In Northern England, a scene can be seen, the first glimpse of which looks like a film set. Amidst the fast-moving vehicles, right in the middle of the M62 motorway, stands an old 18th-century stone farmhouse with sheep grazing on lush green grass. The name of this place is Stott Hall Farm, which people lovingly call “Little House on the Prairie”. People find this house so mysterious that many stories have spread about it. Let us know the real secret of this house standing right in the middle of the road.
In fact, one belief among the people is that in the 1960s, when the M62 motorway was being built, Ken Wild, a farmer living here, flatly refused to sell his land. It is said that instead of removing the house, the road builders were forced to divert the road from both its sides. This story became very famous, but the reality was completely different from it.
Why was Stott Hall Farm not removed? real reason
According to The Mirror, in 1983, journalist Michael Clegg, working for BBC, reached there to know this mystery, Ken Wild and his wife Beth told that they had been living on this land since 1934. The history of farming here is older than 1737. But the land was not his, but belonged to a company named Yorkshire Water. According to Ken, the road building agencies thought that they would remove the houses. But later they came to know that there was a geological fault beneath the farm, due to which engineers could not build a road over it. The ground could not bear so much weight, so the motorway was built by rotating it from both sides. Because of this this house was saved. During this time, about 70 acres of Ken and Beth’s land was lost in the construction of the motorway, but they still liked to live there.
Truck overturned in the courtyard of the farmhouse
Staying at this place was not only exciting, but it was also risky. One morning there was a huge explosion. Ken and Beth ran outside to find a 32-foot heavy duty truck overturned in their yard. Beth told- “The driver came out after breaking the windscreen and he did not even have a scratch.” In 2009, this farm was purchased by Jill and Phil Thorpe. He started living here with his son. Jill says that – Traffic passes very close but there is always a strong wind here, due to which the pollution remains less. The students of the university also took samples of soil and air here and the pollution here was found to be very less. Jill says- “People may call it desolate, but I find it very beautiful.”
M62 Highway – UK’s ‘highest’ motorway
The length of M62 is 172 kilometers.
.It connects Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Hull.
Due to passing through the Pennine Hills, it is called the highest motorway in the UK.
This part was inaugurated by the Queen in 1971.
Stott Hall Farm is located between junctions 22 and 23 of the highway.
