Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick; the county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire and Bedworth, Rugby and Stratford-on-Avon; the current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. The historic county boundaries include Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham; the county is bordered by Leicestershire to the northeast, Staffordshire to the northwest and the West Midlands to the west, Northamptonshire to the east and southeast, Gloucestershire to the southwest and Oxfordshire to the south. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles from the Derbyshire border. An average-sized English county covering an area of 2,000 km2, it runs some 60 miles north to south. Equivalently it extends as far north as Shrewsbury in Shropshire and as far south as Banbury in north Oxfordshire; the majority of Warwickshire's population live in the centre of the county.
The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, include Atherstone, Bedworth and Rugby. Of these, Atherstone has retained most of its original character. Major industries included coal mining, textiles and cement production, but heavy industry is in decline, being replaced by distribution centres, light to medium industry and services. Of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby are well known outside of Warwickshire; the prosperous towns of central and western Warwickshire including Royal Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon, Alcester and Wellesbourne harbour light to medium industries and tourism as major employment sectors. The north of the county, bordering Staffordshire and Leicestershire, is mildly undulating countryside and the northernmost village, No Man's Heath, is only 34 miles south of the Peak District National Park's southernmost point; the south of the county is rural and sparsely populated, includes a small area of the Cotswolds, at the border with northeast Gloucestershire.
The plain between the outlying Cotswolds and the Edgehill escarpment is known as the Vale of Red Horse. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour; the highest point in the county, at 261 m, is Ebrington Hill, again on the border with Gloucestershire, grid reference SP187426 at the county's southwest extremity. There are no cities in Warwickshire since both Coventry and Birmingham were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves; the largest towns in Warwickshire in 2011 were: Nuneaton, Leamington Spa, Warwick and Kenilworth. Much of western Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry and Birmingham, was covered by the ancient Forest of Arden, thus the names of a number of places in the central-western part of Warwickshire end with the phrase "-in-Arden", such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. The remaining area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden.
Areas part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Sutton Coldfield and some of Birmingham including Aston and Edgbaston. These became part of the metropolitan county of West Midlands following local government re-organisation in 1974. In 1986 the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Birmingham and Solihull became effective unitary authorities, however the West Midlands county name has not been altogether abolished, still exists for ceremonial purposes, so the town and two cities remain outside Warwickshire; some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, still observe the historic county boundaries. The flag of the historic county was registered in October 2016, it is a design of a bear and ragged staff on a red field, long associated with the county. Coventry is in the centre of the Warwickshire area, still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as a single area and share a single Chamber of Commerce and BBC Local Radio Station.
Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history. In 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a county corporate in its own right, called the County of the City of Coventry. In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire. In recent times, there have been calls to formally re-introduce Coventry into Warwickshire, although nothing has yet come of this; the county's population would increase by a third-of-a-million overnight should this occur, Coventry being the UK's 11th largest city. The town of Tamworth was divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire, but since 1888 has been in Staffordshire. In 1931, Warwickshire gained the town of Shipston-on-Stour from Worcestershire and several villages, including Long Marston and Welford-on-Avon, from Gloucestershire. Warwickshire contains a large expanse of green belt area, surrounding the West Midlands and Coventry conurbations, was first drawn up from the 1950s. All the county's districts contain some portion of the belt.
The following towns and villages in Warwickshire have populations of over 5,000. Warwickshire came into being as a divisio
M5 motorway
The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands and the South West. It runs from Junction 8 of the M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Bromwich and west of Birmingham through Sandwell Valley, it continues past Bromsgrove, Droitwich Spa, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Weston-super-Mare and Taunton on its way to Exeter, ending at Junction 31. It is the primary gateway to South West England. Congestion is common during the summer holidays, on Friday afternoons, school and bank holidays on the section south of the M4; the M5 follows the route of the A38 road quite closely. The two deviate around Bristol and the area south of Bristol from Junctions 16 to the Sedgemoor services north of Junction 22; the A38 goes straight through the centre of Bristol and passes by Bristol Airport, while the M5 skirts both, with access to the airport from Junctions 18, 19 or 22. The A38 continues south into Devon from the motorway's terminus near Exminster.
