0:00:04 > 0:00:09Once upon a time, motorways in Britain were new and exciting.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Speed. Speed. That was the excitement, really,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18of what the motorway brought to driving.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22Driving in Britain was never gonna be the same again.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26'This driver is about to commit one of the deadly sins of the motorway.'
0:00:26 > 0:00:28TYRES SCREECH, HORN BLARES
0:00:28 > 0:00:32'Three cars and one lorry in peril, because one driver forgot one simple rule.'
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Turn on to this shimmering new road,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42this great yellow brick road leading to a kind of new Jerusalem.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04Today there are 2,211 miles of motorway in Britain.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06We take them for granted.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10It's hard to imagine life without them.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12'The joys of the open road.'
0:01:12 > 0:01:16But just 50 years ago, there were no motorways in this country...
0:01:16 > 0:01:18'Ever tried to pass one of these chaps on a narrow road?'
0:01:18 > 0:01:23..and far from idyllic country lanes, Britain's post-war roads were jammed,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25our city centres were grinding to a halt.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27HORNS BLARE
0:01:27 > 0:01:30It was wretched and miserable, and everywhere stank of petrol.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35The cars were very leaky and belched out a lot of oil with their exhaust,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39to a hot, oily, smelly, petrol-y world, and desperately slow,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43so things weren't really very romantic in terms of driving in the 1950s.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48For years, Britain has been handicapped by a road system geared to a bygone age,
0:01:48 > 0:01:53with traffic jammed to a standstill on roads that were never made to take so many family cars.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58Main roads were desperately slow, they really were like clogged arteries,
0:01:58 > 0:02:02and what the motorways promised was kind of open heart surgery on the road system.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05There had been motorways in Europe for 30 years.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09The first one in the world was built in Italy in 1924,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11followed by Germany in 1929.
0:02:11 > 0:02:18The big difference between Germany, Italy and Great Britain in terms of building motorways
0:02:18 > 0:02:22was before the war, they had Fascism and Nazism. They had totalitarian states there.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Think of Mussolini - Mussolini was a man always in a hurry.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29He liked to be filmed boxing, running, jumping, doing weights,
0:02:29 > 0:02:35driving his Alfa Romeo sports cars. He was always filmed in a hurry, and he loved that notion of speed,
0:02:35 > 0:02:39and that was something he was able to impose on Italy.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41He was always going to march on Rome,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44and the motorways came with that philosophy.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Hitler - exactly the same. I mean, different sort of character.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Hitler said, "Vee vill have zee autobahnen!"
0:02:50 > 0:02:53and the autobahns, strangely enough, were built, no option.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01But in Britain, the slow pace of Whitehall bureaucracy held back any plans we may have had
0:03:01 > 0:03:05to build motorways, and then the war put a stop to them altogether.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12Peacetime brought more pressing issues for the new Labour government, with new homes and schools to build
0:03:12 > 0:03:15and a National Health Service to create.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19'This leaflet is coming through your letterbox one day soon.'
0:03:19 > 0:03:25Before motorways could be built, the Special Roads Act had to be passed, in 1949,
0:03:25 > 0:03:30but, even then, construction was hampered by rationing.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34It wasn't until the mid-'50s that the first motorway in Britain was built.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40Rather than the M1, it was the Preston bypass, later known as the M6.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Preston's infamous gridlock had been causing major delays
0:03:43 > 0:03:47and holding up trade to Scotland, but getting the go-ahead from Whitehall
0:03:47 > 0:03:54was due to the efforts of one man - Sir James Drake, the county surveyor for Lancashire.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57He as constantly down here in Whitehall,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01and he was a sturdy little bloke, and he argued fiercely,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04sometimes so fiercely that they wished he would go away,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07which wasn't very helpful in his own cause.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11He was that sort of chap, a bit acerbic, if you like, but he was an enthusiast.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16He did bully the Ministry, and thank goodness he did.
0:04:16 > 0:04:17It's to his credit,
0:04:17 > 0:04:21because we might not have even got any motorways yet
0:04:21 > 0:04:24if he hadn't had been so dogmatic and what have you,
0:04:24 > 0:04:25but he was a bully.
0:04:27 > 0:04:34Originally planned as eight miles of dual carriageway, work began on the Preston bypass in 1956.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43I remember that there was a lovely feeling
0:04:43 > 0:04:47about walking out early in the morning over these fields
0:04:47 > 0:04:49that were covered with dew, and you thought,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51"Well, this is just fantastic!
0:04:51 > 0:04:54"How lucky I am to be having a job like this."
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Of course, one couldn't get away from the fact that, all too soon,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01it was going to be ripped up with big machines
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and it would never be green grass again in that bit.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11Over eight miles long, it will be the first motorway to be built in Britain.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13The traffic signal gives the all clear,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16and a bulldozer goes ahead regardless of anything on its route.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20It's followed by a series of robot road-makers.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24A fleet of machines were brought in to excavate the ground and level it.
0:05:27 > 0:05:34Britain's first motorway, the Preston bypass, was built through some of the wettest weather of the 1950s.
0:05:34 > 0:05:39It was opened, to much press attention, on the 5th December 1958
0:05:39 > 0:05:42by the Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47Today, we are celebrating this country's first motorway.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57There were lots of people wanting to get onto it, the moment it was opened,
0:05:57 > 0:06:01and I was right at the front of the bit of slip road by the barrier
0:06:01 > 0:06:05and the official cortege went past with all the VIPs, and so on,
0:06:05 > 0:06:11and the chap who was sitting next to me said, "Come on, you can get going now!" So off we went.
0:06:11 > 0:06:17So I claimed that I was the first person to drive on a motorway, but I don't know whether that's true!
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Here is Britain's first motorway.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23In those days, eight miles was quite a long way and it took a little while,
0:06:23 > 0:06:26so it was a big thing. - "I've driven up Preston bypass."
0:06:26 > 0:06:30..Motor roads which will be confined to high-speed motor traffic...
0:06:30 > 0:06:35The traffic was queuing up to come and try the motorway out.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40Only people who wanted to participate in driving the motorway on the first day, I suppose,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45just so they could tell their children, "I went on the motorway on the first day."
0:06:45 > 0:06:50This is what it feels like at 500 miles an hour.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52And there was no speed limit at all.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Speed, speed!
0:06:54 > 0:06:58That was the excitement of what the motorway brought to driving.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02Here's our cameraman's impression of motorway in motion -
0:07:02 > 0:07:05a bit exaggerated, we admit, but it gives you the idea.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08There was a sort of sense of euphoria.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11I remember we went with my father
0:07:11 > 0:07:15to drive on the Preston bypass, as it was,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18the very first weekend it was opened and it was an incredible experience.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22He didn't know how to do it, but he got around as there weren't many cars.
