I know many will disagree with me but I consider policing the motorway, or "The Track" as it was populary called, be it the M1 or the A1M is perhaps the most dangerous role that Nottscops have to perform. When I was on Traffic and spent a while as acting-sergeant on the M1, it scared the hell out of me at times! Anyone who has had the misfortune of having to stop on the hard shoulder and having traffic whizzing past at 90mph within a few feet of you will know what I mean. Running across three lanes of traffic to pick debris off the carriageway was the closest thing to professional chicken you can get. Thankfully that is likely to be a job in future that will be done by Highway Agency staff leaving Nottscops to do the law enforcement work on the roads, well, maybe!
Everyone knows that the M1 is manic. It carries more traffic than it was ever envisaged to carry when it started off in 1961. Then, as now, it was patrolled by Nottscops from junction 24 at Lockington, Leicestershire up to junction 27 at Annesley, 17 miles up....and 17 miles down, taking in a portion of Derbyshire midway.

The M1 was one of England's first motorway, starting in London and winding its way northwards to eventually reach Leeds. As soon as it was opened by Ernest Marples, the Minister of Transport, it was an incredible novelty for motorists who up to that time were limited to the old "trunk roads". The M1 opened up an entirely new experience for them; no roundabouts, no traffic lights and, amazingly, no speed limits as the 70 mph speed limit didn't arrive for several years after the motorway opened. So totally unsuitable cars driven by totally inexperienced drivers were free to thrash their Morris Minors and Ford Anglias at whatever speed they were capable of. With no central crash barriers in place at that time accidents were relatively commonplace with regard to the traffic volumes of the day.

One of the first M1 Nottscops to patrol the M1 was Bert Jarvis.

"As the M1 progressed North 1n 1965-66 Notts was given the responsibility of policing from junction 24 at Lockington to junction 27 at Annesley. The then traffic Chief Inspector Fred Corah decided to form a Motorway section and train them accordingly. Ten men were selected, 8 patrol drivers and two motorcyclists/relief drivers. They were, Roger Storey, Maurice Jackson, Harry Wilce, Bob Sheil, Roy Sentence, Wally Harper, Trevor Wootton, Tony Slater, with John Halliday and myself as the two motorcyclists. The patrol cars were Ford Zephyrs and the motor cycle was a Norton 750 Atlas. Our training included visiting Northants, Leicestershire and Lancashire to see how they did things. As soon as the stretch from junction 24 to junction 25 at Sandiacre opened, all 8 miles of it!!, Fred Corah made us patrol it 24 hours a day, with strict instructions that we were on no account to leave the motorway except for refs at Stapleford Police Station and at shift changing. The car crews operated from 7am-3pm 3pm-11pm and 11pm-7am. The motor cyclist operated 7am-3pm and 3pm-11pm or 8am-4pm 9am-5pm or 10am-6pm depending whether two or one were on duty. We all operated from West Bridgford Garage under the supervision of the traffic Sergeants Fred Pepper and Geoff Goodwin with Lol Ogden as the traffic Inspector."

"Patrolling that first eight miles was a bit soul destroying as the traffic was very light at first. However it soon started to build up and it wasn't long before we had our first fatal. None of this first stretch was in Notts. The first part was in Leicestershire and the second part in Derbyshire with the result that we spent a fair amount of time in Loughborough and Long Eaton Magistrates Courts. Light relief was at the start of the 1966 World Cup when the first match was between Germany and Switzerland at Hilsborough in Sheffield. Hundreds of Swiss and German supporters came up the motorway which they thought went to Sheffield when to all extent and purposes it finished in a field outside Nottingham. We had some real fun and games trying to direct them to Sheffield. Eventually the motorway extended up to Nuthall and Trowell services station was built complete with the Police post. Finally Notts section up to Annesley was completed. A bit of drama involving yours truly was when before the Annesley stretch was open quite a bit of plant was being stolen from the construction site. The motorcyclists were instructed to keep a check on the site and in some cases the only way onto the site was up a packed earth ramp. I started up the ramp behind a Euclid earth mover when it suddenly started to reverse. All I could do was drop the bike and roll over the side of the ramp whilst the Euclid went over the bike. Fortunately I wasn't hurt and as the Norton was in for service I was using an old BSA 650 which wasn't as badly damaged as you would expect. All I was worried about was how was I going to explain this on a small report?
In April 1967 I was promoted Sergeant off Traffic and at the same time it was decided that it was no longer safe to have motor cycles on the motorway and they were replaced with Ford Escort vans."

