Considering the 1936/1946 Trunk road network

[Jonny A46]

The problem with some of the new 1974 counties was that they tried to unite communities on opposite sides of a river - the Tyne, the Tees, the Mersey, the Humber, for example - that had formed the boundary between traditional counties, and loyalty to those old counties was never going to disappear in a flash. I lived in Guisborough for a while, and later in Easington, jut east of Loftus, and the folk there thought of themselves as Yorkshire folk from the North Riding.

As it happens, I live on the Wirral, another one of the areas affected by the 1974 changes - the whole peninsula was in traditional Cheshire but most of it changed hands in 1974 when Merseyside was created (Ellesmere Port and Neston remained in Cheshire), the rest of which was part of traditional Lancashire. The Wirral is a bit of a funny one really, I live on the west side and would personally think of myself as coming from Cheshire rather than Merseyside, whereas I think the eastern side, particularly Wallasey and Birkenhead, feels a lot closer to Liverpool culturally, with the M53 roughly acting as a diving line between the two halves of the peninsula in this regard.

I've decided to make a few further changes - having looked back over my explanation in my last post, I'm not really sure that there is any truly meaningful difference between the Class 3 and Class 4 destinations, so I've decided to abolish Class 4 and simply have Class 3 destinations with populations in the range of 40,000-80,000. From now on, Class 4 destinations will refer to what I originally defined as Class 5, so my updated classifications are as below:

Class 1 - The most important destinations
Class 2 - Large enough to be included on size alone
Class 3 - Fairly large regional centres on the network
Class 4 - Destinations at significant nodes of the network

I've also decided to promote four Class 3 destinations which don't have populations large enough to qualify for Class 2 into that category - these being Gloucester, Shrewsbury, Chester and Carlisle. I have reclassified these destinations due to their significance as the meeting points of multiple trunk roads and as border towns. Heading from England, my thinking is that Gloucester is signed as the gateway to South Wales, Shrewsbury as the gateway to Mid Wales, Chester as the gateway for North Wales and Carlisle as the gateway to Western Scotland. Likewise, heading from Wales, Gloucester is the gateway to the South, Shrewsbury is the gateway to the Midlands and Chester the gateway to North, while heading from Scotland Carlisle is the gateway to North West England. So despite not having such large populations in their own right, these would seem to be more important than a Class 3 designation would suggest, in a way that I don't think could for said for places like Lancaster or Bedford.

I will now present the first set of maps, of London and the West Midlands, respectively.

London

Unsurprisingly, a lot of trunk routes converge on the capital, even allowing for several of the southern radials (A21, A22 and A24) being non-trunk. It does seem a bit strange seeing the A1, A10 and A41 in red with trunk bypasses carrying three-digit numbers - these were rectified in the 1950s. London is probably the single most obvious of the Class 1 destinations, and would be signed from long distances away on most routes approaching (in combination with another lower priority destination if appropriate). I haven't shown any strategic destinations within London itself, although there are several obvious candidates such as Romford (for the A12/A127) and Hounslow (for the A30/A4). Also shown on this map are the Class 3 strategic destinations in Hertfordshire, Watford and St Albans, together with Tilbury.

West Midlands

There are several strategic destinations here, and these are classified as below:
Class 1: Birmingham
Class 2: Coventry, Walsall, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton
Class 3: Cannock, Nuneaton
Class 4: Hinckley, Tamworth
Towns like Dudley and Smethwick are large enough to make the grade as Class 3 destinations, but are not included as they are not quite close enough to the strategic routes. In Smethwick's case, it is too close to West Bromwich and Birmingham. Dudley is perhaps more unfortunate, although Wolverhampton and Birmingham work fine as the destinations for the A4123 (it was after all called the Birmingham/Wolverhampton New Road). Hinckley (just off the map) is only just too small to make it into Class 3 (I believe it had a population of 39,000 in 1951) but makes the list as it is close to the junction between the A5 and another trunk road, with Tamworth making the list for the same reason even though the A5 skirts both towns to the south. Lichfield, by contrast, misses out as the A38 has two larger destinations on its route north (Burton and Derby), while Brownhills is excluded as I think Cannock works fine as a destination for both the A5 and A452.

