Congratulations to the M1 Motorway, which passed 60 years of age on 2nd November, 2019. Many people know that the UK’s first section of motorway was the Preston Bypass in Lancashire, which opened in 1958 and was later incorporated into the M6 motorway. However, the first properly complete motorway was opened a year later as the M1, initially running from Watford to Crick in Northamptonshire, from today’s junction 5 to junction 18. This section of the M1 also included the short M10 motorway at St Albans (Junction 7), and the M45 heading west from Junction 17 to the A45 and Coventry.
A ceremony to mark the beginning of construction was held at Slip End south of Luton, at what is now Junction 10 of the motorway, on 24th March, 1958. A concrete slab commemorating the inauguration of the `London-Yorkshire Motorway’ still lies beside Junction 10 today. The motorway was actually constructed in two parts, with the northern section (Junction 10 to 18) built by John Laing Ltd and the southern section to Watford, and including the St Albans Bypass, built by Tarmac Construction. The initial 55 miles of the M1 was budgeted to cost £16 million, and would include 132 new bridges as well as the UK’s first motorway services at Watford Gap. Remarkably, the motorway was completed in only 19 months, and was ready for its official opening on 2nd November, 1959, by the Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples.
It was common for people to go for a day out along the newly-built M1. Families could be seen picnicking beside the motorway even as car drivers made use of the long straight road to try to reach the holy grail of the “ton up”, or 100 miles per hour. Jaguar were said to have speed tested their new 150 mph sports car, the E-Type, up and down the motorway. For several years the M1 had no speed limits, no central reservation or crash barriers, and no lighting.
The prophetic words of Ernest Marples at the opening ceremony probably received little attention at the time, but would soon begin to ring true. In his closing remarks he said: “Take it easy, motorists.”
Sixty years later, and now with 39 million cars on the UK’s roads, perhaps we should remind ourselves of his words next time we get behind the wheel.
