This site has had
brainwave entrainment
unique visitors since July 2005.
Website reconstruction works still in progress, further additions to follow.
A quick journey through time to look at the history of motorway signs.
All written and photographic material on LMARS is property of Bryn Buck, and may only be reproduced with express consent. This site does not accept liability for anyone using the information presented within it.
Website code courtesy of Jeni.
Best viewed in Firefox.
This update brings the introduction of the M6 Junction 32 Improvements Photo Diary, in the Media section. I'm busy trying to secure employment once I graduate from university so most things website wise are yet again on the back burner.
If you're visiting this site for the first time, allow me to say hello! This site is not intended as a campaign or demands site, rather, a study and commentary about the roadways in my county. Lancashire (in its pre-1974 form!) is home of the first motorway in the UK, the M6 Preston Bypass opened in December 1958. It is also home to groundbreaking concepts like the A580 East Lancashire Road, the Mersey Tunnels, and the white line. Not to mention I live in the town with "four thousand holes", if you believe a certain Liverpudlian band...
Lancashire is a very diverse county in terms of urban and rural settings - the south Lancashire plain is quite densely populated, yet to the north of Preston the county suddenly turns into rural and scenic rolling hills, although to the east parts emulate the bleaker elements of the peak district. To the west lies the Irish Sea, and on the coast sits the great tourist trap that is Blackpool, with its famous illuminations. Originally running from the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey in the south, to near Burton-in-Kendal in the north, the county is now much smaller owing to the Local Government Act 1974.
LMARS features content from across pre-1974 Lancashire, and sometimes small inclusions of sections over the borders for the sake of continuity. The main aspect of the site is to look at roads in the county, and provide a description and photographic journey recording the interesting sections of the route. However, there are also features which may explain other things in the county.
LMARS was set up in January 2003, after I decided I finally wanted a website. Originally on Geocities, it eventually progressed onto bigger platforms - originally on my friend's server at Digibase, but in January 2004 I was bought the domain name and the accompanying webspace which is where LMARS is today. In June 2004, David Higgerson of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph emailed me regarding the site, and on June 18, 2004, it was published in a very large article in the LET. A short while after that, the Daily Telegraph caught wind of SABRE and LMARS was featured yet again - these (for those who care!) are available in the "Media" section of the site.
I've been interested in roads since I could first talk/draw/read. I don't know where the interest came from, best idea I have is that my late grandfather was a HGV driver and he must've discussed that with me as a very young child. Who knows, but whatever, it's here to stay and this website hopes to share some of that with you, the reader.
Bryn Buck,
December 2008.