0:07:22 > 0:07:29I had a Ford Zephyr and I remember doing the complete run end to end,
0:07:29 > 0:07:36roundabouts included, at an average speed of 83 miles an hour, and I thought that was pretty spectacular.
0:07:36 > 0:07:3983 miles an hour was pretty spectacular in those days!
0:07:42 > 0:07:47What was so good about early motorway driving was that the motorways were empty.
0:07:47 > 0:07:52Miles ahead, you couldn't see a car on some occasions, or a lorry, or anything,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57and so there was a feeling of tremendous sort of excitement.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Here's a family taking their first run down a motorway.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06They've heard a lot about these new roads where there are no sharp corners,
0:08:06 > 0:08:13no hills and no traffic jams, and they're content to saunter along in the sunshine enjoying themselves.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15HORN BLARES
0:08:15 > 0:08:20There was no speed limit and no crash barriers between the carriageways.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24The Government was concerned about
0:08:24 > 0:08:26how people might behave on the motorway,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29so they thought, "How will people behave?
0:08:29 > 0:08:32"Will they know how to drive on a multi-lane road?
0:08:32 > 0:08:36"Will they know how to use junctions, how to join and leave the motorway?
0:08:36 > 0:08:39"Will they know that they're not allowed to stop?"
0:08:39 > 0:08:46So there was great thought amongst civil servants about how to educate and govern the conduct of drivers.
0:08:46 > 0:08:52To help drivers adapt themselves to motorway conditions, the authorities published the Motorway Code,
0:08:52 > 0:08:54later incorporated in the Highway Code,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58setting out special rules of conduct for safety at motorway speeds.
0:08:58 > 0:09:04These rules are common sense. Good drivers have always observed most of them on any fast road,
0:09:04 > 0:09:10but, even so, it's essential to study them carefully before driving on the motorway for the first time.
0:09:10 > 0:09:16Public information films were produced, explaining the dos and don'ts of motorway driving.
0:09:19 > 0:09:20TYRES SCREECH
0:09:20 > 0:09:26Three cars and one lorry in peril, and all because one driver forgot one simple rule -
0:09:26 > 0:09:32before pulling out to overtake on the motorway, see that the road behind you is clear.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34They were lucky.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36YOU might not be.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39How far is the next slip road?
0:09:39 > 0:09:41I believe the sign said eight miles.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Eight miles?!
0:09:43 > 0:09:47This driver is just about to commit one of the deadly sins of the motorway.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52- What are you going to do?- Turning back.- You can't, we must go on. - What, another 16 miles?
0:09:52 > 0:09:55- We're late already.- Please.- Oh, don't worry, there's nothing to it.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00HORNS BLARE
0:10:03 > 0:10:07I'm getting out, leave me here. You're mad, we shall be killed.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11All right, but I think it would have been the best thing to do.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Watch out, too, for the specially designed road signs.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19A mile ahead of your turn-off point, you'll see a warning sign.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23The motorway offered a design opportunity.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25Road signs in Britain were chaotic,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29and came in different sizes, symbols, colours and shapes.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32The result was frustration and confusion.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35When motorways were in the planning phase,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39the Government had appointed a committee to investigate the issue of new signage.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44They thought, "Ah, perhaps we might need the help of a designer."
0:10:44 > 0:10:47So that was quite a very new thing for somebody,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50actually for a committee, a Government committee,
0:10:50 > 0:10:55to employ a consultant designer.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58How do they differ from present motor signs?
0:10:58 > 0:11:04We've used a mixture of block letters and small letters for greater legibility.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert were charged with developing
0:11:08 > 0:11:11a new signage system for Britain's motorways.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13They realised that the absolute essence
0:11:13 > 0:11:16of an efficient motorway signage system was clarity.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20The signs had to be easy to read, instantly recognisable to motorists,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23motorists had to understand what they were saying
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and it had to convey essential information to them,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29but motorists really didn't need to waste time thinking.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34The basic unit, obviously, is the typeface and from that you build out.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40So in order to achieve this simplicity, they had to do some very complicated work behind the scenes.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45So they thought through every single aspect of the way in which those signs would be read.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48The lettering always stayed the same,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52you read the symbol first and then you picked out the lettering
0:11:52 > 0:11:56and then you got the sense of what the message was, and the route numbers.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58So, basically, it's very simple.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03And we've also put white letters on a blue background for the same reason.
0:12:03 > 0:12:09I remember the formula that I used was ultramarine plus azure-blue,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12plus zinc-white, designers' colours.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16We were amazed at the size of them.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21It staggered us. We just couldn't comprehend that you need a road sign as big as we were making them.
0:12:21 > 0:12:26Of course, you're travelling at 70mph and you want to pick up the directions early,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30so they're logical and they're correct, but we were surprised.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34They are beautifully elegant. They're like works of art in their own right,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37but they're also completely, utterly functional,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41and that is why today, over 40 years later, that signage hasn't changed.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44It doesn't need to change. Perfect typography is perfect typography.
0:12:44 > 0:12:50When you're driving along the motorway or a British road, thanks to Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54you never have to think about the signs you're looking at.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Keep it simple and it's easier to read and remember,
0:12:57 > 0:13:02and it looks good, in its own right, in the landscape.
0:13:02 > 0:13:08The Kinneir/Calvert partnership went on to redesign all of the road signs in Britain.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16The next motorway to be completed was the M1.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21At just 74 miles, it was the first long-distance motorway in Britain.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28It stretched from St Albans in Hertfordshire to Dunchurch in Warwickshire.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35The M1 was opened on the 2nd November 1959 by Ernest Marples,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38the Transport Minister for Macmillan's Tory Government.
0:13:38 > 0:13:46It is in keeping with the bold, exciting and scientific age in which we live.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49It's interesting the first real motorway in Britain, the M1,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53which opened in November 1959, was basically a straight line.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56It's like a concrete strip cutting its way through the landscape,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00paying virtually no reference to topography.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Who cares about hills, rivers, valleys? Just build as straight as you can.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09That was how motorways were conceived - straight line, very fast, no messing around -
0:14:09 > 0:14:12and I suppose, as a reflection of that, the actual design,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16the engineering and the minimalist architecture around it in terms of structures,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19bridges principally were just brutally functional.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Highly efficient organisation on a vast scale, both played a vital part.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28The building of the 55-mile northbound section was split into four contracts.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31The £16 million contract...
0:14:31 > 0:14:36John Laing & Sons Ltd secured them all, but had just 19 months to complete them.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41The consulting engineers were Sir Owen Williams & Partners.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45Sir Owen had been knighted for his design of the original Wembley Stadium
0:14:45 > 0:14:47and was a well-known public figure.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52Sir Owen, this is revolutionary in this country, in the way of road construction, isn't it?
0:14:52 > 0:14:59I think I can say that there is no other greater effort being made
0:14:59 > 0:15:03in the world, comparable to this.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Well, Sir Owen was a very forceful character.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09He was a great man to work with because he was,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11you know, a wonderful font of anecdotes
0:15:11 > 0:15:14because of all the people he'd met during his career,
0:15:14 > 0:15:21but he'd established this reputation as a very prominent engineer-architect.
