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.”
