I worked for Northampton Borough Council from 1967-73 when the town was expanding. In 1973 I moved to the County Council in the County Surveyors Depot and one of the design jobs we had was to design a roundabout and link roads into the Corby Steel works from the A427, current image shown above.

At the time we were sworn to secrecy as we were told the Steel Works were to be closed completely, so we had to go along with this, and I had to design the roundabout on the map to include an entrance into the steelworks at the top left of the roundabout. The southern leg of the A43 was designed and built at a later date but was also provided for by the size of the original roundabout.

When the road/roundabout was built, the entrance was also built, and can still be seen and is used as a layby, built to keep the locals happier in assuming the works were continuing without causing any political unrest in the area, but we knew what was about to happen.

A bit of a jigsaw in the life of Corby.

By Neil Farmer