0:15:21 > 0:15:2748 surveyors and engineers were engaged in calculating and setting out the centre line of the motorway.
0:15:27 > 0:15:34I forget now how many people there were, landowners and people who were involved in that,
0:15:34 > 0:15:39but there must have been about 300 odd and he went to see them all,
0:15:39 > 0:15:44personally, so that, you know, the objections to the road
0:15:44 > 0:15:48were minimal because he'd been to see people and, of course,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50at the time building a motorway
0:15:50 > 0:15:53and trying to come to terms with the sort of new motorway age
0:15:53 > 0:15:57was something that people were in favour of, they thought it was great.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02FILM SOUNDTRACK: 'To prepare an accurate construction programme...'
0:16:02 > 0:16:07In all, only five houses and three bungalows were demolished to make way for the M1.
0:16:11 > 0:16:1720 million tons of rock, chalk and earth had to be excavated to clear the land.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25The site was so vast that the latest technology was used to survey it.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28'Keeping track of what's happening can best be done from the air.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33'By helicopter, checks can be made all along the route in a matter of hours.'
0:16:40 > 0:16:445,000 men were employed to work on the project
0:16:44 > 0:16:47and mobile canteens were built every two-and-a-half miles to cater for them.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53In all, 183 bridges were built on the M1.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58On average, one was completed every three days.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04The scene, you've got to imagine the scene, it's hard to believe,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06that great construction programme.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09I mean, it's heroic in scale, Roman in scale, Victorian in scale.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13The M1 was built at a rate of one mile every eight days.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18I mean, today when we find it very difficult to build an Olympic or a Wembley Stadium,
0:17:18 > 0:17:20try and imagine what that means,
0:17:20 > 0:17:22really think, a mile every eight days, completed.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27It's really, really fast. It's the speed the Chinese work today in rebuilding Shanghai or Beijing.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30That's what the Brits could do at the time.
0:17:30 > 0:17:37'Cuttings, embankments, bridges, two-level junctions, all were taking shape in the scarred earth.'
0:17:39 > 0:17:43I could name and remember very clearly in particular,
0:17:43 > 0:17:45I suppose, the muck-shifting foreman
0:17:45 > 0:17:49or the actual agent, the sub-agent on muck-shifting
0:17:49 > 0:17:54because these were characters of their own and they had hired and bought in enormous fleets
0:17:54 > 0:17:58of often great big motor scrapers, things capable of carrying 40 metres
0:17:58 > 0:18:01of muck at one particular time from one place to another.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06These guys had a life and a way, you know, and a rule that nobody got in their way
0:18:06 > 0:18:08because these machines were enormous.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11'One machine doing the work of up to 1,000 men
0:18:11 > 0:18:17'and each one costing about as much as a pick and shovel man might earn in a long working lifetime.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22'So the earth-moving navvy of today is first and foremost a machine man,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26'a driver, a driver as skilled in his way as the driver of a track racing car.'
0:18:26 > 0:18:29And they had these big Euclid cleaning the rest of the ground
0:18:29 > 0:18:32to get it level, you know, and it was just like a sand dune
0:18:32 > 0:18:35these big machines flying up and down.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40How long did it take you to get to know how this machine reacts to all these controls?
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Well, I'm quite a while now working at machinery for Wimpeys.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47I'm seven years driving this type of machine.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50'Men of all colours and creeds from all over the Commonwealth
0:18:50 > 0:18:53'are helping to build this great, new motorway.'
0:18:53 > 0:18:59The construction of the M1 was really, I suppose, a 1950s version
0:18:59 > 0:19:02of the building of the railways, 120 years before.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05The men that built them were essentially navies.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08# I've navvied here in Scotland
0:19:08 > 0:19:10# I've navvied in the south... #
0:19:10 > 0:19:13The term "navvy" is derived from the inland navigators
0:19:13 > 0:19:18who built the canal system in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23Mostly Irishmen, "navvy" became the term used to describe all manual labourers.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Between 1951 and 1961 over half a million Irishmen
0:19:30 > 0:19:33came to Britain to work in the building and construction industry.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38# About navvy man, me boys about navvy man
0:19:38 > 0:19:42# I've done me graft and stuck it like a bold, navvy man... #
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Most would have left school before the age of 15
0:19:45 > 0:19:48because there was no free secondary education.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51They were coming from a predominantly rural background,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54disadvantaged, unskilled, uneducated
0:19:54 > 0:19:58but well used to hard graft out of doors, very tough, very determined people
0:19:58 > 0:20:02and they were a godsend to the construction industry in Britain.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06Well, the only thing I knew then was labouring.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Then I got driving a machine
0:20:08 > 0:20:13and driving cranes and bulldozers and all sorts of machinery,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16tower crane and all that
0:20:16 > 0:20:20and that set me up for good or better travelling up and down the country.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27It was always going out to a job to go with somebody who was working there,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29that was your
0:20:29 > 0:20:33your reference, you know, and that's how you got on.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37You hadn't any details or anything, just "come in tomorrow", you know.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41They were used to hardship. They were used to working out of doors.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45It was sink or swim. They were determined that they would succeed.
0:20:45 > 0:20:51There was no going back. So they had that dogged determination, that stamina, that staying power
0:20:51 > 0:20:54and Paddy was used to being down in the trench.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57He was quite happy to get in there and make good money at it
0:20:57 > 0:21:04because he had the hours, he could put in the overtime and where there's muck, there's brass.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08- ON FILM:- 'The work goes on day and night in all weathers, rain or shine.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12'Here at Newport Pagnell, the halfway house, the work is nearing completion.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16'Enormous concrete mixers are at it 24 hours a day.'
0:21:16 > 0:21:19That was hard, very hard work.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Really hard work.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25We'd be there digging pick and shovel and they earned their money,
0:21:25 > 0:21:31every penny that was earned it was earned in the hard way, for labouring, in my opinion.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40As each section of motorway was completed, the site moved on and the workforce needed to move with it.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45Many of the workers stayed in local farms or bed and breakfasts.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51'There are landladies who have a taste for looking after the kind of men who do real men's work,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56'men with hair on their chests and dried concrete on their boots and who do by a...'
0:21:56 > 0:21:59I remember going into one digs
0:21:59 > 0:22:03and I thought beautiful, beautiful.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06And so I went upstairs to bed and the sheets were black.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10And I says, "Am I in the right room here?" She says, "Yeah."
0:22:10 > 0:22:12I says, I said, "I'm sorry love."
0:22:12 > 0:22:15And she says, "Anything is good enough for motorway workers."
0:22:17 > 0:22:21For the motorway men who wanted to keep their families with them
0:22:21 > 0:22:24mobile caravan sites were set up along the route.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29It's estimated that as much as half the workforce on the M1 were Irish.
