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SABRE
@sabre-roads.org.uk
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From the A1 to the V12, the members of SABRE (the Society for British and Irish Road Enthusiasts) explore the history and future of the British and Irish road networks.

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https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk
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Reposted by SABRE
lccmunicipal.bsky.social
The opening ceremony brochure for Westway and the West Cross Route from July 1970. “Guests will be invited to […] proceed with a police escort to Westway where the Minister will be invited by the Leader of the Council to cut a ribbon on the westbound carriageway and to declare the new roadways open”
The cover is an uncredited black and white sketch of Westway looking westwards from the Paddington end. Opening of Westway and West Cross Route. Order of Proceedings Guests will assemble in the Ballroom of Lord's Tavern. 10.15 am The Leader of the Greater London Council, Mr Desmond Plummer, TD, DL, JP., will welcome the guests, and will invite the Minister of Transport, the Right Honourable John Peyton, MP, to speak. The Chairman of the Environmental Planning Committee, Mr Robert Vigars, will speak in thanks to the Minister. 10.40 am approx. Guests will be invited to board cars and coaches and proceed with a police escort to Westway where the Minister will be invited by the Leader of the Council to cut a ribbon on the westbound carriageway and to declare the new roadways open. After touring the new roadways guests will return to Lord's Tavern where light refreshments will be served until 12.30 pm. Guests are asked to assist by entering and leaving the vehicles as speedily as possible. Taken from: Westway and West Cross Route opening day proceedings Published by: Greater London Council Date: July 1970 This new section of Westway and the first part of the West Cross Route were designed for the Council by Messrs. G. Maunsell and Partners, consulting engineers, in association with Mr P.F. Stott, Joint Director of the Council's Department of Planning and Transportation, Mr D. Dennington, the Council's Traffic Commissioner and Director of Development, and Mr C.A. Belcher, the Council's Director of Mechanical and Electrical Services. The consultant architects, who also prepared the landscaping proposals, were Messrs. William Holford and Partners in association with the Council's Architect, Sir Hubert Bennett. Mr K.H. Blessley, the Council's Valuer and Estates Surveyor, carried out the acquisition of the necessary property. The main contractor was John Laing Construction Limited. Westway consists of two and a half miles of elevated road, the longest of its kind in Europe. It provides a direct link from the A40 at Wood Lane to Marylebone. where the Council has also implemented extensive improvements in recent years— Marylebone Flyover and Euston Road Underpass have been constructed, and Marylebone Road has been widened into a dual-carriageway. The first section of the West Cross Route runs from the elevated roundabout east of the White City as far as Holland Park Avenue. In all, the two roads cost some £33 million. The roads are part of the GLC's developing road pattern in West London, and will cater for much of the traffic now filtering through residential streets. Plans are in hand for another section of the West Cross Route as far as the river, and for links from there with Battersea Bridge and Wandsworth Bridge, and this will assist further in the GLC's aim to improve the environment of this area of London. The eventual extension of the West Cross Route south via a new river crossing together with the extension north to Willesden, where it will connect with the link to the M1., forms part of the GLC's primary road programme for the future. An outline map of the West Cross Route and Westway. The map shows the proposed (but unbuilt) extension of the West Cross Route southwards.
December 26, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
The UK pioneered changeable road signs of all types - we gave the world the matrix signal, but we also had a go at all sorts of other novel ideas. Take a tour of some of the wildest ideas of the 60s, part of our Mixed Signals long read. www.roads.org.uk/articles/mix...
New signs for new ideas
While the headlines were still full of fog worries, and the Ministry of Transport was mainly preoccupied with emergency warning signs on motorways, local authorities were tasked with keeping the…
www.roads.org.uk
December 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by SABRE
showmeasign.online
The gradual replacement of age-expired gantry signs on the M60 has begun, but no consideration has been given to updating information to reduce overload of destinations.
Old sign at M60 J2 - left lane A560 Cheadle, right lane Ring Rd (E & N) / Stockport / Sheffield (M67) / Leeds (M62) M60. The sign face is peeling off. The same sign having been replaced.
December 23, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by SABRE
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Oh I say! @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk A fine, early M1 sign c.1964

flic.kr/p/2n7DeXz
318 M1 Motorway
In June 1964 my Dad and his parents stopped off in Coventry on their way home from Scotland. Some pictures taken by Dad, some by his Dad.
flic.kr
December 23, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
Fancy a stroll on a motorway? Before the M621 opened to connect Leeds with the motorway network you could do just that. #leeds www.roads.org.uk/blog/walk-m621
A walk on the M621
Fancy a stroll? In 1972, the City of Leeds was about to open its new South East Urban Motorway and proudly showed off the achievement with a "walkabout" event.
www.roads.org.uk
December 22, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by SABRE
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk
For this week's #MapMonday, you can discover the OS London Two Inch Ministry of Transport maps from 1922, and see just where the A1, A2, A3 etc all meet at "point zero" in London. Or not...

