Shrewsbury opening dates

[Ross Spur]

I'm trying to narrow down the opening date for Robertson Way and Bage Way, the interim A49 North-South bypass (now A5112). It's on the 1990 OS Road Atlas but not on the 1986 Philips Road Atlas. Has anyone the following OS 1:50000 maps to check the picture?

A/* (3/87)
A2 (12/89)

Telford Way opened in 1964.

[rileyrob]

It's shown in green in the 1988 Readers Digest book.

[owen b]

I was hopeful I might have one of those but it turns out I've got the 1986 OS 1:50,000 (A with an underscore and an asterisk, "Revised 1983 Selected revision 1986", "Reprinted with major changes") which shows neither of those roads.

I've also got a 1990 Collins road atlas (published September 1989) and a 1990 AA road atlas (October 1989), both of which show both roads.

[Truvelo]

Late 80s from memory. I remember it opening only a few years before the outer bypass. I could never see the point of this road really as the outer bypass was planned in the 70s so it would always be redundant in the future.

[wrinkly]

I was hopeful I might have one of those but it turns out I've got the 1986 OS 1:50,000 (A with an underscore and an asterisk, "Revised 1983 Selected revision 1986", "Reprinted with major changes") which shows neither of those roads.

That's what I also have. I can't see anywhere where it mentions 3/87, but isn't it nevertheless the same as the first of the two the OP was asking about? He was using a slash to represent the underscore (as seems usual in lists of maps in the Wiki).

[owen b]

I was hopeful I might have one of those but it turns out I've got the 1986 OS 1:50,000 (A with an underscore and an asterisk, "Revised 1983 Selected revision 1986", "Reprinted with major changes") which shows neither of those roads.

That's what I also have. I can't see anywhere where it mentions 3/87, but isn't it nevertheless the same as the first of the two the OP was asking about? He was using a slash to represent the underscore (as seems usual in lists of maps in the Wiki).

Ummm..... you may well be right, I don't know..... I'm not an expert on OS map revision codes .

I've now found yet another road atlas in my collection, this time a 1989 "St.Michael" third edition, first impression, published by Hamlyn, using OS mapping, which shows both roads. In fact it looks like it was a hurried and bodged update to the map as the old route is still shown as an A road criss-crossing the new route.

[Ross Spur]

I was hopeful I might have one of those but it turns out I've got the 1986 OS 1:50,000 (A with an underscore and an asterisk, "Revised 1983 Selected revision 1986", "Reprinted with major changes") which shows neither of those roads.

That's what I also have. I can't see anywhere where it mentions 3/87, but isn't it nevertheless the same as the first of the two the OP was asking about? He was using a slash to represent the underscore (as seems usual in lists of maps in the Wiki).

Yes, it's the map I was after. The 3/87 is the publication date as per the excellent lists on Lez Watson's site at https://www.watsonlv.net/pdf/50k.pdf . Thanks for the revision details.

Opening dates would be between 1987 and 1989 unless anything else comes to light.

[wrinkly]

Yes, it's the map I was after. The 3/87 is the publication date as per the excellent lists on Lez Watson's site at https://www.watsonlv.net/pdf/50k.pdf .

It's an interesting observation that an OS map does not necessarily show the date of its actual publication. I never realised that before.

[Steven]

Yes, it's the map I was after. The 3/87 is the publication date as per the excellent lists on Lez Watson's site at https://www.watsonlv.net/pdf/50k.pdf .

It's an interesting observation that an OS map does not necessarily show the date of its actual publication. I never realised that before.

Yep, it's exactly why we have big tables of SABRE Maps Coverage Projects on the Wiki. What people think might be the date of a map might be many years away from it - copyright dates were only incremented on full revisions until 1979, so partial revisions would carry a copyright date from years before. It's how we have a number of 1974 OS One Inch maps on SABRE Maps.

[trigpoint]

Late 80s from memory. I remember it opening only a few years before the outer bypass. I could never see the point of this road really as the outer bypass was planned in the 70s so it would always be redundant in the future.

Certainly redundant for long distance through traffic, but an important link between different parts of the town.

The town centre roads are narrow and crowded so not practical as the link between the south-east and north/north west of the town.

When travelling from Asda to Morrisons I doubt many would choose to use the outer bypass.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/direction ... 78/-2.7176