Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

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Ross Spur
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Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by Ross Spur »

The Wiki and newspaper reports give the opening date as 31 July 1961. Even Ernest Marples was there. Reports describe it as a motorway and film footage shows the motorway - www.britishpathe.com/video/open-new-motorway

The Gazette notice for the opening from north of Blyth to Red House gives an opening date of 3 August 1962.
www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/42743/page/5990

Any ideas why there was a delay?
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by c2R »

That is interesting - I wonder if it was forgotten to put a notice in that it had opened at the time?
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by JohnnyMo »

Welcome Ross, you have added to the collective knowledge of the society, by posing a question no one seems able to answer. Maybe in time someone will find the answer.
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by RichardA35 »

It may well be something quite simple and prosaic.
Quite often the mainline would be opened ahead of the final tie in and junction as traffic management and construction phasing demanded traffic use the manline before a certain piece of work (Blyth roundabout?) could be built.
So it might have been that an official opening was held to coincide with the mainline and a further year's work was needed before all the elements of the scheme covered by the order (and the notification) were completed.
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by Conekicker »

At this remove in time, it's extremely unlikely that anyone involved is still alive, much less browsing this forum. A question that is likely to remain forever unanswered I fear.
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by Bryn666 »

I'd suggest it's like most things - probably someone forgot to put the paperwork in on time.
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by M4Simon »

There's at least one other interesting thing on that page - the invitation for firms of good standing to invest at least £200,000 to provide petrol filling stations and catering facilities on a 50 year ground lease for a site at Leicester Forest East on the London to Yorkshire Motorway. The Minister will provide areas of hardstanding for car parking, internal roads and lighting.

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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by Ross Spur »

Thanks for the input everyone. No worries if there is no answer, it's good to have a mystery.

I did wonder if it was initially a local authority scheme. I've come across a reference to the original scheme - The Doncaster By-Pass Special Road Scheme 1957(1) but the Gazette does not show this for some reason. The wiki A1(M)/Blyth - Adwick le Street pointed me to the 2006 variation, but it only lists the variations.

There is an interesting case at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10 ... lCode=pjxa where a learner driver, prosecuted for driving on the motorway requested the Special Roads opening documentation to be proved by the prosecutor. The main emphasis was that a case can be adjourned for the documentation to be produced, which is by the by here. Could be interesting if there was a case where the opening documentation was late.

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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by Steven »

Ross Spur wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 22:33 I did wonder if it was initially a local authority scheme.
It wasn't - the A1 through Doncaster was part of the London - Edinburgh - Thurso Trunk Road as defined in the 1936 Trunk Roads Act.

However, the larger top-tier authorities such as in this case, West Riding County Council, were the agents of the Ministry in the field and had quite a large say - hence why James Drake, Harry Yeadon et al across the Pennines in Lancashire played such a large part in the early motorway network.
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by JohnnyMo »

Steven wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 07:50
Ross Spur wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 22:33 I did wonder if it was initially a local authority scheme.
It wasn't - the A1 through Doncaster was part of the London - Edinburgh - Thurso Trunk Road as defined in the 1936 Trunk Roads Act.
The Doncaster Bypass was part of the London - Yorkshire Motorway scheme, it was seen as a distributor motorway at the northern end similar to the M10 at the southern end.
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Re: Doncaster Bypass - why was the Gazette opening notice a year late?

Post by Steven »

JohnnyMo wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 09:28
Steven wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 07:50
Ross Spur wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 22:33 I did wonder if it was initially a local authority scheme.
It wasn't - the A1 through Doncaster was part of the London - Edinburgh - Thurso Trunk Road as defined in the 1936 Trunk Roads Act.
The Doncaster Bypass was part of the London - Yorkshire Motorway scheme, it was seen as a distributor motorway at the northern end similar to the M10 at the southern end.
This is incorrect - it wasn't seen as a distributor motorway similar to the M10.

The original northern end of the London-Yorkshire Motorway was the northern end of the Doncaster Bypass, with the main line being roughly along the route of M18 and up the A1(M); with the Aston Spur (roughly the M1 mainline past Sheffield, originally Motor Road 11, then M57 under the continuation of the all-purpose numbering scheme) being relatively local access.

The section of the Doncaster Bypass south of the London - Yorkshire Motorway was generally seen as a more local route and was consistently allocated a different number.

MT112-67 and MT29-145 are good places for starting once the National Archives reopens fully, plus the relevant Motorway Archive deposits in Northamptonshire Archives.
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