Smallest place signed from a motorway?

[stuzer]

I'd have thought Crook of Devon (signed off junction 5 of the M90) would be a contender. However, wikipedia suggests it has a population of nearly 800, which I would never have imagined.

[Rob590]

In the Post Office address finder “Scotch Corner” seems to be considered as a street in the village of Middleton Tyas. Perhaps it isn’t a place after all…

Yes, I would concur with this. Scotch Corner is a junction, in the village of Middleton Tyas. The village is not signed from a motorway, but the junction is. I'd put it in the same category as airports and bridges in that sense.
-
Edit, if we were including streets/junctions and the like as 'places', then Carliol Square is signed from the A167(M). I'm not aware that it currently has any residential properties on it. Plummer House, a student halls with 251 rooms according to its website so a similar population I guess, borders it but its address is Market Street.

[Barkstar]

Well I did think I had a doozy but on checking on GSV it looks like the signs have been updated. When the M6 Toll was opened local signing was very clearly bias towards getting traffic onto the toll road. None more so that where the M42 and M6T split at jct 11 near Coleshill. For years the first exit on the M42 north was SP A446 Wishaw. Wishaw is a village of 125 residents and the first side turning off the A446 half a mile or so from the junction. It is now SP for Lichfield, as it really should have been in the first place.

[Helvellyn]

Sometimes hard to know just what the population actually is, often the numbers you can find are for parishes rather than the actual villages. I'd wondered if Brough might be a contender but it's up at 822 from the 2021 census - whether that's the parish or the village I don't know, but I suspect the former.

[jabbaboy]

You's are all talking about Scotch Corner but Piercebridge, the next junction North with 113 people, must be up there.

[owen b]

Whipsnade used to be signed from M1 J9 : https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/ ... m1-296378g These days Redbourn is signed instead.

It won't win any prizes on this thread, but it must be one of the smaller places in southern England to have merited a motorway sign. The parish population was 455 at the 2021 census according to Wikipedia. No doubt Whipsnade was signed partly as a proxy for the zoo, and also to keep northbound Dunstable traffic on the motorway until J11.

[Disgruntled Goat]

Gaydon (population 530) off M40 J12 will be one of the smaller places signed. Of course more notable for being the access to the JLR/Aston Martin sites.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xjYFzW3zbDyDBMyt8

[explo]

Northern Ireland will be like shooting fish in a barrel

Loughgall for example - population (2011 census via wikipedia) - 282, signed from the M1 (NI)

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.4810552 ... ?entry=ttu

Sprucefield is a retail park area around the junction for the M1/A1 (NI), probably differentiates where they want to move Dublin traffic onto the next junction nearby (when it is probably quicker to go via Sprucefield)

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.4948914 ... ?entry=ttu

Carn and Seagoe (small areas around Portadown) from M12 (NI)

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.4516187 ... ?entry=ttu

Greencastle on the M2 (NI) is a fairly large junction before the motorway heads uphill, but it's an old village in North Belfast that was decimated by said junction

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.6453868 ... ?entry=ttu

Cushendall on M2 (NI) Ballymena bypass population (2011 census via wikipedia) - 1280

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.8699515 ... ?entry=ttu

The Birches is also now signed from the M1 (eastbound only) - population 319.

[Owain]

Has to be a toss-up between Crianlarich and Scotch Corner doesn't it?

Is Scotch Corner strictly a habitable place'? I thought it described a junction rather than a settlement. You wouldn't refer to the population of Broxden Roundabout for example.

There are some hotels at Scotch Corner and a caravan park, so it will have a non-zero population at any given time, up to a maximum of not very much when the hotels and caravan park are full.

Plus, in these days when many people are forced to live in tents rather than have a mortgage, there could be a few of those too.

[Big L]

Is Scotch Corner strictly a habitable place'? I thought it described a junction rather than a settlement. You wouldn't refer to the population of Broxden Roundabout for example.

There are some hotels at Scotch Corner and a caravan park, so it will have a non-zero population at any given time, up to a maximum of not very much when the hotels and caravan park are full.

Plus, in these days when many people are forced to live in tents rather than have a mortgage, there could be a few of those too.

No no, living in a tent is a lifestyle choice, according to Cruella.

[dereer]

Horse and Jockey is signed off the M8 (Republic of Ireland), despite being so small it isn't included in the census. Haven't been there, but looking at GSV, it appears to exist mostly to serve the road with few houses.

[varga]

I think all the A1M signs between about Leeds and Gateshead still give you the mileage to Scotch-Corner over anywhere else, from a heckuva long way out I should add.
Not by a country mile the smallest,but I vaguely remember seeing a rusted old sign on a M6 sliproad telling me the distance to Stockport, might have been the one going from the west bound M62 to the south.

