Harpfield Road, Stoke

Uxbridge Road, A4020, Hayes And Southall

Until the building of the Western Avenue arterial to the north of Southall, starting in 1921, Uxbridge Road was the historic route from London to Oxford. There are two sections of period cycle tracks on Uxbridge Road. The first section is in Southall, in the London Borough of Ealing, and runs for 300 metres from almost Milford Road to opposite Holy Trinity Church, on the corner of Park View Road. This features period concrete and is kerb-protected on both sides of the road.1,085ft (300 metres). Read more

Durham Road, Sunderland

With its original concrete surface and kerbing the Durham Road cycle track is one of the best preserved in the country. Read more

Barton to Whitwell, A64 — & Beyond Malton?

There’s a definite 1930s cycle track on the A64 York to Malton Road. It’s between Barton Hill and Whitwell-on-the-Hill. There’s also a possible period cycle track or footway stretching almost 22 miles (36 kms) from Malton almost to Scarborough. Read more

Stony Stratford to Wolverton

The Stony Stratford to Wolverton cycle track was operational by the summer of 1934, the second to open in the UK following the trial track on Western Avenue in London. It was easy to build because works were already due to be carried out on the Wolverton Road but mainly because it involved the resurfacing of an existing roadside track, the short commuter route of a steam-powered tramway, dismantled eight years earlier. Read more

Great West Road, London

A 1937 photograph taken from a long gone footbridge outside Osterley station in north London shows the Great West Road soon after it was widened and fitted with cycle tracks and footways. Read more

Marks Tey, Essex

MoT eastern division manager Mr. J. Rowland Hill told a meeting of surveyors in 1939 that “the Minister [of Transport] is convinced that, as far as Trunk Roads are concerned, provision should be made for complete segregation of the various forms of traffic and, in all major schemes affecting Trunk Roads, footpaths, cycle tracks, and dual carriageways are to be provided.” Read more

Western Avenue, A40, London

The Western Avenue cycle track was the UK’s first. The two-and-a-quarter-mile stretch of uneven concrete from Hangar Lane to Greenford Road in Ealing, London, kept separate from, but adjoining the new arterial Western Avenue, was commissioned in 1934 by Colonel Bressey, the Ministry of Transport’s chief engineer working to a brief from the Transport Secretary Oliver Stanley. (Subsequent Transport Secretaries Leslie Hore-Belisha and Leslie Burgin carried on the work started by Stanley.) Read more

Tadcaster to York, A64

While there has been some remodelling of the A64 dual carriageway between Tadcaster and York the majority of it remains intact, including its period cycle tracks. Original parts of the dual carriageway — now acting as access roads to remodelled parts of the A64 — remain on the outskirts of Tadcaster and York, and they include remnants of the period cycle tracks. Read more

Stonebridge Road, A446, Coleshill

“A dual-carriageway by-pass road, on the main Lichfield-Leamington route, spanning the Cole Valley at Coleshill, is being constructed and, it is expected, will be completed within the next 18 months,” stated the Tamworth Herald in January 1939. Read more

Felpham Way, Bognor

Originally known as Felpham Bypass, this road’s name was changed to Felpham Way in 1939. The bypass had been first suggested in 1934. Read more

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