www.jec.org.uk

I found this interesting... (yeah I know, sad life!)
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Pop

Pop
Only fairly sad.........

re the Romans and quarries in Swindon etc. I would guess it's like spiral staircases in castles, jousting etc.......you would want to keep your sword hand towards a potential adversary (apologies to all you "Cag-handers"). Hence you would keep to the left?

DH Dove

So swordsman walk on the left and yet jousting is undertaken by riding on the right.. Is that because of balancing the pole which is held in the right hand and thus is directed to the left?

Now this may sound contrived but jousting appears to be still relevant to motoring....

A friend of mine caused an accident many years ago whilst driving his very rusty and unreliable Triumph Dolomite 1850. The radio reception was very poor because of a poor seating of the aerial wire. Therefore, he carried a long stick in the car and when the reception suddenly deteriorated, he would wind down the window, reach out and forward with the stick and repeatedly tap the aerial until the reception suddenly improved as the aerial lead made contact with the telescopic part of the aerial.

This worked fine until one day, as he performed the usual procedure, a car travelling towards him from the opposite direction was clearly flustered by the antics by the approaching latter-day Sir Galahad, took avoiding action at the last second and swerved into the adjoining hedge. Convinced that he would be reported to the police, my friend quickly invested in a new aerial and disposed of his stick...

I used to have to perform a similar procedure in a Triumph 1300 by reaching out and manually manipulating the drivers side windscreen wiper in the rain because the splined drive spindle was worn.

Don't you think motoring was frustrating but actually more interesting when you were 18 and had no money at all?

Paul

Very interesting!

Reminds me of a passage in a book that I read in University. I don't know what the book was about or indeed what possessed me to pick it up but it had the following short verse in it:

The rules of the road are a paradox quite,
For those who go driving along,
If you go to the left you're sure to go right,
But if you go to the right,
You go wrong.

So there!