Plaque to mark M1 50th anniversary

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Roads minister Chris Mole will perform the ceremony at Watford Gap services in Northamptonshire.

It was on November 2 1959 that the then transport minister Ernest Marples opened the first section of the M1.

That first 62-mile stretch ran from the existing junction 5 near Watford in Hertfordshire to junction 18 near Rugby in the West Midlands.

At the time of the M1 opening, there were fewer than five million licensed cars on UK roads compared with more than 28 million now.

But without the current inter-city motorways, the road network was struggling by the late 1950s to cope with the growing traffic.

The M1 proved popular immediately, drastically reducing journey times between London and Birmingham. Within a few years, northern and southern extensions were added to the road which now stretches 193 miles from Brent Cross in north-west London to Garforth near Leeds.

Mr Mole said: "I am delighted to mark the 50th birthday of the M1 - a motorway with an iconic past which will soon benefit from the latest in motorway modernisation thanks to Government investment of up to £6 billion."