Between Junction 21, Weston-super-Mare and Junction 22, Burnham-on-Sea, the M5 passes by an isolated landmark hill called Brent Knoll. The Willow Man sculpture is visible from both carriageways, acts as a landmark just to the south of Junction 23. Junction 15 of the M5 is a large four level stack interchange, called the Almondsbury Interchange, where the M5 meets the busy M4; the Avonmouth Bridge, between Junctions 18 and 19, is a bottleneck during heavy traffic periods, due to lane drops at either ends of the bridge for the respective junctions, the sharp angle in the centre of the bridge, which causes larger vehicles to slow considerably. There are split-level carriageways where the M5 ascends the hill sides above the Gordano Valley, between Portishead, Junction 19 and Clevedon, Junction 20. Junction 1 surrounds a surviving gatehouse from the former Sandwell Hall; the first 26 miles of the M5 motorway to be built were constructed as a dual two-lane motorway, with Worcestershire County Council acting as engineer.
This section, from Junction 4 in the north to a trumpet junction with the M50 in the south, opened in July 1962. The southern end was called a trumpet junction because of its shape: a 270 degree curved bend. There were no other exits from this trumpet junction though room was left for an extension to the south. Worcestershire County Council, the Police and the County Surveyor of Worcestershire made repeated representations that a dual 3-lane standard motorway was appropriate, however the Ministry of Transport insisted that a dual 2-lane motorway would be built at a cost of around £8 million; the Motorways archive records that the carriageways were built to a lower overall width of 88 feet rather than 100 to reduce the loss of agricultural land. When the decision became necessary to widen the Worcestershire section of M5, it cost £123 million; the 2 miles dual two-lane section between Junctions 16 and 17 built at Filton, near Bristol, was opened in 1962, was intended to replace the pre-war Filton bypass.
Gloucestershire County Council acted as engineer for this section, widened to a dual three-lane motorway in 1969. North of Junction 4 the M5 was constructed in sections, from 1967 to 1970, together with the Frankley services. Much of the northern section beyond Junction 3, from about Quinton to the junction with the M6 motorway, was constructed as an elevated dual 3-lane motorway using concrete pillars; the M5 was extended southwards, in sections, from 1967 to 1977, through Gloucestershire & Somerset, to Exeter in Devon as a dual three-lane motorway, together with the Strensham services. The short section between Junctions 27 and 29 was built between 1967 and 1969, by Devon County Council, as the A38 Cullompton Bypass, with the intention that it should become part of the M5; the termini for this section have since been removed, although part of the southern terminal roundabout is now used as an emergency access. The section was developed to motorway standards, incorporated into the M5 in 1975.
The section from Junctions 16 and 18 was illuminated in about 1973 as part or a wider policy announced by UK Minister for Transport Industries in 1972 to illuminate the 86 miles of UK motorway prone to fog. In the late 1980s Junction 4a was built as part of the M42 motorway construction project; the route of the M42 was decided as early as 1972 but, owing to planning delays, the short section of the M42 north of Bromsgrove did not open until 1989. As the M5 traffic increased in the 1980’s Junction 11, the main Gloucester & Cheltenham access became congested. At the same time there were plans for large scale business & housing developments at Brockworth, near Gloucester. To relieve Junction 11 of some of the new traffic generated, & avoid more congestion around both Cheltenham & Gloucester, a new junction, Junction 11A, some 3.5 miles south of Junction 11, was constructed & opened in the mid 1990’s. The first-built section of the M5, from Junctions 4 to 8, was widened to provide six lanes in the early 1990s.
During this work the northbound Strensham services was rebuilt further away from the new junction. Junctions 7 and 8 were remodelled into a roundabout junction; the Avonmouth Bridge was converted to eight lanes in the early 2000s. In 2005–2006, parts of the M5 between Junctions 17 and 20 were widened to 7 lanes.
