Britain's Abandoned Roads - Episode 8 - Ringways Project - M23 & M40 Motorways

#abandoned #roads #Ringways
The Ringways project... A delightful scheme to fill Greater London and the surrounding areas with motorways. An ambitious project that ultimately was cancelled. What remains of this project... I go on a trip to find out!
Welcome to Britain's Abandoned Roads. In this series, I go out to explore some of the UKs abandoned or disused roads. Old roads in the woods, motorway junctions or forgotten slip roads, this series has it all! Join me as I travel all over the country seeking out forgotten and abandoned infrastructure.
Be sure to follow us on twitter - @JonShenanigans

[@peterharris3006]

The abandoned M40 slip road was the original westbound entry slip at J1, when the M40 opened in 1973. The western M40 overbridge at Denham roundabout is far wider than its eastern counterpart because it was originally designed to accommodate slip road diverge/converges to the M25 junction which was intended to be to the east of Denham roundabout. When the current routing was adopted a shorter, steeper slip road was needed to allow adequate space between the J1 entry and J1a diverge, a westbound lane drop at J1 was implemented for the same reasons. Denham roundabout was considerably enlarged to accommodate the M40, you can still see bits of the original layout. Denham Roundabout is about 2miles from Uxbridge, Ricky is about 7 miles further north. BTW Go and explore M4 J8, the abandoned slip roads were there in the late 70s but have now disappeared. You can see the original line of the M4 which is mow bisected by the A308(M).

[@rambler241]

Thanks - you saved me the effort of putting tight the history of the "unused" slip road - the original Denham Roundabout to M40 slip, before the roundabout was converted to 2-way operation and the traffic-light controlled junctions installed. Thanks also for the additional info!

[@rambler241]

Almost forgot to mention the off and on sliproad "stubs" still visible between J3 and J4 M40 originally intended for a Service Station that was never built, but would have been rather useful over the period before the SS was built off M40 J2 some years ago. Visible on Google Maps midway between Spring Lane and Abbey Barn Lane, which pass underneath the M40.

[@leopold7562]

Thanks for this. I was wondering why the westbound entry slip was abandoned in favour of the stubbier one that exists now, when the eastbound exit slip is the originally planned one.

[@verticality809]

gotta just take a quick break from my BAroads marathon this morning too say I love these short films - narration is witty and informative in just the right ratio - videography is so perfectly grim and yet ambitious too. viewing crack and I salute your efforts.

[@brucedanton3669]

Thank you for this of course-well done too!!

[@e28forever30]

This reminds me of how the E19 highway between Antwerp and Brussels suddenly stops and you have to leave it and take the ring road around Brussels for a while, until the E19 suddenly re-emerges..! It was originally planned to go straight trough Brussels, but that plan was abandoned, you can clearly see unused exit and entrance roads on the North side of Brussels.

[@paulsengupta971]

Funny I should be reading this now, I was on the E40/E19 Brussels ring road on Sunday... (I'm in the UK)

[@backpack-travels-uk]

Great video. There's a lovely tiny bit of abandoned motorway at the Leicester end of the M69 but don't think you can get at it without crossing the live motorway. Was originally supposed to be a much grander interchange with the M1.

[@toblerone0104]

I think it was meant to carry on into Leicester, but local intervention prevented this? The main carriageway instead split down the slip roads (hence why it goes down to two lanes) to the M1 interchange roundabout. I believe the M69 would’ve gone over the M1 on a flyover.. details are hazy from chatting to a retired highways engineer years ago!

[@tyymclarenfan]

I live by the denham roundabout, as always wondered what the extra wide road was over the m40 @denham was for, as now everything makes sense 👍

[@johnboden5122]

Loving these videos! There aren’t many exciting abandoned roads in Northern Ireland - just a strip of old A26 right at the end of the airport runway. We tend to just redesignate any old roads and they’ve messed together most of the old motorway plans

[@AutoShenanigans]

Thanks for watching. I'd love to get over to Ireland but boats aren't my thing. Any good car rentals over there? :D

[@ItsAllIndieFred]

What about the motorway thats in parts, I remember being there in 2008 and there even was a motorway in the middle of two roundabouts?

[@johnboden5122]

@@ItsAllIndieFred Yes - The M2 in Northern Ireland was only partially built. It ends, you leave at a roundabout and follow some poor dual carriageway for 15 miles and it reappears as a bypass of a town and ends again. The M12 has a dinner plate sized roundabout in the middle because they didn’t take the money to build an additional bridge. The A8(M) is probably the one you’re thinking of between the two roundabouts. It’s only a mile long - it was actually the route the M2 was meant to take but it was rerouted so it remains as a very short motorway grade section.

[@marienbad2]

Grange Hill! Even now I can remember the music and the comic-style titles.

[@heene]

I've always been interested in how the M23 ends and that you go under one of the bridges when joining or leaving the M23 which you would be going over had it been completed. South of the A23 the dual carriageway was replaced with a triple carriageway. One side of the dual carriageway was converted into a single carriageway local road and the other carriageway was abandoned. There is also a blocked off sliproad in that area which which would have led to something that was never completed or even started.

[@dange65]

I’m always on the lookout like the one just past the old eastbound cobham services just before the inn on the lake near shorne

[@TheOwlinbayern]

came here for the jaunty, lo-fi Grange Hill theme at the end. Got educated a little on the way.

[@MrGreatplum]

Duck tales and Grange Hill - you spoil us, sir! I live not too far from the M23 stub bit - apparently in the 90s that bridge was used for a lot of raves! 😆

[@georgekurgansky5986]

Wicked! Love this sort of thing!

