M6 motorway
M6 motorway is the longest motorway in England, at 232 miles long. It links the M1 motorway and A14 road at Catthorpe in Leicestershire in the south, to the Guards Mill interchange in Cumberland, where the road continues as the A74(M) motorway to Scotland. A major road in the Midlands and North West of England, it serves several major cities, most notably Birmingham, as well as Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton. The M6 is bypassed around Birmingham and the Black Country by a parallel toll motorway, the M6 Toll; the M6 itself is, like most British motorways, entirely toll free. The first section of M6 to open, and aslo the first length of motorway in Britain, was the bypass of Preston in 1958; the present course of the motorway was completed 50 years later in 2008. Other major settlements on the M6 include (from north to south) Carlisle, Lancaster, Wigan, St Helens, Warrington, Newcastle under Lyme, Stafford and Rugby. It also, via adjoining motorways such as the M56, M61 and M62, serves the major south Lancashire towns such as Liverpool and Manchester, with traffic leaving at Warrington or Preston, the latter also being where traffic joins the M55 for Blackpool. It also serves traffic for the Lake District national park.
The M6 passes through the counties of (north to south) Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire, with the merger with the M1 being just short of the Northamptonshire border.
Course
The southern terminus of the M6 is at Catthorpe in Leicestershire, at junction 19 of the M1. At this point, southbound traffic joins either the M1 for Northampton and, ultimately, London, or the A14 which goes to Felixstowe in Suffolk via Cambridge. In the other direction, the road begins a westerly trajectory towards the Birmingham built-up area. Entering Warwickshire, junction 1 on the M6 is for the large town of Rugby. The next major settlement on the road is Coventry where, at junction 2, the M69 takes traffic towards Leicester and the A46 heads south west toward Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon.
At Coleshill, just east of Birmingham, is the junction for the M6 Toll, which bypasses Birmingham and the Black Country to the north west via Lichfield and Cannock, and the M42 which takes traffic north toward Nottingham and the M1, and south towards Worcestershire. The road passes immediately north of central Birmingham, with both north and southbound traffic exiting for the city centre at the Gravely Hill interchange onto the A38(M) motorway. The M6 crosses into Staffordshire in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham, near which is Great Bar interchange (Junction 8), where traffic from either direction joins the M5 motorway which, via Worcester, joins the road with the South West of England. North of this point, the M6 takes a north-south path, whereas that between the M1 and M5 has more of an east-west path.
The road heads, via the Black Country towns of Walsall and Wednesbury, to Wolverhampton, immediately north of which is junction 10A, where northbound traffic exits onto the M54 motorway bound for Shropshire. To the north of that is junction 11, where northbound traffic on the M6 Toll joins the road, and where southbound traffic joins the M6 Toll. To the north of that, there are two junctions on the M6 serving the town of Stafford.
To the north is the Potteries conurbation, which is served from the M6 by the A500. The A500, via Newcastle under Lyme, serves as a business loop from the M6 to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At junction 16, the northernmost junction for the A500, the M6 crosses from Staffordshire into Cheshire.
Much of the traffic on the M6 for the Manchester built-up area leaves the road at junction 19 for the A556. To the north, just south of Warrington, is the M56 where traffic leaves for Chester, the Wirral and North Wales. Crossing the Mersey on the Thelwall Viaduct into Lancashire, the motorway bypasses Warrington to the east, meeting the M62 at Croft (junction 21A), where traffic heads either west for Liverpool or east for Manchester, Bolton and, ultimately, the major Yorkshire cities such as Leeds.
Near Golborne, at junction 23, the road meets the A580, which was historically the main south Lancashire route prior to the M62. Today, it mainly serves traffic from the M6 to Leigh, Newton-le-Willows and St Helens. Around Wigan, the M58 branches off from the M6 and takes traffic approaching from the north to Liverpool. The section around 20 miles to the north, just east of Preston, is the first length of motorway to be opened in the UK, being opened as the Preston Bypass in 1958. The Preston area has since become somewhat of a hub for motorways; the M65 takes traffic from the M6 towards Blackburn and Burnley, the M61 serves southbound traffic to Bolton and Manchester, while the M55 serves traffic for Blackpool. To the north, the M6 runs close to the Irish Sea coast for much of the section between Preston and Lancaster, which it bypasses to the east. North of Lancaster, the M6 enters Westmorland.
Just south of Kendal is junction 36, which serves traffic heading for Kendal itself, as well as Barrow and the southern Lake District.
Just south of Penrith, the M6 crosses into Cumberland. At junction 40, the M6 meets the A66, serving traffic Keswick and the northern Lake District, as well as the A1 via Scotch Corner. At the same interchange, the A592 serves the town of Penrith itself. The road continues north to Carlisle, which is served by three junctions on the motorway. The newest section of the M6 was opened in 2008 (50 years after the opening of the first section, over 80 miles to the south), replacing a section of A74. At junction 45 (Guard's Mill), the M6 stops less than a mile short of the Scottish border, but the A74(M) motorway acts as a continuation of the route into Scotland, linking England with the Glasgow built-up area. When that motorway was constructed in the 1990s, there were plans to renumber the route as part of the M6.
