Front wheel problem on Vauxhall Astra Club 2002

My Astra has recently developed a fault where if I'm doing a fast bit of driving (eg dual carriageway and not actually for that far), the steering will give a little judder and then progressively over a few miles, the wheels will lock until eventually I am unable to move the vehicle at all. At this point, I don't need to use any brakes as the wheels are really stuck, it gives a horrible grinding sound and the wheel covers are hot to touch and there is visible smoke and smell of burning rubber/plastic.

I've taken the car to my little back street garage and he's usually very good, but he's changed the flexi hoses and that seemed to fix the problem until I started a bit of dual carriageway driving again. He's now got the vehicle back in, thinking it was the brake calipers and has discovered it wasn't. He's now saying he's a bit stuck! People are suggesting it could be the wheel bearings. Any ideas? I'm currently stuck without transport with a young child! Help!!

wheel judder, wheel seize, grinding, hot to touch,smell etc all
seem to point to a faulty dry wheel bearing.
but that should stand out amile to a good mechanic.

as for changing the flexi's etc seems abit of a back street muppet.

Sounds typical of a wheel bearing but after a couple of instances it would be playing up all the time at any speed I think. I would suspect a sticking brake piston or pad in the caliper if it's not the calipers themselves, in conjunction with a slight bent brake disk. I would clean out the brake calipers of any dust, rust flakes etc, Test for any juddering on harsh braking, if present I would suspect a bent disk too, sounds a bit severe to be an intermittent fault

Ye gods if he's replaced the calipers and flexies it looks like a new master cylinder beckons.....sometimes the servo can 'help' the M/C to stick the brakes on.
Even if its not the wheel bearing, all of the heat wouldn't have done it much good! Ask the mechanic if the discs have blued with the heat.
John