One of the many other Nottscops to patrol the M1 in the 1970s was Chris Akers.

"I was up on the "Track" for about a year (1977) and it was one of the most dangerous places I have worked. You got quite used to the traffic; quite heavy even in those days. Running across three lanes of road to the centre reservation in the rush hour to pick up a piece of wood was quite common. The tricky bit was having to run back !!


During my time there I was partnered with Pcs Mark Holliday and Dave Maddock. Others there (that I can remember) at the time were Pcs Andy Bain, Peter Gibson & John Ross. The office man was Pc Pete King(nice bloke) who really looked after me being quite young in age and service. The Sergeants at the time were Bernard Cushen, Pete Walker and Bob Thompson (not the little one!!) Also for a little while was Pc John Waugh (Woff) He was from the Newcastle area and understanding him required him repeating everything three times or an interpreter. Conversations got a little fraught sometimes. John transferred to Northumbria in 1977/78. It was a happy atmosphere and I certainly enjoyed my time there.


Several incidents come to mind. One was having a blow out - at 100mph on the patrol car traveling to an emergency call on the northbound near Annesley. Very frightening as it was rush hour, myself and Mark Holliday could not move the patrol car out of lane-three and we changed the wheel in the lane-three!!! Cones had been put out etc and we got away with it. I get the sweats even thinking about it now.


Having to pick up loads of clothes inc bra, knickers and dirty washing after several suitcases had come adrift off vehicle roof racks especially with very red faced ladies watching.


There were many other incidents such as the usual RTAs but one sticks in my mind where an artic had crashed through the barriers near Junc 24 and was hanging over the river below. The weather was appalling - heavy rain and wind and the 3/11 crew were sorting it out. I came on with someone else at 11pm and the lorry was recovered around 3am and guess what; it stopped raining. The 3/11 crew were still there and even bagged two absconders in a stolen car on the way back to the Post. They retired around 7am but were back at 3pm. That was the dedication then but there were the glories of overtime. There are some photos of the RTA somewhere; the driving school had several for display a few years back.


Famous faces were quite common. They had the misfortune of meeting me such as Lulu -car broken down, Shaw Taylor (Police 5) locked out of car!! Les Kellett ( showing my age but was a pro wrestler on TV World of Sport) and many football teams. Dave Maddock was and still is a Sheffield Wednesday fan and we used to spend hours talking about football and watching for the team coach so he could cheer them on their way!!!


Then there was "Mecca tummy"; which used to disable you quite easily and effectively by the evil food at the Service area which was supplied to us in great amounts, free of charge in those days."

One incident was myself and Dave Maddock pulled in an overweight vehicle at 3am on the Northbound. We took it to Babbington Colliery weighbridge which was nothing unusual except we could not understand where this awful smell was coming from. Prior to the weighing I asked the driver to open up the back of this large van to find it was full of dead rotting chickens for a maggot farm. The vehicle was so overweight we stopped it from traveling any further until another vehicle had come and some of the load transferred. It was done by hand and supervised by us. WE DID NOT HELP!!

On the day of the Queen's Jubilee I was on nights. At 6am on the day at Junc 24 Northbound on the entry slip road hard shoulder watching the few vehicles passing below and dozing (Mark Holliday certainly was!!) when a vehicle passed us to enter the motorway. Nothing unusual except at the bottom of the slip road the car turned right going south on the northbound. PANIC!!!!! It took a few miles of traveling at 70 mph on the hard shoulder going south on the northbound to stop the car. The driver was an old man in his 80s who was told to turn right at the motorway!!! Scary stuff.

The Category A prisoner escorts were quite common and on some, Special Operations Officers officers would travel with us armed. No problem but they had body armour... we had nothing! I remember commenting about this as I thought as an unprotected driver we were quite vulnerable. The result was we had body armour. Please note it was before the days of the armed cars.

It was not all action as people may think. Some days or nights were utter boredom; you knew how many lights there were, how many bridges or road signs etc. Mark had a good game one night and that was to travel over or under every bridge on our section and then time it.

Happy days! "

Another Nottscop who patrolled the M 1 in the sixties was Rick Spouge who, using Wolseley 610s, patrolled the "track" for 2 years before returning back to Nottingham Traffic Wing because it was "too sodding dangerous up there!"