MT 121/10

Birmingham - Preston motorway: special road schemes

Date range	1957-1958
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 121

Context

Special road schemes and draft orders were produced for the Birmingham-Preston section of the M6 on a seemingly constant basis during the latter half of the 1950s and early 1960s although no mention of the M6 number is made. The plans here are dated March 1957 and it's obvious when looking at the maps that the original intention was for a motorway starting from M5 J1 and heading north to Preston. Ray Hall doesn't exist on these early plans but there is a roundabout interchange shown where the motorway crosses the A4031 Walsall to West Bromwich Road and is called Great Barr Junction. Some maps show a spur from this junction to the A34 at M6 J7 but this is not the full motorway that was later built, more a feeder to allow traffic to reach the northern suburbs of Birmingham from the proposed motorway. The idea of a motorway running from Ray Hall towards Coleshill via Gravelly Hill clearly didn't exist at the time.

Contents of note

• 6" plan of the whole route showing junctions and layouts that mostly differ from what was built although the route of the M6 itself is virtually identical.

People with camera copies

James Bancroft has copies of the maps.