Barton Road, Urmston, Manchester

OS 1937-61
Modern Map
Date opened/built:

1942.

Length:

0.46 miles (750m).

Width:

9ft (2.74m).

Adjoining footway:

Yes.

Road type:

Urban arterial road.

Surface:

Modern asphalt, red in parts.

Both sides of road:

Yes?

Adjacent to social housing:

Yes.

Period mapping:

OS 1:10,000, surveyed 1952, published 1956 https://maps.nls.uk/view/189189210 Map features similar hatching on Barton Road as Lostock Road, Urmston, which is well documented as having period cycle tracks on both sides of the road. Barton Road is an extension of Lostock Road.

OpenCycleMap status:

Marked as cycleway both sides of road; footway also marked. https://www.opencyclemap.org/?zoom=17&lat=53.45509&lon=-2.33185&layers=B0000

Sources:

Period newspapers, archive mapping, local archives.

Barton Road.

The widening of Barton Road was planned in December 1937, records minutes from the Highways and Sewerage Committee for the Borough of Stretford.

“Detailed estimates and plans had been submitted for the … provision of cycle tracks in Barton road,” continued the minutes, adding that the tracks would start “west of Winster Avenue.”

“Works will shortly commence,” promised the committee a month later. However, the works didn’t commence until June 1941 with the construction not finished until mid-September 1942.

There had been five tenders for the work, with the winning bid being the one submitted by Messrs W. Snape & Sons Ltd of Eccles, who charged £9,171. The Ministry of Transport provided a 60 percent grant for the work.

Cyclist on Barton Road’s footway; the cycle track is often blocked by parked cars.

The cycle track ended at Moss Vale Road and, according to the committee minutes, did not link up with the cycle tracks on Lostock Road. However, the period OS map shows the cycle tracks were contiguous between the linked roads. The cycle tracks would have therefore been extinguished by the M60 motorway, servering the link between Barton Road and Lostock Road.

The Barton Road cycle track is mentioned in a letter from a cyclist to the Manchester Evening News in 1949. H. Downs of Stretford said the Barton Road cycle track was “unsafe” because “there are very dangerous places where one must leave the track to get back on the roadway.”

NOTES

“Detailed estimates ...” Borough of Stretford Minute Book No 15, Highways and Sewerage Committee, December 1937. “Works will shortly ...” Borough of Stretford Minute Book No 15, Highways and Sewerage Committee, January 18th 1938. There had been five tenders ... Borough of Stretford Minute Book No 15, Highways and Sewerage Committee, 20 May 1941. H. Downs of Stretford ... Manchester Evening News, 21 January 1949.

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