[Peter350]

Some queries I have, from researching the 1936/1946 trunk road lists on SABRE, which I don’t think have been discussed on here already.

* The North Circular road was trunked in 1946, but not the South Circular. Why was this the case? Was freight traffic heading for the Channel ports really expected to drive through Central London?
* Why were a handful of London radial routes, such as London - Hastings and London - Worthing not trunked in the 1946 list? The coastal destinations in question seem important enough to warrant another trunk route in addition to the T37.
* The T38 Basingstoke to Newbury trunk road appears on the 1948 OS Ten Mile map, but not the 1956 edition. Had it already been detrunked by then or was this just a mapping error?
* Why does the T8 London - Penzance trunk road run via Plymouth instead of the more direct A30 between Exeter and Bodmin?
* Why do the T28 (Gretna - Stranraer - Glasgow - Stirling) and the T30 (Perth - Inverness - Aberdeen) have a single number? These are probably the least direct routes between their endpoints and ought to have at least two, or even three separate numbers.
* Why was the T63 Bootle - Southport - Tarleton road trunked when the Liverpool - Preston trunk road (T20) already ran parallel to it?
* The SABRE wiki shows the T116 as the highest trunk road number to be assigned after 1946, but have any new routes been designated since? (Not including realignments of existing routes onto motorways and bypasses)
* Did the trunk routes prompt a possible renumbering of A roads to match them? For example, diverting the A45 via Bedford to match the T45?

[B1040]

My guess would be that a lot of the North Circular Road was high quality (for the time) new-build, while the South Circular was a lot of streets joined up. It was not marked as trunk on the 10 mile map before the war.
The S Circular is not even marked on the 1948 10 mile map.
Did most freight head for the channel by rail in the late '40s?
I'm not sure that Hastings has ever been considered a significant destination since William of Normandy's famous expedition. Worthing can't even boast an invasion.
According to the 10 mile maps on this website both the Bodmin and Plymouth routes to Penzance were trunk in 1936 and 1948.

The T numbers were AFAIK purely administrative, they never appeared on a roadsign or a map that the public were expected to buy, so if they went by a funny route nobody would ever drive in one go, it didn't matter.

[KeithW]

My guess would be that a lot of the North Circular Road was high quality (for the time) new-build, while the South Circular was a lot of streets joined up. It was not marked as trunk on the 10 mile map before the war.
The S Circular is not even marked on the 1948 10 mile map.
Did most freight head for the channel by rail in the late '40s?
I'm not sure that Hastings has ever been considered a significant destination since William of Normandy's famous expedition. Worthing can't even boast an invasion.
According to the 10 mile maps on this website both the Bodmin and Plymouth routes to Penzance were trunk in 1936 and 1948.

The T numbers were AFAIK purely administrative, they never appeared on a roadsign or a map that the public were expected to buy, so if they went by a funny route nobody would ever drive in one go, it didn't matter.

You are quite correct about the North Circular. It was designed in the 1920's to connect the Industrial areas of North London which had been relocated from the East End and was mostly new build. It was intended both to bypass central London and link the main radial roads such as the A4, A40, A1, A11, A10, A12 and A13. As late as the mid 80's the area around Wembley Stadium was still a centre of light industrial manufacturing with companies such as GEC and Dexion having facilities based in the buildings erected for the British Empire Exhibition. It was not made Trunk until 1946 if I recall corerctly. The initiative came from the local authorities themselves rather than the Ministry of Transport who didnt get seriously engaged until 1960 as part of the Ringways Scheme.

There was indeed a lot of freight headed to the channel by rail with ports such as Sheerness, Dover, Folkestone and Newhaven having rail connections to the harbour. There was also of course a huge amount of shipping direct from the London Docks.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

My guess would be that a lot of the North Circular Road was high quality (for the time) new-build, while the South Circular was a lot of streets joined up. It was not marked as trunk on the 10 mile map before the war.
The S Circular is not even marked on the 1948 10 mile map.

