50 years of motorways and the Great Car Culture - CANCELLED
Saturday 26 July, 10.00am

2008 is the 50th anniversary of the opening of Britain’s first motorway (Preston By-Pass on 5 December 1958). This led to a revolution in transport, land use, construction, environmental and economic and social history, profoundly affecting the second half of the twentieth century. It also saw some remarkable buildings and structures which deserve our attention. Our motorway day starts in Manchester with a visit to the Trafford Centre (Rodney Carran of Chapman Taylor Partners, 1996-8), the North’s Vatican of Shopping. It was recently complemented by the Barton Square centre, featuring an extraordinary campanile. Recovering from post-modern excess, we use the M62 to visit Patrick Gwynne’s Burtonwood Services (1974)—yes, that Patrick Gwynne. Then back along the M62 for the now classic drive across the Pennines to visit the Pennine Way foot bridge, Scammonden Bridge and the remarkable Scammonden Dam and reservoir, near Huddersfield, rightly described by the Motorway Archive as ‘one of the greatest feats of engineering’ of the motorway age. We hope to divert off the motorway to visit the foot-bridge (not for those with vertigo) and dam. Impressed, we return to Manchester, passing Stott Hall Farm where “the man who lives in the middle of the M62” lives. The event is still being planned but the North West Group hopes to be joined by motorway experts.

Meet: Manchester Piccadilly rail station at 10am, hoping to return by 6pm, subject to motorway traffic conditions.
Cost: Members only, £30

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