Auto Shenanigans YouTuber explores Lincolnshire’s roads using 1923 Michelin guide travelling from Stamford to Skegness via Market Deeping, Spalding, Wainfleet and Boston

A popular YouTuber who tours the country’s road network has visited Lincolnshire and Rutland - and he had a lot to say.

Jon Jefferson, the face behind motoring channel Auto Shenanigans, is on a mission to see what remains of 1920s Britain by travelling the country using a 1923 Michelin guide book and old maps.

His latest episode of Great British Road Journeys takes him across Lincolnshire.

“The county is mostly flat with one hill,” he jokingly told his 131,000 subscribers.

“Despite its size most of us have only heard of Lincoln, the rest of its towns are a mystery.”

Jon told viewers about the Lincolnshire sausage, although in what could be considered blasphemy in some county towns branded the recipe ‘basic’ and said this has led to it being replicated elsewhere.

Jon’s first stop was Stamford, which has had its population double in size from 10,000 to 20,000 since the map was created 101 years ago.

“In places it all looks rather lovely, but then it should do as Stamford alone has more than 600 grade II listed properties,” Jon noted.

He added in Stamford ‘they perhaps went a bit overboard and designated the town as an area of special interest’ resulting in hundreds of listed buildings, which make up half of the protected buildings in the whole of Lincolnshire.

He headed out of Stamford on the A1175, which at the time the map was created was the A16, and ventured through Tallington, noting the railway crossing is said to be one of the worst in the country.

The next stop was Market Deeping, where the guidebook suggested a trip to Northborough Hall, which is a couple of miles away and in a different county, leading Jon to believe the town itself is ‘a very boring place indeed’.

Spalding required ‘a bit of messing around with the route’ because the A16 bypass didn’t exist in the 1920s. Instead the B1172 was one of the main roads.

A bridge which was once part of the railway between Spalding and March, and Ayscoughee Hall caught his interest.

He gave a brief history lesson about Spalding’s flooding issues which led to the building of the Coronation Channel before heading down the road to Boston.

“Looking at the map to get to Boston the A16 offers a near perfect straight road into the town,” said Jon.

“Unfortunately we can’t use it as it’s not in keeping with our period-correct maps where we notice the A16 instead meanders its way through a number of small villages.”

The 700-year-old St Botolph's church and Maud Foster Mill are two areas of interest in Boston which have remained very much the same since the motoring expert’s map was created.

The A52 between Boston and Skegness is almost identical today to the road in the 1920s which made this leg of the journey ‘a bit more straightforward’.

Jon said: “Does anyone else think this part of Lincolnshire is a bit boring? It is just fields and farms as far as the eye can see.”

In Wainfleet he took a quick stop at the former weapons testing range at the RAF base, the market cross and a petrol station which, according to Jon, would be shut down by health and safety immediately if it was created today.

The final town on the map was Skegness, also known as Skeggy or Skeg Vegas,

“It doesn’t really matter how you say it, it sounds like a disease,” said Jon.

To round off his trip he visited the pier, played on the arcade machines and got fish and chips, which according to Jon are the three things to do in a failing English seaside town.

The social media presenter has also recently visited Rutland.

The county’s motto is Multum in Parvo, which means much in little, but, according to Jon in a video released two weeks ago, there is ‘bugger all’ in Rutland.

He said: “Has anyone ever been to Rutland? I haven’t. What’s the point?”

The visit took him to Uppingham, Oakham, Ketton, Cottesmore and Stretton as well as to the county’s huge reservoir, Rutland Water,

“It’s probably the only claim to fame Rutland has,” said Jon.

“You would think being such a small county you wouldn’t want to lose any more land but apparently not as the surface area is 4.2 square miles.”