M10 motorway (Great Britain)
The M10 was a motorway in Hertfordshire, running for 3 miles from the M1 motorway at junction 7 near Hemel Hempstead to the A414 North Orbital Road at Park Street Roundabout, just south of St Albans. Opened in 1959, it was reclassified as part of the A414 in 2009; the M10 opened on 2 November 1959 along with the M1 and M45, was designed and constructed by Tarmac Construction as part of the St Albans bypass. At the time, the M1's southern terminus was at junction 5 at Berrygrove, with the main route from there to the A1 in London being via the A41 Watford Bypass. Since the capacity of the A roads was much less than that of the motorway, a distributing spur was required to split up the traffic and reduce congestion at Berrygrove; the M10 was thus built to distribute southbound traffic on the M1 onto the A5 and, as an alternative, via the North Orbital Road and the A6 to the A1 Barnet Bypass. The M45 was the equivalent distributing spur at the northern end of the M1, is thus regarded as a sister motorway to the M10.
In years, as the M1 was extended southwards into London and the M25 was built, the M10's original purpose eroded. It was sometimes suggested that the motorway might have been extended to meet the M25 at junction 22, but this was never proposed. In December 2008, widening of the M1 between the M25 and Luton was completed, with non-motorway collector/distributor lanes built to link junction 8 of the M1, at Hemel Hempstead, with junction 7 and the M10; as traffic could now travel between Hemel Hempstead and Park Street Roundabout without having to access the M1, there was no need to keep the M10 as a motorway. Hence, on 1 May 2009, the M10 was downgraded to an A road, designated as part of the A414; this released the "M10" designation for use elsewhere. This had the added bonus of allowing lorries to park when waiting for access to a proposed rail freight depot. Otherwise if the proposed rail freight depot went ahead and it had remained a motorway there would have been nowhere for lorries to wait.
List of motorways in the United Kingdom CBRD Motorway Database – M10 Pathetic Motorways – M10 Roads UK – M10: A Short Spur With a Long History The Motorway Archive – M1/M10/M45
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. Part of Warwickshire, Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, it is the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham. Coventry is 19 miles east-southeast of Birmingham, 24 miles southwest of Leicester, 11 miles north of Warwick and 94 miles northwest of London. Coventry is the most central city in England, being only 11 miles south-southwest of the country's geographical centre in Leicestershire; the current Coventry Cathedral was built after the majority of the 14th century cathedral church of Saint Michael was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in the Coventry Blitz of 14 November 1940. Coventry motor companies have contributed to the British motor industry; the city has two universities, Coventry University in the city centre and the University of Warwick on the southern outskirts. On 7 December 2017, the city won the title of UK City of Culture 2021, after beating Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland to the title.
They will be the third title holder, of the quadrennial award which began in 2013. The Romans founded a settlement in Baginton, next to the River Sowe, another formed around a Saxon nunnery, founded c. AD 700 by St Osburga, left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016. Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary. In time, a market was established at the settlement expanded. Coventry Castle was a bailey castle in the city, it was built in the early 12th century by 4th Earl of Chester. Its first known use was during The Anarchy when Robert Marmion, a supporter of King Stephen, expelled the monks from the adjacent priory of Saint Mary in 1144, converted it into a fortress from which he waged a battle against the Earl. Marmion perished in the battle, it was demolished in the late 12th century and St Mary's Guildhall was built on part of the site. It is assumed. By the 14th century, Coventry was an important centre of the cloth trade, throughout the Middle Ages was one of the largest and most important cities in England.
The bishops of Lichfield were referred to as bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry. Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, was granted a charter of incorporation in 1345, in 1451 became a county in its own right; the plays that William Shakespeare witnessed in Coventry during his boyhood or'teens' may have influenced how his plays, such as Hamlet, came about. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main British centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, in Lancashire and Clerkenwell in London; as the industry declined, due to competition from Swiss Made clock and watch manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved crucial to the setting up of bicycle manufacture and the motorbike, machine tool and aircraft industries. In the late 19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle manufacture; the industry energised by the invention by James Starley and his nephew John Kemp Starley of the Rover safety bicycle, safer and more popular than the pioneering penny-farthing.
