Images Dated 22nd November 2021

Opening ceremony JLP01_08_67240

M6 Motorway, Knutsford Service Area, Knutsford, Tabley Superior, Cheshire East, Cheshire East. William Kirby Laing with the Rt. Hon. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, at the opening ceremony of a stretch of the M6 motorway through North Staffordshire and Cheshire held at Knutsford.
This photograph is from a batch which is recorded in the negative register as having been taken at Knutsford. However, in December 1963 in the Laing monthly newsletter Team Spirit, the photograph appears with an article recording that a short ceremony occurred at Keele Service area where a film was presented to the Chairman of Staffordshire County Council. This preceded the official opening, just over two hours later, of the Hanchurch-Lymm section of the M6 by the Rt. Hon. Ernest Marples. It also mentions that the minister had a tour of the motorway by coach. The opening ceremony is known to have occurred at Knutsford but some of the photographs may also have been taken at Keele

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection

M6 construction Madeley Heath JLP01_01_165_76

M6 Motorway, M6, Madeley, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. A view of the construction of the Birmingham to Preston Motorway (M6), looking south-east at Walton's Wood near Madeley Heath, showing excavation vehicles working beside a stream.
The work on the Birmingham to Preston Motorway (M6), between junctions J13 to J16 started in June 1960 and was carried out by John Laing Construction Ltd. This section at Walton's Wood presented geological problems for the construction team with an embankment failing when severe slipping occurred in 1961. By October 1963, remedial works on the embankment were completed. Water from the stream shown in the photograph was contained within a 1,000 foot long culvert and extensive drainage schemes were also constructed

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection

Keele cutting JLP01_08_059934

M6 Motorway, M6, Keele, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. A view of the construction of the Birmingham to Preston Motorway (M6), showing a 110 Ruston Bucyrus diesel/electric excavator carrying out the excavation of a mixture of marl and sandstone in the Keele cutting.
In the album, the typed caption below the photograph reads Excavating a mixture of marl and sandstone in the Keele cutting. A 110 Ruston Bucyrus diesel/electric excavator. This machine weighs 153 tons and has a bucket capacity of 4 1/2 cubic yards and is capable of excavating up to 300 cubic yards per hour. Two 4" Halco Stenwick drills can be seen drilling shot holes for the provision of blasting charges to prepare the excavation for the 110 R.B. The Keele cutting extended from the Market Drayton Railway Line to Springpool Wood. Excavation of the site had to be roughly 25 feet in depth and structures to be built on this section of the motorway included three culverts, Structure 352, a cattle creep and Structure 354, a single underbridge at the A531

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection