SABRE

Another #MapMonday sees another huge batch of Ordnance Survey GB 1:25,000 mapping added to SABRE Maps - this time it's 463 individual #map sheets dating from 1949; and it includes our first revised sheets in the series for you to play "spot the difference" with. buff.ly/3PxBmu7

Enjoying our Ordnance Survey GB 1:25k First Series releases so far? We hope so, because this #MapMonday brings another 451 individual #map sheets to SABRE Maps, freely available on our website for all to enjoy. buff.ly/kjxNxGd

Just published: when a road is closed, why does the diversion take you so far out of your way? We find out why this week's overnight closures of the A50 are sending drivers on a tour of Staffordshire. roadsorguk.substack.com/p/the-long-w...

Today’s unexpected achievement is providing the quote for a headline. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Queensway Inns have reopened some restaurants attached to Premier Inn hotels, after Whitbread closed brands such as Brewers Fayre and Beefeater.

A guide to Britain's first motorway hotels

Lots of people seemed to really enjoy last week's #MapMonday addition to SABRE Maps of 158 newly georeferenced 1:25k maps from 1945-6. How to top that? Maybe adding another 339 map sheets from 1947? Freely available to everyone, though we never say no to donations! buff.ly/RkSn0mk

If you’ve ever driven in London, your journey was probably influenced by one retired government driver’s favourite routes. This is the story of how Mr. Beardon unwittingly recast London’s road network. roadsorguk.substack.com/p/signs-and-...

You may have noticed we've been pretty quiet recently - we've been working hard. What have we been up to? Preparing 1:25,000 historic #maps to be added to our already enormous mapping collection, and the first batch of 158 maps has been released pn #MapMonday from 1945-6. Enjoy! buff.ly/l2uXTy6

www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/File:Mu... Does anyone else remember the old blue "Motorway" direction signs?

I wasn’t going to write while I was away, but sometimes you find something so completely arresting that you have to share it, if only to see if everyone else feels the same goggle-eyed bewilderment. Join me in a brief trip to Tokyo’s Nihonbashi Bridge. roadsorguk.substack.com/p/a-bridge-u...

Wobbly wobbly jelly people only. (No, not a manufacturing defect, this is the official design, which a whole committee of people must have looked at and thought, yes, that’s the one.)

Possibly worst screenshots ever but - from a YouTube film that shows a trip on the 'new' A1M & across N London to Heathrow in 1962 & an eclectic mix of traffic signs. Worth a glance. @showmeasign.online @sabre-roads.org.uk @roads.org.uk youtu.be/pQISKUwhP6I?...

This #MapMonday, let's take another look at part of SABRE Maps. Today is one of our favourites - Map Fader. Pick a layer that you want to look at, click the "Map Fader" button, and pick a second layer, and compare the two! It works with any #map layers we have, so you can easily see any changes!

Find out more about Route Confirmation Signs here: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/Route_C...

Terence Cuneo & the "heroic age" of motorways - a view from a helicopter of the southern section of the London - Birmingham /Yorkshire motorway on the cover of a publicity book issued by the builder's ,John Laing, in 1959. @roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online @sabre-roads.org.uk ↘️ flic.kr/p/2sw4M43

Ah, our old MSN Group. And since those early days, we've grown hugely with our Forums, the SABRE Wiki and SABRE Maps (@maps.sabre-roads.org.uk) being the highlights, but also our presence elsewhere meaning we're recognised as the place to ask about all things British and Irish roads.

