Histories

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This section offers a look into the past of the road network. The articles here range from investigations into the past of the network to nostalgic pieces and in-depth looks at specific roads. The newest features are at the top.

Visitors to this section might also enjoy People.

Ringways

Destructive, expensive, over-optimistic and by far the biggest single plan for roads that Britain has ever seen. Now the biggest research project into unbuilt roads ever.

Glasgow

Even in the 1960s heyday of roadbuilding, some people said you could never build your way out of congestion. Glasgow had plans to prove them wrong.

Pedestrian Crossings

From Zebra to Pelican and beyond - the comprehensive history of the development of the humble pedestrian crossing. Twice as interesting as you expected or your money back!

Underways

Proposed at the same time as the Ringways, but ten times as ambitious - and to think the government considered building them both!

Warrington New Town

New Towns are fascinating places socially and architecturally - and, of course, in terms of roads. This article explores one example from start to finish.

Euroroute

Today you can catch a train to France. You can even put your car on it, and be there in less than an hour. But in the mid-1980's Euro Tunnel had competition - including plans to build a motorway across the English Channel.

B7076 and B7078

What sound at first like a pair of forgotten country lanes turn out to have had a major part to play in the history of Scotland's roads.
This feature originally appeared on the now-closed Allan Online website.

The M53

The sad tale of the M53, half built and then grafted on to a different road altogether.
This feature originally appeared in the Botched Plans section of CBRD.

Burdock Way

The humble West Yorkshire town of Halifax may well be the creator of the most adventurous urban road scheme in the country. Find out what it is, and why what was built isn't even the half of it.

War to Worboys

The tale of how British traffic signing developed between the Second World War and the mid-1960's, bringing us from a system designed at the turn of the century to the signs we still use today.

Liverpool Inner Motorway

The routing, design and details of Liverpool's 1960's plans for an inner ring road have been a mystery to road enthusiasts for years. The full details on the route, plus that of the M62, are here.

M1-A1 Link Road

Those last few miles of the M1 east of Leeds were completed in 1999. It looks for the most part like a fairly average piece of road, but Adrian Shawcross, an engineer on the project, describes some of the challenges that were faced.

Motorway Timeline

A whistle-stop tour of the motorway age, from 1948 to the present. No pedestrians, horse drawn vehicles, invalid carriages or motorcycles under 50cc please.

Leeds Inner Ring Road

One of those hair-raising urban motorways that were all the rage in the late 1960's - but with less loose ends than most. A tour of the route with lots of history thrown in.

Motorway Chronology Maps

A visual aid to chart when each bit of motorway opened, depicting the progress of the network year-by-year. The maps are gradually being added to with the aim of reaching the present day.

The Decline and Fall of Ringway 2

London's South Circular is described by its local government as "nothing more than a signposted route". So why, when ambitious plans to replace it as part of a huge road programme for London were unveiled in the 1960's, did the scheme never even get off the ground?