peirre:
I’ve a tote box full of A-Z’s
If I didn’t have one for the area I was visiting I’d consider stopping off at a local garage and buying one as they nearly always had copies on the shelf.
^this.
Local postman was always good for directions as well.
The AA used to publish individual town plans, I used to have about 50 of them. Some of them were really useful since they showed the exact location of the wholesale markets. The addresses were usually better then too, ie not just Tesco Westbury, but where it actually was. Asking another driver to draw a rough map before setting out was the main standby. Otherwise stop outside a filling station and ask, because they usually had a local map behind the counter. Milkmen, postmen, dustmen, bus drivers etc were a pretty good bet too, although when you were looking for say Sheffield Fruit market at 6 am there generally weren’t too many people around to ask. Bristol Market which I last went to some 15 years ago was somewhere near Temple Meads station, but still not particularly east to find at midnight.
Can anyone remember which supermarket used to have an RDC in Hainault and where it was? Pricerite?
You used to be able to ask in the petrol station, but that was in the days when the person who worked in the petrol station was likely to have lived their entire life in the town in which the petrol station was situated. Nowadays it’s a complete and total waste of time asking in a petrol station unless you want directions to somewhere in Asia.
scaniason:
Beau Nydel:
Driving down a one way street somewhere years ago and needed directions. Saw a guy walking towards me so pulled over to the right hand side, leaned out a d said where’s xyz. He looked at me, smiled and covered his mouth and ears - he was deaf and dumb! Looked at the delivery note, nodded, climbed in and I gave him a lift to work! Chances of that happening - zero.My fad was telling me a similar story a few years back. He was collecting from a place in the middle of nowhere in France. Got to the village early morning, and found a cafe open, so he went in and asked where the place was. The cafe owner explained that one of his regulars worked there and would be in shortly for his breakfast. Guy turned up, said no problem, you take me to work and i show you the way.
After breakfast, they got in the truck and made their way down a little road into the countryside, when they came to a bridge over a river with a 6ton limit sign on it.
Dad stopped and pointed at the sign - the French guy shrugged his shoulders, got out and hung his coat over the sign. ‘All good, now you come over bridge.’ Apparently it was the only way to this place, and every artic went over it carefully - it was still standing after god knows how many years!
Jesus! I’d be clenching hard as I went over that!
Used to stop at the nearest MSA and memorise the way in from the local A to Z.
If I was struggling after that it was a petrol station and ask for directions.
If I was still struggling after that, I’d just climb on the roof of my Transcon and see where I wanted to get to.
Shandy123:
scaniason:
Beau Nydel:
Driving down a one way street somewhere years ago and needed directions. Saw a guy walking towards me so pulled over to the right hand side, leaned out a d said where’s xyz. He looked at me, smiled and covered his mouth and ears - he was deaf and dumb! Looked at the delivery note, nodded, climbed in and I gave him a lift to work! Chances of that happening - zero.My fad was telling me a similar story a few years back. He was collecting from a place in the middle of nowhere in France. Got to the village early morning, and found a cafe open, so he went in and asked where the place was. The cafe owner explained that one of his regulars worked there and would be in shortly for his breakfast. Guy turned up, said no problem, you take me to work and i show you the way.
After breakfast, they got in the truck and made their way down a little road into the countryside, when they came to a bridge over a river with a 6ton limit sign on it.
Dad stopped and pointed at the sign - the French guy shrugged his shoulders, got out and hung his coat over the sign. ‘All good, now you come over bridge.’ Apparently it was the only way to this place, and every artic went over it carefully - it was still standing after god knows how many years!
Jesus! I’d be clenching hard as I went over that!
Said it was even worse coming back over loaded!
Many years ago most estate agents had free maps of the local town and were happy to hand them out, apart from that was simply a matter in the UK of A-Z’s or asking someone.
Abroad it was head roughly in the right direction and ask ! Once Laptops first started appearing I bought ( horrendously expensive) the European AutoRoute disc, no GPS was simply Europes roads mapped onto a disc. more often than not it would get you very close to where you wanted to be then you again relied on asking 
The good old atlas did me proud…i would always go into the centre of town if i could, then find an estate agent…not only would they know, but usually give a map of the local area…garages were very helpful too. Often other drivers would tell you when you stopped at a real transport cafe for your breakfast, or other drivers in the depot.
The problem with the UK is the lack of signage for industrial estates…unlike abroad where most industries are in one place, and well sign posted.
In my day we used the stars above and a sextant to navigate our way around.
volvo2:
In my day we used the stars above and a sextant to navigate our way around.
Beat you to that one already mate., look back. 
‘‘planned on our large charts with sextants the night before setting off.’’
That I would have liked to see, sextants can’t be used in forward planning. Useful for getting the inclination of a heavenly body then using the old Norries Tables to get your approximate position, for chart work you need parallel rules, divider and a pencil (pen if you want it permanent though)
Or use a saT nav but they don’t exist …