Bassetts Pole/London Road

[Roughley]

I've been lurking here for a while but felt compelled to join the forum after taking my daily exercise yesterday.

I have hopefully attached a worm's-eye (or cat's eye) view of London Road in Canwell near Sutton Coldfield. I suspect that this was left to nature when the Bassetts Pole island (as we call them in these parts) was created, at the junction of the A38, A453 and A446 (which takes up the London Road route a short distance south).

So is my thinking correct, and if so, when did that happen? And was that when the current route of the A38 bypassing Sutton Coldfield was opened, or at a later date?

Here is the map link:

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/ind ... 15&layer=0

I'd be interested to find out more.

[Steven]

Looking further on SABRE Maps, the One Inch 1972 layer shows (with the help of the Map Fader functionality) that it was still in use at that time.

The SABRE Wiki page on Bassets Pole suggests that the roundabout was put in at the same time as the opening of the Sutton Coldfield Bypass "in the early 1970s", so the answer to your two questions appear to be yes, and yes!

[Roughley]

Thank you for the reply Steven, that is helpful.

On that basis then, that small stretch of London Road has been abandoned for maybe 45 years. I can't quite work out if that tallies with the degree to which nature has overtaken it - I do wonder if maybe it remained open to make a T-junction with the A453 (which I hadn't appreciated was also realigned to meet the roundabout) for a period after the early 1970s.

[Steven]

I can't quite work out if that tallies with the degree to which nature has overtaken it

The trouble is that that isn't a constant - it depends on plenty of environmental factors, for example, the former stretch of A460 just south of M54 here was abandoned in 1983 when the route was realigned for the motorway junction, but it's in a far worse state.

[Ross Spur]

I'm another newbie too, but can help.

The SABRE Network changes page for the 1970s gives the opening date for the A38 Sutton Coldfield by-pass (Lichfield to Gravelly Hill) as 1974. This tallies with my Shell Road atlases by Phillips. The 1973/74 edition has the road under construction whilst the 1974 edition has it open.

The road in your photograph is stopped up at the A453 in 1975. This is shown on the OS 1:25000 Pathfinder series map SP 09/19 for Sutton Coldfield and Walsall which has a copyright date of 1976, with major roads revised as 1975, so it looks as if the through route was severed at the same time as the by-pass scheme. The map also shows the A453 towards Tamworth as dual carriageway to the B4151 junction.

The concrete signpost in the Bassetts Pole pub car park, dating from 1935, is worth a look at too: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?t ... e_pictures

Ian

[fras]

The current OS 1:25000 map shows it as a "route with public access" (line of green dots).

GSV takes you along the top part that gives access to houses and a farm, (now abandoned), then the way ahead is barred by a locked gate, but there seems to be a pedestrian gate alongside. When you look at the width of what was a main road and probably getting very heavy with traffic in the 60s you can see why road construction was of such importance then. We had "Road Construction Units" then !

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.59334 ... 6656?hl=en

[DB617]

The current OS 1:25000 map shows it as a "route with public access" (line of green dots).

GSV takes you along the top part that gives access to houses and a farm, (now abandoned), then the way ahead is barred by a locked gate, but there seems to be a pedestrian gate alongside. When you look at the width of what was a main road and probably getting very heavy with traffic in the 60s you can see why road construction was of such importance then. We had "Road Construction Units" then !

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.59334 ... 6656?hl=en

The most surprising bit is the tight bend at the end of the street. Perhaps it was no-parking at the time, but it's almost single track on a blind bend today.

[Ruperts Trooper]

The current OS 1:25000 map shows it as a "route with public access" (line of green dots).

GSV takes you along the top part that gives access to houses and a farm, (now abandoned), then the way ahead is barred by a locked gate, but there seems to be a pedestrian gate alongside. When you look at the width of what was a main road and probably getting very heavy with traffic in the 60s you can see why road construction was of such importance then. We had "Road Construction Units" then !

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.59334 ... 6656?hl=en

The most surprising bit is the tight bend at the end of the street. Perhaps it was no-parking at the time, but it's almost single track on a blind bend today.

That bend was created when the two parts were realigned as a staggered crossroads with the now-B4151 - originally it would have gone straight across, as viewed if you look backwards on the link.

[DB617]

The current OS 1:25000 map shows it as a "route with public access" (line of green dots).

GSV takes you along the top part that gives access to houses and a farm, (now abandoned), then the way ahead is barred by a locked gate, but there seems to be a pedestrian gate alongside. When you look at the width of what was a main road and probably getting very heavy with traffic in the 60s you can see why road construction was of such importance then. We had "Road Construction Units" then !

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.59334 ... 6656?hl=en

The most surprising bit is the tight bend at the end of the street. Perhaps it was no-parking at the time, but it's almost single track on a blind bend today.

That bend was created when the two parts were realigned as a staggered crossroads with the now-B4151 - originally it would have gone straight across, as viewed if you look backwards on the link.

Oops. Makes sense.

[Roughley]

Thanks everyone for their replies, especially Ian (I am also an Ian...).

The above photo is one I took on Saturday from just the other side of the closed gates. I did wander all the way down - there is a clear path between the encroaching greenery - to the A453, and it is interesting to hear when that junction was severed.

Who knows, maybe my daily exercise will take me to the other side of the A453 soon...