MT 39/266

BARRAGES: Severn Barrage and Bridge

Date range	1922 - 1933
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 39

This file is truly delightful. It is likely to bring a smile to your face, probably because it contains the sort of thing that makes trawling through dusty archive documents worthwhile. The thing in this file that makes your day might actually have nothing to do with its subject matter.

Context

This file talks about plans in the 1920s and 30s to build a barrage across the Severn Estuary, containing numerous plans and maps of the proposed schemes, contemporary newspaper clippings, and links to the wider proposed motorway from London to Newport (which eventually metamorphosed into the M4).

The real jewel in the crown, slap bang in the middle of the file, is the bottom half of the 1934 OS Ten Mile Map of Great Britain, Sheet 2, running all the way from the South Coast to the Midlands. It's one of the few maps to contain the A303 and the original A42 on the same page, and there are some other interesting tidbits such as the more modern route of the Thanet Way under construction. Fascinating.

People with camera copies

Richie Swann has the Ten Mile Map extract, a copy of which is now online.