The company became Rover. By the early 20th century, bicycle manufacture had evolved into motor manufacture, Coventry became a major centre of the British motor industry; the research and design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is in the city at their Whitley plant and although vehicle assembly ceased at the Browns Lane plant in 2004, Jaguar's head office returned to the city in 2011, is sited in Whitley. Jaguar is owned by Tata Motors. With many of the city's older properties becoming unfit for habitation, the first council houses were let to their tenants in 1917. With Coventry's industrial base continuing to soar after the end of the Great War a year numerous private and council housing developments took place across the city in the 1920s and 1930s; the development of a southern by-pass around the city, starting in the 1930s and being completed in 1940, helped deliver more urban areas to the city on rural land. Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War. There was a massive Luftwaffe air raid that the Germans called Operation Moonlight Sonata, part of the "Coventry Blitz", on 14 November 1940.
Firebombing on this date led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and to Coventry's historic cathedral, leaving only a shell and the spire. More than 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with around three quarters of the city's industrial plants. More than 800 people were killed, with thousands injured and homeless. Aside from London and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre; the city was targeted due to its high concentration of armaments, munitions and aero-engine plants which contributed to the British war effort, although there have been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry Blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Britain. Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use.
Several structures were demolished to make way for
M42 motorway
The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, the National Exhibition Centre and Tamworth on the way, serving the east of the Birmingham metropolitan area. The section between the M40 and junction 4 of the M6 forms – though unsigned as such – a part of Euroroute E05. Beyond junction 11 the route is continued as the A42, the junctions on this section, 12–14, are numbered like a continuation of the motorway, but the road has non-motorway status from here; the M42 was first announced in 1972. The first section opened in November 1976 linking Birmingham International Airport with the M6 motorway; the curve around the south-eastern side of Solihull opened in September 1985 followed by the section from the M6 motorway with the A5 at Tamworth in December 1985. The southern section of the motorway to Alvechurch just north of Redditch to form a junction with the A441 and from A5 at Tamworth with the A444 at Measham opened in 1986.
In 1987 the section to the A38 at Bromsgrove, some 15 miles south of Birmingham was completed. And in December 1989 the motorway was completed with the opening of the link from the M5. A planned section north of the M6 running to the M1 near Nottingham was never constructed as planned being replaced by the A42 link. Junction 3a was remodeled to give priority to traffic operating between the now westbound section of the M42 and the new M40 motorway towards London in January 1991; the section of M42 between the M40 and the M5 was scheduled to be re-designated as an extension of the M40 at the same time, but this re-designation never took place. The section of the M42 between Junctions 7A and 9 was re-built as part of the M6 Toll works and now forms the link between the M6 and the southern end of the toll road; the M6 Toll opened in 2003. Active Traffic Management with hard shoulder running and variable speed limits were introduced in 2006. Since the 1980s, there have been constant plans to build a new service station on the motorway south of Birmingham Airport and the NEC, but this has yet to be built.
Along with sections of the M5 and M6, the southern sections of the M42 form the Birmingham Outer Ring Road motorway around Birmingham. Much like the M25 around London, the M60 around Manchester, there are areas where this orbital system does not work well. One such point is junction 3A, the link between the M42 and the M40, where traffic is heavy in the rush hour; the intersection between the M42 and M6 is very busy too when travelling along the M6. Active Traffic Management was launched as a pilot scheme on the M42 operating between junction 3a and 7 with mandatory variable speed limits, hard shoulder running, better driver information signs and a new incident management system; this system allows operators to open and close any lane to traffic in order to help manage congestion or an incident. Since it started in 2006 journey times have decreased by 26% northbound and 9% southbound and journey time variability has decreased by 27%. Due to the success of the trial this system was extended northbound to junction 9 of the M42 and southbound along the M40 to Junction 15 as part of the first phase of a nationwide roll out of the rebranded'Managed motorways.
