for sale. That man was a legend. There are stories that cannot be told about his tenure.

That’s a classy rendition of Mutter! Great work

I was not prepared for an assault by the Hell March 2 in the middle of a video. Bravo, sir

What few people realise that Jon actually played this gorgeous piano outro himself. What a talented guy. More seriously: great slice of road related industry here. Can see why I'd want to work there. Had good luck with the weather. Those woods do look nice. Not a biologist but I wonder how healthy it actually is for a nesting bird to live over a constant stream of ICE car exhaust?

Pronounced Reekin Blooody sutherners😄 Awesome outro thats going on pub jukebox tonight.

No mention of J3, RAF Cosford, the Aviation Museum and flight base of the Middlands Air Ambulance?

Loving the outro music. Mutter has always been a favourite song and just lovely as a piano version. Incidentally, the M54 is one of my least favourite motorways to drive as the surface is unpleasant and very noisy.

How this brilliant series has not been picked up by mainstream broadcasting I’ll never know…keep up the brilliant work!

I drove the entire length of the M54 coming from Wales last night - always seems to have good, aware and proactive drivers on it.

Love this series, keep doing what you're doing!

The Rammstein outro was a really sweet touch.

Another stormer of a video that as a southerner, shows somewhere that I would never go to......and now.......still will never probably visit, but thanks anyway!!!!

3:15 nice taste in music Command and Conquer - Hell March 👍👍

I happened to find myself driving up the M54 from the M6 (M6 Toll, M42, M40, M25, M3) to Telford for the first time a few weeks ago, now seen it from many different angles, thanks!

Nice bit of outro with Rammstein melody of Mutter 👍

It’s always a good day when auto shenanigans uploads

Top notch music selection throughout this video.

As Half Man Half Biscuit once said Half way up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea, A fog descends and takes away my visibility But in this Helen Keller world, I’d still quite like to know Why is Rod Hull alive, and getting paid as well?

Nice version of Rammstein - Mutter on the end there!

I get time for like 3 hours of TV a week......Each Sunday night this take 30 mins of that slot!! I'm sure this bloke would be good value for money down the pub!

Was that 'Hell March'?? A great choice of music. Nice use of 'Mutter' as well, top work!

Loving the rammstein at the end

Brilliant John. Simon Langford, have you watched this 👌

As a child of the 70s, we moved from Shropshire to Essex in the early 80s and made the nigh on 5 hour trip north back to see relatives in Oswestry fairly often. A journey that today is A12, M25, M1, M6, M54 and A5 was then A414, M10, M1,M6, a break in motorways for a bit to jump back on at Shifnal and the rickety racket of the M54 at Telford before jumping on the old A5. As a boy, I could never understand why the M54 just "stopped" and wondered what was beyond the closed bollards. I can recall asking my dad and he said they had run out of money and would likely leave it like that. Obviously they had a reach down the back of the sofa and found the funds to finish it and also, build the links around M25 to A12 while they were at it for good measure that did away with the slow assed jouney from M10 and A414 which i think was St Albans to Chelmsford. Long gone is that route and roads but remember it vividly. From one youtuber to another, keep up the great content!

Nice series and when moving onto A-roads do the A3. The Kingston Bypass section is totally wacky with its frontage roads (built for trolleybuses) some of which are one way and some 2-way, some sections virtually impossible to access without local knowledge and some turn at right angle onto the main road, plus houses with driveways on slip-roads, the whole thing is insane.

The great mystery of Telford roads: you have the M54 motorway going east-west, and the motorway-like A442 going north-south, yet there is no proper junction between them. (You have to leave one, go around a signalised roundabout, along the A5 for half a mile, then around another signalised roundabout to get onto the other....)

When they were digging the area around Overdale the large Caterpillars churned up huge amounts of coal. Entire families using wheel barrows to collect it all day would work their way between the excavators to collect the black gold. The poor coal man didn’t sell much coal that year, my Dad filled out coal cellar to the roof, both our 30ft green houses and his garage. My Dad was talking to one of the contractors and he said it was the largest surface coal seam he had ever witnessed. All through that development us kids would traverse that dig site to get to Ketley Junior School, omg the H&S would have kittens now a days.

Wrekin, rhymes with speakin' Round the wrekin is also used as an expression (meaning to go the long way round more broadly, not just in a conversation) in Shropshire, to the west of the Wrekin. It seems you can go round the Wrekin heading East or West!

Light and sarcastic delivery of your videos is great, Jon. Makes them fun and interesting to watch but probably obfuscate the effort that goes into producing them. Keep up the great work...!

Love the Rammstein outro!

As a Shropshire lad you finally got around to doing "my" motorway. When they were building this motorway in the 70's it cut right through a lesser hill known as The Ercall. This was where, as a boy, I spent many hours harassing the construction works for ruining my woods.

Loving this series, keep up the excellent work. This one is of particular interest because the M54 is my local motorway. I have been up the Wrekin many times and have never tired of the stunning views it gives.

I have followed you since 3000 subs. I love your vids. But ending them off with Rammstein is just Lovely beyond understanding. PS. more abandoned racetracks please.