0:22:29 > 0:22:35There were so many that two Catholic chaplains were sent from Ireland to administer to them on site.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42No, the Catholics would gather round.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47If it was a nice day he'd be in the open air, just have a table in front of him and he'd say Mass, like,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49you know, and communion and everything.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54They were great that way. There were notes that go up on the canteen.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56You'd get to know by word of mouth.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Might be half past ten, eleven o'clock,
0:22:58 > 0:23:03but it didn't make any difference, as long as he was finished for the opening time of the pub.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06- HE LAUGHS - That was the main thing!
0:23:06 > 0:23:08SIREN BLARES
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Ah, you got your wages, like, you queued up.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16There was a wages office, like, you have a pigeonhole they paid you out in, like,.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20There was no problems that way, you see, that was all done on the site.
0:23:20 > 0:23:21That was OK.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27You only lived for pay-day,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29the other days were dead days, you know.
0:23:29 > 0:23:35And they didn't give us wages as such, they gave us beer tokens, you know.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Well, that's what we done with them, like, you know.
0:23:38 > 0:23:39HE LAUGHS
0:23:39 > 0:23:42Everything was how much beer you can get with it.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45"If I buy this this week how much will I have left for a drink?"
0:23:47 > 0:23:54Wages were good. Working so far from home in an itinerant culture was to cost many of the navies dearly.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57We were just displaced people,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00just displaced people, you know.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04I used to look at older people than me and I thought is this going to be the end product?
0:24:04 > 0:24:11# ..And I washed down mud with pints and quarts of beer
0:24:11 > 0:24:18# And now we're on the road again with McAlpine's fusiliers... #
0:24:19 > 0:24:24The final touches were being added to the first long distance motorway in the country.
0:24:24 > 0:24:32The M1 was finished - on time and on budget at a cost of £16.5 million.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58The M1 was opened in almost an apocalyptic atmosphere.
0:24:58 > 0:25:04There was a feeling that this road was going to solve Britain's transport problems.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08I mean, that's rather oversimplified, but people did feel that
0:25:08 > 0:25:11and there was an enormous amount of excitement about it.
0:25:11 > 0:25:19'110 miles of carriageway, 200 bridges and culverts - all in 19 months.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21'Impossible they said...'
0:25:21 > 0:25:25This was the beginning of a new era.
0:25:25 > 0:25:31'They'll never do it, but they did, because we're driving along it now at 70 miles an hour.'
0:25:31 > 0:25:34It was seen as a glimpse into the future,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38the future when we would have a network of these and
0:25:38 > 0:25:40most people would be able to make
0:25:40 > 0:25:44most of the length of their journeys on these very high-quality roads.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47'No cross-roads, two-level junctions with...'
0:25:47 > 0:25:52And it was a time of great optimism and the general view was extremely positive.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55It was all very exciting.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58'A tremendous undertaking triumphantly fulfilled.'
0:25:58 > 0:26:01We were invited to the opening of the M1
0:26:01 > 0:26:03and I can remember that vividly.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05It was a beautiful sunny, summer day
0:26:05 > 0:26:10and we were told where we would be meeting for someone to cut the ribbon or whatever
0:26:10 > 0:26:12and make the speech
0:26:12 > 0:26:18and I remember driving along and there was all this brown soil and these signs were for real.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22These were the real beautiful, I thought, white on blue signs
0:26:22 > 0:26:24with our lettering and everything
0:26:24 > 0:26:28and in the sun and against the earthiness of the banks
0:26:28 > 0:26:31it was just very surreal.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35And nobody else on the motorway, so we went on and on and on and on
0:26:35 > 0:26:41and then we came to the end, there was no more motorway and we somehow missed the junction
0:26:41 > 0:26:48or wherever the ceremony was going to happen so we didn't go to it in the end, we missed it.
0:26:49 > 0:26:55All our directors were invited to go to the opening and we had passes to go down the motorway,
0:26:55 > 0:27:00all the way down, 50 miles down the motorway to get to the opening
0:27:00 > 0:27:05and our directors went in the Rolls-Royce, company Rolls-Royce
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and it blew up like a tea kettle.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13Travelling at 50 or 60 mile an hour, even Rolls-Royce's in that day and age
0:27:13 > 0:27:16weren't designed for motorway speeds.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21'Britain's first motorway is proving a big attraction for drivers at the weekend.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23'It's the novelty of the high-speed run I suppose
0:27:23 > 0:27:29'and just as people once went to Croydon to see aeroplanes fly, so now M1 attracts the curious.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33'They watch from bridges
0:27:33 > 0:27:36'and they travel in coaches on sightseeing jaunts.'
0:27:36 > 0:27:39Sundays were often the busiest days on the motorway.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44The Sunday afternoon family drive was very popular at this time and many families would go out
0:27:44 > 0:27:49and drive along the motorway just to kind of experience it.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55The motorway became a destination in itself, a tourist site, because it was so unique and so special.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59'A small ceremony but a big event
0:27:59 > 0:28:03'and traffic was soon taking this opportunity of trying out a new experience in British road travel.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08'A new experience, yes, but, of course, not every car is in condition for sustained high speed.'
0:28:08 > 0:28:14Try and imagine what it would be like, you're at the wheel of your family Morris Oxford
0:28:14 > 0:28:17which has a top speed of about 50 miles an hour realistically.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19You're wobbling along down some A-road, you come to a roundabout,
0:28:19 > 0:28:23press heavily on the brakes, down in your gearbox, crunch, crunch
0:28:23 > 0:28:27and then turn on to this shimmering new road, this great yellow brick road
0:28:27 > 0:28:29leading to a kind of new Jerusalem.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34'The M1, for example, stretching for 75 miles north from London.'
0:28:34 > 0:28:37And on goes your car. It sounds totally different.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41Off the tarmac, onto concrete the wheels instead of going boom, boom, boom, boom,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44were starting to go "crrrrrh". This is an incredibly noisy experience.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48The car's wandering around, with the wind blowing across the side of the motorway.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50Remember, the first motorway totally exposed.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53'On these new wide roads one gets no sensation of speed,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56'and even at 75 miles an hour you might well be cruising.'
0:28:56 > 0:29:02Then, of course, the temperature gauge would go up on the car and the oil pressure of course would drop
0:29:02 > 0:29:07and a 60 mile an hour sprint would turn into a ten mile an hour crawl and the thing would break down.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10'Some drivers don't seem to grasp the fact that a car
0:29:10 > 0:29:16'must be in first class trim if it's going to be driven non-stop for miles at top speed or thereabouts.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19'Engines and tyres must be in condition to take such a test.'