[@AutoShenanigans]

Thanks for watching :)

[@1975ukandbored]

So do I

[@sarahstrong7174]

Thankyou for sharing.

[@Richard-fv7rq]

Ah so that's what that piece of road at Denham is all about! Driven past there 1000's of times and often wondered what that was for/from! Thanks.

[@kevinrayment457]

Great set of videos. There is an abandoned road in a village where I used to live called Bicknacre in Essex. I believe someone told me it once used to be used for transporting salt from Maldon to retendon. It goes from the junction of white elm and slough lane south to main road. It was on old maps such as the 1895 Ordnance Survey County Series, but now is pretty much just a footpath, so is older than your examples, but I found it quite weird as to why it was dropped. Not sure if this is modern enough for your series?

[@AutoShenanigans]

A quick look and it might be little more than a dusty path now. i shall do further research. Thanks for the suggestion! :)

[@jezkendall1893]

Looking at the old maps I can see a possible road from slough woods/slough house down to the bend on Hackmans Lane - is that the one you mean ?

[@defender1006]

An interesting one, as I known both of those locations, as others have said that slip road was originally used to join the M40 before the junction with the M25 junction was there, it was very much longer that the current one.

[@RichieRouge206]

A good set of roads abandoned that are worth checking out is In Llanberis, North Wales - a series of streets built for a proposed industrial estate I think. The streets and lights are there but it’s all overgrown now

[@benjones1917]

The A27 arriving into the East of Arundel just sort of stops as well, with a tiny stub of road carrying on. Although I believe this may be taken up with the new A27 route around Arundel that's proving really rather controversial...

[@buxvan]

It's a great place to join a traffic queue though !

[@t2stu]

I've always been fascinated by that bit on the M23. For years l lived in wonder on where that stretch of motorway went. Turns out it's nowhere.

[@nornironnomad]

Can you make a video about the Belfast Urban motorway plans? Or much of the unfinished motorway network in Northern Ireland? That would be great to see

[@sarahstrong7174]

Hi John, I think you should hold a blackberry themed festival on one of these abandoned roads. There could be a blackberry themed pop-up pancake house, things for the kids to play on, auto-gadget sales etc. Booksales. Music etc. Plus pick-your-own. Etc.

[@AutoShenanigans]

Pretty crap phones by todays standards though.

[@sarahstrong7174]

@@AutoShenanigans Ha, Ha, Ha!

[@WardyLion]

Music by The Tim Traveller? Way back when, before I had you and Jay Foreman to warn me about the M23 stopping suddenly I very nearly got caught out while using said motorway for the first time. It would have been a very awkward conversation with the owner of the car I was driving (with permission and insurance!) had I not been paying attention!

[@scottd9448]

I remember that the police used to use it to pull over vehicles & it was open at both ends. There was a "police patrol vehicles only" sign posted.

[@6643bear]

Another great video, how about the old A2 on Dartford heather before they made Dartford by pass . Regards mark

[@sarahstrong7174]

I was a deprived child. They never bought me an etch-a-sketch. Only the favourite younger merited one o' they.

[@welshwizard645]

I use the M40 junction a lot and always wondered why the layout was a bit of a clusterfuck

[@russellmardling7156]

There's a very small section on the old A41 by the M25 Junction 20. It's gated off but you can see some old road furniture disappearing into the bank.

[@AutoShenanigans]

I've used that junction loads over the years and never noticed that!

[@garethaethwy]

So here's a suggestion for you: the M53/A41 junction on the Wirral. M53 continues on what was obviously a sliproad with the main carriageway continuing yet abandoned. Pathetic Motorways has rather a good article about the whole mess that once was the M531...

[@jedendwatrzy4189]

Twiddling with your knobs on your Etch-A-Sketch! Haha!

[@JeffFrankling]

Hi John, love the channel have you done Abandoned Roads - M12 ?

[@scottishcarenthusiastsandtrain]

Excellent video as always, sure I have come off at Denham many years ago while visiting the wife's family down south would I be right to say it's near Rickmansworth??

[@AutoShenanigans]

It's not far at all from Ricky.

[@dangerousandy]

Duck Tales - Woohoo!

[@lewismajor756]

In the late 80's early 90's when the police still undertook wide and abnormal load escort work, the Metropolitan Police used this slip road to park up abnormal loads they escorted out of London where they could then wait for the Thames Valley Police to take over

[@gary3561]

I get the impression the piano theme/music is thanks to a certain travelling Tim

[@dangerousandy]

Duck Tails theme tune!

[@tomicaclive464]

A wo-ooh!

[@chrishall3802]

Where can i download the closing music

[@oliverstemp9132]

There’s a grand half finished bridge in London dock lands

[@davidhazzard2460]

Grangehill ??

[@rechnin6680]

Duck Tales and Grange Hill?

[@lewis72]

Ah yes, I was just going to mention the video by one of the Map men, Map men, Map Map Map men men men men men.

[@AutoShenanigans]

Love a bit of map men.

[@damedavidfrith55]

Short but sweet like you 😂

[@timothyseabrook1584]

it will be fine if Londoners pay for it. through their rates and with tolls; as the. M42 relief road across the top of birmingham is funded if tolls are the thing for birmingham why not Londoners too?!

[@robinclayton8284]

55.107643988296765, -2.9811425266300247 the old A7 near canonbie runs for about a mile with one section only visited by dog walkers as its a dead end.