Well, what a day Friday turned out to be.
STAG operatives were racing around the rat-runs of south Wiltshire getting the lost, confused, re-routed or merely befuddled to sign up to the
Stonehenge Traffic Action Group petition when they noticed something going on. If the truth be told, they were actually progressing at the pace of a super-annuated, arthritic snail, in the vicinity of the Salisbury road north from Amesbury towards its junction with the A3028 Double Hedges road in Bulford, when one of our more active supporters noticed the traffic was moving slower even than he was.
The A303 was at its usual Friday best - allowing plenty of time for casual photos,
The A345 through Amesbury was backed up from the Countess Roundabout who knows how far back south. I do hope some of these poor unfortunates took time out from the jam to pop in to see our friends at
One Brown Cow (and NO, we are not on commission from them - we just feel that one good turn deserves another!)
More and more traffic was opting to leave the A303 and try and head north up the Salisbury Road, then to cut back west through Larkhill and Shrewton...
...but it was going nowhere fast.
Our budding superhero - for that is what he was to become(at least in the eyes of the disgruntled motorists, bus-drivers and others stuck on the hill) decided to find out what on earth had snarled up yet another road around Stonehenge. This time, it turned out to be a set of 4-way traffic lights at the end of Stonehenge Road. They were ostensibly there to ensure safe passage around the road works EXCEPT, in true British fashion, there was little evidence of road work, no road works in progress and no road workers in sight. In fact, there was little evidence that anyone had done anything other than erect the traffic light (I'd been through earlier in the week and there was bugger-all evidence of anything going on then either!)
It was then our superhero, let's call him
STAGMAN, leapt into action (Err, those who have met him, know that leaping isn't quite his forte, but hell, I'm telling the story and you've got to have a stag that leaps - right!).
He contacted
Wiltshire Constabulary, nice chaps and as it turns out, chaps who, just like Stagman, have an abundance of common sense. "Nous" is what what we call it in Lancashire - a rare commodity there or anywhere else,; but there was a lot of it around on Friday. Stagman explained the problem, the police listened,
Stagman suggested a course of action and the police did not disagree.
So Stagman - took down the traffic lights, removed the roadworks - just like that. Within a few short minutes...
...all the traffic jam had gone - and
Stagman could relax; a job well done.
So to anyone who might think
STAG and WiSBAng are just a lot of hot air - carry on, think what you will, but Stagman demonstrated on Friday that we are practically-minded as well and will get things done.
As for Stagman, well who knows. We tried to get a photo of him on Friday and failed. He promised one yesterday, but think he was teasing us. Then, we heard rumours that he was taking this super hero stuff all very seriously and had gone out and got himself a costume - as that is what all super heroes do. We despatched our trusty photographer to Shrewton this morning and managed to snap the following from a hedgerow in one of the brighter interludes between rain showers:
We thought the beard was an especially nice touch - and using the road-kill fox to make it was absolutely inspired. We would have shown you a full body shot except this blog is rated for under 18s. Let's just say he wasn't wearing a suit...
...but those who have been round the Longbarrow Roundabout this morning will have noticed the festering badger has disappeared.
If anyone manages to get a better photo of Stagman, preferably in action, before Christmas, there is a nice bottle of wine on offer!
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