0:29:19 > 0:29:22So the average car was clunky, solid, old.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25Cars looked almost mock Tudor in their design
0:29:25 > 0:29:30and they were like mock Tudor houses on wheels, I suppose. They weren't designed for motorways.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36And I must say I drove up it very carefully
0:29:36 > 0:29:41because I had heard tales that engines would overheat if you flogged it too hard.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43So I remember driving...
0:29:43 > 0:29:49once we drove all the length of the M1 at 45 miles an hour, which actually is unbelievable now.
0:29:49 > 0:29:55With no legal speed limit, the new 74-mile motorway would push many cars to the limit.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59The RAC and the AA had to make special provisions.
0:29:59 > 0:30:05Er, Mr Ryan, has this new motorway given you any new problems?
0:30:05 > 0:30:12No, we don't think so, we, we regard this new motorway as, er, yet another important main road.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Em, we really don't know what's going to happen.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19The first night I was on the motorway
0:30:19 > 0:30:22I had eight cars all with the same...
0:30:22 > 0:30:26All the same make and all the same trouble,
0:30:26 > 0:30:28and everyone's going his big ends gone.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32The big ends didn't go on that car, it's a car that lasted forever,
0:30:32 > 0:30:34and it was the old Hillman Minx.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37I mean, you, you can get four or five, six a day, I mean,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40all the garages were changing engines as fast as they could go.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42WHIRRING
0:30:42 > 0:30:44I think your big ends are definitely gone.
0:30:44 > 0:30:50'There are telephones along the motorway, but, in any case, help shouldn't be long in coming.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53'Here's an AA Mobile Radio Control Centre.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56'A patrol van is soon on the way to the breakdown.'
0:30:56 > 0:31:03Overheating. About 25% of all the cars which were over five year old had got blocked radiators.
0:31:03 > 0:31:09Half the cars hadn't got temperature gauges and they just boiled up.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11All of a sudden they'd be going along and,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Er, either the big ends had gone or the pistons had gone.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Pistons used to melt. You always knew what it was before you got there,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23because as you were driving up the motorway
0:31:23 > 0:31:29you'd suddenly see a big patch of oil for about a hundred yards on the, on the road, and
0:31:29 > 0:31:34it just sort of, as, as he pulled in so the oil would still be dripping, you know,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37"Another one gone, I'll go and give him the good news."
0:31:37 > 0:31:43We did 13,500 jobs - breakdowns - in the first year the motorway was opened,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47and 13,000's a lot of breakdowns.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52'Aerial patrols will provide an even speedier method of spotting the motorist in trouble.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56'General information about the road conditions and any hold-ups
0:31:56 > 0:31:58'can be radioed to AA Headquarters in London.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02'30 traffic advisors man this operation's room at Fanum House.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06'For motorists from the North, for example, this map shows how they may
0:32:06 > 0:32:11'take advantage of the motorway to get to any point in the south-east.'
0:32:14 > 0:32:18'As for the motorway itself, there's been a spot of bother with the so-called hard shoulder
0:32:18 > 0:32:19'at the side of the road.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22'The hard shoulder seems to be soft, in places at any rate.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25'Stop in it and you may get bogged down.'
0:32:28 > 0:32:33I went on there, of course, we had highly polished boots, and when I got home you couldn't see my boots.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37So my trousers was a sort of reddish brown colour and of course,
0:32:37 > 0:32:41I just stepped out of the car, out of the Land Rover, you see,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43straight into the hard shoulder and down I went.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48'Many breakdowns were reported on the first day,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51'but there are excellent facilities to deal with these.'
0:32:54 > 0:32:59'And with accidents. And on the subject of accidents, Mr Marples had a word of warning
0:32:59 > 0:33:01'to all high speed motorists.'
0:33:01 > 0:33:09'For on this magnificent road the speed which can easily be reached is so great
0:33:09 > 0:33:13'that senses may be numbed and judgement warped.'
0:33:13 > 0:33:15We were having a lot of accidents.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19We had no crash barriers at first, and so what we did have
0:33:19 > 0:33:21were these head-on collisions,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24even if they were doing 70 miles an hour,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27head-on at a 140 miles an hour.
0:33:27 > 0:33:33Now, nobody realised that this was a dangerous thing to put a piece of grass with a bit of gravel,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35it was very good for us, police officers,
0:33:35 > 0:33:41because if we saw a car that we wanted to stop going the other way
0:33:41 > 0:33:44we could swing round, as we did do, on the grass verge.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49We would spiral round and fly the other way without thinking about it.
0:33:49 > 0:33:54'If you overshoot the turning point don't try to do this.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57'Reversing and turning on the motorway is an offence
0:33:57 > 0:33:59'which could cost you £20 in a magistrates court.
0:33:59 > 0:34:05'If you miss your turning, you must continue along the motorway to the next exit.'
0:34:05 > 0:34:08Officially you drove round to the next junction and went back up again.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11If it was quiet you went across the central reservation.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15And funnily enough the police did the same thing,
0:34:15 > 0:34:20ambulance did the same thing, the AA and the RAC, even the garages did it.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24'Visitor to Black Bush Airport was Transport Minister Ernest Marples,
0:34:24 > 0:34:26'seeking, as always, more safety on the roads.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30'He was there to see a car driven at 60 miles an hour against a new type fence,
0:34:30 > 0:34:35'flexible but with the 22-tonne breaking strain specially designed for motorways.
0:34:35 > 0:34:42A well designed barrier that's meant to bring you, bring your speed down and redirects you safely onto your
0:34:42 > 0:34:47own carriageway, better to hit that than to hit someone coming the opposite way at 70 miles an hour.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53'The driver was unhurt, and damage to the car was superficial.'
0:34:56 > 0:35:03In 1962, Ernest Marples announced the government's plan to complete a thousand miles of motorway.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08A year later he commissioned a report into the profitability of British railways,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12written by Doctor Richard Beaching.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Doctor Beaching, do you personally believe that the government has no
0:35:15 > 0:35:18real alternative but to accept your plan?
0:35:18 > 0:35:23I think that these proposals are in the long-term interest of railwaymen.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25I think they'll go along with this...
0:35:25 > 0:35:29Beaching was, I suppose, the first executive businessman
0:35:29 > 0:35:33to be put in charge of the railways, he was an ICI executive.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37..towards making the railways do those things that they can do best.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42But he came in with this brief to slash them up, to axe them.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44There's a famous phrase, the Beaching Axe.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47Today's report will shape the future of the system.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52More than 2,000 stations will be closed, the most dramatic effects are in Scotland.
0:35:52 > 0:35:58Remote areas of the Highlands will lose their services, Wales takes a body blow as well.
0:35:58 > 0:36:04Holiday resorts in the West Country share the fate of many market towns, no station, no passenger trains.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08In the north-east little more than the main North/South links will remain.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13'These carriages which have carried generations of holidaymakers and people going to the office
0:36:13 > 0:36:16'have come to the end of the line.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19'Anything that can be used again economically is salvaged, but
0:36:19 > 0:36:22'there is nothing much that can be done with old woodwork except this.'
