Another Country

 It was on this day in 1959 – 65 years ago, when I was rising ten years old – that Britain's first stretch of interurban motorway was opened, inevitably by publicity-hungry Transport Minister Ernest Marples (that's him in the picture, looking on the latest of his works, and no doubt feeling the hand of history on his shoulder). The section that was opened on this momentous day ran from Junction 5 (Watford) to Junction 18 (Crick/Rugby). It was a nice little motorway, with soft shoulders, no crash barriers, no speed limits, no lighting – and, by modern standards, virtually no cars. It was a popular entertainment in those days to watch what traffic there was going by on these startlingly wide (three-lane) roads. Yet again I find myself reaching for that well-worn phrase 'another world' – but it was another world, or at least another country, before the motor car finally took over, ruining many of our town and city centres, and clogging those once half-deserted highways with nose-to-tail traffic at all hours of the day and night. When I was at school, many, probably most, of the teachers didn't have cars, and came and went by bicycle or bus; nowadays not only the teachers but many of the older pupils drive to and from school – and many of the younger ones are picked up by parents in cars, an almost unheard-of thing in my day. 
   I remember 1959 for two other notable innovations – the unveiling of the first Minis (the Morris Mini-Minor and the Austin Seven – and mini they were, tiny by today's standards) and the first hovercraft. Both British inventions and both manufactured in Britain. As I say, another world...