Young Street

This is a Mono Monday road!

In 1940 it became urgent to improve the road system in south-east England because of the threat of invasion. This 1 1/4 mile stretch of road was built to by-pass Leatherhead. It was built by Royal Canadian Engineers and is named after their Commander, Commander Young. Construction involved a bridge under the railway close to a bridge over the River Mole. The river bridge was a noisy Bailey Bridge, inevitably named by the locals "the rickety-rackety bridge". Both bridges remained in use until 1973 when they were replaced. Young Street was opened in 1941 by the then Prime Minister of Canada Mackenzie King.

Prior to D-Day the woods on the Surrey Hills were full of encampments of Canadian soldiers. The Canadians were very friendly to young lads who found all this very exciting. An intriguing consequence of this can be found in a strange story here

Thanks to Gingernan for hosting this Mono-Monday Roads challenge.