Rugby & District Historic Transport Studies Group

Keeping the Past, Present for the Future

M1 is 50! By David Holton

On the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first section of the M1 motorway (or London – Birmingham motorway as it was then known), I thought it right to put a few memories of the road together.

My first recollection was of watching excavators digging and graders levelling a cutting what was to become the M45 at Dunchurch. As I was only five and a half at the time of opening, I can only guess that I was in a Morris Eight saloon at the time, owned by my Auntie, the only family member to have a car at that time. Also I remember looking down on a freshly tarmacked road all marked out with not a vehicle in sight anywhere. This I guess would have been very close to the opening date and again to have been from the Southam Road bridge in Dunchurch. As I child I would have been totally fascinated by all this activity, which is probably the only reason I remember it so clearly now- some fifty years after the event.

In October 2009, I made a trip to Rugby’s library and discovered the following information regarding the opening reported in the Rugby Advertiser.

October 30, 1959.

“There will be a crowd assembled at the end of the Birmingham spur of the new motorway on the A45 on Monday” this was the M45 and was then very much as it is today, fifty years on, bar the exit and westbound entrance just past Dunchurch. This stretch I would describe as Britain’s lost motorway, as for anyone wishing to see today, what the road looked like at opening there could be no better place than to travel along a road which is devoid of much modern signage and with all the original bridges in place is a joy in itself. The article went on to say that “the day will also mark the opening run of Britains’ first high speed coach service, run by the Midland ‘Red’ between Birmingham and Victoria to be maintained by CM5 vehicles which have been test driven at 80 mph. In the main however, top speed of these vehicles is expected to be a little over 60 mph.”

“ The whole of the fencing for the whole motorway is provided and erected by local timber merchants William Iven & Sons, who are sub –contractors to John Laing & Son Ltd., the main contractor. The total length of fencing supplied amounts to some 157 miles and the contract is worth in the region of Ł400,000.” The section of M1 opened ran from Crick where it joined the A5, to where junction 5 is today near Watford, with another spur known as the M10 to St Albans. The M45 spur ran from Thurlaston on the A45 to join the M1 just north of the Watford Gap service area.

November 6 1959. (Report on the opening)

“Cars began to gather on the A45 before 9am and by the time of the official opening near Luton, there was a mile of traffic, headed by My B.A. Walsh, of Kings Heath, Birmingham, with whom were his wife, daughter and another girl.”

There was a picture printed of the first private vehicle being waved down the M45 motorway, at 9-56am. by PC. J. A. Barrie. The car in question was a Ford Consul VOP 381. It is following a Warwickshire police car from Rugby, in the charge of Sgt. Churchill. Jubilant horn calls were made by the police car, with PC. Bird at the wheel, followed by an AA patrol car.

“All the bridges en route bore their quota of sightseers, the most crowded being at Dunchurch, where the Southam Road is carried over the cutting. There was also a good muster on the bridge over Thurlaston Lane, where two ridden horses stood looking down on mans’ latest invasion of the field.”

“The first northbound traffic, a car with a Coventry registration, came through at 10-11 am, having obviously got onto the motorway at the first access point, near Upper Heyford, seventeen miles away, where cars for Northampton leave the new road. Shortly afterwards the convoy going south was joined by two of the new Midland ‘Red’ long distance coaches, which from 2pm. initiated a three times a day service between Birmingham and London and back”.

“Police were stationed at the northern end of the Dunchurch spur to signal to motorists, in order to reduce their speed, but there is plenty of room for braking and deceleration when the island comes into view”
“A trip on the new road on the first day of its opening was an exhilarating experience, though night driving appeared to be more of a problem with nothing to take off the glare of approaching headlights. There is room for a hedge in the central reservation.”

On the following week it was reported that the first Saturday and Sunday saw heavy traffic on the M45 with many trying out the new road for themselves. Between fifteen and twenty vehicles a minute were passing down the road. All this watched by hundreds of people who lined bridges to watch the fast moving traffic passing under them.

Back to my recollections and I remember a favourite bike ride of mine with my father was to the bridge at Dunchurch on Sundays, where we would watch the speeding traffic going under the bridge. As to when my first trip on the new motorway took place I am not sure, but I do know that my Auntie would not take her Morris Eight on the road (in fact she sold the car in 1960). I certainly remember going down the motorway by coach on a few occasions during the early to mid sixties, as Midland Red ran day trips from Rugby to Heathrow Airport, via the Motorway (this was the selling point of the trip). A school trip to London’s science museum springs to mind also – that would have been in Marvin’s Bedford Vega-Major twin-steer coach driven by ‘Young Fred Marvin’.

Fast forward onto 2009 and I was pleased that I played a small part in celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the motorway. On October 31^st I accompanied two Midland Red coaches (a C5 and a CM6) together with a modern day National Express Caetano Levante) as part of a run to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the motorway coach service. The run was from Birmingham (Digbeth) to London (Victoria). I was part of a team filming for a forthcoming DVD on the history and development of the C5 coach.
On Monday the 2^nd I took a trip along the M45 to Watford Gap service area (also celebrating 50 years) where there was a display of pictures and a few classic vehicles had popped in for the day adding to the occasion. Parliamentary under secretary of State Chris Mole MP unveiled a plaque and said “ Although motorways have changed since 1959, for my money the M1 remains Britain’s most iconic”.

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