🎬August 1975 marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of the M27 motorway. Paul Clifton looks back at the sometimes dramatic life of the road.

The first section of the motorway near Southampton opened in August 1975. The original idea was for a south coast motorway stretching from Kent to Cornwall. For financial reasons, this would never happen.

BBC South Today Production
19th August 2015

🎬British Movietone - Heavy rain caused the streets of Cowes, Isle of Wight, to be flooded, but it did not deter yachtsmen like Prince Charles from braving the swells of the Solent.

British Movietone News ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986.

🎬BBC South 50 years: Episode 6 FA Cup. A series of 19 mini-features made by BBC South at Southampton in 2011 to celebrate the station's 50 year history.

Episode 6 FA Cup. One of a series of features which celebrate BBC South's fifty years of broadcasting. Tony Husband talks to Football managers Harry Redknapp and Lawrie McMenemy who recall some of the south's great moments in the FA Cup competition.

NFG are indebted to the BBC staff at Southampton for their help in sourcing items for the archive. See more episodes in the Category - BBC South.

🎬British Movietone - The Admiralty tests the new boat on Southampton Water. Crowd and aerial views of the new motor-torpedo on trial. present are Earl Howe, George Eyston, and the Designer Claude Graham-White who talks afterwards.

British Movietone News ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986.

🎬BBC South 50 years: Episode 12 Fashion. A series of 19 mini-features made by BBC South at Southampton in 2011 to celebrate the station's 50 year history.

Episode 12 Fashion. One of a series of features celebrating BBC South's 50 years of broadcasting. Tom Hepworth presents his own vintage fashion show and students from Wiltshire College give their verdict.

NFG are indebted to the BBC staff at Southampton for their help in sourcing items for the archive. See more episodes in the Category - BBC South.

🎬British Pathé – Land Army girls cutting down Xmas trees at Lyndhurst, New Forest. Unissued / unused material. Land army girls cut Christmas trees at Lyndhurst, New Forest, Hampshire. C/U man standing by Fordson Tractor, pan with him as he gets into tractor. Various shots Land Girls stacking up Xmas trees. M/S two girls sawing root away from tree. C/U girl stacking. M/S girl picking up trees and throwing them on pile. L/S girls cutting and stacking the trees