Is this England's straightest road?
Spearing across the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk is nine miles of arrow aligned road.
Even for the notoriously flat Fenlands the B1098 is spectacularly straight, with barely a kink from the moment you turn right and run parallel with Sixteen Foot Drain – part of the 17th Century drainage works for the flood-tastic Bedford Level – to your arrival at Three Holes 8.8 miles later.
Although the Drain is navigable by boat the only waterborne company you’re likely to come across are majestic swans, serenely gliding across the surface, while frantically paddling unseen.
Driving the B1098, which you pick up just outside of Chatteris, is also best done at a calm pace. Although the visibility is excellent and there’s barely any steering to be done the surface does undulate unexpectedly and could potentially cause you to take flight. There are plenty of warning signs along the way suggesting that several cars have gone unintentionally swimming as a result of excess speed.
On a clear day you can see to all the way the horizon, the two lane blacktop ending in a distant vanishing point (ten points for film fans for spotting what we just did). It’s almost possible to imagine oneself transported to the plains and starring in one’s own road movie.
