Arnold Road, B6004, Nottingham

Melton Road, Thurmaston

Melton Road, Leicester, has a long history: it is built on the same alignment as the Roman Fosse Way and, in the 18th Century, it was improved as part of the Melton Mowbray turnpike. In the 1930s it was widened and straightened. Read more

Coventry Bypass, A45

A 1930 Act of Parliament empowered the “Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of the city of Coventry to acquire lands and construct street works and a bye-pass road.” Land along the route of the planned Coventry bypass was “sterilised,” preventing any development but, remarked an Alderman in 1935, the road was “held up ... for various reasons, including the financial crisis and the fact that the Ministry of Transport could not make up its mind about the width.” Read more

Raynesway, Derby

Derby’s Raynesway — initially known as “Town Planning Road No. 4” — was opened by Alderman Edward Paulson, Mayor of Derby, on 28 September, 1938. It was named for Alderman W. R. Raynes, long-time chairman of the Derby Estates and Development Committee. Read more

South Bank Road, Middlesbrough

Uniquely, the cycle tracks on South Bank Road in Cargo Fleet, Middlesbrough, are 12 feet wide, which is 3 feet wider than most period cycle tracks and 2 feet wider than the cycle tracks on nearby Wolviston Road, opened in 1944. Read more

Links Road, Blyth

Blyth Town Council approved plans for the Links Road and its cycle tracks in October 1936. “The Borough Engineer reported ... that the proposed scheme was to widen the Links Road to make provision for road 120 feet wide with a two-way motor and cycle tracks, grass verges and footpaths, which would cost £31,000, from the north end of the Promenade to Gloucester Lodge,” said a report in the Morpeth Herald of that year. Read more

East Lancs Road, A580

The A580 East Lancashire Road between Manchester and Liverpool — Britain’s first purpose-built intercity highway — was opened by King George V on 18 July 1934. Read more

Bellsdyke, A905, Near Falkirk

In April 1939, the Highways Committee of Stirlingshire County Council discussed the widening of the A905 from Grangemouth to Kincardine Bridge Road, including cycle tracks and a footway. The understanding was that another carriageway would be added later. Read more

Marston Road, Oxford

Period map info shows existence of tracks in 1930s as does Google Earth’s 1945 aerial layer but no confirmatory documentary evidence has been found yet. Read more

Longforgan, A90, nr Dundee

The bypass of Longforgan was largely built by 1939, complete with cycle tracks and footways, but finishing work appears to have stopped at the outbreak of war, with the road not completed until 1946 or 1947. Newspaper reports say there were cycle tracks and footways on both sides of the bypass, but there’s only one shared use path in evidence today. Read more

Riverside Drive, Dundee

Aside from one newspaper mention, nothing else has been uncovered on this intriguing cycle track. Intriguing because it was overgrown with grass in June 1935, which would make it one of the earliest cycle tracks in the U.K. Read more

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