You are quite correct about the North Circular. It was designed in the 1920's to connect the Industrial areas of North London which had been relocated from the East End and was mostly new build. It was intended both to bypass central London and link the main radial roads such as the A4, A40, A1, A11, A10, A12 and A13. As late as the mid 80's the area around Wembley Stadium was still a centre of light industrial manufacturing with companies such as GEC and Dexion having facilities based in the buildings erected for the British Empire Exhibition. It was not made Trunk until 1946 if I recall corerctly. The initiative came from the local authorities themselves rather than the Ministry of Transport who didnt get seriously engaged until 1960 as part of the Ringways Scheme.

The A205 South Circular Road only appears for the first time on the second edition of the 1964 Route Planning Map. By then, the North Circular Road was already dual carriageway between Western Avenue and Brent Cross.

Whereas the North Circular Road tended to avoid the central areas of the suburbs, the South Circular Road, being essentially a long list of suburban roads cobbled together, goes straight through the centre of some busy shopping areas. If you want to see the worst of the South Circular Road, try Wandsworth High Street or the Catford Gyratory.

[RichardA35]

Some queries I have, from researching the 1936/1946 trunk road lists on SABRE, which I don’t think have been discussed on here already.

* The T38 Basingstoke to Newbury trunk road appears on the 1948 OS Ten Mile map, but not the 1956 edition. Had it already been detrunked by then or was this just a mapping error?

I believe this was only detrunked with the opening of the Newbury bypass.

[B1040]

Some queries I have, from researching the 1936/1946 trunk road lists on SABRE, which I don’t think have been discussed on here already.

* The T38 Basingstoke to Newbury trunk road appears on the 1948 OS Ten Mile map, but not the 1956 edition. Had it already been detrunked by then or was this just a mapping error?

I believe this was only detrunked with the opening of the Newbury bypass.

I had thought that it was trunk until either the Newbury bypass (or the opening of motorways). (This memory would come from BP maps of the early 70s that I no longer own). However the 10 mile map in '56 and the 63 1" map both have this road not marked as trunk.

[owen b]

Some queries I have, from researching the 1936/1946 trunk road lists on SABRE, which I don’t think have been discussed on here already.

* The T38 Basingstoke to Newbury trunk road appears on the 1948 OS Ten Mile map, but not the 1956 edition. Had it already been detrunked by then or was this just a mapping error?

I believe this was only detrunked with the opening of the Newbury bypass.

I had thought that it was trunk until either the Newbury bypass (or the opening of motorways). (This memory would come from BP maps of the early 70s that I no longer own). However the 10 mile map in '56 and the 63 1" map both have this road not marked as trunk.

It was proposed to be dualled in the 1989 Roads for Prosperity trunk road plan.

[KeithW]

Whereas the North Circular Road tended to avoid the central areas of the suburbs, the South Circular Road, being essentially a long list of suburban roads cobbled together, goes straight through the centre of some busy shopping areas. If you want to see the worst of the South Circular Road, try Wandsworth High Street or the Catford Gyratory.

It was not so much that the road avoided the suburbs as the suburbs grew around the road. Take Neasden as an example, until the North Circular was built it was a classic railway suburb from which people travelled to work in London

Industry in Neasden developed during the 1920s and 1930s, partly because of increased accessibility provided by the North Circular Road and the widening and straightening of Neasden Lane in connexion with the Wembley Exhibition of 1924. By 1933 three firms in the southern part of Neasden Lane, British Thomson Houston Co. (electrical engineers), the Royal Sovereign Pencil Co., and Neasden Waxed Paper Co., employed 2,500 people. (fn. 237) The last named had opened in 1926 and employed 230 workers, mostly women, by 1937. (fn. 238) Oxford University Press was established in Press Road off the northern part of Neasden Lane by 1932, primarily as a warehouse for the distribution of books; 356 people were employed there by 1979. (fn. 239) The Book Centre next to the North Circular opened in 1938 and by the 1970s contained warehouses with 11,000,000 books and employed 100 staff. (fn. 240) TI Gas Spares (formerly Ascot Gas Water Heaters) opened a factory on a 15-a. site on the North Circular at Neasden in 1934 and employed 400 people there in 1978. (fn. 241) Other factories on the North Circular at Neasden included the cosmetic firms Amami Silvikrin in 1945 and J. Grossmith & Son shortly afterwards. (fn. 242)