Thanks John, I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about junction 3 as it takes you to RAF Cosford museum

I'm not a petrol head by any stretch of the imagination and couldn't care less about car videos, but I love your infrastructure films.

Dear diary.. I just heard myself say 'oh cool' when I saw this new episode posted. I think, just maybe I need help. lol Anyhoo another great episode guys. Regards John

Cheers John, excellent presentation. Love the understated humour.

Loving this channel Jon... My Mum used to say all around the wreaking ..... Yes i come from warwickshire originally....... oh yeah while i'm at it... The music on this channel is brilliant... loving the Rammstein at the the close...

I can’t believe you haven’t gone the M60. So much to talk about. It needs two episodes. The trains that ran alongside it in Stockport. The viaduct. The connection at Bredbury where you join the fast lane. Much more. Say Bob sent ya.

I would totally be here for a whole quarry-related series.....

I used to visit Oswestry from Essex quite regularly, and it looks like I'll be doing so again over the next few weeks. As much as I love a relaxed drive along the A5 (Watling Street/ Marble Arch to Anglesey), sometimes time dictated using the motorways to get round Birmingham, including the length of the M54. I always found the change from the motorway back to the A5 a bit of a sudden change of pace heading north west.

great vid to watch of the locality. Didn't realise that quarry was quite so massive, explains the lorries and muck they leave up the B5061. Love the outro that you made the effort to climb the Wrekin as that was worth a comment alone. (and I'll wager that half the folks commenting about the pronunciation haven't been up the top either!) Keep an eye out for news on the M6N link from J1 as that is getting a mention regularly. Might actually happen.

I bet the staff at HMP Featherstone got twitchy bumholes when they saw your drone in the air haha

Another great video John, Thank you!

Firstly, let me compliment you on the outro music. One of our favourite songs by Rammstein. Wonder if Til would approve??? Hilton used to be mainly farmland and woodlands and as a kid myself and my sister used to ride our horses round there, and we would go up the dirt tracks leading to the tower. When the M54 was built it cut through all the woods and fields. So sad. It did prove very useful though, as it gave access to the motorway from Telford where there was a lot of industry. We very much wish we had gone to Telford instead of coming to Bristol..... Makes us homesick for the Midlands. Whenever my dad did any work on the car, i.e. put now parts on or he Red-Ex'd it, he would take the car down the M54 to either run in the new part or create Batman's smoke screen. I will always remember sitting in the car watching that smoke. Sometimes the dog would be in the back seat.... she loved the car and once we were driving along when suddenly there was a cat on my lap. The cat had decided to take a trip with us!!! So we had a dog and a cat while making a smoke screen. My husband also used to do the same run when he Red-Ex'd his car. I think it was a firm favourite for that kind of thing because you would see cars with smoke coming out. You would go up to the next junction, turn round and come back. By the way, the word Wrekin is pronounced Ree-kin. But yes, it is a common thing in the Midlands to say, 'Oh stop going around the Wrekin will ya,' i.e. 'Get to the point'. Or 'We ended up going all around the Wrekin', if the journey was laborious and complicated.

This series has become my Sunday treat.

Junction 6 was actually built as planned; the three bridges over what would have become the Western Primary are still there, but buried. There are a few photos which show them.

The drone footage gives the series that extra lift (pun intended)!

Very interesting vid, thanks. I have an O.K. view of the 'Wreck-in' from my bedroom window so it was cool to see.

Wicked, Sweet, Awesome 👍

Passed my C+E test at Featherstone! Cheers John, keep the content coming. Better, more interesting & more relevant than anything that is being put out by the MSM. I've mentioned donations and such before, but have you looked into Merch etc ?

4:56 that's round the corner from my house! I go by there on my way into town. The bit you're standing on is at the entrance to a nice walking path that leads up to a lovely park with a pond. There's also a path nearby that used to be a railway that used to serve a factory that stood where the Sinclair works is now. You can still see evidence of the old factory strewn around (and even the odd bit of rail) and if you follow the path right to the end, you come to the side of the motorway.

I look forward to these every week, keep ‘em coming!

The M54 is on my route when I travel to my parents' house in North Wales from Leicestershire. The trees and verges that have, as you stated, been placed there to hide the motorway from view also make it incredibly boring to drive on. Luckily when I've been on it is usually relatively quiet, so I can get through that bit of the journey quickly.

I'm from the top of Scotland about as far from a Motorway as you can get and yet even I know it's pronounced REEKIN 😂Anyways, top vid and nice bit of Rammstein on the outro.

I was on the building of the hmp featherstone. We used to park on the land they are developing it was chaos with just construction traffic hate to think what a new industrial park would do to local traffic

"W ellington, near Telford" LOVE IT! But probably more accurate to say.. "Wellingon which was absorbed into Telford (once Rural) New Town... [ along with numerous previously existant towns and villages)

I am constantly amazed by how many things were planned regarding motorway layout or expansion, but just simply never happened.

