Post by harrier on Feb 21, 2010 17:12:58 GMT
On a visit to Keighley last week, while travelling along the moorland roads the excessive number of gradient signs reminded me of 1971, when the country converted to the metric system but Keighley town council went over the top and embraced the switch from imperial units with gay abandon; Keighley went continental in a big way!!
Road signs giving distances in miles seemed to be replaced almost over night by a plethora of new signage employing kilometres; the signs in general were sprayed liberally with decimal points. The over zealous town council employee who was responsible for the change, seemed to have used his (and it must have been a male!) slide rule to mathematically convert directly from imperial to metric with no thought given to sensible ‘rounding’. He appeared to have had a particular affinity for 3 miles, excelling himself with two decimal places. If I remember correctly, it was at the start of Halifax Road, near the roundabout, where Haworth changed from an understandable three miles to a puzzling 4.83Km! Another couple of favourites I used to pass; for hikers who wanted to enjoy the field footpath from Park Wood to Hainworth, there was 1.6 kilometers (sic) to walk (this sign remained until about 10 years ago) and, what must have been after a really bad day at the design office, a road sign was erected at either the Tarn or near where the crematorium now stands, informing motorists that Sutton was 6¼Km distant!!! I seem to remember there was an out cry in the Keighley News resulting in the removal of the signs after a few months?? All we have now is boring % signs for the hill gradients instead of the old fashioned ratios!!
Was Keighley council unique in its conversion enthusiasm or did other parts of the British Isles similarly ‘go metric’?
Any one else remember the wholesale change to the road signs?
Road signs giving distances in miles seemed to be replaced almost over night by a plethora of new signage employing kilometres; the signs in general were sprayed liberally with decimal points. The over zealous town council employee who was responsible for the change, seemed to have used his (and it must have been a male!) slide rule to mathematically convert directly from imperial to metric with no thought given to sensible ‘rounding’. He appeared to have had a particular affinity for 3 miles, excelling himself with two decimal places. If I remember correctly, it was at the start of Halifax Road, near the roundabout, where Haworth changed from an understandable three miles to a puzzling 4.83Km! Another couple of favourites I used to pass; for hikers who wanted to enjoy the field footpath from Park Wood to Hainworth, there was 1.6 kilometers (sic) to walk (this sign remained until about 10 years ago) and, what must have been after a really bad day at the design office, a road sign was erected at either the Tarn or near where the crematorium now stands, informing motorists that Sutton was 6¼Km distant!!! I seem to remember there was an out cry in the Keighley News resulting in the removal of the signs after a few months?? All we have now is boring % signs for the hill gradients instead of the old fashioned ratios!!
Was Keighley council unique in its conversion enthusiasm or did other parts of the British Isles similarly ‘go metric’?
Any one else remember the wholesale change to the road signs?