In 1928 Hall's Telephone Accessories (later Associated Automation Ltd.) opened a small factory in Dudden Hill Lane which expanded during the Second World War and in 1960, until by 1974 it employed some 920 people, reduced by 1978 to 600. (fn. 243) By 1939 Church End had become wholly industrial, with motor body, furniture, paint, sheet metal, and die-casting works. (fn. 244)

All these new factories needed a workforce and suburbs grew along the A406 to house them. By the outbreak of WW2 people were travelling by bus TO Willesden from the new suburbs that had grown up around the road.

Another good example is Park Royal where the old munitions works in the triangle formed by the A40, North Circular and Railway was able to grow very quickly. Until WW1 the major activity in the area was the holding of the Royal Agricultural Society exhibitions.

[RichardA35]

Some queries I have, from researching the 1936/1946 trunk road lists on SABRE, which I don’t think have been discussed on here already.

* The T38 Basingstoke to Newbury trunk road appears on the 1948 OS Ten Mile map, but not the 1956 edition. Had it already been detrunked by then or was this just a mapping error?

I believe this was only detrunked with the opening of the Newbury bypass.

I had thought that it was trunk until either the Newbury bypass (or the opening of motorways). (This memory would come from BP maps of the early 70s that I no longer own). However the 10 mile map in '56 and the 63 1" map both have this road not marked as trunk.

It was proposed to be dualled in the 1989 Roads for Prosperity trunk road plan.

Finding the SI via a Google search it would appear to have survived as trunk until this century and the labour administration's detrunking programme.

[Chris5156]

* The North Circular road was trunked in 1946, but not the South Circular. Why was this the case?

I don't have a definitive answer, but I would suggest that it had something to do with the aspiration for a proper South Circular Road still being (just about) alive in 1946 had something to do with it. The North Circular was largely purpose-built and the intention had been to provide a matching South Circular as a new road as well. I have evidence to suggest that funding was actually allocated to it in 1939 but the outbreak of war stopped any construction work commencing.

In 1946 the South Circular we know today did not exist, and wouldn't come into being for another few years. It was only created during the 1950s as an attempt to complete the circle at minimum cost, and the name "South Circular" was given to it for the first time. In 1946 the name "South Circular" would only have applied to a proposal for a new road that hadn't yet been built.

Was freight traffic heading for the Channel ports really expected to drive through Central London?

Yes, and it did. The quickest way to traverse London wouldn't switch from "through" to "around" for another couple of decades.

[KeithW]

Yes, and it did. The quickest way to traverse London wouldn't switch from "through" to "around" for another couple of decades.

To be fair work had started on the first Dartford tunnel had started in 1938 and it was supposed to be connected to the South Orbital route. Then WW2 got in the way and nothing much happened until 1960. Even after the first tunnel opened it was a real trek to get there before the M25 was built and it was often quicker to go through central London. My Sunday night return drive to Kent from the NE before 1980 usually involved following the A1 to the City of London, through the Blackwall tunnel and then using the A2/M2/A229/M20/A20 to Ashford. It took the full opening of the M11/A604 and the second Dartford tunnel before it was quicker to go around the North Circular.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

To be fair work had started on the first Dartford tunnel had started in 1938 and it was supposed to be connected to the South Orbital route. Then WW2 got in the way and nothing much happened until 1960. Even after the first tunnel opened it was a real trek to get there before the M25 was built and it was often quicker to go through central London. My Sunday night return drive to Kent from the NE before 1980 usually involved following the A1 to the City of London, through the Blackwall tunnel and then using the A2/M2/A229/M20/A20 to Ashford. It took the full opening of the M11/A604 and the second Dartford tunnel before it was quicker to go around the North Circular.

