FOR most of us the M5 is an unexceptional bit of motorway that you use to get from A to B - but to Worcestershire coach driver Julian Phillips, it's "glorious".
Julian admires the M5 so much that the West Midlands-based Phillips International Travel coach driver has written a book about it.
The book is split into 31 sections to match its 31 junctions and full of Julian's own pictures.
Julian, from Bewdley, used his time on furlough last year to pen his ode to motorway glory, The Glorious M5, based on the commentaries he gives passengers about the sights, unusual facts, historical places of interest and top attractions along the route.
It’s available in all good book stores.
But if you want a flavour of what to expect and why he thinks the M5 is so great, Julian has helped devise a fun quiz for our readers.
Can you pass this motorway test?
Answers on the bottom – don’t cheat.
1. The M5 passes the edge of five cathedral cities. Name them
2. It passes the highest football league stadium above sea level. Name the team and stadium
3. The A38 runs for 292 miles and crosses the M5 at four locations before the motorway is reclassified as the A38 dual carriageway south in to Devon and Cornwall. What is the A38’s claim to fame as an A road?
4. West of the Oldbury flyover, between Junctions 1 and 2, motorists can view the familiar Turners Hill radio and television transmitter. What is that geographically famous for?
5. The M5 crosses two rivers with the same name. What is it?
6. The M5 is famously used for traffic visiting coastal counties such as Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. However, the coast is only visible very briefly at two locations. Where?
7. At 162.9 miles, the M5 is Britain’s 4th longest motorway. What are the three longer ones?
8. The first section opened in 1962 to ease congestion in two towns and was entirely in one county. Where was it?
9. Between Junctions 15 and 16, the M5 is above the Severn Tunnel, which completed in 1886. The tunnel held a record until superseded when the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994. What was it?
10. To the east of Junction 8, motorists can clearly see Bredon Hill and the village of Bredon’s Norton. The village was once home to an American woman named Victoria Woodhull Martin who went on to make history in the USA in 1872. What did she do?
11. The M5 passes near the villages of Hucclecote and Brockworth (both near Junction 11A). The former used to contain the headquarters of the Gloster Aircraft Corporation who built a famous jet fighter in the 1960s and 70s. What was it called?
12. Junction 13 quickly leads to a village on the Severn Estuary noted for the conservation area set up by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, an organisation founded by Sir Peter Scott in 1946. What is it’s name?
13. Junction 16 leads to the town where the British Airways Concordes were built. What is it called?
14. Junctions 6 and 7 lead to the City of Worcester, home to the longest continuously published newspaper in the English-speaking world: The Berrow’s Worcester Journal. When was it first published?
15. Between Junctions 21 and 23, the M5 passes through the scene of the final battle of the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. Where was it?
Answers: 1, Birmingham, Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol and Exeter (but only Gloucester and Exeter cathedrals are visible from the motorway); 2, West Bromwich Albion, The Hawthorns; 3, It is the longest 2-digit A-road in Britain; 4, If you were to fly east of Turners Hill, you would not find higher ground until the Ural Mountains in Russia; 5, ‘Avon’. (The word Avon literally means river); 6, Between Junctions 16 and 20 (Avonmouth – Clevedon area) and between junctions 30 and 31 as it crosses the River Exe; 7, M6, M1 and M4; 8, between Junction 4 (Lydiate Ash) and Junction 8 for the M50 at Strensham (easing Birminghan to South Wales congestion in Worcester and Gloucester); 9, longest tunnel in the UK; 10, First woman to stand for election for the presidency of the United States of America; 11, The Gloster Javelin ( Gloster was spelt differently to the city because it was feared that foreign customers would mispronounce ‘Gloucester’.) 12, Slimbridge. 13, Filton; 14, 1690; 15, Sedgemoor
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