Another part of SABRE Maps that you might not have used or forgotten about is our Sheetfinder - pick your scale, click on the location and the #maps covering that location at that scale appear in the right hand area. Click on the thumbnail, and it takes you to the map. Easy! buff.ly/f7tZpdc

A chat with @municipaldreams.bsky.social about Birmingham's penchant for redevelopment/reconstruction - a key memory for me growing up there in the late '60 - reminded me of this image from G. Dowling's lovely Flickr set. @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online flic.kr/p/eHexpV

It's like watching the slow demise... the god tier gantry structure though - prove me wrong. (1st pic is by Andy Clarke)

New Gort motorway plaza to feature 54 bicycle stands for local residents - if Supermac's row back on their vow to stop negotiating with the Irish planning system

100 years ago last month, the Portway in Bristol opened. Originally allocated to the A36, it was renumbered as A4 in the 1935 numbering revisions. A century later it is still a major link in and out of the city. What are your experiences of it? #bristol #roadgeeks

Ah - the "Inner Ring Road" - how very 1960s! Footage of Coventry being pulled apart by the City Council - & with some fine 'temporary' signs! @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk Full film - & others - from Mike Roberts/YouTube youtu.be/F4nFKrfkFFM?...

A 'big blue sign' - part of '60s & 70's UK streetscape announcing a new road project - here the Ministry of Transport & the old West Riding County Council for the M62. Shots of plant crossing A640 with old trolleybus poles & GEC lighting. @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online

@showmeasign.online The M65 a bit of a weird motorway, isn't it? It seemingly exists for no apparent reason, connecting a number of (in the grand scheme) small towns in the Calder Valley to Preston. There's a lot of major cities that don't get that type of high tier road building.

It's amazing what you find on industrial estates in deepest Northamptonshire. A once common sight on Britain's streets - an installation of 1950/60s Revo Electric 'Dalek' C13723 sodium street lamps on a contemporary steel column & bracket giving off very Wolverhampton vibes! #history #streetscape

I’m away this summer, so please enjoy this piece I wrote for the Friends of Brompton Cemetery Magazine earlier this year, about one of London’s unbuilt motorways, and what it might have been like to try to exist alongside it.

This #MapMonday we'll leave a reminder of one of the other applications in the SABRE Maps family - the Co-ordinate Finder. Mouse over the map of GB or IRL, and get the location of that point in lots of modern and archaic co-ordinate formats. Perfect for map nerds like us! buff.ly/JraIUl8

@roads.org.uk

m28.ie/ringaskiddy-... ROI just casually reopening the 'strikethroughs on prohibition signs' argument I see. Also, I like the fact they have "Protected Roads".

Surprise as Chiltern Chalfont has its rejection overturned, leaving us again with two rival service stations planned for the M25

And the full story is held on one of our other associated sites: Pathetic Motorways. pathetic.org.uk/features/num...

Motorway signalling is a complex topic, with strict regulations about what can and can't be displayed. Emergency situations like the Pennines being on fire call for unusual - if unfortunately not consistent - messages.

Another #MapMonday means more #maps on SABRE Maps! This week we bring 8 Half Inch maps from 1970-72. Our favourite in this batch are the western half of the OSNI Half Inch Second Series from 1970, which includes all of County Donegal as well as the western half of NI. buff.ly/0iOZSxr

Scenes that no longer exist...

Family visit to Harlow, where it's always nice to stumble across one of the original 1950s pre-Worboys road signs.

Not my photos but here's two examples of accidentally capturing something we didn't think there was a single record of. This is the sign discussed here: www.roads.org.uk/blog/imperfe... TAKE PHOTOS. You may never know what you're accidentally preserving forever.

It’s the short-lived “French horn” sign at Strensham! See my history of this one notorious sliproad here: www.roads.org.uk/blog/imperfe...

It's 60 years old today... yikes.

Sign from the construction of the Preston By-Pass, first section of the M6 Motorway, seen in a 1958 BBC Archives film on British roads. The lower name is that of Sir James Drake, Lancashire's County Surveyor & Bridgemaster, a highly influential figure in UK post-war road development.

Woolley Edge is the latest motorway service area to get some drive thru units

Temporary arrangements where you are directed onto a motorway inescapably used to be frowned upon but recently they're starting to appear more. Maybe a consistent sign could be developed?

Some rather non-standard signs along with an installation of Revo Electric of Tipton street lighting - some of the fascinating scenes in another excellent BBC Archives film "The State of Britain's Roads" from 1958. @roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online @sabre-roads.org.uk youtu.be/yQesCbCXyTM?...