0:36:26 > 0:36:30It meant the abandonment of enormous assets
0:36:30 > 0:36:34which were the creation of the previous century,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37and now we very much wish we hadn't done it.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45So Beaching was a believer that the railways were, essentially, old-fashioned.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48He was going to modernise them, but it also meant, in a way,
0:36:48 > 0:36:54undermining them, and giving traffic to the motorways.
0:36:54 > 0:37:00Motorways may have been the fastest way to travel, but they were still at the mercy of the British weather.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04And then we've just got here now.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06- How far have you come? - About five mile.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09- And that's taken you over three hours?- Yes, close on that.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12How does this compare with other fogs that you've driven in?
0:37:12 > 0:37:16This is about the worst I've had, definitely. Definitely the worst.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21Fog was much more common in the mid-1960s, than, than nowadays
0:37:21 > 0:37:26because of industrial air pollution and coal fires in houses and so on.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31In particular, you were afraid to go too slowly in case you get hit from behind,
0:37:31 > 0:37:35and then of course you find you've hit something in front.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39And so you got these multi-vehicle pileups which were a new phenomenon.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43There's cars coming through the fog...50, 60 miles an hour.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48They couldn't see, well, you couldn't see across three lanes, so you can just imagine what it...
0:37:48 > 0:37:52They were just hurtling and... and they'd go, you know, they'd go "eeeeooow, bump!"
0:37:52 > 0:37:54"eeeeooow, bump!"
0:37:55 > 0:38:02And this would happen on a regular basis, 40 or 50 cars all smashed into one another.
0:38:02 > 0:38:10Somebody devised a wonderful scheme where we had two spotlights - orange spotlights - on a big, black pole,
0:38:10 > 0:38:17connected, because there was no electricity, connected to a car battery in a box beneath it.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21These were every mile so that when the fog arrived
0:38:21 > 0:38:28the police car on that section could switch a switch and switch these two flashing lights on.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30And then...
0:38:30 > 0:38:36people without a car battery would think, "There's a lot of car batteries on the motorway."
0:38:36 > 0:38:43So we would then come to these signs in an emergency, perhaps they hadn't been on for three weeks,
0:38:43 > 0:38:44batteries all gone.
0:38:44 > 0:38:49'Again electronics come to man's aid and save time and effort.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54'Motorway police have been armed with ray guns, they're harmless except for fog warning lights.'
0:38:54 > 0:38:58We were a bit like cowboys then, we couldn't wait for the headquarters to say
0:38:58 > 0:39:00"can you switch all the fog signs on?"
0:39:00 > 0:39:03"Ho, ho, get my gun out and away we go."
0:39:03 > 0:39:09'A motorway cop shows how good a marksman he is on the move with the new space-age lamplighter.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12'Ready, aim, fire.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14'Good shot.'
0:39:14 > 0:39:19But we were even better than that, we got really good at it, because if you could get this one on
0:39:19 > 0:39:24and swing round, you could get the one on the other carriageway
0:39:24 > 0:39:28in one fell swoop, and it was, "I got them all on this time,"
0:39:28 > 0:39:30and police were going, "Yes, I got the lot."
0:39:30 > 0:39:34And if somebody missed one, ohhh, and you had to reverse all the way back,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38- "Oh, you're getting... Swap over and I'll put the lights on" - 'Good shot.'
0:39:38 > 0:39:43Along with radar guns, motorway police had faster cars than their colleagues on the A-roads.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47'It's what you might call light work.'
0:39:47 > 0:39:53We had the Mark II Jaguar when I first went on the motorway.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Then we altered to the Jaguar XJ6, that was an improvement.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02When they were being made, the factory knew which ones were ours.
0:40:02 > 0:40:08And we only knew that they knew which were our cars when we came to cut the headlining in the car
0:40:08 > 0:40:11to put the police signs on the top.
0:40:11 > 0:40:17And then we would find written in the top "all coppers are bastards".
0:40:17 > 0:40:19SIREN WAILS
0:40:22 > 0:40:25With no speed limit and no legal requirement to wear seatbelts,
0:40:25 > 0:40:29motorways became the scene of some of the most horrendous accidents.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37In 1966 Barbara Castle, the new Labour Secretary for Transport,
0:40:37 > 0:40:43and first female Cabinet Minister introduced a preliminary speed limit of 70 miles per hour.
0:40:43 > 0:40:49..For the British motorist has got fed up with being pushed around by successive governments...
0:40:49 > 0:40:52- But there were still those that resisted it. - ..and parking restrictions.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56- You're here to protest? - Yes, we are.- Why?
0:40:56 > 0:40:58Well, because I think it's stupid.
0:40:58 > 0:41:04I drive about 24,000 miles and a lot on motorways and it's quite ridiculous
0:41:04 > 0:41:07if you're expected to sort of dawdle along at 70 miles an hour.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09How fast have you been in your car?
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Erm, I've had it up to about a 115.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15If you examine the accidents
0:41:15 > 0:41:19you find that speed is a terribly important, terribly
0:41:19 > 0:41:24is the word, important element in the causation of road accidents.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27And here were fast roads, built to,
0:41:27 > 0:41:33for the purpose, safer, but speed can be too great for them.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35So don't have it.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37For safety's sake.
0:41:37 > 0:41:42Barbara Castle, what does she think of? People, safety. Yes, right.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46The main thing that I remember about Barbara Castle
0:41:46 > 0:41:51was the opening of the next length of the London/Yorkshire motorway
0:41:51 > 0:41:54when she was the Minister of Transport,
0:41:54 > 0:42:00and this was at the time when she was fore-fronting the seatbelt campaign.
0:42:00 > 0:42:06And I suppose at some expense we had hired a Rolls-Royce
0:42:06 > 0:42:12for her to drive in, drive along the motorway when it was opened,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16and she wouldn't get in it, because it hadn't got seatbelts in the back.
0:42:16 > 0:42:21So she wouldn't travel in this expensively hired Rolls-Royce.
0:42:21 > 0:42:28By 1968 seatbelts, breathalysers and the 70 mile-per-hour speed limit had become law.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33The thousand-mile motorway plan continued
0:42:33 > 0:42:37with one of the most ambitious and adventurous schemes yet -
0:42:37 > 0:42:40to build the highest motorway in Britain.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43While the M1 took just 19 months to complete,
0:42:43 > 0:42:49the seven-mile Pennine section of the M62 would take nearly seven years.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53The M62 is the great trans-Pennine motorway
0:42:53 > 0:42:57and it is a truly magnificent achievement.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01Now, that's very rare in Britain to have a motorway which is quite
0:43:01 > 0:43:07mountainous in British terms, and a motorway, of course, where you get tremendously foul weather.
0:43:08 > 0:43:15Originally a packhorse route, the A62 was the only road across the Pennines connecting Yorkshire and Lancashire.
