epw058961 ENGLAND (1938). The Hut Hotel, Wisley Common, 1938

Having cycled with my girlfriend from East Horsley, we stopped to have a break, at dusk, outside the Hut Hotel and, stood thinking what it was like, running such a place. We could hear that it was busy, but the blackout curtains were in place as the year was 1942 and we were 17 Tall triangular pylons had been positioned about the Bolder Mere. A ghostly presence in the half- light. Going our separate ways, I know, we each remember that moment of calm with pleasure

A3 Portsmouth Road

Bolder Mere

Truck telephone line following the road. Very similar to the traditional telegraph poles found beside railway lines ... that often included Post Office circuits as well as those for railway use. A trunk call often required several telephonist to link together a series of trunk lines, like those seen here, to connect two callers. For example, Ashtead to Epsom, Epsom to Woking, Woking to Salisbury, Salisbury to Yeovil, Yeovil to Taunton, Taunton to Barnstaple and Barnstaple to Bovey Tracey 227. When hearing this being put together (in about 1963) while waiting to be connected, the phrase you did not want to hear was, "I have no lines to...." Fixed capacity! If all the lines were being used they would try another route. If one of the many operators pulled the plug, that was that!

Interesting use of a continuous white line in the centre of the road.

This looks like a container (rings and straps) on the back of a flat-bed lorry... it may even be a Southern Railway lorry. They had containers and lorries like those seen here.