Talk about items you find on SABRE Maps - interesting features, historic road layouts etc. Also contains announcements of new maps available on SABRE Maps.
As it's now 2021, SABRE Maps can now offer maps with a copyright date of 1970 - and so as is traditional the first ones to be made available are both the North and South sheets of the relevant Route Planning Map, in this case the 1971 sheets, as usual offering GB-wide coverage and an excellent overview of the major changes that happened during the year.
As usual, there's loads of changes from the previous sheets visible, including:
* Lots of M4 under construction
* The questionable long route of the A951 near Aviemore
* More M9 and M90
* The first appearance of the M73
* The M53 and the classic tunnel mapping error
Enjoy!
Last edited by Steven on Sat Jan 01, 2022 10:04, edited 1 time in total.
Steven
Motorway Historian
Founder Member, SABRE ex-Presidents' Corner
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This is great - half the motorway network is under construction! The M4 has huge lengths shown as dotted lines, but there's also long lengths of M3 and M5 too, and a lot of work happening in Scotland. Love it. Thank you!
Great to see these online; interesting to see the M4 showing intermittently along its route. I had assumed as vast sections were under construction in 1971 that the whole route would have been known by the OS.
Also strange to see no A21 Tonbridge Bypass showing as I'm confident that it opened in 1971.
Tony
Brenley Corner: congesting traffic since 1963; discussing roads since 2002
Brenley Corner wrote: ↑Fri Jan 01, 2021 18:15
Also strange to see no A21 Tonbridge Bypass showing as I'm confident that it opened in 1971.
Tony
Yes, 12 July 1971 (see https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A21). Some late 1970 ones are also missing such as Alnwick and Morpeth. They probably did not affect route planning too much but the Tyne Tunnel Northern Approach Road from the A1 (opened in October 1970) was a bit of an omission. The key only has the symbol for motorways under construction and not other roads.
The A21 is the main arterial route out of London for traffic wishing to head to Hastings. Upgraded piecemeal over the years there are still large parts of it that are unimproved and it is nowhere near the quality of the M23/A23 route to nearby Brighton. .
The A21 begins at a signalised junction with the A20 by Lewisham Station. This was a roundabout until 2016.
As is traditional following the New Year celebrations, the first maps with the newly available Crown and Government copyright date (in this case, 1971) to be made available are both the North and South sheets of the relevant Route Planning Map, which this year is the 1972 edition (correct to July 1971 according to the sheets themselves).
Taken together, the two sheets offer GB-wide coverage and an excellent overview of the major changes that happened during the year July - July.
As usual, there's loads of changes from the previous sheets visible, including:
* All but the last couple of sections of M6 is now shown as open
* The questionable long route of the A951 near Aviemore is still shown
* A certain small former motorway that's an old SABRE favourite near Thorne, Yorkshire makes its first appearance with an "open Autumn 1972" label.
* The Kingsway Tunnel and Erskine Bridges are incorrectly shown as motorways
* The London inset continues to show the A40(M), but where's the M41?
What else can you find on there?
Steven
Motorway Historian
Founder Member, SABRE ex-Presidents' Corner
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
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Here's some changes in the Midlands between the July 1970 and July 1971 maps:
A1 - dualling of the gap between Tickencote and South Witham, north of Stamford
A5 - new section of dualling north of A427
A38 Lichfield Eastern Bypass
A444 Bedworth Bypass shown correctly
A4097 eastwards extension from A446 to Kingsbury (Marston Bypass opened)
A514 - rerouted away from Melbourne
A5132 appears for the first time south of Derby (but noted as A5123 !)
That is coming in to era when I had my first car and really started roaming , in fact I think I still have an AA through Route Planner from Middlesbrough I got to find my way to Dover from then.
Many thanks for uploading this, have given this a quick inspection already and will have a more detailed look later.
In addition to the changes in the Midlands already mentioned, I notice that the A423 has been downgraded to B road from Coventry to Over Whitacre (A47) with the road north of the A47 multiplex renumbered to A51 (meeting the extended A4097 at Kingsbury). The A427 between the A5 east of Rugby and North Kilworth has also been downgraded, although the start of the road has been rerouted to Coventry, taking over the former route of the A4114 west of North Kilworth. Curiously, the section from A45 to the A5 through Rugby retains the A427 number.
