The Burnley Express set off into the new decade with a trial run on a stretch of road that is definitely a thing of the 80s, the M65. With the kind permission of site agent Mr. Paddy Buckley, Express photographer Alan Marsden and myself unofficially opened the stretch of motorway between Brierfield and Greenhead Lane. As you may have noticed the motorway is not exactly finished yet and the Express van had to make one or two rally type detours to complete the route. A trip from Brierfield to the bottom of Barden Lane takes about 15 minutes along the old routes, and about two minutes by the motorway, and when the section to Gannow is opened it will be possible to cover that in about the same time.
Destruction? Field walkers might argue that the path of the M65 has wrought destruction in the valley of Pendle Water, but masterly engineering has its own beauty. The physical enormity of the project, to progress even one mile over the undulating terrain, would have set Brunel scratching his head, but modern engineers shrug their shoulders at a task so simple as the Brierfield to Greenhead Lane section. Massive lorries brought the Montfort Street bridge to Brierfield from Warrington in vast sections of pre-stressed concrete. To the layman then the whole thing is a source of wonder. Huge earthworks have been thrown up to form the slip road on to the motorway from Brierfield Whilst below lazy Pendle Water resists the impression of speed that the M65 s straight lines imply. At present, McAlpines the motorway contractors, are laying cables down the central reservation, and have yet to install a hard shoulder along the edges. But it won t be long before you too can follow our historic journey. (Full report by Steve Berry, page 20, Burnley Express 8.1.1980.)