Britain's 1st full-length Motorway (M1) opens, 1959

A short piece of film about British motorists being unaccustomed to Motorway driving, 1959 onwards.
A Standerwick Leyland Atlantean double-deck coach is in the starting sequence. The intended A6(M) that actually got numbered M6, at just over 8 miles road length near Preston was the actual first motorway opened in the UK in 1958.

[@tiberius5245]

What an amazing time to have lived. I feel like everything new that comes out these days just does not have the same meaning and shock as it did back in those times.

[@geraldwright905]

My dad drove us down the M1 on the first day it opened

[@kristianbamforth6072]

Hi Gerald, I’m working for a TV company in Leeds called True North. I’m currently doing some research on the history of the M1 for a new TV programme. I’d be really interested to hear more about any memories you have from that day and to talk to you about the series. If you’re willing to spare a few minutes to talk to me, you can contact me at [e-mail] Thanks

[@MrRabson55]

When I was a kid we lived along this road and my dad often advised me to go and play on it...!!

[@JungleTunes94]

It made my dads life when we had a bypass built in town. Up until then it was go and play on the m40. That soon changed to go and play on the bypass.

[@kristianbamforth6072]

Hi, I’m working for a TV company in Leeds called True North. I’m currently doing some research on the history of the M1 for a new TV programme. I’d be really interested to hear more about any memories you have from that day and to talk to you about the series. If you’re willing to spare a few minutes to talk to me, you can contact me at [e-mail]

[@fr0zty_rev3nge54]

My great uncle engineered that

[@FartyMcbongos]

amagine the aa throwing petrol across the motorway and setting fire to it these days lol there'd be compensation claims all over the place lol

[@pm-bg9mu]

He put petrol across 3 lanes to warn other drivers " bloody hell man !!

[@amojak]

they were driving into certain doom, what else could he do with the technology back then?

[@winsomehax]

Greatest quote ever.

[@UnIimited_Power]

Then a few cars stopped right in the petrol, you could hear the screams but they soon stopped so I presume everything was alright and went on my way.

[@andynixon2820]

They say we've got soft in modern times but maybe we've just got a bit smarter when it comes to safety .

[@alvarocoronel67]

And soft.

[@cybercat1531]

@@alvarocoronel67 softie.

[@exhatter]

Re-Zephyr 6. I have my doubts about the Commer Van too. I remember the day it opened. We went to a bridge just north of Luton and played spot the car. Now it;s Spot the gap between cars. Interesting to see that even in 1959 some people thought the inside lane was there to get you onto the slip road and not to drive along even when empty!

[@hebneh]

And no guardrails or walls around the obstructions or in the median. Run into the support pillar of an overpass, or swerve into the oncoming lanes - while going as fast as your car would go - and you would be pulverized into a wet splatter. Unfortunately, other people might be squished at the same time due to your mistake.

[@Neddyfram]

The bridges were designed to bounce people back into their side of the motorway.

[@WiltshireByways]

You wouldn't dare waste a gallon of petrol doing that today!

[@RRaquello]

It's fascinating that two supposedly advanced an forward looking countries like the UK & US didn't build modern national highways until as late as the 1950's. In the US we had privately financed or state toll roads like the Lincoln Highway or the Pennsylvania Turnpike as far back as the 30's, but there was no modern, integrated interstate system until the 50's and same thing in Britain.

[@buddhastaxi666]

It was a lot of fun in a MK2 Jag doing 130mph.

[@godfreyih]

Oh dear god. I remember the opening of the M1. The British, exhausted by WW2, nonetheless seemed constitutionally unwiling to embrace change (especially when it was for the better), sat back and watched with envy and resentment as the Germans developed their autobahn system, and were fundamentally bewildered by, mesmerised by, and deeply frightened of motorways The Ambridge mindset of the average Brit, so clearly on display in this clip, reminds me why I emigrated all those years ago.

[@stevecarter8810]

We're absolutely addicted to a pastoral pastiche of the good old days. If it doesn't look like a 1920s Rupert annual it's no good.

[@theroastpig3437]

The M1 wasn't the first motorway in Britain, the Preston By-pass was.

[@julianwhitbred7070]

Thank you, karl pilkington

[@johnmichael5109]

That's true but the m1 was the first full length motorway, the Preston by pass was first part motorway built (m6)

[@PanglossDr]

What is a full length Motorway? What a stupid comment. A Motorway is a Motorway. Anyhow the M1 is not yet a 'full length' motorway as it does not go to Edinburgh.

[@amanda59ful]

The Roast Pig kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3jOc4Z7mq9opQ

[@matthewvwuk]

True Roast Pig! And it was built in 1958 without any central reservation barriers either if my memory serves me correctly!

[@MrDaiseymay]

Most people, including my dad, drove worn-out prewar cars in the 50's--and most of them were destroyed by these motorways. Nobody up to then, would drive none stop for hours at the same speed. Even the new cars weren't built for it.

[@carolinetv5112]

The worlds first Motorway was of course in Italy.. Autostrada dei Laghi built in 1924.

[@KofelinaPL]

It wasn't the first one. The first motorway was the Preston Bypass which is now part of the M6

[@WAYNE1977100]

That Ford Anglia smashed a burned out. Nasty.

[@Scambush]

Yeah but it took the post-WWII boom and the massive increase in traffic to warrant the need to build these superhighways.

[@mr2gti]

Admit it, we all expected "flat out!", not "don't" lol

[@chanctonbury63]

More than 20 years after the first German one.