Thank you Steven - the '72 map, showing the roads as at July '71, is exactly how things were when I started driving regularly - specifically including the gaps in the M6 in the Midlands, the gaps in dual carriageway on the A74 and the isolated bits of dual carriageway north of Denny on the way to Peterhead as well as the ferries in the West Coast of Scotland.
Here's some changes in the north of England between the July 1970 and July 1971 maps:
A1 Alnwick Bypass
A1 Morpeth Bypass (dual carriageway)
A1 Seaton Burn and Wide Open Bypass (dual carriageway)
A108 Tyne Tunnel Northern Approach Road (dual carriageway)
A74 Metal Bridge to M6 dualling
A184 White Mare Pool to Testos dualling
A689 High Swainston to Wolviston (Coal Lane) dualling
A19 Osmotherley to South Kilvington dualling
A168 Dishforth Bypass (dual carriageway)
A168 North of Topcliffe dualling
A58 (M) Leeds Inner Ring Road
A59 Clitheroe and Whalley Bypass
A506 Skelmersdale Regional Road - Pimbo to Orrell
A57 Great Sankey to Warrington dualling
B6054 Sheffield Outer Ring Road Gleadless to A616 dualling
Under construction
A19 Sunderland bypass
A591 Kendal bypass
SouthWest Philip wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 23:17
I'm guessing the Theale bypass on the A4 was never planned to be a motorway and that this is a mapping error on the 1972 map?
Theale bypass was built as part of the contract which included M4 Theale to Winnersh. Maybe this is why OS showed it as a motorway under construction? The plans in the Reading Evening Post in 1967 showed High Street being cut off at the eastern end so the bypass would have had to be an all purpose road.
Here's some changes in the south of England between the July 1970 and July 1971 maps:
A38 Plympton Bypass (dual carriageway)
Chippenham First Bypass became classified (previously minor roads)
A34 South of East Ilsley dualling
A419 Swindon Bypass dualling
A2 Dartford Second Bypass (dual carriageway)
A225 Dartford Second Bypass link (dual carriageway)
Under construction
A21 Tonbridge Bypass
And a mysterious Croydon southern bypass on the London inset. Maybe an OS map trap.
Ross Spur wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 20:02And a mysterious Croydon southern bypass on the London inset. Maybe an OS map trap.
I think it's a (poorly drawn) attempt to show the relatively new alignment of the A232 along the Croydon Flyover, Fairfield Road and Chepstow Road. The original alignment of the road - still shown in green on that London inset - was Epsom Road, George Street and Church Street.
Here's some changes in Wales and also the east of England between the July 1970 and July 1971 maps:
A449 Raglan - Usk Interchange (dual carriageway)
A1014 Fobbing to Coryton dualling
A12 Chelmsford to Witham Bypass dualling
A12 Marks Tey and Stanway bypass (dual carriageway)
A45 M1 J16 to Northampton dualling
A1 Eaton Socon bypass (dual carriageway)
A1 Tickencote to South Witham dualling
A45 NW of Stowmarket further dualling
A140 Horsham St Faith bypass
Ross Spur wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 17:21
Here's some changes in Wales and also the east of England between the July 1970 and July 1971 maps:
A449 Raglan - Usk Interchange (dual carriageway)
One curious feature of this edition of the map I've noticed is that the A449 between Usk and the M4 is shown as non-primary. This must be a mistake, as only the northern part of the new dual carriageway had been built and therefore this section had not yet been superseded by the new road so should still have been shown as primary. I checked the 1972 OS Quarter Inch map, which agrees with the mapping of the new road, but shows the Usk - Newport road as trunk.
And some changes in Scotland between the July 1970 and July 1971 maps:
A993 Bo'ness bypass created from B9110
A801 M9 J4 Lathallan to Bowhouse Link Road (first part of M9 to M8 Link)
A899 Livingston Spine Road: A8 to the original A705 near where Almond road is now`(dual carriageway)
A87 Dornie to Kintail S1 to S2
A939 SE of Tomintoul S1 to S2