The Junction of the A272 with the B2070 at Sheet, north of Petersfield. OS Ref SU766245
The main road, MoT-designated A272 runs north-east out of Petersfield to the junction here, at the top of the rise where it turns, ninety degrees southeast towards Midhurst and Petworth. The minor road, designated B2070 continues along the track of the old London Road towards Liss and Rake-the London traffic now passes a mile further to the west on the newer A3. Despite this apparent precedence in road classification the south-west bound traffic travels very quickly into this junction and the junction was a well-known accident black-spot. There is a cluster of yellow bollards at this junction--there used to be fourteen but one has been knocked down. One of the massive pine trees has been blown down also: it is lying at a crazy angle but is still alive and in leaf. The bollards work in six teams to direct the traffic. Four will channel vehicles turning turning to Midhurst; another pair monitor a traffic island
separating this flow from a contrary flow, in a minority of cars crossing traffic to turn away to Liss or Rake. Three more alert drivers from this quarter to the possibility to perform a U-turn and to warn of drivers on the main flow turning across their path. Another indicates the opportunity to this flow to turn away left and join the Midhurst road. As traffic arrives from the Midhurst direction it encounters an island with two further, back-toback bollards and a junction warning triangle to prepare these drivers for the decision ahead. The last two bollards, the thirteenth and the missing fourteenth stand on a island to cause this flow of traffic to begin to filter into the flow from the northwest. The missing fourteenth bollard was most likely a casualty of a car travelling too fast from the Liss and Rake direction. The bollards have a distinct face and reverse; the face has panels of fluorescent yellow on the black plastic base, at the head a circular patch carries a reflective, directional white arrow
on a blue ground or a simple white reflective disc. The reverse, probably formed in the same injection mould is plain black, though the area for the circular patch is distinctly formed. This troop of bollards begins to create the impression of a flock of penguins, the bright yellows and whites suggesting this to me. Some of the flock are in worse condition than others; perhaps minor knocks from traffic or deflection in high winds causes the fluorescent material to break away in patches. Fly-posted stickers leave gummy patches which attract grime and their traces persist for a long while. The location takes on a different cosmography in the way that it expresses the interfaces between the classical elements of earth, air, fire and water. Here is so much thermoplastic to express fire, the earth is all but covered in tarmac though tougher roadside weed species seem to battle on. The trees and the sky alone are left to stand for water and air; the sky more successfully and may carry clouds and the occasional hot-air balloon past without regard to traffic management schemes. But this is a junction: a joining of roads with their histories; a meeting of road-users and exercise of drivers’ etiquette. The Old London Road with memories of Admiralty traffic to and from the Dockyards in Portsmouth, slang Pom-
pey; a coaching road connecting these single syllable place names, Liss and Steep, Rake and Sheet. The A272, eulogised by hippy, Dutch motorcyclists on enormous Honda Gold Wing motorised armchairs and raced by carefree young bloods on speedier machines with clip-on bars and megaphone exhausts aiming for the Caff’ at Meon. I study this population of bollards / penguins by lowering my sightline to theirs. I imagine their point of view and project my images of this junction through the ‘eye’. By choosing the slow practice of the large format camera, I quieten my pulse a little nearer the mute heartbeat of this population.
This tree has been growing on its side for years. Almost Roman in its recline
Acknowledgements Colour images of bollards from Google Street View (c) 2009 Fragment of fluorescent material, believed to be part of Bollard 14. Possibly the property of Hampshire County Council. All other images copyright (2013) Aldobranti. All text copyright (2013) Aldobranti. All Rights Reserved.