Tadcaster to York, A64

OS 1937-61
Modern Map
Date opened/built:

Probably 1939.

Length:

5.83 miles (9.3kms).

Width:

9-ft (2.74m).

Adjoining footway:

Yes.

Road type:

Rural dual carriageway.

Surface:

Asphalt.

Both sides of road:

Yes.

Adjacent to social housing:

No.

Period mapping:

OS 1:10,000 surveyed 1965 to 1967, published 1968 https://maps.nls.uk/view/189183525 Cycle tracks marked and labelled as “cycle track”. OS 1:10,000 surveyed 1961, published 1969 https://maps.nls.uk/view/189183516 Cycle tracks marked with hatching, not labelled as “cycle track”.

OpenCycleMap status:

https://www.opencyclemap.org/?zoom=15&lat=53.89442&lon=-1.2136&layers=B0000 Cycleways marked both sides of road for full distance; no footways marked. The route forms longest stretch of National Cycle Network Route 665.

Sources:

Period maps, newspaper reports.

Overgrown footway and adjacent cycle track on former stretch of A64, near Tadcaster.

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.

The dualling of the A64 was agreed with the MoT in 1936 but, in 1937, the local authority complained that building work had yet to start. Period newspaper articles show that the dual carriageways — and cycle tracks and footways — were built sometime after 1937 and before 1945.

The cycle tracks on the A64 between Malton and York opened in 1937.

It’s likely the Tadcaster-York cycle tracks were finished by late 1939; at least one carriageway was used for storing military vehicles during WWII.

“Another road scheme … is for widening to a total width of 120 feet a length of six miles of the Tadcaster and Hob Moor Road from near Tadcaster towards York,” reported the Leeds Mercury in 1936, adding that the road “will have dual carriageways, footpaths and cycle tracks.”

The following year Mr. H. K. Hepworth, surveyor for the West Riding County Council, complained in a meeting: “We submitted the scheme to the Ministry May last, [but we] have not yet got grant for the scheme, and I suggest that something might done to speed the machinery for making these grants.”

It’s likely that the grant came some time after this February meeting because two years later a Yorkshire Evening Post columnist mentioned the fact he had driven on the “dual road between York and Tadcaster.”

Military vehicles stored on the A64 may have been moved by September 1945 because a newspaper reported that, in order to cater for the heavy traffic expected for a horse racing fixture “both the northern and southern carriageways of the Tadcaster-York road will be open for traffic from 8 a.m. on September 4 to 5 p.m. on September 6 for York Races.”

“Cyclists travelling both to and from York should use the cycle track on the southern side of the dual carriageway,” recommended the police.

NOTES

The route forms longest stretch of ... https://www.sustrans.org.uk/find-a-route-on-the-national-cycle-network/route-665/

The cycle tracks both sides ... “Today, Mr Burgin [minister of transport], “will pass along the new stretch of dual carriageway road with cycle tracks between Malton and York ...” Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 2 November 1937.

“Another road scheme ... Leeds Mercury, 11 July 1936.

The following year Mr. H. K. Hepworth ... Yorkshire Evening Post, 1 February 1937.

It’s likely that the grant came ... Yorkshire Evening Post, 23 May 1939.

“Cyclists travelling both to and from York ... Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 3 September 1945.

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