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WINCHESTER has many attributes and one is that it enlivens the M3.

Many towns are located on flat and featureless parts of the motorway network. Passing Basingstoke is quite boring, Milton Keynes is tedious and Newbury is invisible.

But Winchester's motorway profile is almost as spectacular as the city itself. Motorists really get their money's worth when they drive past our city.

Coming from the north, the M3 Winchester experience starts two miles out, when the long and tedious haul from Basingstoke is enlivened by a plunge down into the Itchen Valley, which is so steep that traffic heading the other way is given an extra lane to help slow vehicles up the hill.

During the dramatic descent, you can actually see the cathedral. Look for its lead roof. Tourists short of time can say they've seen the cathedral without ever leaving the motorway.

The glass tower adverting Tesco's presence is next, before traffic passes under the huge concrete arch carrying Alresford Road on a structure that replaced the earlier "Spitfire Bridge".

The roller-coaster goes on, with another dip before a steep twisting climb into one of the most dramatic - and environmentally infamous - cuttings on the UK motorway network. Twyford Down.

Yet another headlong descent brings the six-lane conveyor belt down to another part of the beautiful Itchen Valley, with a tantalising glimpse of the river to the left.

The view to the right isn't bad either, with the disused Hockley railway viaduct looking close enough to touch.

Yes, Winchester folk can hold their heads high when it comes to motorway scenery.

6:52pm Thursday 15th November 2007

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