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

chanctonbury63 Berlin AVUS early 1920s

[@mrspivvy]

@noinas01 Yes, and a commer van, also not around in '59

[@xaiano794]

don't forget there were no speed limits then either.

[@dav01kar]

Wish the roads were as clear now, as back in them days. lol

[@shaunthesheep2011]

lol no speed limit. ;D

[@1100HondaCB]

A 803cc Minor would do about 50mph at the best then you had someone in a high powered car that would achieve triple figures.

[@paulbroderick8438]

I believe Jaguar used to 'test drive' their products on the M1 in the 'anything goes days'!

[@nellcarpenter2332]

Hello, Please could you let me know the original source of this film? Thank you, Nell

[@sharonwood5823]

Hi Fleetline119. Can you let me know where you got this footage from please? I am trying to source a copy of the AA patrolman's interview for a project I am working on. Thanks

[@soundnicetome]

Yes and look at this idea today in 2012....most of the motorways have become racetracks.Swaves of millions of tons of tarmac/concrete around the country is not my idea of progress...but thanks for posting this piece of travel history.

[@Frates1]

Bring back the gallon, I hate litres !!!

[@hellonpluto]

Throw petrol on the motorway and set fire to it! LMAO!!!

[@Frates1]

@shakin2009 4/3 is about 20.5p. There is 240 old pennies to £1. 12 d to a shilling and a shilling is 5 new pence what we use now. d is what a penny used to be, i.e lsd, pound, shilling and pence. At least more people could count then lol !

[@OlegKostoglatov]

A late 40s Ford Popular blowing up on the motorway (freeway) who would have imagined that? What was the top speed for that car, 45 mph with a tailwind? Little side valve four cylinder engine with a small bore and a long stroke, I can just imagine the pistons trying punch their way through the cylinder head.

[@PanglossDr]

100E if I remember rightly.

[@TEMUJINARTS]

Hmmm..thats a great comment. YES finally proper use of the comment section on youtube. Insightful, helpful, useful comments. Where did u emigrate to? And why there? ( Id love to hear more about those times...)

[@Fleetline119]

4 shillings = 48 old pence [12 old pence per shilling] = 20 (new 1971) pence.

[@burhaanahmed5965]

before fog lights invented ☝️ classic..

[@leapoffaith20]

@shakin2009 4 shillings and 6 pence As anybody who's had a quick look at recent history would tell you.

[@DerAngriff]

@godfreyih Interesting observation. You note social and cultural reasons for the slowness to update transport systems but what about the economic perspective as a drag on infrastructure investment? I recall that food and petrol rationing in the UK was only stopped in the early 50's! WW2 was ruinous to the UK but somehow Japan and W Germany were able to perform an economic miracle a scant 15 years after the war - while it appeared that UK industry languished. This despite German/Japanese major industrial centres being flattened in WW2 or carted away for war reparations.

[@DerAngriff]

Given that British industry did have technical competence and innovation thanks to its rearmament's requirements in WW2, you've got to wonder what the fuck happened that it could not sustain it's industrial capabilities? I just watched another of these Brit docos and it was illuminating that by 1959, the port city of Yokohama, Japan was emerging as a ship building behemoth.... fast forward 30 years and its South Korean shipyards pumping out ships. Hmm. Maybe I just answered the 'what the fuck' part.

[@stuartfillingham7011]

yeah I think the reason germany and japan recovered so quickly was because of the massive amount of financial aid given to them to get back on their feet! England of course being one of the allies got no aid at all and had to recover under its own steam. vw is a good example. an anglo american project to build hitlers forgotten beetle.to get the german economy going, and the german people mobile again, thats how vw started, with our money and personel. once we got it going we just gave it back to them, and off they went. that happened in all industries in japan and germany!

[@burnleyfan11965]

Think youre pretty much right.I was in hospital not long before Christmas with a broken leg and there was an old boy in the next bed who had gone to Germany in 1949 with the army.,further east the Berlin airlift was happening so in the western half of Germany the allies were just chucking money at them. The idea being so those under Russian control might rebel when they found out how things were in the western part. and more importantly to stop the rise of Nazism as apparently there were still more than a few Nazi sympathisers.around.

[@MrDaiseymay]

Ford of America sent their top engineer to take a look at the VW Beetle--with a view to buying the company. He wrote back that --among other negatives ---'The engine sounds like a clapped out stone crusher, and this company has no commercial value what-so-ever.'' Worse than Decca turning down the Beatles'.

[@leowoodland4785]

Now's the moment to check your figures: Britain got more Marshall Aid than any country - almost as much, in fact, as the next two countries added together

[@zzhughesd]

Just jump on the slip and race to end. Fab. No speed limits or owt ?

[@bottleandscrap7626]

Classic

[@Coffeeisnecessarynowpepper]

I have absolutely no idea what the hell that means because I live in the North Eastern land of Argntinian Americas

[@shakin2009]

4 and what a gallon? and whats that in denari please, who the heck knows what that is

[@Debbiebabe69]

In denari it is 52 per gallon. In those days the currency system was in £ s d, which was known as 'pounds shillings and pence' but the symbols actually stood for 'librum solidus denari', therefore in that system 1 denari was 1 penny. Four and threepence was 52p, hence 52 denari per gallon.

[@OlegKostoglatov]

So do I, damned French system.

[@chanctonbury63]

Whats that at the end. Granada services??? Yuk!

[@scottpeacock5492]

If the motorway was built in 2023, you would get eviromenalist nutters objecting the motorway, this country can not even have HS2 without eviromentalist objecting the scheme, Just look at the states of our roads today, jam after jam.

[@jamesfaulkner396]

America help rebuild Japan and Germany as simple as that