Roundabout at Whitebirk, Blackburn (J6 on M65)

Image: © Mike and Kirsty Grundy Taken: 6 Aug 2005

When M65 reached here from Hyndburn (junction 7) in December 1984, it was anticipated that its continuation to the southwest would fly over this junction and plough right through Blackburn on its way to Preston. However, fashions change in road-building, and it turned out that the people of the town weren't very enthusiastic about high-speed traffic passing their front doors night and day, so the road constructed in the mid-1990s takes a sharp southward turn to go around Blackburn. This roundabout remains as a testimony to something started, but not quite finished. Straight ahead, towards the pylon, we can see an open patch of unused ground between the east-facing slip roads, where the M65 mainline would have been built in the original plans. The pair of slip roads further back (running past the large rectangular sign facing away from us) are built side-by-side, with no need to leave a gap in between until they diverge for the on-slip to pass under the motorway (out of sight from here).

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