0:43:15 > 0:43:21By the early 1960s it was grid-locked with lorries and trade was being severely affected.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27In the winter months, vehicles could be trapped under 12-foot snow drifts,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30and sections of the route closed for up to four months at a time.
0:43:32 > 0:43:38The purpose of the design of the M62 or the basic remit was to ensure
0:43:38 > 0:43:42that it was going to be kept open all the time and not be closed to snow.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44In other words, they wanted a motorway that
0:43:44 > 0:43:49was going to be kept open for seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year and never closed to traffic.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54The Pennine section was to be by far the biggest challenge.
0:43:54 > 0:44:00Climbing to a height of 1200 feet it would mean blasting through rock to create a dam.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10The engineers would then have to build the largest single-span bridge in Europe,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14while the planned route for the motorway lay across a peat bog.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20It's not possible to build a motorway over a peat bog
0:44:20 > 0:44:22because it'll not support anything.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25And bearing in mind it's such a high moisture content,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27it would be better to go through it in a boat.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32And the contractor actually lost a series of machines in the peat.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37OK, they were recovered eventually, but it presented an enormous problem.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41The only way to start building on the bog was to remove the peat.
0:44:41 > 0:44:42'How to get the peat out?
0:44:42 > 0:44:46'The only answer was to work with a large faced shovel using the underlying...'
0:44:46 > 0:44:50All eleven and three-quarter million cubic yards of it.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55The only machine that can actually traverse it was the Muskeg, the Muskeg tractor.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59'This Muskeg tracked vehicle was light enough to cope
0:44:59 > 0:45:02'with the soft, spongy ground and steep-sided clods, and...'
0:45:02 > 0:45:07The man put in charge of this challenging project was 28 year old Jeffrey Hunter.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11He made regular appearances in many of the films that were made about the motorway.
0:45:13 > 0:45:14This job is different.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16The whole geography's against us.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20The weather conditions are against, they're extremely adverse.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24The Pennine weather was so harsh that few people lived there.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27Although only half a dozen people lived on the planned motorway route,
0:45:27 > 0:45:30it was to have a huge impact on their lives.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36One house was to become almost as famous as the motorway itself.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41It's a shame really cos there used to be a myth around for many years
0:45:41 > 0:45:46after a motorway being constructed that the farmer living in the house wouldn't move
0:45:46 > 0:45:50and refused to move and therefore we divided the carriageways and put it round it.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53That, in essence, sadly, is not true.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58In fact, the motorway was built around the farmhouse
0:45:58 > 0:46:03because the land on which it was standing was unstable and had to be shored up.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05It was cheaper to build two roads around it.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10The Wild family were living there at the time.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14Well, you don't think of big diggers and trucks and
0:46:14 > 0:46:18people everywhere, do you, running past your window?
0:46:20 > 0:46:22They come on with the...
0:46:22 > 0:46:26UT's are they? The big wagons full of stone,
0:46:26 > 0:46:32and every so often there'd be a bang and the quarry would go boom!
0:46:32 > 0:46:34And frighten you to death.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Yeah, you never knew when they were gonna be blasting.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42It must have been very difficult for the occupant, Mrs Wild, at the time.
0:46:42 > 0:46:48The only time I ever met her was because of complaints of dust, and I could understand that problem.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52'The whole roads pounded by heavy vehicles soon dissolved into fine dust
0:46:52 > 0:46:56'that choked men and machines and reduced visibility to nil.'
0:46:56 > 0:46:58You could not hang your washing out
0:46:58 > 0:47:03because they worked from eight in the morning until eight in the evening, seven days a week.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07'It caused collisions and delays and complaints from farmers some
0:47:07 > 0:47:09'distance away that their crops were being smothered.'
0:47:09 > 0:47:12It were pointless cleaning the house
0:47:12 > 0:47:16because it was just absolutely covered in dust.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20So I used to have to start cleaning the house at eight o'clock at night when they stopped.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24We actually watered the formation to keep the dust down
0:47:24 > 0:47:28and to make certain that she and her family and everybody else could live there.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38The M62 was national news.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44Work went on seven days a week and the site was inundated with visitors.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Tourists came by the coach load on Sunday afternoons
0:47:50 > 0:47:56to watch as seven million cubic yards of rock was excavated to create the Scammonden Dam.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02Running on top of it, a 200-foot high motorway embankment was being constructed.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10The original plan for the motorway cut across the ancient route
0:48:10 > 0:48:13of the Pennine Way and would have meant diverting walkers.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17But ramblers, including the Transport Secretary Mr Marples, had objected.
0:48:17 > 0:48:23So a special footbridge was built across the motorway allowing the walkers to continue their journey.
0:48:27 > 0:48:34Across Dean Hill Cutting, the largest single spanned bridge in Europe was being constructed.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39Covered in 70 miles of scaffolding to protect it from wind speeds
0:48:39 > 0:48:43of up to a 110 miles per hour in the Pennine winter
0:48:43 > 0:48:46it was able to withhold the weight of 1100 tonnes of ice.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56Nobody appreciates just how big and how massive that structure is
0:48:56 > 0:48:59because it's dwarfed by the vastness of the landscape around it.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03It looks just a small bridge spanning over a motorway
0:49:03 > 0:49:06in the middle of a cutting. The cutting's sufficiently wide enough
0:49:06 > 0:49:09to absorb the whole of the new Wembley Stadium.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12Put it in the middle of it, you wouldn't see it because everything around it
0:49:12 > 0:49:15is lost in the horizon behind it.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21The climate was probably the most atrocious thing that we had to cope with.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25The engineering problems and considerations one can make decisions on.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27One can't control the climate.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30Now, I'm an old man now and it's 40-odd years
0:49:30 > 0:49:33since I took part in this contract,
0:49:33 > 0:49:39but the climatic conditions were the thing, probably, that are so deeply imprinted on my mind
0:49:39 > 0:49:43that man and machine had to endure fighting the climate constantly.
0:49:43 > 0:49:48This is also the only place in the world where it'll actually rain up your confounded trouser legs.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52I should explain this, the wind comes down these valleys very quickly indeed,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55rain driven in its path it actually blows it uphill.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57It's terribly frightening when it occurs to you.
0:49:57 > 0:50:04And it wasn't only driving rain and wind at the time, it was dramatic drops in temperature.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07It was working in constant cloud.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10'And when it comes down it's accompanied by a...'
0:50:10 > 0:50:13- It was a matter of survival. - '..Exposure can set in.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15'Men then, and machinery, begin to suffer.'
