M6 Junction 8
England has 6 single number motorways, the M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 & M6 these cross each other once whist two of these motorways teminate onto other single digit motorways, both in the midlands, the M6 onto the M1 near Rugby and this junction where the M5 terminates onto the M6 just north west of Birmingham.
As the M6 was being extened to Stafford and Stoke in 1962 so the M6 opened up to traffic for a short strech just south of Birmingham, both of these would as there numbers suggest become major motorways and would once finished and combined form a west coust of England route from Exeter on the south coast to Carlisle just south of the Scottish Border. The joining of these two motorways at junction 8 of the M6 came into operation on 9th July 1970. The junction is a fairly simple arrangement with the M5 spliting into two to join the M6 both north and southbound, this arrangement is shown below:-
This remains a very busy important junction today. The main junction soutjbound for the south west of England, pasts of South Wales and cities such as Bristol.