A multiple vehicle collision involving 160 vehicles occurred on 10 March 1997 in fog in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire which resulted in 3 deaths and 60 injuries. Data from driver location signs are used to provide carriageway identifier information. If a junction extends over several hundred metres and both start and end points are known, both are shown. List of motorways in the United Kingdom Category:M42 motorway service stations CBRD Motorway Database – M42 The Motorway Archive – M42
M2 motorway (Great Britain)
The M2 is a motorway in Kent, England. It is 25.7 miles long and acts as a bypass of the section of the A2 road which runs through the Medway Towns and Faversham. It provides an alternative route to the port of Dover, supplementing that of the M20; the M2 starts west of Strood, Kent at Three Crutches, diverging southeastwards from the A2 road that heads ESE from Central London, one of five roads of dual carriageway width or greater reaching into the southern half of Greater London. From Junction 1 it has four lanes each way that slope into the Medway Valley south of Rochester. On the west bank of the River Medway is Junction 2 intersecting the A228 between Strood and West Malling, a junction where the master exit roundabout passes under the HS1 track and which retains, by footbridge and tunnel, the North Downs Way. By this point the road is mounted on the Medway Viaduct, passing over the Medway Valley railway and the river. On the east bank are Wouldham marshes and north are the elevated suburbs of the three conjoined Medway Towns including Borstal, a village nationally synonymous with its prototype 1902-founded Young Offenders' Institution.
The M2 ascends a steep stream valley to Blue Bell Hill using split-levels to reach Junction 3 by Walderslade. It takes the north of the escarpment of the North Downs becoming a conventional three lanes, runs northeast across Cossington Fields, Westfield Sole and Bredhurst towards Junction 4 where the road becomes two lanes to Junction 7. Continuing east, passing Medway Service area, it crosses the A249 over the Stockbury Viaduct at Junction 5, it takes the unusually gentle coastal lower slopes of the North Downs, below which 2 miles before its end, is Faversham north of Junction 6. It ends at Junction 7, allowing traffic to continue on either of two dual carriageways: the A299 for six coastal towns including four on Thanet or the upgraded A2 towards Canterbury and Dover as far as Lydden, 2 miles from the edge of Dover which mainly reduces to one operational lane each way; the initial section of the motorway was opened by the Transport Minister Ernest Marples on 29 May 1963, with the remainder being constructed in 1965.
It was opened in three stages: Junctions 1 to 2 in 1965 Junctions 2 to 5 in 1963 Junctions 5 to 7 in 1965It was planned to extend the M2 to London and Dover, making it the main route between London and the channel ports, but this extension never materialised due to a lack of traffic demand. Instead the A2 was improved from Brenley Corner to Dover; the M2 was to be designated as the A2, but as a result of the Daily Telegraph reporting it as the M2, the Ministry of Transport adopted this, decided upon the M20 designation for the main London-Channel Ports link. Aside from retrofitting central crash barriers, like all early motorways, the alignment of the M2 did not change until the late 1990s. Traffic using it decreased when the M20 was completed from London to Folkestone in May 1991, while the M2 continued to Canterbury and the North Kent ports of Sheerness and Ramsgate. Junction 1 was altered; the M2 was still busy between Junctions 1 and 4, suffered from HGVs blocking the outside lane. In 2000 work began on widening the M2 from two lanes to four lanes.
A joint venture between Costain and Mowlem created the company that would undertake the project. The project required the redesign of Junction 2 and Junction 3, a second Medway Bridge; the existing bridge was converted to a four lane eastbound carriageway. The new bridge formed the westbound carriageway; the entire stretch was lit with streetlights. The old Medway Bridge was physically narrowed by removing part of the footpath. High-pressure water cutting equipment was used to cut the concrete into manageable sections for disposal. There is only one path open to the public now. Spoil from the North Downs Tunnel was used to form the new embankment for the London bound traffic between Junction 2 and the Nashenden Valley; the widening was completed in July 2003. The M2 opened with a single service area between Junctions 4 and 5, named Farthing Corner Services and operated by Top Rank. Today the services are known as Medway services and are operated under the Moto brand with a Travelodge hotel; the services have an access road to the local network for service and delivery vehicles, not, like some motorway service areas, restricted with a gate or barrier.
