Now! Then! Barbara Castle visits the M62 construction site and ponders regional development via road-building

13 October 1967: Barbara Castle visits the M62 construction site and ponders regional development via road-building

David Dixon’s photo of Colonel Lovell’s Scammonden Bridge (1967-70) across the M62, at the time the longest concrete arch bridge in the UK (Dixon 2010/09/02).

Barbara Castle. 1984. The Castle Diaries, 1964-70. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Get it:

Excerpt

Friday, 13 October: It was a great moment to get out into the Pennines along the route of the M62 and to see, up in the hills, a Yorkshire Road Construction Unit crane on the skyline – “Colonel Lovell coming to meet us from the Yorkshire end.” This, the first east-west motorway, will revolutionize east-west links. I intend that there shall be more of these cross routes, instead of the endless radial routes into London. After a day talking to Drake, I can really begin to see how I can get better planning and priorities into the roads programme.
Saturday, 14 October: Emerging from my sleeper I ran into Harold Wilson back from his trip to the northern region. “That was a good speech of yours: roads for regional development. I’ve been quoting it all over the place.” “Yes, I’m determined to use roads more for this. It is the Treasury that has been the trouble with its insistence on economic return as the measurement. You just build where the traffic already is that way.” “Did you clear it with the Treasury?” “No. I just jumped the gun.”

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

The photo is taken from the A672 Oldham Road above Booth Wood Reservoir and appears to show Broad Ing Farm – did that survive?

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Original

Friday, 13 October
A most successful tour. It was a great moment to get out into the Pennines along the route of the M62 and to see, up in the hills, a Yorkshire RCU crane on the skyline – ‘Colonel Lovell coming to meet us from the Yorkshire end.’ This, the first east-west motorway, will revolutionize east-west links. I intend that there shall be more of these cross routes, instead of the endless radial routes into London. After a day talking to Drake, I can really begin to see how I can get better planning and priorities into the roads programme.

Scare about a bomb in my sleeper. The Preston CID were at the station to see me safely aboard. I slept well.

Saturday, 14 October
Emerging from my sleeper I ran into Harold back from his trip to the northern region. ‘That was a good speech of yours: roads for regional development. I’ve been quoting it all over the place.’ ‘Yes, I’m determined to use roads more for this. It is the Treasury that has been the trouble with its insistence on economic return as the measurement. You just build where the traffic already is that way.’ ‘Did you clear it with the Treasury?’ ‘No. I just jumped the gun.’ He laughed. ‘They’ll say it has got to come out of your PESC allocation.’ Well, I know that.

241 words.