would you like here there’s a farmhouse situated in the middle of the M62 when you head out of Greater Manchester towards Yorkshire. but do you really know why Stott Hall Farm wasn’t knocked down to make way for the motorway?
The motorway was built in the 1960s, including that particular stretch on the moors above Huddersfield where Stott Hall sat in its path, According to legend, the farmer who owned the house at the time, a Mr Ken Wild, stubbornly refused to sell his land when planning permission was given to the project, so they had to build around him. A stubborn Yorkshire farmer refusing to sell his land? Sounds plausible, but the real reason is something else entirely. An ITV documentary from 1983 – which was only released a couple of years ago – disproved the myth, revealing that Ken, his wife Beth and the dozens of sheep they owned were actually allowed to stay in the house due to a geological fault.
This fault meant it would have been a huge job to construct anything on their land, so the motorway was just built around the farm instead. As journalist Michael Clegg says: “A geological fault beneath the farmhouse meant it was more practical for engineers to leave it rather than blast through and destroy it
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Must be horribly noisy
I’ve been passed it, it’s weird, but they seem to cope ok living there. They can get out. 
It doesn’t look like the land is used for much at all. I believe there are a few underpasses where cattle and sheep can graze on the other side of the carriageways.
Bet they don’t use much energy, all those lamposts lighting the place up.
The fumes and noise …I’d be scared to open my windows!
Do they get their own on and off ramp?
Close … they have an underpass.
I wouldn’t want to live in all that countryside anyway, far too rural and isolated
I think I’d be most concerned about the fumes. Not much point in living in the country if you don’t get fresh air, may as well live in the centre of a city
And the motorways are above them, so no scenic views, probably a bit claustrophobic
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It’s a myth. The farmer didn’t refuse to sell the land. The geography was simply such that the best option was to build the carriageways either side of the farm buildings. It is still a much used farm and has sometimes appeared on The Yorkshire Vet TV programme.
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The land didn’t belong to the farmer anyway.
Ken Wild was a tenant farmer when the Motorway was built, leasing the land from Yorkshire Water, which owned the land - and still do.
I felt rather sorry for Ken who had little choice but to carry on farming because he couldn’t afford to move on and farm somewhere else - in interviews, he always seemed a nice guy, just trying to be positive and make the best of it.
At least the new tenants knew what they were taking on after Ken died and they took on the lease of the farm.
I have heard that soil and air samples taken from the farm area show surprisingly low levels of pollution, considering all that traffic is thundering past their farm every day and night.
I don’t know how much triple glazing deadens the traffic noise inside the house but I don’t think I could stand the noise when I was outside.
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The farm is often on the programme ‘’ The Yorkshire vet ‘’ it gives me nightmares seeing it and worrying about animals escaping onto the motorway .
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I watched and listened to the video Morty left and Ken explained that the land was his fathers and in 1966 the Road & Transportation people came by and explained the situation. Ken said that with all the livestock he has that there wasn’t any suitable land big enough to support his farm lifestyle so he decided to stay. I guess his father leased the land. I now see that Ken has since died.
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Yes, Ken Wild’s Father had leased the land from Yorkshire Water since 1934 and the Lease had passed on to his son - I don’t know what the length and terms of the lease were but after Ken died, Yorkshire Water leased / let/ or appointed Paul Thorp as Manager.
Paul had already been working on the farm for about 12 years before Ken Wild died.
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It just goes to show that all the fuss about pollution is bogus and just another reason to extract money from the motorist and eventually drive them off the roads with this Electric Vehicle nonsense.
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Thanks for the info. That’s a long time to lease a piece of property. Ken seemed to accept the changes well. I liked how he handled by passers with flat tires etc. At first he trusted them but the moment they ripped him off he asked for a deposit and one guy had no money so offered his girlfriend as collateral. 
That’ was funny.
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You guys don’t have enough electricity for everyone to switch to electric cars even if the majority agreed. Not even close.
They have already thought of that and it’s not going to be a problem…
Firstly, forget what you thought you knew about why they have introduced Electric Vehicles…
It never was about pollution or Net Zero…
It’s intended to get people off the roads. If the population increases the way it has done over the last 50 years (especially in the UK) and the popularity of owning your own personal transport increases with the population, there will be gridlock on our roads and nobody will be going anywhere…not fast anyway…
So how do they stop that from happening…?
Produce a means of transport that only the rich and well off can afford, with a battery life of perhaps ten years if you are lucky. Because the majority of vehicles on British roads are second hand, who will want to buy a second hand EV with a £6000 battery that needs replacing? So unless you can afford a new vehicle you will be on ‘Shank’s Pony’ (walking in English) The second hand car market will die a death!.. 
And so will all the drivers who can’t afford a new vehicle…
Remember when they rolled out ‘Smartmeters’? They are great! no need to send in your meter readings, it’s all done for you, they can even direct debit money out of your account without you wasting valuable time on those trivial things …Well when power gets in short supply, that good old ‘Smartmeter’ will limit you so your neighbour can charge their car tonight. Or even better…The local hospital or school needs your power today so we’ve temporarily turned you off…
So distribution of power won’t be a problem, and everyone who drives a second hand vehicle will be off the road, together with those who had their power rationed…Good plan Eh?
Rising Cost of Energy Is the Latest Concern for UK Drivers Switching to Electric. The research found that the rising cost of energy is the most common concern, as 21.08% say that they think the potential of higher home charging tariffs could stop the UK from switching to electric.
The national grid’s current demand stands at 334.2 TWh. TWh stands for “terawatt-hour,” which is a unit of energy that’s equal to putting out one trillion watts for one hour. This means that the UK would need to increase its electricity production by around 100TWh to meet the demands of electric vehicles.
Even if you guys get enough charging units built to supply the new electric cars, imagine 1/2 the population coming home from work and ALL charging up their vehicles at the same time. Do you really think that infrastructure is going to hold up? Highly unlikely. The electric grid would crash.
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Correct Chelsea…
When EV’s were first mooted the cost of electricity was far lower than it is now and the benefits of driving electric were probably cheaper than driving a petrol or diesel engined vehicle. Since then, diesel and petrol have reduced in price, and electricity has risen to the point that it is now far cheaper to drive an ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle, and the price of electricity is only going to get worse.
Here is a graph of the energy being used in the UK at 10:00am today…
We can see that 44% of our electricity comes from Combined Cycle Gas Turbines…
France is supplying 9%
Netherlands and Norway 13%
Solar and wind are providing 13%
And the mighty Drax is providing 2% Drax is the largest coal fired power station in Europe but has been converted to burning biomass. Wood Chippings of an estimated 1 million trees per week are being shipped from Canada, while Drax power station stands on an estimated 300 years worth of coal…Isn’t coal just compressed wood?..Just up the road from me incidentally…
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