If you're not familiar with Middlesbrough, you might not be aware just how well served it is by road. There's the A19 and A66, of course, forming major through routes north-south and east-west. There's a dense grid of suburban distributor roads. And to the south, forming a sort of bypass connecting the A19 to the industrial areas east of the town, there's The Parkway, part of the A174.
It was built in the 1970s at a time when the County of Cleveland - as it was then known - was extensively regenerating the whole area, opening up swathes of land for development into modern suburban houses. Serving them was a whole new road network, of which The Parkway formed the centrepiece.
The road runs for seven miles, an expressway of extremely good and fast design, but the starry ambitions of the seventies weren't followed up as expected: at each end, the junctions are laid out for a continuation of the road, but none ever came, at least not to the same standard. All the same, the bold vision for a bright new Middlesbrough is visible in all its glory here, in the booklet published to mark the construction and opening of the initial phases.
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With thanks to Paul Easby for contributing images of this booklet.