There was a period of two and a half years between the opening of the second Dartford Tunnel (March 1980) and the opening of the M25 between the A127 and the A13 (September 1982). I went on holiday to Margate in the summer of 1982 and the signed route for M1 to Dartford Tunnel at the time was the A406 to Gants Hill, A12, A1112 (Whalebone Lane North/South), A125 and A13 (now A1306).

[KeithW]

To be fair work had started on the first Dartford tunnel had started in 1938 and it was supposed to be connected to the South Orbital route. Then WW2 got in the way and nothing much happened until 1960. Even after the first tunnel opened it was a real trek to get there before the M25 was built and it was often quicker to go through central London. My Sunday night return drive to Kent from the NE before 1980 usually involved following the A1 to the City of London, through the Blackwall tunnel and then using the A2/M2/A229/M20/A20 to Ashford. It took the full opening of the M11/A604 and the second Dartford tunnel before it was quicker to go around the North Circular.

There was a period of two and a half years between the opening of the second Dartford Tunnel (March 1980) and the opening of the M25 between the A127 and the A13 (September 1982). I went on holiday to Margate in the summer of 1982 and the signed route for M1 to Dartford Tunnel at the time was the A406 to Gants Hill, A12, A1112 (Whalebone Lane North/South), A125 and A13 (now A1306).

I know - I remember it well

I sussed out a route from the Dartford Tunnel along the B186 from Thurrock through South and North Ockenden that came out on the A127 and meant I could head west on the A127 and A12 to pick up the start of the M11 which in those days was always quiet - even on a Friday afternoon. They opened the M25 a month after I stopped doing the bi-weekly run I had been making for the previous 5 years. All that meant of course was that I replaced it with a run from Wembley to Teesside albeit only once a month

[Glenn A]

My guess would be that a lot of the North Circular Road was high quality (for the time) new-build, while the South Circular was a lot of streets joined up. It was not marked as trunk on the 10 mile map before the war.
The S Circular is not even marked on the 1948 10 mile map.
Did most freight head for the channel by rail in the late '40s?
I'm not sure that Hastings has ever been considered a significant destination since William of Normandy's famous expedition. Worthing can't even boast an invasion.
According to the 10 mile maps on this website both the Bodmin and Plymouth routes to Penzance were trunk in 1936 and 1948.

The T numbers were AFAIK purely administrative, they never appeared on a roadsign or a map that the public were expected to buy, so if they went by a funny route nobody would ever drive in one go, it didn't matter.

Road freight was still far less important than rail in 1946, which had the bulk of freight in the 1940s. There was still the Snow Hill Tunnel underneath central London for freight, which was popular with cross London freight trains, some of which would have continued to the Channel. Then there were plenty of rail links to the docks, including the Broad St- Poplar line, which remained in use until 1983.
I'd imagine any lorry which needed to cross London would probably go through the city centre and use the Rotherhithe Tunnel if they needed to get to the channel or Kent. The North Circular would probably make more sense if you needed to travel from North London to Surrey, where you would use it to reach the A3.

[roadtester]

Definition of the South Circular: a collection of signposts in South London.

I'm not sure about freight but pre-M25, the best way across London, certainly east-west, was probably straight through the middle.

I spent my childhood in Germany during the late sixties and most of the seventies, and trips home to Gloucestershire in the holidays involved overnight journeys with my dad driving off the ferry from Dover up to London on the A2 and then using as much of the Embankment to make progress as possible - then up through Whitehall, Regent Street and Oxford Street (partly to show us the sights) and then out to the A40. Later the M4 became the route when the main section on the English side was completed, before improvements on the A40/M40 corridor led us that way once more. These roads were all more or less empty during the early hours - much more so than they would be today with modern London's massive night-time economy, I suspect - so progress was quick.

He never picked out a route around London and never took the North or South Circulars, all of which would have represented massive diversions. I suppose the trade-off might have been different during busier parts of the day though.