MT 39/191

ARTERIAL AND TRUNK ROADS: Official photographs

Date range	1924 - 1942
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.

Ritchie is returning to this file later. Why this might be the case is open to all manner of unsavoury speculation, but one insuperable fact remains: Ritchie has taken this file out before, and he has every intention of taking it out again soon. In most cases this is because he wants camera copies and wasn't able to get them on the first attempt, but it may also be just because he misses it and longs to be near it again.

This file is stuffed to the gills full of photographs documenting the major new roads constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, including the Kingston Bypass, Purley Way, Guildford and Godalming Bypass, Great West Road and the Winchester Bypass. There are also plenty of other road schemes, and some lovely photos of the A82 along Loch Ness.

The file also contains a list of what the photos are, though of course nothing is in order any more, plus some tedious waffle about the original cost of the photos, their storage and their usage. But who cares when the photos are this good.

If you can't spend all day drooling over this file, you're not a road enthusiast.

People with Camera Copies

Ritchie Swann has copies of as many photographs as he could get in 20 minutes before the National Archives closed for the day.