230-metre stretch of the old London Road, with adjacent period cycle track.
Cycle tracks on Harborough Road appear to have priority over side roads.
An aerial photograph — probably dating from the 1970s — shows concrete cycle tracks on each side of Harborough Road in Oadby (the road becomes Glen Road further on). The cycle tracks appear to have priority over all of the side roads in the photograph, including New Road to the immediate southeast of Launde Primary School and Uplands Road to the north. These cycle tracks, planned in 1936 and probably finished within three years, were resurfaced with asphalt some time after the photograph was taken and it’s no longer possible to trace their route on the ground through Oadby.
However, towards Great Glen there’s an isolated stretch of cycleway next to the old London Road which was bypassed by the new A6 in 2003. It’s likely that this 730-metre cycleway, separated from the former road, is a period cycle track, now surfaced with asphalt. The 230-metre isolated road, now cut off from the A6, is surfaced with period concrete. It is today used as a farm access road and also as an impromptu layby.
1937 MoT plan for Harborough Road.
The cycle tracks from Great Glen to Oadby were 9-ft wide, stated a 1938-39 report from Leicester’s county surveyor. The report stated that “by the 31st of March, 1939, progress on Trunk Route A6 consisted in a commencement of the transforming of the lengths … between Oadby by-pass and Great Glen from single to dual 22 foot carriageways and nine foot cycle tracks, the single footpath being replaced by one on each side.”
The transformation had been planned in 1936, states the Daily Herald.
“The scheme, proposed by Leicestershire County Council, was approved yesterday by Mr. Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport,” reported the newspaper in October 1936.
“For distance of one mile 800 yards this heavily-trafficked road will be widened to a minimum 100 feet, and dual carriageways, each 20 feet wide, will substituted for the existing single carriageway. Between the carriageways will be a 20-foot central reservation … Footpaths will also be provided, and sufficient space left for the provision [of] cycle tracks.”
It’s clear from the county surveyor’s report, and the 1970s photograph, that the cycle tracks were installed beside the A6. However, despite a claim from the Nottingham Journal that the work would be completed by 1937 it’s more probable that the widened road and its cycle tracks and footways opened in 1939.
A 1937 Ministry of Transport plan shows the cycle track beside the A6 and in front of The Traveller’s Rest public house. This was demolished in 1938-39 — at the same time as the widening of the road — and replaced with the Oadby Owl, which still stands. The cycle track in front of the pub no longer has the kerb protection shown in the 1937 plan.