buff.ly/BAr8iFr
December 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
Just published - we're slowly losing something we didn't know we had: a street light designed just for London. I've taken a deep (and deeply geeky) dive into the history of an everyday object that was designed not to be noticed. #london roadsorguk.substack.com/p/london-in-...
Silhouette of a modern style street light against a deep blue sky Photograph of Marylebone Road with Euston Tower in the distance, seen from the central reservation of the road. A street light stands in the foreground Engineering drawing showing precise dimensions for a direction sign assembly and a lighting column View along the A316 Country Way, with the road rising on to a flyover in the distance. A street light arches over the view and a line of similar lights marches into the distance
December 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
The UK's highest numbered motorway is too narrow to have hard shoulders, too short to fit in a lay-by and has a junction named for a toll plaza that doesn't exist. The oddball M898 is full of surprises. #glasgow www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m898
M898
The highest-numbered motorway in the UK is a tiny spur that connects the Erskine Bridge to the motorway network west of Glasgow.
www.roads.org.uk
December 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
In the 1950s the man in charge of Oxfordshire's roads didn't like the UK's road signs, so he invented his own. The Ministry hated them - first because they weren't allowed, and second because they were better than the real thing. www.roads.org.uk/articles/oxf...
Oxfordshire Signs
This is the story of one man at Oxfordshire County Council who pre-empted the development of modern road signs - much to the annoyance of the men from the Ministry.
www.roads.org.uk
December 14, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by SABRE
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
From the 1936 catalogue of the Tipton electrical manufacturing company of Revo. "Typical" street lighting installations inc. some v Thirties seaside stuff as well as the old Marble Arch layout in London. @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social @sabre-roads.org.uk @roads.org.uk @lccmunicipal.bsky.social
The catalogue, Issue Number 16, "Electrical Lighting Equipment" was a near 250 page book issued by the Tipton based Revo Electric Company Limited and although undated is believed to have been published in 1936. It shows thirteen sections of equipment and accessories that were also, I suspect, possibly issued individually. The company also issued other catalogues for their domestic and industrial electrical equipment as well as traffic and road signs and equipment. The company had its origins in the Cable Accessories Company Limited formed in 1907 by F.H.Reeves and the company prospered over the coming decades becoming the Revo Electric Company Limited in 1930. In 1956 Revo became part of Duport, originally known as Vono and with whom the Revo founder had links, and in the 1960s the company was effectively split up with the lighting business becoming Relite. The catalogue includes some pages showing images of installations of the company's lighting equipment. These four photographs show; the new Peasholm Bridge in Scarborough in Yorkshire, with column lighting on the street and parapet, with the design 'complementing' the reinforced concrete construction; the Pavilion Gardens in Bournemouth, with 'monumental' columns and fittings, the new Marine Promenade in New Brighton, Cheshire, showing the very fancy columns and brackets along with lanterns; Marble Arch in Westminster with columns, brackets and lanterns. Revo supplied Westminster with equipment for many years. The four photos are all framed in deep green with the Revo logo either side of the title text.
December 7, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by SABRE
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk
And you can see the route of what we lovingly call the PNLR right here on SABRE Maps:

www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/index.p...
#Map extract from the Ringways Map of the "Possible North London Radial", or PNLR for sure - a route so vaguely planned that it doesn't even have a proper name.
December 5, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
Some of London's urban motorways were built. Some were planned but spades never hit the ground. And some were so vague, so ethereal, that we still don't even know what they were called. Take a journey with us on a road that's little more than a ghost. www.roads.org.uk/ringways/nor...
Possible North London Radial
Filling a gap in North London's road network, and potentially relieving two of London's existing major roads, this elusive motorway proposal never got beyond the ideas stage.
www.roads.org.uk
December 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by SABRE
motorwayservices.uk
On this day 67 years ago (1958): the M6 Preston Bypass opened. Once the solution to a major bottleneck, Britain's first motorway remained busy and has since been extensively rebuilt, now forming a key part of the national motorway network.
Picture credit: roads.org.uk
December 5, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by SABRE
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk
We like to mention sometimes that we have the world's largest freely available repository of relevant Ordnance Survey OpenData #maps - and there's still future plans to bring more. However, as we also periodically ask, we are missing some mapping from our archive.
OS VectorMap District extract from the November 2025 data for the Newcastle and Gateshead central areas, showing (or rather not showing) the recently removed Gateshead Flyover.
December 3, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
Transport is full of terminology. Do you know your Pegasus from your Pelican? Could you point out a refuge or a repeater if you saw one in the wild? Don't worry, if you're lost in jargon our dictionary can help. www.roads.org.uk/dictionary
Dictionary
A comprehensive glossary of the terms used by those discussing British roads. Some are engineering terms, some were created by road enthusiasts, some have multiple meanings; all are defined here as…
www.roads.org.uk
December 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by SABRE
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
A suitable sign for the onset of winter. A 'pre-Worboys' direction sign at Chilton Moor, Co. Durham, as seen in Jan 1963, a bitter winter, by Ed Fulton on Flickr. Chilly & atmospheric for a child of the '60s! @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk

