M6 Junction 27

Junction 27 was opened in July 1963 as an over the motorway roundabout junction, its main purpose was the main junction from the north for Wigan. The motorway planners could have chosen a route nearer to the centre of Wigan for this, however they opted for an existing B road the B5239 which left the A49 Trunk Road, the road that the M6 effectively replaced in this part of Lancashire at Standish about 3 miles north of Wigan and ran westward crossing the proposed line of the M6 through the villages of Parbold and Newburgh to join the A59 at Burscough. Wigan traffic effectively leaving the M6 here then using the B road to Standish before joining the A49. During the 1970's it must have occurred to someone that such an important junction as this should not be a B road, the road was renumbered the A5209 with the part from the M6 to the A49 dueled. The junction has been relatively unchanged since.