Stanworth rock cutting, view east, 3 April 1995

Stanworth rock cutting, view east (see all photos of the same view)

The rock cutting, near the farmhouse in the middle of the picture, has begun - in the middle of the excavated earth, a small area of broken rock can be seen with rubble just in front of it. To the right of the picture, a large borrow pit has been created, one of several sites along the line of the M65 where extra earth was dug out to gather material to build embankments for the motorway.

Date
Direction of view
East

What's new

The road that made no sense

It was the UK's only single-carriageway motorway, and twenty years ago it ceased to exist. This is the story of the strange fascination it held, and of my place in history.

The forever bottleneck, part 2

The second part of the story, where we learn why exactly the M4 gets narrower on the final approach to Europe’s biggest city.

The forever bottleneck, part 1

The M4 into London was one of the UK's earliest and most ambitious motorway projects. It was bold, pioneering... and almost instantly regretted.

Share this page

Have you seen...

M25 Orbital Motorway

The M25 is either one of the greatest transport achievements of the 20th century or one of Britain's largest planning failures, depending on which way you look at it. This booklet takes the former view, celebrating the completion of the circuit in 1986.