M1 Motorway

#REDIRECT M1

M1 motorway

:''There are also M1 motorways in Northern Ireland (see M1 motorway (Northern Ireland)) and the Republic of Ireland (see M1 motorway (Republic of Ireland))'' [[Image:M1_motorway_(England).jpg|thumb|300px|The ''M1 motorway'' heading south towards junction 37 at Barnsley.]] The M1 is a major north-south motorway in England connecting London to Yorkshire, where it joins the A1 road near Wetherby. The motorway is 187 miles (301 km) long and was constructed in stages between the 1950s and 1970s, with a further extension in the late 1990s. It was the first full-length motorway to be built in the United Kingdom, and was opened in 1959. The M1 was first conceived as a London to Birmingham route broadly following the route of the A5 road. It started south of St Albans on the London Orbital road which connected it to the main A1 just north of London. At the northern end it turned left near Daventry in order to connect to the A45 road to Coventry and then on to Birmingham. The alternate branch at the southern end - to Watford "Berrygrove" - became the major route and was extended in two stages to London, eventually terminating between the junctions of the A406 road "North Circular" with the A5 ("Staples Corner") and A41 road ("Brent Cross Flyover"). The first stage to London terminated at "Fiveways Corner", just north of the present Junction 2 (the A1 junction) and the original slip road is retained as an emergency exit route. The M1 was also planned to start further in to London than its present southern terminus. Evidence of this can be seen on the southbound carriageway at Junction 1, where there is a short unused section of road continuing on whilst all traffic is diverted off the slip road. The section around St Albans was renamed the M10 motorway. At the northern end, with changing traffic patterns, instead of extending into Birmingham the route was extended northwards to Leeds and the stub towards Coventry was renamed as the M45 motorway. The first motorway service station in the UK was built at Watford Gap and later imortalised in song by Roy Harper. It now broadly follows an arc to the west of the route taken by the older A1; though less direct, this route takes it closer to the major population centres of the East Midlands. It passes close to Milton Keynes, Northampton, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Mansfield, Sheffield and Leeds. It also connects with the M6 motorway and M45 motorways near Rugby, Warwickshire, the M18 motorway near Rotherham, the M25 motorway near Potters Bar, the M69 motorway at Leicester, and the M62 motorway and M621 motorway near Leeds. ===Route=== *Road junction 1 - at the junction of the A5/North Circular, known as Staples Corner, at Brent Cross, west of Golders Green *Junction 2 - "Fiveways interchange" at Hendon, west of Finchley, with A1_road_(Britain) *Junction 3 - London Gateway Service Area (formerly Scratchwood) only *Junction 4 - Edgware *Junction 5 - A41, Watford and Radlett, spur road to Central Watford ''(built in 1990s)'' *Junction 6 - north Watford and south of St Albans *Junction 6a - for M25 motorway *Junction 7 - for M10 motorway west of St Albans *Junction 8 - east of Hemel Hempstead *Junction 9 - for A5 road (northwards) and A5183 road (southbound) between Redbourn and Markyate *Junction 10 - south of Luton, sole exit to: : Junction 10a - spur for Luton south and for Luton Airport ''(airport not actually on M1)'' *Junction 11 - west of Luton *Toddington Service Area *Junction 12 - north-east of Toddington *Junction 13 - south-east of Milton Keynes, west of Bedford *Junction 14 - east of (central) Milton Keynes *Newport Pagnell Service Area *Junction 15 - south of Northampton *Junction 15a - south-west of Northampton, north-east of Milton Keynes (via A34, A5). Uses exit for: *Rothersthorpe Service Area *Junction 16 - west of Northampton, east of Daventry *Watford Gap Service Area *Junction 17 - for M45 motorway *Junction 18 - east of Rugby, Warwickshire *Junction 19 - the "Catthorpe interchange" for M6 motorway and A14 road *Junction 20 - east of Lutterworth *Junction 21 - for M69 motorway, south-west of Leicester *Leicester Forest East Service Area *Junction 21a - for northern Leicester *Junction 22 - east of Coalville *Junction 23 - west of Loughborough, east of Shepshed *Junction 23a - A42 road, Donington Park Service Area (northbound) *Junction 24 - west of Kegworth, for East Midlands Airport, Donington Park Service Area (southbound) *Junction 24a - for A50 road *Junction 25 - between Derby and Nottingham *Trowell Service Area *Junction 26 - north-west of Nottingham *Junction 27 - north-west of Hucknall *Junction 28 - west of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Mansfield, east of Alfreton *Tibshelf Service Area *Junction 29 - south-east of Chesterfield *Junction 30 - north-east of Chesterfield *Junction 31 - "Aston Roundabout", east of Aston-cum-Aughton *Junction 32 - for M18 motorway *Junction 33 - between Rotherham and Sheffield *Junction 34 - Tinsley Viaduct between Rotherham and Sheffield, for Meadowhall *Junction 35 - Thorpe Hesley, east of Chapeltown *Junction 35a - for A616 road *Junction 36 - west of Hoyland Nether *Junction 37 - west of Barnsley *Junction 38 - west of Royston, South Yorkshire *Junction 39 - west of Crigglestone *Woolley Edge Service Area *Junction 40 - west of Wakefield *Junction 41 - north-west of Wakefield *Junction 42 - for M62 motorway, J29 *Junction 43 - for M621 (Leeds) *Junction 44 - for Rothwell,_West_Yorkshire and the A639 *Junction 45 - not yet open *Junction 46 - for East Leeds and for the A63 *Junction 47 - north of Garforth *Junction 48 - motorway ends and joins with the A1_road_(Britain) Junction 3 on the M1 was originally intended as a turn-off for Scratchwood (now London Gateway), but is now only used for the Scratchwood service station. ==See also== *:Category:M1 Motorway service stations * List of motorways in the United Kingdom * M1 motorway (Northern Ireland) ==External links== * [http://www.uk-roads.org.uk/ UK Roads Portal] * [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/1.shtml CBRD Motorway Database - M1] * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/asop/northampton/m1.shtml BBC website ''The Backbone of Britain'' contains link to a video of 2'42" in length] UK motorways