0:50:15 > 0:50:19Oh, the conditions were terrible.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22The conditions were really bad, even for me within the machine.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26Aye, when you went in there in the morning, you were cold.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29Next thing you'd look round and, geez, you couldn't see nothing.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32The only thing you could do then is stop.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36And somebody would come and rescue you.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38It was very frightening, so it were.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45By geez, when it rained there it rained.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51It was like something like the monsoons, like, you know.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55It used to come down and start off like and the next thing
0:50:55 > 0:50:57you'd be, you'd be shivering in the cab.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02You were saying, "Well, yes, I hope it doesn't come in here." Oh, yes.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06There were days on end when you couldn't work.
0:51:06 > 0:51:12And you had to either sit in the cabs or in the rest huts waiting for the rain to ease off,
0:51:12 > 0:51:19you just had to sit there and literally they ate mud, walked in mud, sat in mud
0:51:19 > 0:51:22and were aware of mud, and there was mud in the sandwiches.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34Whenever possible, because of these conditions, work was extended sometimes to 24 hours a day.
0:51:34 > 0:51:39If you could work round the clock under floodlights we did, and had to.
0:51:40 > 0:51:46'Day, dusk, sometimes clean through the night and round to another day.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48'Keep going while the weather's with you...'
0:51:48 > 0:51:53And you didn't have very good lighting, you just had a few old lights on the gibbet crane
0:51:53 > 0:51:56and sometimes you wouldn't be able to see a lot, but you'd manage it.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00And that might be going on at twelve or one o'clock in the morning.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05And it took a lot of skill on the driver's part
0:52:05 > 0:52:08and it took a lot of skill on the banksmen's part,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12it was the banksmen on top directing you in, like, you know.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15Our jobs were concentration more than anything else, you know,
0:52:15 > 0:52:20when you were driving a crane you had to concentrate or you could kill somebody.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24Touch wood I never had a... I never had an accident.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28They had to give up work, I don't know...
0:52:28 > 0:52:32The second winter, I think, because of the weather conditions.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36Everything was bogged down, they couldn't move a thing.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39And I think they finished for three months.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43And then they came back with a vengeance.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49And it were, oh, it were like bedlam.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53But, then again, you got used to it again.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59'On October the 14th 1971 in glorious weather
0:52:59 > 0:53:03'the project was honoured by a visit from Her Majesty, The Queen.'
0:53:03 > 0:53:09With the opening of the Scammoden Dam, the Pennine section of the M62 was finally complete.
0:53:12 > 0:53:17The overall length of this Pennine contract was just short of seven miles,
0:53:17 > 0:53:22and it took £7 million to build, which is literally a million pounds a mile.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25And now today you can traverse it in seven minutes.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30And it's ironic to think that people that go across it now
0:53:30 > 0:53:38never sort of really can think or envisage what actually happened in those days some 45 years ago.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43'Man's great ingenuity and willingness to accept such enormous challenges
0:53:43 > 0:53:46'has brought to a successful end this Pennine project.'
0:53:49 > 0:53:53A mile of motorway a week had been opened between 1960 and 1970,
0:53:53 > 0:53:58the next challenge was to start joining some of them up.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Fifteen years in the planning and construction,
0:54:06 > 0:54:10Gravelly Hill Interchange, or Spaghetti Junction as it's better known,
0:54:10 > 0:54:16would be different to anything that had gone before it in the history of British motorway construction.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24Across five different levels, raised on 600 reinforced concrete columns,
0:54:24 > 0:54:29this was to be the link between the M1, the M5 and the M6.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36Crammed onto a 30-acre site, it needed to be choreographed around
0:54:36 > 0:54:40both the existing industry and the local community.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46Well, of course, when it started, well...
0:54:46 > 0:54:50- Oh, the mess was dreadful. - It really... Absolutely awful. You can imagine.
0:54:50 > 0:54:51Oh, the dust.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54The kids came in and with the dirt and, you know,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57you pushed your pram through it and if it was a wet day
0:54:57 > 0:55:01you still had to push it back into the hall cos you couldn't leave it outside,
0:55:01 > 0:55:03and it was, it was just, just a nightmare.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06Dust, the dirt was just a nightmare.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Well, the first time I think we heard
0:55:09 > 0:55:11was the next door neighbour and he, he said to us
0:55:11 > 0:55:14do you know there's a motorway coming here?
0:55:16 > 0:55:21So we just thought, well, we'll wait and see what happens, you know, so...
0:55:21 > 0:55:26- Then the motorway came.- By that time it just came. We were trapped.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29'175,000 cubic yards of concrete.'
0:55:29 > 0:55:33The engineers had to elevate 13.5 miles of motorway to accommodate
0:55:33 > 0:55:38two railway lines, three canals and two rivers.
0:55:41 > 0:55:45'Building a viaduct of this length needed careful planning and design.'
0:55:45 > 0:55:48It was a great canal system in Birmingham
0:55:48 > 0:55:52and we had to provide a column arrangement
0:55:52 > 0:55:57so that you could still tow a barge with a horse.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01I went mad when they said, made me angry when we had to do that,
0:56:01 > 0:56:02so we rearranged the columns
0:56:02 > 0:56:04so that they could get the horse round there.
0:56:04 > 0:56:09It was an interesting job, certainly.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13'You can see why they call it Spaghetti Junction,
0:56:13 > 0:56:18'though the engineers point out that unlike a plate of spaghetti it stands up and it's highly planned.'
0:56:21 > 0:56:25Spaghetti Junction is anything but a formless lump,
0:56:25 > 0:56:30it required a great deal of engineering, planning and design
0:56:30 > 0:56:34before its final shape was achieved.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37But, yes, it is a, I think, a remarkable achievement.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42- I think it was a clever thing.- Yeah.
0:56:42 > 0:56:48I think it's been quite a clever thing for the people that it hasn't affected.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53But it's not a pleasant thing to live by.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57I think the engineers that built it should come and live here...
0:57:00 > 0:57:02..for at least a month,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04with all the windows propped open.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12Just 14 years after the Preston Bypass was opened,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14Spaghetti Junction was completed.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18It was opened in November 1972 by Peter Walker,
0:57:18 > 0:57:21the Environment Secretary for Edward Heath's Tory government.
0:57:21 > 0:57:28And this is perhaps the most exciting day in the history of the road system in this country.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31The job fell to him because the departments responsible
0:57:31 > 0:57:35for transport, housing and local government had been combined,
0:57:35 > 0:57:40a sign of the changing attitudes to motorways and their impact on the environment.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44- WALKER:- And it is, if I may say so, a triumph for motorway engineering.
0:57:44 > 0:57:49Hence more important, an illustration of how motorways can improve environments.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54I declare this motorway open.
0:58:04 > 0:58:10By 1972 a thousand miles of motorway had been built in Britain and another thousand was expected.
0:58:10 > 0:58:16From the first eight miles of the Preston Bypass to the engineering feats of Spaghetti Junction,
0:58:16 > 0:58:20Britain's love affair with the motorway had truly begun.
0:58:25 > 0:58:30Next time we look at how the motorway changed our lives and where it's taken us.
0:58:46 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:49 > 0:58:52E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk