Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motorway

Im not sure if this is the right forum for this thread, but I am posting it here anyway!

I was recently chatting to my uncle (who was a plod for 27 years including a traffic sergant for 12 years in the Merseyside bacon), and we got chatting about the M53 motorway. He was telling me all about the history of it and how it never ended up the way it was originally panned.

He was also telling me about the "relics" you can still see along the original planned route of it.

Anyway, needless to say, this was all a bit confusing trying to picture it all at the time although I got the gist of what he meant.

So I decided to have a look on the internet for information and came across a website called the CBRD Motorway Database.

One the website I found two very interesting web pages:

- Overview of the M53 Motorway

- The original plans and story of what actually happened

Ive found it all very interesting, indeed me and Pomp were discussing it for quite a while before. It is mad to see the original planned route that it should have taken and how it actually ended up.

I agree with the CBRD, it did end up a complete bodge job, something like you see Del Boy doing on OFAH lol! But fortunatly, it seems to have actually worked out well, as it does not tend to struggle.

Its amazing to think that from Junction 5 onwards (Eastham/A41 Junction) its wasnt "really" a motorway, and originally it was given the name M531 because they tried to convert it into a motorway.

It has certainly made me look at the M53 a bit differently lol!

What are your opinions or comments? Anyone on here old enough to remember much about it at the time it was actually getting built?

I always wondered why the older generation call it the "contaversial" M53. Well now we know why!

I had a feeling u would post this up after the lecture u gave me on msn.

if you cant be bothered reading this jst click on the links he provided and look at the pictures.
Thats what made me take interest.

I can't say I'm that much bothered about what was planned or how it turned oot. And I can't say much more than sadness when you were discussing it for quite a while. Just not my cuppa tea I'm afraid. Good to see it's kept you entertained though

Far too much time on my hands is the words you are looking for

Interesting stuff.

I love the 53, the high speed section past juction 4 northbound is great (where its 3 or 4 lanes wide and downhill)

TBH i think the junction 2A bit is a ******* rubbish idea,yea its convinient but a narrow B road would have done fine,its quiet as fook that part of the Mway

Matty, i am sure webby would know all of the facts in detail as he was a teenager in 1970 when all of this happened

I always heard that the council designed the original Motorway mostly above ground. Billy Leverhulme wasn't too happy with being able to see the motorway from his land so he got his engineers to redesign it (at reduced cost from original plan, possibly due to Billy giving some land away cheaply) so that it was not visble from his land, hence the long sections of motorway that are below ground level or have big embankments.

Wirralwiki

Interesting information there matey! I wonder if anyone has any photos of the old flyover that wasnt to be that went over the Northbound carriageway from Junction 5 that was removed in the early 2000's?

I saw an M531 sign about a month back, can't remember quite which Junction it was on, but I didnt have me camera with me at the time to get a photograph.

I was always fascinated by Motorways as a child and loved the info on CBRD - I'm in aggreement with the author of those pages too in the way that some of the junction especially 2 and 3 seem far too big for the volumes of traffic that they get.....

I came across this site today whilst looking for Bidston Airfield.

http://www.iht.org/motorway/page1.htm

Found some nice articles on the M53 and M56. I vagely remember the 56 extension.(http://www.iht.org/motorway/m56haplea.htm)

M53:

http://www.iht.org/motorway/m53midwir.htm

"In the 1960's, Vauxhall Motors decided to build a car factory at Hooton, Ellesmere Port, on the site of a disused airfield. However, the existing road access was totally inadequate.

A new road network was required within the immediate area, to serve the development. Not only was it essential for the supply of raw materials, and as a reasonable means of access for employees, but it was required also for the delivery of finished vehicles to markets in all parts of the country and abroad.

The site was close to Ellesmere Port itself, at the western end of the Manchester Ship Canal, and near to the Docks at Birkenhead and Liverpool.

In particular, access was needed to the A41, the major road between Chester and Birkenhead.

In view of the employment which the factory would bring to the area, the Cheshire County Council was keen to assist in the development. Following negotiations with the Company it was agreed that a new dual two-lane carriageway road would be constructed from a junction with the A41 at Hooton, and a junction with the A5032 immediately north of Ellesmere Port, both of which would be grade separated. The latter would link directly into the site of the new factory and its cost would be met by the Company.

Both the factory and the 2½ mile long road, known initially as the 'Hooton Industrial Road', were built concurrently by the same Contractor.

Although primarily serving the needs of the factory when completed in 1968, it soon became apparent that there was an expanding need for even better facilities. It was decided, therefore, to extend the road southwards, through Ellesmere Port for a further 2½ miles, as far as the A5117 and to provide grade separated junctions. On completion of this section, in the summer of 1975, and upgrading to a dual two-lane carriageway standard, the whole length was designated as the M531, the first 'county motorway' in Cheshire.

Meanwhile, in 1965, G Maunsell and Partners, the firm of Consulting Engineers, was appointed by the Ministry of Transport to carry out a location study for a new route serving the Wirral Peninsula generally. It was to commence from the southern end of the second Mersey Tunnel (Wallasey-Liverpool), at Bidston, and terminate in the Hooton-Sutton area."

...

"The design of the Woodchurch Interchange was unusual and, at that time, the only one of its type in the country. It is, in effect, a three-level interchange fitted into a two-level site, by having an elongated roundabout with rising gradients. Features controlling the design were the limited headroom under, and in close proximity to, a railway; the Fender River flood water levels; a nearby block of flats; and the limited availability of land due to new development."

Remember the monstrosity in B-head town years ago? The flyovers that landed slap bang in the middle of conway street with the bingo hall to the side of it plenty o' concrete there.

IF you google the eastham exit ,look at the the sliproads and the carriage way there is a piece of road that goes nowhere.it was meant to be a branch off that was to go to the welsh road but was never completed ,there is a history of motorways site out there which will explain more but cant remember the name at the mo :>
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=eastham+,wirral&ie=UTF8&ll=53.303522,-2.971662&spn=0.018336,0.057077&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=0

You can just see the direction the road would of taken and where the trees have been cleared

The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motorway

Always wondered why the road was built like that.

cheers for that.