flic.kr/p/2mJWwxV
B/W image of a 'pre-Worboys' style road traffic sign giving directions to A1052 (B1284) Chester-le-Street straight on and A1052 Houghton-le-Spring to the right. The background is a stone church gable amidst a scene of heavy snow.
December 1, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
Our collection of road sign fonts has been fuelling people's imagination for 20 years. If you haven't downloaded them yet, maybe now's the time to make your own road sign? www.roads.org.uk/fonts
Fonts
Download and keep the distinctive lettering styles used on UK road signs for free.
www.roads.org.uk
November 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
Westminster's council has spent several years trialling "3D" zebra crossings, in the hope the optical illusion will cause drivers to slow down. The artwork is nice but would you be fooled? We paid a visit to the first one when it had just opened. www.roads.org.uk/blog/3d-zebra
A view along a suburban road in London, with a zebra crossing in the foreground. The stripes of the crossing have extra grey paint around them to form an optical illusion that looks like the stripes are raised blocks. A view across the 3D zebra crossing showing the detail of the paintwork and the different colours used to make up the illusion A view of the crossing at a slight angle which means the illusion doesn't work, instead the crossing appears as a confused array of grey shapes on the road surface
November 27, 2025 at 6:41 PM
sabre-roads.org.uk
Happy Birthday M50!

You can read more about it on the SABRE Wiki: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/M50
November 28, 2025 at 4:42 PM
sabre-roads.org.uk
Voiceover: they really weren't.

If you want to learn more about traffic lights generally, then may we humbly suggest the SABRE Wiki: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/Traffic...
Traffic signals in St Pancras Road, London in 1965
November 27, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
You can drive London's North Circular today, but it would have been a different road if sixties planners had their way. Take a look at the plans that would have fitted it in to a city-wide network of motorways. #northcircular www.roads.org.uk/ringways/rin...
North Circular Road
1960s plans to upgrade the North Circular Road to form one of London's motorway "Ringways" would have seen it change out of all recognition.
www.roads.org.uk
November 24, 2025 at 5:08 PM
sabre-roads.org.uk
A massive fascinating new map of the Lancashire Road Plan published today on SABRE Maps, with accompaning articles on the SABRE Wiki. Have at it! buff.ly/a0ruuuS
November 24, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by SABRE
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk
Hopefully everyone has enjoyed the last three weeks when we've brought you roads plans from London, Glasgow and Manchester. So, tomorrow, we'll bring a fourth major roads plan to life - but this time instead of being a conurbation plan, it's that for a county. But which one?
#Map extract for a major roads plan for a county council within Great Britain
November 23, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by SABRE
roads.org.uk
Conwy is home to an impressive array of bridges and tunnels, many of them on (or formerly on) the A55. The Conwy Tunnel itself isn't the most glamorous but it's probably the most used. An unusual arch commemorates its opening and frames a view of the town. #conwy
Portal of a tunnel carrying a dual carriageway. The tunnel is square in shape since it is a submerged tube and not bored in the conventional way A sign listing restrictions on traffic that can use the tunnel in both English and Welsh, starting with the large words DIM and NO. Plaque marking the opening of the tunnel, reading "to commemorate the opening of the Conwy Tunnel by Her Majesty the Queen 25th October 1991" Rectangular concrete archway, bearing a brass commemorative plaque, which frames a view of Conwy's castle and town walls seen across the river
November 23, 2025 at 3:03 PM
sabre-roads.org.uk
Our Maps team (@maps.sabre-roads.org.uk) uploaded a georeferenced scan of the 1962 SELNEC Highway Plan a few days ago.

Now we're joining in on the act, with the full text of the list of all routes proposed so that you can cross-reference with the map:
www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/SELNEC_...
Making sure you're not a bot!
www.sabre-roads.org.uk
November 22, 2025 at 9:53 PM