My week isn't complete until I watch your video each Sunday

If we are to have temporary power reduction to save the country's supplies this winter........ I hope that I am fortunate enough to be in a country pub with Jon and the production team, by a log fire and plenty of beer. (hope the reference to beer made it sound less romantic and candle lit) anyway.......... What a fantastic, enlightening, comical and interesting time that would be. Thank you once again for all the research and driving that you do, in order to keep tens of thousands of people entertained and informed....... Cheers

When you run out of motorways, you could do a series about places that still need road upgrades / bypasses etc. I can think of several.

Your content is so good. Taking something I always thought was dull and never considered that the reasons and details behind certain decisions are now captured in concrete and tarmac monument. Fansinating stuff when you find out abit more!

What a find! THE BEST subject matter 👍

After watching a few episodes the other day it went into auto play... I now keep finding myself humming/ whistling Wish you were here!!! 😂😂😂 Thanks haha

Also the M54 runs right through the site of Tong Castle just to the west of the slipways of junction 3 and south of Church Pool. It got demolished (or, rather, blown up) by the army in 1953 due to its unsafe condition. The M54 was then bulldozed right through its foundations in the early 1980s...

Love the outro music. Would be cool to have the original version.

Was hoping you’d mention that massive prison at the start! But great video

Worked in Hilton Hall until I left the company in 1999 and moved to Hertfordshire

Good stuff as always, extra points for the snippet of 'Earthworm Jim' in there too :D Of course I now have the Half Man Half Biscuit lyric in my head - "half way up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea/a fog descends to take away my visibility/yet in this Helen Keller state I'd still quite like to know/why is Rod Hull alive and getting paid as well?"

Halfway up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea A fog descends and takes away my visibility Yet in this Helen Keller state I’d still quite like to know “Why is Rod Hull alive - and getting paid as well?”

I finally get to see one of the motorways that I travel up part of on one of these videos woo

Quarries around the Wrekin were used to source the aggregate for the original carriageways, that's the main reason for building from west to east

Halfway up the Wrekin with an empty flask of tea A fog descends and takes away my visibility

Another excellent video, Jon. Many thanks.

John the family 👪 just found you on utub brilliant blogs very interesting 👍

Great vid. The Wrekin is actually pronounced as ‘reekin’ by locals.

Awesome video once again John. Love the work you put into these. And once again, fantastic outro clip. Love the waving drone shots!

Nice music at the end. Piano version of Rammstein's Mutter.

I swear that outro music was a Mutter instrumental haha

Enjoyed this video. I've driven up the M54 so many times and did no know there were so many hidden gems!

Great video as always John! Love your humour. I know the M54 well as living in Chester, the usual way for me is the A41, eventually joining the M54 and onto the M6 to head south.

Ending with a piano version of Mutter- beautiful! Wunderschon!

Love the Wrekin (and your pronunciation of it 😂)

It's not pronounced the Rekin - it's pronounced the Reekin, as per the video clip you inserted where the actor said it correctly :|

Thanks John. Superb as usual.

No mention that at the old Junction 7 the M54 used to flow into a two way road (now the B5061) or that that there's no Northbound link at the M6 junction. Oh and yes the pronunciation of the Wrekin (an extinct volcano, not just a hill).

Wehay!! Travel up and down the glory that is the M54 twice a day. Work just off junction 2!(not JLR!) Christ only knows how you made this video last 9.5 minutes. Congrats John 👏 and congrats for making it up to the top of the “wreck-in” Btw. The empty bit of grass on the thumbnail. That’s where my missus says she will dump my corpse when she murders me 😮 Loved the video. Thanks 🙏

J2 appears to be another M49 in the making 👍😂

Cheers as always John, have a good week 😎👍

New episode! whoop whoop!

As a HGV driver, I absolutley love your videos. There's so many odd junctions and roadside features that I recognise. Do you reckon you could you do a video on the A43? I've always wondered about the derelict fuel station as you head south from junction 15A of the M1, and the dead-end sliproad directly opposite on the northbound side that just goes straight up to the Grand Union Canal. A quick Google search doesn't turn much up 🤷

I recently found this channel thanks to the KZfaq recommendations algorithm. After watching a few videos, I've subscribed. Very informative and highlights a lot of historical landmarks etc which makes it more than just about a road. It also highlights the lunacy and daft bureaucracy that exists in the UK that often results in half-baked results that in the process, destroy good agricultural land, communities for nothing. At the same time, it also demonstrates some very talented architects, road designers and sometimes, good planning. This particular video highlighted a typical attitude in the UK. There are recent calls for farmers to re-wild parts of their farms and in some cases, that is appropriate, yet when they tear down things like old munitions factories, instead of considering re-wilding these kinds of places, the automatic reaction is to create an industrial park. There was a former golf course in a previous video that had plans to become a housing estate (that apparently failed). Instead of getting rid of good agricultural land, why not put the option to reuse these places as re-wilding areas and not just the option of an industrial or housing estate. Not appropriate in every case and sometimes a poor yielding farm would be better off as an industrial park, but the country needs to become more flexible in the way things are done.

I can agree that the Wrekin is beautiful, me and my dad climbed it in a foggy day and when you got to the top the hill looked like an island with surrounding landscape similarly being Islands

This shouldn't be as interesting as it is, but here we are. Quite possibly the highlight of my week.