M1 motorway

== Split and disambig == Was just thinking, might be a good idea to split and disambig this page, any thoughts? --User:Boothy443 | User talk:Boothy443 17:01, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC) :Done. The Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland sections were obviously too long to just have on the same page. I was simply postponing the inevitable work. I've fixed all the links to point to the individual pages. User:Zoney ♣ User talk:Zoney 11:12, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC) :WHOA! WAY too short a time for discussion (imho) and NOT a good idea. yes, it made sense to put the NI and ROI versions on separate pages, but M1 will, in common usage, refer to the London-Leeds motorway and WP practice is to put the main usage on the direct page whenever possible. This will need to be reverted I believe. --User:VampWillow:User_talk:VampWillow 13:41, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Rather than revert this now, I've temporarily made M1 motorway a redirect to the england page, and added links to the other two (which should be on that page anyway and not just lost to the world because of a disambig being created. Now then ... I see no justification for making M1 motorway solely a disambig page; it is illogical and wasteful. Can anyone put up an argument? --User:VampWillow:User_talk:VampWillow 13:48, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::Your solution seems quite reasonable. I don't think the English M1 motorway should be at M1 motorway even if that redirects to the English motorway page. It's important that people don't get the routes confused, as they are all designated EXACTLY the same, and there's even two of them in the United Kingdom. It's better that people link unambiguously to M1 motorway (England) where possible (and yes, I guess it makes sense to redirect M1 motorway there for those who blindly assume there is only one). ::Apologies for acting before discussion, but I didn't see the need for protracted discussion on what I considered a long-overdue page split. ::User:Zoney ♣ User talk:Zoney 14:15, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC) :::Thanks for that, but I'll point you at Wikipedia:Disambiguation, specifically ''Types of disambiguation'' #3 and the first para of ''The disambiguation page''. The (English) M1 is clearly the primary topic, both historically and by size / number of connections geographically and on WP so should be at the main entry - and where until yesterday it was located! It is wrong in WP terms to have a redirect as a main target so it should move back to the direct name, but rather than jump into this at speed again we should hold off for a few days first to get further comments / observations. One thing we should always aim for on WP is consensus! --User:VampWillow:User_talk:VampWillow 15:21, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC) ===Route of M1 on opening, and sections opened=== According to the [http://http://www.iht.org/motorway/m1m10m45.htm Motorway Archive]http://www.iht.org/motorway/m1m10m45.htm, the M1 went from Berrygrove (J5) to Crick (J18), and the M10 and M45 spurs were in place. This is confirmed by maps dating from the late 1950s Surely documentary evidence overrules personal recollections? ''from IP-only editor'' :Indeed, but as it happens I have discussed this very point with the operator of that site and he acknolwedged that - in fact - the Watford side of things was actually a spur from the main route (both were two-lane only at the time) as the main route was intended to be across to the A1 entry to London. You can also refer to the London Transport plans for the Northern Line extension to Bushey Heath as their route - eventually - was dropped after the planning and construction of the M1 as the location of the planned terminus station (and cinema / shopping complex) was later covered over by the M1 extension embankment (leading to Edgware and the new Fiveways terminus). He also agreed with me that the M10 commenced life as M1 but changed to the M10 fairly quickly once it was clear that the A41 link (ie Berrylands) was getting more traffic than the A6 - A1 link. ps. I have maps too ;-P --User:VampWillow:User_talk:VampWillow 14:29, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::There is no doubt that the M1-bound carriageway of the M10 was signed as "Birmingham M1", and the M1-bound carriageway of M45 was signed as "London M1", but as a driver was inescapabably heading for the M1 in either case, that seems fair enough. It's also true that until further M1 extension, the M10 and M45 were certainly busier than the sections south of J7 and north of J17. That doesn't necessarily mean that the route carried the main number though. ::However, I've been back and checked my 1959-60 Road Atlas (which the main section of was printed to late for the M1 to appear in!) has a "Motorway Supplement" in the front, that contains a map of the M1, with M10 and M45 clearly labelled as such. I've also re-checked my contemporary OS one-inch sheets and M10 and M45 are clearly marked there too. However, I'd love to see a map from a decent source showing M10 and M45 as M1... ===First UK Motorway?=== Again, according to both the [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m6preston.htm Motorway Archive] and contemporary mapping evidence, the M6 Preston Bypass opened in December 1958, with the M1, M10 and M45 opening in November 1959. :Totally agree even the M6 motorway article afirms such User:Dainamo 21:14, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Indeed. iirc from the media reporting, the M1 was the first-planned but because of length (the M6 bit being far shorter) wasn't built / open first! --User:VampWillow:User_talk:VampWillow 23:12, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

M

MA | MB | MC | MD | ME | MF | MG | MH | MI | MJ | MK | ML | MN | MO | MP | MR | MS | MT | MU | MW | MX | MY | MZ |

Words begining with M1_Motorway:

M1_Motorway
M1_motorway
M1_motorway
M1_motorway_(England)
M1_motorway_(England)
M1_motorway_(Northern_Ireland)
M1_motorway_(Republic_of_Ireland)
M1_Motorway_service_stations