Civic Trust Award

Heard of awards given to people or places but never a highway. I had turned left onto the A685 (sign Kendal) just after having crossed under the railway/M6 bridges high overhead, and climb up the hill looking down on the M6. In the nearby car park is a plaque stating the M6 was given a Civic Trust award in 1971 for "an outstanding contribution to the appearance of the Westmorland landscape between Lancaster and Penrith".

The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby, Coventry via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Lancaster, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction (J45). Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow as the M74. Its busiest sections are J4-10a at Birmingham and J16-19 in Cheshire as this forms the main route from the East/West Midlands and London to Manchester and Liverpool. 82060622