[AndyB]

Sprucefield is a retail park area around the junction for the M1/A1 (NI), probably differentiates where they want to move Dublin traffic onto the next junction nearby (when it is probably quicker to go via Sprucefield)

Technically a village outside Lisburn, with a police base round the corner, but in practical terms absorbed by the town long before it became a city. Royal Mail treat it as part of Lisburn.

[Owain]

Northern Ireland will be like shooting fish in a barrel

Loughgall for example - population (2011 census via wikipedia) - 282, signed from the M1 (NI)

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.4810552 ... ?entry=ttu

Sprucefield is a retail park area around the junction for the M1/A1 (NI), probably differentiates where they want to move Dublin traffic onto the next junction nearby (when it is probably quicker to go via Sprucefield)

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.4948914 ... ?entry=ttu

Carn and Seagoe (small areas around Portadown) from M12 (NI)

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.4516187 ... ?entry=ttu

Greencastle on the M2 (NI) is a fairly large junction before the motorway heads uphill, but it's an old village in North Belfast that was decimated by said junction

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.6453868 ... ?entry=ttu

Cushendall on M2 (NI) Ballymena bypass population (2011 census via wikipedia) - 1280

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.8699515 ... ?entry=ttu

The Birches is also now signed from the M1 (eastbound only) - population 319.

Don't forget the Antrim Area Hospital!

Population: variable

[wallmeerkat]

Don't forget the Antrim Area Hospital!

Population: variable

Are there any other hospitals with a dedicated motorway junction? I remember the offslips were built before the onslips!

Also a useful shortcut to "Junction One / The Junction" retail park, avoiding Junction One of the M22 entirely

[the cheesecake man]

Pimbo
Euroway Trading Estates
Both have buildings so are technically inhabitable

[Owain]

Don't forget the Antrim Area Hospital!

Population: variable

Are there any other hospitals with a dedicated motorway junction? I remember the offslips were built before the onslips!

Also a useful shortcut to "Junction One / The Junction" retail park, avoiding Junction One of the M22 entirely

The thing that always amazed me about it was that the road connecting to the motorway is (AFAIK) unclassified!

There was a popular tale - perhaps apocryphal - that the Lancaster University campus was supposed to have sliproads connecting it to the M6. I don't know how accurate that was, but when the campus was first built in the 1960s there were apparently plans for a medical school and hospital on the other side of the motorway from the main campus, so there would have had to be a bridge, at the very least.

[Bryn666]

Don't forget the Antrim Area Hospital!

Population: variable

Are there any other hospitals with a dedicated motorway junction? I remember the offslips were built before the onslips!

Also a useful shortcut to "Junction One / The Junction" retail park, avoiding Junction One of the M22 entirely

The thing that always amazed me about it was that the road connecting to the motorway is (AFAIK) unclassified!

There was a popular tale - perhaps apocryphal - that the Lancaster University campus was supposed to have sliproads connecting it to the M6. I don't know how accurate that was, but when the campus was first built in the 1960s there were apparently plans for a medical school and hospital on the other side of the motorway from the main campus, so there would have had to be a bridge, at the very least.

The bridge is a true story, but the junction is less sure. There are numerous discussions about removing the current J33 and building it north of Galgate but if this happens they also need to build a J32A at Garstang - I understand Barton Grange are campaigning for this to be built by their roundabout on the A6.

[Bfivethousand]

How about Stanlow? Anything resembling so much as a gatekeeper's cottage there?

Come to mention it, there's only 2,000 or so residents of Queensferry too.

[Owain]

Are there any other hospitals with a dedicated motorway junction? I remember the offslips were built before the onslips!

Also a useful shortcut to "Junction One / The Junction" retail park, avoiding Junction One of the M22 entirely

The thing that always amazed me about it was that the road connecting to the motorway is (AFAIK) unclassified!

There was a popular tale - perhaps apocryphal - that the Lancaster University campus was supposed to have sliproads connecting it to the M6. I don't know how accurate that was, but when the campus was first built in the 1960s there were apparently plans for a medical school and hospital on the other side of the motorway from the main campus, so there would have had to be a bridge, at the very least.

The bridge is a true story, but the junction is less sure. There are numerous discussions about removing the current J33 and building it north of Galgate but if this happens they also need to build a J32A at Garstang - I understand Barton Grange are campaigning for this to be built by their roundabout on the A6.

If the A27 were a motorway, we'd have two shiners right here.