This has led to local businesses using the services as an unofficial exit from the motorway. Data from driver location signs are used to provide carriageway identifier information. Where junctions extend over several hundred metres and the data are available, values are given for the start and end points of the junction. List of motorways in the United Kingdom CBRD Motorway Database – M2 Media – Photos Of the Medway Viaduct Under Construction Histories – Opening Booklets, including M2 Photographs of the Medway Viaduct From Its Public Footpath Photographs of the M2 between Junctions 5 and 7 The Motorway Archive – M2
M27 motorway
The M27 is a motorway in Hampshire, England. It runs between Cadnam and Portsmouth, it was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983. It is unfinished. A number of smaller motorways were proposed, connecting the city centres of Southampton and Portsmouth to the motorway. Three sections of the M27 have since been widened to four lanes each way, the first between Junctions 7 and 8, the second between Junctions 3 and 4, the third begins at the slip road where Junction 11 joins until mid-way to junction 12. Running parallel both to the coast of the Solent and to the A27, the M27 starts as an eastwards continuation of the A31 from Bournemouth and Poole, meets the A36 from Salisbury, crosses the Wessex Main Line railway, meets the M271 to central Southampton. After the M271, the road becomes a dual four lane motorway and passes Rownhams services, it meets the M3, reverting to a dual three lane motorway as it passes to the north of Southampton, passes Southampton Airport, meeting Junction 7 and becoming dual four lanes again becoming dual three lanes after Junction 8, it runs alongside the West Coastway Line as it heads south-east towards Fareham.
It runs alongside the northern outskirts of Fareham with a fourth climbing lane in either direction, before its junction with the M275 to Portsmouth. Shortly after this point the motorway ends, becoming the A27, a four lane dual carriageway to motorway standards until the junction with the A3 Motorway; the official reason for this section of road not being a continuation of the motorway is the hard shoulders being too narrow. Although the M275 which the M27 junctions with, has no official hard shoulders throughout its entire length; the M27 was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983. Junction 1 to 2 opened 20 August 1975 Junction 2 to 4 opened in December 1975 Junction 4 to 7 opened in 1983 Junction 7 to 8 opened in February 1978 Junction 8 to 12 opened in March 1976The South Stoneham Crematorium, located north of South Stoneham Cemetery, was demolished during 1973 to make way for the construction of the M27 motorway; the South Stoneham garden of remembrance is now located at the north end of the cemetery, adjacent to the motorway.
It has been said that the M27 was intended as a motorway connecting south coast towns from Penzance to Ramsgate. However the only proposal of a route similar to, by the Institution of Highway Engineers in 1936. Road developments in the New Forest are restricted due to its national park status; the M27 was meant to be extended to Chichester. It is not part of the M27 as its hard shoulders are not quite wide enough to comply with motorway regulations; the M272 was meant to go from Junction 5 through Portswood to the centre of Southampton. The M272 was instead built as the A335 Thomas Lewis Way. Junction 6 was never built – there were plans for a motorway spur connecting the M27 to the centre of the Townhill Park area of Southampton. A planned service area just east of Junction 9 was never constructed; the long westbound exit slip road at Junction 9 was designed to allow an entry to and exit from the service area. In November 2015, an elderly woman, Marion Munns, died after jumping from the A3057 bridge that crosses over the M27, into westbound traffic, just before Junction 3.
She had become distressed due to mental illness, escaped from her Southampton home through an upstairs window before climbing off the garage roof and running away. In March 2018, work began to upgrade the section between Junction 11 and Junction 4 to a Smart motorway; the scheme will turn the hard shoulder into a permanent 4th running lane, adding refuge areas along the route and installing new CCTV and speed cameras with mandatory variable speed limit signs. In early January 2019, official work began when average speed cameras were switched on between J5 and J4. Average cameras further along on the scheme will be turned on; the work is expected to be complete by 2021. Data from driver location signs are used to provide carriageway identifier information. Where a junction spans several hundred metres and start and end points are available, both are cited. Junction 1 is about 1,800 metres from The Rufus Stone, where King William II known as William Rufus, was killed in what may have been a hunting accident in 1100.
List of motorways in the United Kingdom CBRD Motorway Database – M27 The Motorway Archive – M27 TAB-MSAS: Photo Gallery: M27
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